Battery life on M1X PRO vs M1X MAX?

[Sanpete]

Check this one out guys ⤵️

Notice in the first part of the first test he says only the Max is playing it smoothly. The Max is doing more processing, so it's not a good test of battery life while doing the same work. And that's where most of the difference in battery life went in the first test.

The second test made more sense, and is the first good comparison I've seen. His remarks about the Premier Pro exports were a good point too.

 

[ultrakyo]

I can't reach this on my 16" m1 Pro, wondering if anyone else is getting less than that. My tasks arent intense and get 9 hours before it is time to charge. This is very light usage on my part, so I bet it will be less if I actually run some intense apps or keep windows open for a prolonged period.

9 hours is a great start compared to i9 MBP16. Live with it and be content

 

[Natzoo]

9 hours is a great start compared to i9 MBP16. Live with it and be content

Now I’m getting less, I returned it and got another one due to the gift card coming in from the old Mac trade in. I’ll give it a couple days but it was significantly worse.

 

[hoobury]

I did a side by side of one very specific scenario and the battery life was nearly identical. My company got one each of the stock M1 Pro 1TB with 16GB of ram and one stock M1 Max 1TB with 32GB of ram. I was curious about the battery life after seeing The Verge article so since I was lucky enough to have one of each at my disposal, I ran a few direct comparisons.

I streamed Netflix using Safari and Amazon Prime using chrome. I rebooted the machines. Set the screens up at full brightness, no dimming, no standby anything. Turned off background services like Dropbox and one drive. Let them both run next to each other on the desk. So using same Wi-Fi from the same distance. Same shows streaming on Netflix and Amazon with the same episodes.

They both hit 5% battery left within a few minutes of each other. Roughly 7.5 hours for both.

I went ahead and ran a 2019 MBP intel i9 through the same test and it only lasted 2.75 hours. So much, much better with the apple silicon.

I ran some similar scenarios. Just did Netflix with safari for a few hours. The M1 Pro dropped to 84% battery left while the Max showed 86%. Pretty close.

Started at 50% battery for both and streamed ESPN on safari. After 2.75 hours, the max was at 13% while the pro was at 10%.

In both of my latter tests, the max actually lasted longer but it was only a little.

Keep in mind, my 7.5 hours is not meant to show how long this lasts. The full brightness was meant to drain it faster. My tests were meant to compare the two processors.

For regular usage, I’ve been getting 8-10 hours on either machine. I have no doubts at a lower brightness level, it could stream Netflix for 10+ hours. Which is pretty amazing.

I know it’s not scientific. And may not be everyone’s usage. But it’s a direct comparison of something a lot of us do. And at least for me, I don’t see a difference significant enough to change anyone’s buying choice. I can see why apple quotes both machines as having the same battery life.

 

[yachtmac]

I have the 16" M1 Max 32gb and am really happy with the battery life. My usage is memory intensive with Xcode, Apple Music and light Safari use. With the brightness at 50% I am getting 10-12 hrs of totally silent operation. The old MBP 16 with similar config and same work would get me 5-6 hrs. I don't regret for a second getting the max version as I do use it occasionally for rendering and design so best of both worlds. This machine is fantastic. I am sure these numbers would be slightly better on the Pro version but 10-12 hrs outlasts me!

 

[james948]

I did a side by side of one very specific scenario and the battery life was nearly identical. My company got one each of the stock M1 Pro 1TB with 16GB of ram and one stock M1 Max 1TB with 32GB of ram. I was curious about the battery life after seeing The Verge article so since I was lucky enough to have one of each at my disposal, I ran a few direct comparisons.

I streamed Netflix using Safari and Amazon Prime using chrome. I rebooted the machines. Set the screens up at full brightness, no dimming, no standby anything. Turned off background services like Dropbox and one drive. Let them both run next to each other on the desk. So using same Wi-Fi from the same distance. Same shows streaming on Netflix and Amazon with the same episodes.

They both hit 5% battery left within a few minutes of each other. Roughly 7.5 hours for both.

I went ahead and ran a 2019 MBP intel i9 through the same test and it only lasted 2.75 hours. So much, much better with the apple silicon.

I ran some similar scenarios. Just did Netflix with safari for a few hours. The M1 Pro dropped to 84% battery left while the Max showed 86%. Pretty close.

Started at 50% battery for both and streamed ESPN on safari. After 2.75 hours, the max was at 13% while the pro was at 10%.

