Battery life on M1X PRO vs M1X MAX?

[randfee2]

I don't need promotion or CPU power or GPU power. In a low power mode what I need is runtime. I'd be editing a project report, read something, type some emails, ... all at pretty much dim screen.

That's the mode I want.
Should be 20h+ runtime, like they claim on the website and I don't see why or how this is not available, downclocking everything, I wouldn't complain about

I wonder though...if ProMotion is turned off in LowPower mode, does the screen actually consume more power because it'll stay at a constant 60fps vs.reducing it? That would seem VERY counterproductive?!

 

[thomasec]

Here is probably the best comparison I've seen.

His results:

Battery life under light load:

13" M1 MBA: 11h27
13" M1 MBP: 13h08

14" M1 Pro: 11h12
14" M1 Max: 8h01

16" M1 Pro: 11h01
16" M1 Max: 8h18

Battery life under heavy load:

13" M1 MBA: 4h38
13" M1 MBP: 5h20

14" M1 Pro: 3h44
14" M1 Max: 2h16

16" M1 Pro: 5h11
16" M1 Max: 2h42

 

[Sanpete]

Here is probably the best comparison I've seen.

His results:

Battery life under light load:

13" M1 MBA: 11h27
13" M1 MBP: 13h08

14" M1 Pro: 11h12
14" M1 Max: 8h01

16" M1 Pro: 11h01
16" M1 Max: 8h18

Battery life under heavy load:

13" M1 MBA: 4h38
13" M1 MBP: 5h20

14" M1 Pro: 3h44
14" M1 Max: 2h16

16" M1 Pro: 5h11
16" M1 Max: 2h42

Hard to tell from what he says. Were they all doing the same things at the same screen brightness? Were screen resolutions controlled for if there was video work? Was the Max doing twice the work because it has twice the capacity for it? All common issues in battery tests.

 

[randfee2]

Here is probably the best comparison I've seen.

....
His results:

Battery life under light load:
...
16" M1 Pro: 11h01
16" M1 Max: 8h18

Battery life under heavy load:
....
16" M1 Pro: 5h11
16" M1 Max: 2h42

ouch.... for the 16" M1 max vs 16" M1 Pro that's a whopping 25% worse under light load and 48% less run time at load.

If that is the case, I'll immediately return the 16" Max macbook. :-/

 

[Fomalhaut]

Hard to tell from what he says. Were they all doing the same things at the same screen brightness? Were screen resolutions controlled for if there was video work? Was the Max doing twice the work because it has twice the capacity for it? All common issues in battery tests.

Agreed. I'm interested in 14" Pro vs Max comparisons and these results (over 3 hours difference) seem to be much more pronounced than other reviewers who are suggesting somewhere between a 5-15% hit on the M1 Max.

As you say there are two kinds of test:

1) Fixed time tests, for the same usage. E.g. video calls - they last the same time whatever machine you use . These days, this metric is a hugely important one for lots of people and I haven't seen it tested. Admittedly, if you're working from home you will probably be plugged in...but it would still be a useful result to have.

2) Fixed work tests. e.g. project compile times, photo/video processing times. If the Max can finish these 30-80% faster, then I suspect the battery use difference would be a lot closer.

 

[Fomalhaut]

ouch.... for the 16" M1 max vs 16" M1 Pro that's a whopping 25% worse under light load and 48% less run time at load.

If that is the case, I'll immediately return the 16" Max macbook. :-/

Dave2D's results are outliers at the moment. I would like to see more controlled tests to validate these numbers.

 

[Fomalhaut]

I just found another thread from a couple of weeks ago with some great analysis by user @Malus120 - look out his posts for an idea of how M1 Max DRAM power consumption compares to an M1 MBA. We need similar comparisons to a 14" M1 Pro, but you can see that DRAM power usage is 10 times greater on the M1 Max than on the MBA, and package power is also proportionally much higher.

It's a leap to compare the MBA and M1 Max I know, but it gives a baseline for someone with an M1 Pro to make some comparisons of their own using the powermetrics tool.

 

[thomasec]

Dave2D's results are outliers at the moment. I would like to see more controlled tests to validate these numbers.

That's pretty consistent with what I've seen from other tests, although I do wish they'd go into more detail about the conditions for their battery tests.

 

[tekmoe]

I am blown away by how good the battery life is with my 16" M1 Max. I've been using it quite a bit since Thursday night on the battery and finally needed to plug it in this morning. Best battery life I've ever had in a notebook, hands down.

 

[mrzackzadek]

Well folks....I'm very sad to say this - but it's true. What The Verge said, and the video a few messages above this.

The 16'' M1 Max vs 16'' M1 Pro get remarkably different battery life under both light AND heavy usage.

I just returned my M1 Max 24 core GPU machine to get the M1 Pro equivalent.

It's a real shame because I didn't care about GPU - I wanted the Max for the 64 gb of memory, but it's too steep of a price. Yes they both get GOOD battery life - but it's just too big of a gap to justify it for someone who doesn't need the additional GPU.

