Battery aging on M1 Macbook Pro vs M2 Macbook Pro compared

[Marsikus]

While sitting on a fence between purchase of 14" M1 Macbook Pro vs 13" M2 Macbook Pro, reading this forum with topics about strange battery behaviour on 14" M1 Pro, I decided to compare battery aging on both laptops in store.

I checked the percentage of battery health on two M1 Pro (14" and 16"), both were indicating 95%. Activation date on 14" was within January 2022.
Percentage on 13" M2 Pro was showing 96%. Activation date was in June 2022.

Therefore, M1 Pro 14" has lost 5% of battery condition in 10 months.
M2 Pro 13" has lost 4% of battery condition in 5 months.

Assuming that all showroom laptops were standing on power cord all the time since they were activated. I understand that battery wear can vary, it may be non-linear and so on...

 

[barkomatic]

You're going to get responses all over the place in terms of battery longevity, usage patterns and even how best to measure battery health.

I will say that showroom floor usage is not typical of a normal person's actual experience. I'd just go for the computer that suits you best and not worry too much about battery health.

Applications like Al Dente, Coconut battery etc are useless IMO. Apple won't recognize the measurements of any third party battery app so whether they are more accurate or not is irrelevant to them. The only pattern I seem to recognize is that very generally it seems that keeping a MacBook plugged in all the time *seems* to slightly degrade the battery faster so just let it run on battery for awhile every few days if that's your pattern.

 

[ignatius345]

While sitting on a fence between purchase of 14" M1 Macbook Pro vs 13" M2 Macbook Pro, reading this forum with topics about strange battery behaviour on 14" M1 Pro, I decided to compare battery aging on both laptops in store.

I checked the percentage of battery health on two M1 Pro (14" and 16"), both were indicating 95%. Activation date on 14" was within January 2022.
Percentage on 13" M2 Pro was showing 96%. Activation date was in June 2022.

Therefore, M1 Pro 14" has lost 5% of battery condition in 10 months.
M2 Pro 13" has lost 4% of battery condition in 5 months.

Assuming that all showroom laptops were standing on power cord all the time since they were activated. I understand that battery wear can vary, it may be non-linear and so on...

Yeah, those percentage figures are pretty approximate. Maybe good as a rough guide, but I'd just go off the number of charge cycles. Ultimately the battery is a consumable and you should just use the Mac as you wish and let them replace the battery when it's time. It's not that expensive and it's not worth all the hand-wringing people do with micromanaging their charge routines.

A more energy-efficient laptop will end up with a longer battery lifetime because you're not charging it as often. I noticed this in a big way when I went from a 2020 Intel Air to an M1 Air. The Intel MacBook's battery had a ton of charge cycles on it because I could get at best 4-5 hours real world use out of it. The M1 Air gets easily 10-12 hours out of a full charge, so a year in, it's got way fewer cycles on it.

 

[tim1000]

I just posted in another thread I am thinking about getting a new MacBook Pro 16 inch with a fresh battery as my m1 16 inch battery dropped after reaching 100 cycle count.

 

[Marsikus]

Yeah, those percentage figures are pretty approximate. Maybe good as a rough guide, but I'd just go off the number of charge cycles.

I think those eternally docked laptops all have cycle count something like “1”.

 

[applepotato666]

For what it’s worth, my M1 MacBook Pro that I got on launch day has about 300 cycles on the battery and 88% health. I use the **** out of it, and that is 300 cycles while it’s mostly plugged in. I rarely use it on battery and use it for 8 hours every week day as my work machine.

On a sidenote, a battery is going to need replacement anyway if you plan to use it for more than just a couple of years so if you’re sitting on the fence because of that, don’t base your decision on this. I use my MacBooks until they die and will keep buying them for as long as they last the 10+ years they have consistently done for me and the family members they get passed down to. Replacing the battery is very cheap when you put it next to the generally long lifespan you get from them.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Batteries wear differently from each other. My wife has had batteries tank and other batteries that hold up really well. The more they wear usually the slower they drop - meaning, from 100% health to 90% health can drop fairly rapidly and usually it pans out after that.

AlDente is used to be able to set the max charge of the laptop while it sits plugged in. This helps longevity significantly vs having it constantly at 100% charge level when plugged in for long periods of time. I've seen a significant health savings doing this vs laptops I've had in the past.

CoconutBattery reads Apple's own health values. The problem is, Apple's battery % has its own way of reading health and differs from Apple's own health readings. You can pull all this data from terminal without coconutBattery if you want:

Apple Terminal battery readings:

ioreg -l -w0 | grep AppleRawMaxCapacity

ioreg -l -w0 | grep DesignCapacity | tail -1


So I wouldn't call AlDente or coconutBattery worthless. Are they necessary? No not really. Can they be helpful? Definitely depending on how you use your laptop. Those who upgrade often - no need to try to save battery. Those who use their laptops on battery a lot - no need to use AlDente. Those of us, like me, who treat their MBP as a desktop - AlDente can have a significant impact on health.

 

[Marsikus]

So now it's a year without two days since activated. Most of the time docked, also working as charging hub for the iPhone, part-time on battery to let battery do some work. Also, free version of AlDente keeps charging limit at 80%.
101 cycles. 94% health

 

[ignatius345]

Therefore, M1 Pro 14" has lost 5% of battery condition in 10 months.
M2 Pro 13" has lost 4% of battery condition in 5 months.

One percentage of variation is well below the margin of error here. Those percentages are not an exact science -- it's software doing its best to guess at what's happening to the battery chemistry based on input and output.

Unless you're trying to turn battery management into some kind of (IMO very boring) hobby, I'd suggest just using your computers as you wish and replacing the batteries when they no longer work for your purposes.

 

[h.gilbert]

While sitting on a fence between purchase of 14" M1 Macbook Pro vs 13" M2 Macbook Pro, reading this forum with topics about strange battery behaviour on 14" M1 Pro, I decided to compare battery aging on both laptops in store.

I checked the percentage of battery health on two M1 Pro (14" and 16"), both were indicating 95%. Activation date on 14" was within January 2022.
Percentage on 13" M2 Pro was showing 96%. Activation date was in June 2022.

Therefore, M1 Pro 14" has lost 5% of battery condition in 10 months.
M2 Pro 13" has lost 4% of battery condition in 5 months.

Assuming that all showroom laptops were standing on power cord all the time since they were activated. I understand that battery wear can vary, it may be non-linear and so on...

Don't read into it that much. Sample size of 1 and all that jazz.