In both of my latter tests, the max actually lasted longer but it was only a little.

Keep in mind, my 7.5 hours is not meant to show how long this lasts. The full brightness was meant to drain it faster. My tests were meant to compare the two processors.

For regular usage, I’ve been getting 8-10 hours on either machine. I have no doubts at a lower brightness level, it could stream Netflix for 10+ hours. Which is pretty amazing.

I know it’s not scientific. And may not be everyone’s usage. But it’s a direct comparison of something a lot of us do. And at least for me, I don’t see a difference significant enough to change anyone’s buying choice. I can see why apple quotes both machines as having the same battery life.

Thanks for this.

 

[hoobury]

I'll also add my performance notes here. Again, nothing scientific. Just my impressions after switching back and forth between the two machines for a week.

Conclusion - The machines are essentially the same for running daily tasks.

Here's my list of programs that are usually open:
Mail, Contacts, Calendar
MS Teams
Parallels Remote Application (not full Parallels)
Excel
MS Notes
Safari - 15-20 tabs
Chrome - 3-5 tabs
Messages
Dropbox
OneDrive
Things

Boot - Both took 16-17 seconds to boot. My 2019 Intel I9 takes 40 seconds to boot.

Program Start - After a reboot, programs can take a few bounces to start the first time. Teams took 5, Word and Excel took 9 bounces. But after the first start, if you close them and re-open them, they all start in 1 bounce. Again, exact same speed for the Pro and the Max. The Intel was similar.

General work - both machines were equally smooth when working in programs. Scrolling, switching tasks, etc was the same and pretty much instant. I manipulate some large (10-20mb) excel files and sorting was equally fast. No beach balls.

RAM - With the same programs and the same tasks open, the Max with 32GB shows 20-25 GB in use while the Pro with 16GB shows 10-12GB. I think the Max uses more just b/c it's there.

Heat - I don't think I've heard the fans come on yet. Both models got a little warm on the bottom during initial setup. OneDrive, Dropbox, and mail download, indexing, photos sync got them a little warm. Not enough to trigger the fan but a little warm.

I think based on the fans never coming on, my workflow clearly isn't coming close to taxing these machines. If your workflow is similar to mine, I'm here to tell the Pro with 16GB of Ram is more than enough. Not only do you not need the Max with 32GB, it actually won't make anything you're doing go faster. Considering how often the fans ran with my Intel, I would not have guessed this to be the case.

The only things I may do in the future that will tax this processor are photo or video editing. When that happens, my guess is it will take a few seconds and possibly a few minutes longer with the Pro vs the Max. I'll just go get a snack or probably check my mail while that process is running in the background.

I have not tested external monitors as I do think that could be a big difference in taxing the capabilities of the Pro vs the Max. If you need multiple hi res monitors, you likely want the Max.

I am one of the people that was very worried about only 16GB of RAM. I think Apple's implementation of Ram, processor, and high speed SSD means this 16GB works more efficiently than Intel setups. Quite frankly, I did want to trust Apple a bit here. in my mind, there had to be a reason Apple launched with 16GB. If they wanted to upsell, they'd offer the 16GB but they would have stocked the 32GB, forcing us all to upgrade to the 32GB. The fact the 16GB is so widely available led me to believe they determined it's more than enough for most people. In my case, that's definitely true.

As some background, I'm someone that upgrades my iPhone Max every year and upgrades MacBooks about every 2 years. I have no issues paying for the Max with 32GB. I'm coming from a 2019 Intel i9 with 32GB and a 2TB drive. That was the 'upgrade' stock config 2 years ago. I only bring that up to say I'm someone that would normally go for the higher config. But I don't think it's necessary so I'll happily save a few bucks.

So far, my only complaint is the weight. I wish it were the same as the last generation. The extra half pound is noticeable.

The Max will be going to a colleague on Monday. Doubtful I'll be running any more tests as I have the answers I needed. But if I can answer any questions while I've still got both computers in my hands, let me know and I'll do my best.

 

[agent mac]

I'll also add my performance notes here. Again, nothing scientific. Just my impressions after switching back and forth between the two machines for a week.

Conclusion - The machines are essentially the same for running daily tasks.

Here's my list of programs that are usually open:
Mail, Contacts, Calendar
MS Teams
Parallels Remote Application (not full Parallels)
Excel
MS Notes
Safari - 15-20 tabs
Chrome - 3-5 tabs
Messages
Dropbox
OneDrive
Things

Boot - Both took 16-17 seconds to boot. My 2019 Intel I9 takes 40 seconds to boot.