Apple should have been WAY more up front about the battery specs between these chips, as there is a SUBSTANTIAL difference.

 

[Fomalhaut]

That's pretty consistent with what I've seen from other tests, although I do wish they'd go into more detail about the conditions for their battery tests.

Which tests? I've seen a few comparing the 16" Max to the 14" Pro, and of course I expect the smaller machine to have lower battery life. I haven't seen many controlled tests that compare light-usage on the two 14" variants.

Most of the tests (Luke Miani, The Tech Chap, MaxTech, Created Tech) show lots of benchmarking tests that hammer the machines, so it's really hard to know what "my mileage" would be.

I may be overthinking this in any case; I am not often dependent on battery power for a full day's work. I've had poor experiences with other computer though, including my current 2019 MBP16, which has given me some "range anxiety" of serveral occassions during lengthy meetings where I couldn't plug-in and was worried that I wouldn't make it to the end. If I can get 7-8 hours and eke out a bit more with low-power mode, that will be sufficient.

 

[Fomalhaut]

Well folks....I'm very sad to say this - but it's true. What The Verge said, and the video a few messages above this.

The 16'' M1 Max vs 16'' M1 Pro get remarkably different battery life under both light AND heavy usage.

I just returned my M1 Max 24 core GPU machine to get the M1 Pro equivalent.

It's a real shame because I didn't care about GPU - I wanted the Max for the 64 gb of memory, but it's too steep of a price. Yes they both get GOOD battery life - but it's just too big of a gap to justify it for someone who doesn't need the additional GPU.

Apple should have been WAY more up front about the battery specs between these chips, as there is a SUBSTANTIAL difference.

That's interesting, and a bit sad. What results were you getting? What was your typical usage? (e.g. apps used, time spent with them, type of work). 16" or 14"?

I am considering the 14" 24-core Max, and am hoping for > 7-8 hours of extensive web-page/web-app usage (50 tabs), video/audio playback and some video-conferencing (c. 1 hour). It would be disappointing not to get this, and would require either accepting the need to carry chargers or powerbanks, or reducing performance (for some tasks) by getting the Pro instead.

 

[Sanpete]

Well folks....I'm very sad to say this - but it's true. What The Verge said, and the video a few messages above this.

The 16'' M1 Max vs 16'' M1 Pro get remarkably different battery life under both light AND heavy usage.

What's this based on? You should probably have the M1 Pro anyway, but I'm curious.

 

[applesed]

Here is probably the best comparison I've seen.

His results:

Battery life under light load:

13" M1 MBA: 11h27
13" M1 MBP: 13h08

14" M1 Pro: 11h12
14" M1 Max: 8h01

16" M1 Pro: 11h01
16" M1 Max: 8h18

Battery life under heavy load:

13" M1 MBA: 4h38
13" M1 MBP: 5h20

14" M1 Pro: 3h44
14" M1 Max: 2h16

16" M1 Pro: 5h11
16" M1 Max: 2h42

He doesn't even say how much memory they have, people are interested in comparing battery life between 16" macbook pro max 32 core 32gb vs. 64gb of memory, and also 24c/32gb against similar speced macbook pro pro. And also how warm each of these systems get under varied loads.

 

[Cameraman12]

I think there's a lot of overthinking going on here about battery life. I have a 16" M1 Max and the battery life is at least twice, if not three times as good as my 2017 Macbook Pro. As others have said, it's quite impressive. I doubt anyone would be disappointed.

 

[Fomalhaut]

I think there's a lot of overthinking going on here about battery life. I have a 16" M1 Max and the battery life is at least twice, if not three times as good as my 2017 Macbook Pro. As others have said, it's quite impressive. I doubt anyone would be disappointed.

Maybe, but people who are trying to decide between the M1 Pro and M1 Max want to get an accurate picture of how much battery life they will realistically be sacrificing if they upgrade to M1 Max. If it really is losing 3 hours (11 hours vs 8) for identical workloads, then this will give some buyers pause for thought.

Persoanlly, 8 hours would be OK - 5-6 hours would not be.

 

[bloomberg]

Battery life under light load:

13" M1 MBA: 11h27
13" M1 MBP: 13h08

14" M1 Pro: 11h12
14" M1 Max: 8h01

16" M1 Pro: 11h01
16" M1 Max: 8h18

Battery life under heavy load:

13" M1 MBA: 4h38
13" M1 MBP: 5h20

14" M1 Pro: 3h44
14" M1 Max: 2h16

16" M1 Pro: 5h11
16" M1 Max: 2h42

There may be a typo on the value for the light load M1 Max; It says 8h18 but should be 9h21.

Have been using low power mode all day on a 16" M1 Max 32gb/24 gpu, just lazily web browsing around 10 hours and it has 20% power remaining.

Activity Monitor shows the GPU cores are being used quite a bit more than I would have expected during daily programming activities.

