Am I the first one who get a battery maintnance warning on RMBP 14?

[poporange630]

My M1 Pro 14 Inch battery experience wasn't good. It dropped very fast and has now dropped below 80%.
The rate it drops is much faster than all my previous and current Apple Devices inlcluding Macbooks, iPhone and iPad.
Does anyone have similar experience on 14 / 16 Inch M1 Pro / Max Macbooks?

 

[Malus120]

My M1 Pro 14 Inch battery experience wasn't good. It dropped very fast and has now dropped below 80%.
The rate it drops is much faster than all my previous and current Apple Devices inlcluding Macbooks, iPhone and iPad.
Does anyone have similar experience on 14 / 16 Inch M1 Pro / Max Macbooks?

Yikes. That sucks I'm sorry you have to deal with that

The 14" is indeed the black sheep battery-wise of the Apple Silicon family. It's still good (relative to Intel/AMD/anything else) but it often falls short of being great...

I'm only surprised that you're on the M1 Pro and not the M1 Max as the battery drain (even when doing nothing) is even faster on the Max due to the doubling of memory bandwidth (uses way more power.)

My M1 Max spends most of its time plugged in and it's battery health has been stressing me out. That said it's only at 93% according to Apple and 90.2% according to Coconut Battery. My use case will be shifting in April to using it more on battery so we'll see how it holds up in the coming months.

Assuming you bought on or around release your results are much worse than not only my 14" but also the thermal modded MBA I previously owned (which was close to, but not at 80%.)

Could you give us some more info on your use case/situation?
Ex:
1. Do you typically use your MBP on battery? Power Adaptor? A mix of both (and if so roughly what ratio?)
2. What applications do you typically use and for what kind of duration?
3. Do your workloads tend to get your MBP's fan running / get it hot?
4. Do you have AppleCare+ and or have you taken it in to get diagnosed (pretty sure this is "defective" in the sense that unless you've somehow modded your machine there's no way your battery should be at 80% less than 18 months after release)

 

[bobcomer]

My M1 Pro 14 Inch battery experience wasn't good. It dropped very fast and has now dropped below 80%.
The rate it drops is much faster than all my previous and current Apple Devices inlcluding Macbooks, iPhone and iPad.
Does anyone have similar experience on 14 / 16 Inch M1 Pro / Max Macbooks?

That's very odd for any laptop, much less a M1 MBP. The battery probably was defective to begin with.

 

[Fishrrman]

How old is the MBP 14"?
Is it still under the 1-year warranty?

In any case...
I'd make an appt at a brick-n-mortar Apple Store RIGHT AWAY and let them look at it.
They -might- offer a replacement, even if it's out-of-warranty.

If they don't, the Apple replacement is now $249, I believe.
More $$$ than it was, but still might be worth it to you if you like the MBP and want to keep it.

 

[poporange630]

Yikes. That sucks I'm sorry you have to deal with that

The 14" is indeed the black sheep battery-wise of the Apple Silicon family. It's still good (relative to Intel/AMD/anything else) but it often falls short of being great...

I'm only surprised that you're on the M1 Pro and not the M1 Max as the battery drain (even when doing nothing) is even faster on the Max due to the doubling of memory bandwidth (uses way more power.)

My M1 Max spends most of its time plugged in and it's battery health has been stressing me out. That said it's only at 93% according to Apple and 90.2% according to Coconut Battery. My use case will be shifting in April to using it more on battery so we'll see how it holds up in the coming months.

Assuming you bought on or around release your results are much worse than not only my 14" but also the thermal modded MBA I previously owned (which was close to, but not at 80%.)

Could you give us some more info on your use case/situation?
Ex:
1. Do you typically use your MBP on battery? Power Adaptor? A mix of both (and if so roughly what ratio?)
2. What applications do you typically use and for what kind of duration?
3. Do your workloads tend to get your MBP's fan running / get it hot?
4. Do you have AppleCare+ and or have you taken it in to get diagnosed (pretty sure this is "defective" in the sense that unless you've somehow modded your machine there's no way your battery should be at 80% less than 18 months after release)

Hi Malus 120, thank you for your detailed reply!
This battery health performance is indeed very bad compared to all my previous macbooks, which is why I also suspect that the battery is a lemon from the beginning.

To answer your question:
1. I use it mainly as a desktop, powered by my LG 27UP850 monitor with a single USB-C Cable. The monitor can supply up to 90 Watt to the laptop. I would say it is plugged in for 80% of the time.
2. I use this computer for general web browsing, photo editing and video editing, nothing too heavy.
3. Not usually, only when rendering videos it will run at max load for a few minutes, and again, not too often.
4. No I don't have AppleCare+ and yes I took it to Genius Bar. While the staff agreed that such degradation is not normal, they won't repair the laptop for free, unless the battery actually swells.