Program Start - After a reboot, programs can take a few bounces to start the first time. Teams took 5, Word and Excel took 9 bounces. But after the first start, if you close them and re-open them, they all start in 1 bounce. Again, exact same speed for the Pro and the Max. The Intel was similar.

General work - both machines were equally smooth when working in programs. Scrolling, switching tasks, etc was the same and pretty much instant. I manipulate some large (10-20mb) excel files and sorting was equally fast. No beach balls.

RAM - With the same programs and the same tasks open, the Max with 32GB shows 20-25 GB in use while the Pro with 16GB shows 10-12GB. I think the Max uses more just b/c it's there.

Heat - I don't think I've heard the fans come on yet. Both models got a little warm on the bottom during initial setup. OneDrive, Dropbox, and mail download, indexing, photos sync got them a little warm. Not enough to trigger the fan but a little warm.

I think based on the fans never coming on, my workflow clearly isn't coming close to taxing these machines. If your workflow is similar to mine, I'm here to tell the Pro with 16GB of Ram is more than enough. Not only do you not need the Max with 32GB, it actually won't make anything you're doing go faster. Considering how often the fans ran with my Intel, I would not have guessed this to be the case.

The only things I may do in the future that will tax this processor are photo or video editing. When that happens, my guess is it will take a few seconds and possibly a few minutes longer with the Pro vs the Max. I'll just go get a snack or probably check my mail while that process is running in the background.

I have not tested external monitors as I do think that could be a big difference in taxing the capabilities of the Pro vs the Max. If you need multiple hi res monitors, you likely want the Max.

I am one of the people that was very worried about only 16GB of RAM. I think Apple's implementation of Ram, processor, and high speed SSD means this 16GB works more efficiently than Intel setups. Quite frankly, I did want to trust Apple a bit here. in my mind, there had to be a reason Apple launched with 16GB. If they wanted to upsell, they'd offer the 16GB but they would have stocked the 32GB, forcing us all to upgrade to the 32GB. The fact the 16GB is so widely available led me to believe they determined it's more than enough for most people. In my case, that's definitely true.

As some background, I'm someone that upgrades my iPhone Max every year and upgrades MacBooks about every 2 years. I have no issues paying for the Max with 32GB. I'm coming from a 2019 Intel i9 with 32GB and a 2TB drive. That was the 'upgrade' stock config 2 years ago. I only bring that up to say I'm someone that would normally go for the higher config. But I don't think it's necessary so I'll happily save a few bucks.

So far, my only complaint is the weight. I wish it were the same as the last generation. The extra half pound is noticeable.

The Max will be going to a colleague on Monday. Doubtful I'll be running any more tests as I have the answers I needed. But if I can answer any questions while I've still got both computers in my hands, let me know and I'll do my best.

Thank you for taking the time to do this and write it all up.

 

[randfee2]

very interesting and important subject!
What about low-power mode - I wonder if that is actually useful with these powerful machines IF one would accept lower performance in order to extent battery life?
So, does anyone know....

• how much the "low power mode" actually extents battery life?
• does low power mode maybe equalize the behavior between Max and Pro some more?

is there a way to

• deactivate GPU cores or limit?
• throttle the M1 chips manually?

I was really hoping for that 'best battery life in a laptop thus far'. The '14h of web browsing' what the website promises is what I was after.... should have read more closely as that was tested with the Pro 16GB model.
I ordered the 16.2" M1 Max not for the GPU but for the 64GB of RAM. I'm puzzled as to why Apple wouldn't state the difference more clearly!

 

[chengengaun]

Today was the first full workday I used the 14" M1 Max on battery. Went from 8:30am unplugged to 6:30pm plugged in, with just over eight hours of screen-on time. The power profile was Automatic (not on Low Power Mode). Apps I used:

• Microsoft Excel, Word, Outlook, Teams
• Fantastical, Todoist, Evernote, Messages, WhatsApp
• Apple Mail, Preview, Safari, Notes
• Microsoft Remote Desktop
• Zoom video (1 hour) and Skype for Business voice (1.5 hours) - on AirPods
• JetBrains DataGrip, BBEdit
• OneDrive, Pulse Secure, iStat Menus etc. running in the background

Looking at the chart, you can probably tell when I started to use Zoom; it makes a dent! Overall, I will say it's pretty solid. It will be interesting to see how external monitor usage affects battery life.

p/s: And the fans never turned on. Coming from the i9, I can get used to this!