Tried a few games just to see where the 24 gpu stands and it's about the minimum you'd want, i.e. the Pro with 16 cores might be a bit too much of a compromise. For "Lift Off", a flight sim with a Metal version, you have to pare down the features and resolution to get the framerate high enough for decent flights. Same with Cities Skylines!.

Knowing what I know now, would have ordered the Pro but it's not worth returning at this point and I'll enjoy putting the extra cores to use on occasion.

 

[tekmoe]

Not sure if this video has already been posted but this reviewer states near the end of the video that they got 13 hours with the 16" M1 Pro and 11 hours with the 16" M1 Max. So lose a couple hours of battery life for more performance. Yep, count me in. Love my Max!

 

[randfee2]

I think there's a lot of overthinking going on here about battery life. I have a 16" M1 Max and the battery life is at least twice, if not three times as good as my 2017 Macbook Pro. As others have said, it's quite impressive. I doubt anyone would be disappointed.

the reason why this is even an issue is only due to Apple themselves. Their marketing department is the culprit here. Had they specified this properly on the website, this discussion wouldn't have happened. Typically Apple was quite accurate with their battery life estimates, but in this case they forgot to differentiate!

I'm willing to bet, that the marketing department considered this a good opportunity to leave out some data to upsell many users to the M1 max. Only presenting potential buyers with information on the potential performance gains but neglecting the drawback (significantly higher power consumption)... that's a typical move for large corporations leaving potential buyers believing that the ONLY significant difference is price and calculating performance - which is NOT true apparently!

blame Apple, not us buyers, the seller neglected to provide proper specification and now many are trying to estimate the impact of this for themselves - without proper data :-/

Not sure if this video has already been posted but this reviewer states near the end of the video that they got 13 hours with the 16" M1 Pro and 11 hours with the 16" M1 Max. So lose a couple hours of battery life for more performance. Yep, count me in. Love my Max!

yeah... 20% difference in battery life at tasks not requiring the added performance.... I consider this too significant to neglect this differentiation on the product page.

 

[krappei]

Not sure if this video has already been posted but this reviewer states near the end of the video that they got 13 hours with the 16" M1 Pro and 11 hours with the 16" M1 Max. So lose a couple hours of battery life for more performance. Yep, count me in. Love my Max!

? She (MobileTechReview) states in a more recent video that for light use, expect a 5% penalty in battery life between M1 Pro vs Max. The life you mention is based her “normal” use which includes photoshop, zoom, video, browsing, email at 200 nits. I personally trust her more than Dave2D.

 

[krappei]

? She (MobileTechReview) states in a more recent video that for light use, expect a 5% penalty in battery life between M1 Pro vs Max. The life you mention is based her “normal” use which includes photoshop, zoom, video, browsing, email at 200 nits. I personally trust her more than Dave2D.

Here’s the video

 

[dustSafa]

Not sure if this video has already been posted but this reviewer states near the end of the video that they got 13 hours with the 16" M1 Pro and 11 hours with the 16" M1 Max. So lose a couple hours of battery life for more performance. Yep, count me in. Love my Max!

Which one is it though? 32 gig or 64?

 

[tekmoe]

? She (MobileTechReview) states in a more recent video that for light use, expect a 5% penalty in battery life between M1 Pro vs Max. The life you mention is based her “normal” use which includes photoshop, zoom, video, browsing, email at 200 nits. I personally trust her more than Dave2D.

That's awesome - thanks for pointing that out! I picked mine up Thursday night and used it for a couple hours without ever plugging it in. Did the same on Friday for about 8 hours and then again Saturday morning for a couple more hours. By that point the battery level was under 10% but knowing everything I was doing during that timeframe makes me realize this is easily the best battery life I've ever had in a notebook, let alone a Mac. Reviews are one thing but based on my own personal use, I am a believer. For what appears to be a small reduction in battery life, I'll most certainly take the extra horsepower

 

[dustSafa]

That's awesome - thanks for pointing that out! I picked mine up Thursday night and used it for a couple hours without ever plugging it in. Did the same on Friday for about 8 hours and then again Saturday morning for a couple more hours. By that point the battery level was under 10% but knowing everything I was doing during that timeframe makes me realize this is easily the best battery life I've ever had in a notebook, let alone a Mac. Reviews are one thing but based on my own personal use, I am a believer. For what appears to be a small reduction in battery life, I'll most certainly take the extra horsepower

Can I ask how much RAM yours have?

 

[applesed]

That's awesome - thanks for pointing that out! I picked mine up Thursday night and used it for a couple hours without ever plugging it in. Did the same on Friday for about 8 hours and then again Saturday morning for a couple more hours. By that point the battery level was under 10% but knowing everything I was doing during that timeframe makes me realize this is easily the best battery life I've ever had in a notebook, let alone a Mac. Reviews are one thing but based on my own personal use, I am a believer. For what appears to be a small reduction in battery life, I'll most certainly take the extra horsepower

How warm does the bottom get under light use?