 

[poporange630]

How old is the MBP 14"?
Is it still under the 1-year warranty?

In any case...
I'd make an appt at a brick-n-mortar Apple Store RIGHT AWAY and let them look at it.
They -might- offer a replacement, even if it's out-of-warranty.

If they don't, the Apple replacement is now $249, I believe.
More $$$ than it was, but still might be worth it to you if you like the MBP and want to keep it.

I bought it shortly after release, so roughly 1.5 yo.
I'm reluctant to pay for battery replacement for this relatively new device.

 

[Malus120]

Hi Malus 120, thank you for your detailed reply!
This battery health performance is indeed very bad compared to all my previous macbooks, which is why I also suspect that the battery is a lemon from the beginning.

To answer your question:
1. I use it mainly as a desktop, powered by my LG 27UP850 monitor with a single USB-C Cable. The monitor can supply up to 90 Watt to the laptop. I would say it is plugged in for 80% of the time.
2. I use this computer for general web browsing, photo editing and video editing, nothing too heavy.
3. Not usually, only when rendering videos it will run at max load for a few minutes, and again, not too often.
4. No I don't have AppleCare+ and yes I took it to Genius Bar. While the staff agreed that such degradation is not normal, they won't repair the laptop for free, unless the battery actually swells.

Damn that's really similar to how I use mine and yeah it sounds like even Apple agrees that it's abnormal.
My advice would be to:
1. If possible try and get Apple employees to admit in writing that this level of battery degradation is abnormal and then escalate via Apple corporate (you can email Tim Cook for example)
2. Alternatively you can try going back to (or maybe going to a different) Apple Store, get them to admit it's abnormal and then try and escalate until you get a store manager. Politely refuse their attempts to tell you "no" and make getting you out of the store their problem.
3. If you purchased your Mac with a credit card see if you have any supplemental insurance (for example many US credit cards extend your manufacturers warranty by a year or two not sure where you are; home owners insurance may be another option.)

I bought it shortly after release, so roughly 1.5 yo.
I'm reluctant to pay for battery replacement for this relatively new device.

Yeah no I totally agree that it's unacceptable and you shouldn't have to pay for what is clearly a manufacturing defect.

If all else fails, depending on how straight and narrow your moral compass is and how comfortable you are disassembling Macs you could also...
1. Buy an Open Box 14" MBP from a store like BestBuy -> switch the batteries -> return the device (I recommend you pay in cash and probably don't do this at your local Best Buy)
2. Do something similar with Amazon Renewed or something like that.

If you're not into that kind of thing (and I don't blame you if you're not,) you could also by a MBP with a cracked screen or other damage, salvage the battery, and then resell the broken MBP with your battery.

 

[poporange630]

Damn that's really similar to how I use mine and yeah it sounds like even Apple agrees that it's abnormal.
My advice would be to:
1. If possible try and get Apple employees to admit in writing that this level of battery degradation is abnormal and then escalate via Apple corporate (you can email Tim Cook for example)
2. Alternatively you can try going back to (or maybe going to a different) Apple Store, get them to admit it's abnormal and then try and escalate until you get a store manager. Politely refuse their attempts to tell you "no" and make getting you out of the store their problem.
3. If you purchased your Mac with a credit card see if you have any supplemental insurance (for example many US credit cards extend your manufacturers warranty by a year or two not sure where you are; home owners insurance may be another option.)

Yeah no I totally agree that it's unacceptable and you shouldn't have to pay for what is clearly a manufacturing defect.

If all else fails, depending on how straight and narrow your moral compass is and how comfortable you are disassembling Macs you could also...
1. Buy an Open Box 14" MBP from a store like BestBuy -> switch the batteries -> return the device (I recommend you pay in cash and probably don't do this at your local Best Buy)
2. Do something similar with Amazon Renewed or something like that.

If you're not into that kind of thing (and I don't blame you if you're not,) you could also by a MBP with a cracked screen or other damage, salvage the battery, and then resell the broken MBP with your battery.

I should have made things more clear.
I bought this Macbook in Australia and later I moved to China, so the Genius Bar I mentioned is in China.
Today I communicated with Apple Australia and they suggest that I could get the battery replaced for free if I can take the macbook to an Apple Store in Australia. This is part of Australia Consumer Law, but it only applies within Australia.

Again, thank you for all your suggestions, have a nice day!

 

[shadyman]

Mine states in the settings that it’s still at 100 %, but during usage you can feel it’s degraded. Only lasts like 4-5 😩