 

[breath.by.breath]

Thank you all for this very interesting discussion, and that you all take time to write up your experiences.

I am using 14" MBP M1 MAX with all maximum configuration. It is the heaviest laptop I will still carry around. A few observations:
- The issue of battery life is the most underreported with respect to the new line-up. Very few comparisons, where "M1 PRO" vs "M1 MAX" is the *only* difference, all other things being equal.
- From Apple sales, I got 2 opinions from three sales reps: 2 said there is no difference between PRO and MAX, one said "there is a heavier battery drain of between 3-8% for MAX". When I asked the latter why his colleagues were not saying so, he was mentioning that there were a lot of new colleagues and not everyone had this information.
- The first few days of usage, I had the impression that battery use was more heavy than after let's say 3-4 days. Could be connected with some of the updating, synchronizing, etc.
- After this period, what I would generally get is about 3-4 h under very heavy use; and 7-10h under light use. Nothing scientific, but a mixed use could get me to about 6h. That's where it starts to be problematic if portability is any issue (which it doesn't seem to be for many of the YouTube video producers, who do their videos in their studios.)
- Using battery saving mode would add at least 1h of battery on light use, meaning more like 8-11 h
- To my surprise and hopefully I did not do anything harmful, fast-charge via USB-C also works from a Powerbank. Within 30m, I had 50% back! (Attention: Don't connect it in your backpack, it overheated both laptop and Powerbank)

Only romantic relationships have gotten me more torn up in my long life than the question whether I should return my Maxed-out 14" for the benefit of a 14 Pro (basic configuration) already ordered. Yes, my current usage is not necessarily justifying these GPUs and 64GB RAM, but I am tired of the reviews, which say what I don't need. I may need it in the future. Yes, some FOMO. And I do travel a lot...

Last point: Where I am you can return the purchase until after New Years, so maybe I will just wait it out until someone does the 1:1 comparison?

 

[dustSafa]

Does anyone know if there is any significant difference in battery life between 32 and 64 gigs of RAM on the 16” for video playback(netflix,youtube,amazon prime etc.)?

 

[spacecatdk]

Are yours Mac also using power while "sleeping", kind of a big drop from around 53% to 40% ish. without any use

 

[breath.by.breath]

View attachment 1909030 Are yours Mac also using power while "sleeping", kind of a big drop from around 53% to 40% ish. without any use

is this Max?

 

[anshuvorty]

is there a way to

• deactivate GPU cores or limit?

If you deactivate GPU cores, how will you get a display output on your laptop's display? LOL!

 

[Sanpete]

View attachment 1909030 Are yours Mac also using power while "sleeping", kind of a big drop from around 53% to 40% ish. without any use

Not unusual. Used to be that you could stop it from doing stuff in its sleep, but I haven't looked into how that works in Monterey. One easy solution is to shut it down for long periods of non-use.

 

[spacecatdk]

is this Max?

No just a pro

 

[spacecatdk]

Not unusual. Used to be that you could stop it from doing stuff in its sleep, but I haven't looked into how that works in Monterey. One easy solution is to shut it down for long periods of non-use.

Yea but don't think a under 24 hours qualifies at a long day - but have noticed that when it is sleeping and open screen, the mouse Cursor sometimes display for 10 seconds and disappear again

 

[Sanpete]

Yea but don't think a under 24 hours qualifies at a long day - but have noticed that when it is sleeping and open screen, the mouse Cursor sometimes display for 10 seconds and disappear again

I meant any period of time you're not using it and don't want it to use battery - just shut it down until you figure out how to stop it using power in sleep. It won't use the battery when shut down.

Yeah, they can do odd things while sleeping.

 

[KirkDayne]

Thank you all for this very interesting discussion, and that you all take time to write up your experiences.

I am using 14" MBP M1 MAX with all maximum configuration. It is the heaviest laptop I will still carry around. A few observations:
- The issue of battery life is the most underreported with respect to the new line-up. Very few comparisons, where "M1 PRO" vs "M1 MAX" is the *only* difference, all other things being equal.
- From Apple sales, I got 2 opinions from three sales reps: 2 said there is no difference between PRO and MAX, one said "there is a heavier battery drain of between 3-8% for MAX". When I asked the latter why his colleagues were not saying so, he was mentioning that there were a lot of new colleagues and not everyone had this information.
- The first few days of usage, I had the impression that battery use was more heavy than after let's say 3-4 days. Could be connected with some of the updating, synchronizing, etc.
- After this period, what I would generally get is about 3-4 h under very heavy use; and 7-10h under light use. Nothing scientific, but a mixed use could get me to about 6h. That's where it starts to be problematic if portability is any issue (which it doesn't seem to be for many of the YouTube video producers, who do their videos in their studios.)
- Using battery saving mode would add at least 1h of battery on light use, meaning more like 8-11 h
- To my surprise and hopefully I did not do anything harmful, fast-charge via USB-C also works from a Powerbank. Within 30m, I had 50% back! (Attention: Don't connect it in your backpack, it overheated both laptop and Powerbank)

Only romantic relationships have gotten me more torn up in my long life than the question whether I should return my Maxed-out 14" for the benefit of a 14 Pro (basic configuration) already ordered. Yes, my current usage is not necessarily justifying these GPUs and 64GB RAM, but I am tired of the reviews, which say what I don't need. I may need it in the future. Yes, some FOMO. And I do travel a lot...

Last point: Where I am you can return the purchase until after New Years, so maybe I will just wait it out until someone does the 1:1 comparison?

I have purchased the exact same Macbook, 14 inch, 64GB, 32 GPU cores, and I have the same questions, and same hesitations as you. I want to know EXACTLY how much battery life I am conceding for those additional performance gains that I won't probably need.
The natural alternative for me would be a 14 inch M1 PRO, with 32GB of ram and 14 or 16 GPU.

Why is no tester comparing battery life by just letting the computers do nothing / idle (set up so that they dont go to sleep)?

If we did that with all variations of those macbooks, sure it would not inform you of how much time you will actually get in real life use, but it would allow us to compare them with each other. How different hardwares are impacting battery even doing nothing at all.

 

[racostaf]

 

[breath.by.breath]

I have purchased the exact same Macbook, 14 inch, 64GB, 32 GPU cores, and I have the same questions, and same hesitations as you. I want to know EXACTLY how much battery life I am conceding for those additional performance gains that I won't probably need.
The natural alternative for me would be a 14 inch M1 PRO, with 32GB of ram and 14 or 16 GPU.

Why is no tester comparing battery life by just letting the computers do nothing / idle (set up so that they dont go to sleep)?

If we did that with all variations of those macbooks, sure it would not inform you of how much time you will actually get in real life use, but it would allow us to compare them with each other. How different hardwares are impacting battery even doing nothing at all.

It would be easy but it's not a priority for the reviewers for some reason. When you are a video producer - as most reviewers are - you need that graphics performance, not portability. By the way the review above is also not satisfying. It combines different battery sizes, 13", 14", 16". What I would be most looking for to see is same exact machine with different configuration, i.e. in my case 14" M1 Pro base configuration vs 14" M1 Max configuration (maximum configuration).

 

[breath.by.breath]

View attachment 1909030 Are yours Mac also using power while "sleeping", kind of a big drop from around 53% to 40% ish. without any use

Yes, I hope Apple will deal with that in an OS update.

 

[randfee2]

If you deactivate GPU cores, how will you get a display output on your laptop's display? LOL!

?‍♂️ ... what are you talking about? So the M1 Pro only has 16 GPU cores vs the 32 of the M1 Max. With your logic, the "Pro" can't display anything.

It is quite common for microprocessors to be able to dynamically activate and deactivate circuitry depending on current usage!!! Without that ability, all battery powered devices would be depleted in 10% of the time..

My 16" will be delivered next week - but my hesitation grows if this was wrong. I definitely don't want to give up too much battery life in lower power load scenarios. but I still haven't seen a good analysis how much one can save in low power mode...or did I miss this?
I still think there must be a bug in the power management system of the Max chip - since Apple has been SO damn good at this with iOS devices and the M1, I hope I won't be disappointed of battery life at idle and low-power demands.

I'm definitely disappointed that apple didn't quantify this more on release!

 

[Sowelu]

I wish there were more power profile options in Battery Preferences in addition to 'Low & High Power Modes'. Perhaps a 'Low GPU' mode that would reduce the amount of active GPU cores (assuming macOS doesn't already power them down when not in use).

I am not sure if this is confirmed, but I read that Low Power Mode reduces overall processing power in addition to turning off ProMotion. I'd rather turn off half the GPU cores (when they aren't needed), than give up ProMotion and CPU power.