Battery Life on new MacBook Pro 16 M1 Pro

[wyatterp]

I scanned for a similar thread and did not see any.

The MacBook Pro 16 M1 Pro (base model, with 1TB SSD) - I thought battery life would really impress, but so far it's just been...ok.

I'm not doing anything intensive other than watching some YouTube videos (most not HDR) - don't see anything with significant energy usage, other than safari occasionally pops up as using "significant energy". Brightness is averaging 60% this AM. Started work at 830am and by noon was at 62% doing not a whole lot. Looks to be approx 3 hours screen on time.

I specifically upgraded from 14 to 16 because I read the battery on the 16 is significantly better than 14 - but it "feels" about the same.

Promotion is on, I know I'm running the screen brightness higher than what many of the YT testers may have done, but nothing intensive. Telegram, Safari, Excel, iPhoto. But again, nothing other than safari says it's taking up higher energy amount. Mac OS X 12.0.1 - I've had this unit since Saturday and it was a fresh OS X setup, I didn't pull this over from a backup.

 

[bill-p]

Safari seems to be pushing the GPU very hard for some reason. Turn off GPU acceleration for Canvas Rendering via the Develop menu and it should probably net you more battery life.

 

[zarathu]

You should watch things in Activity monitor. I usually can go 8 hours and still have more than 50% of battery left.

 

[wyatterp]

Would you assume most people in "reviews" are using Chrome instead of safari?

One of the reasons I'm sticking with Safari for some things is the superior HDR support for Plex and YouTube - I've never seen a display handle HDR content like this. In fact I've never seen HDR like this before lol. My 4k HDR rips in Plex only seem to properly work with HDR in Safari, Chrome, the Plex App all are simply tone mapped but support none of the actual HDR capabilities.

Safari seems to be pushing the GPU very hard for some reason. Turn off GPU acceleration for Canvas Rendering via the Develop menu and it should probably net you more battery life.

 

[figbash]

I have the exact same model, today I'm at around 87% after 3 hours of usage. It has consistently taken almost exactly 4% of battery an hour since I've gotten it, unless I'm doing heavy Unity/Rider work. I've been using Safari with YouTube and some Chrome as well, Reeder, Messenger, Sublime Text.

I only run at 3 dots on the brightness popup, so probably around 25%? I think it may be the brightness killing you.

My 2019 16" i7 had about half the battery life doing the same thing.

 

[wyatterp]

I have the exact same model, today I'm at around 87% after 3 hours of usage. It has consistently taken almost exactly 4% of battery an hour since I've gotten it, unless I'm doing heavy Unity/Rider work. I've been using Safari with YouTube and some Chrome as well, Reeder, Messenger, Sublime Text.

I only run at 3 dots on the brightness popup, so probably around 25%? I think it may be the brightness killing you.

My 2019 16" i7 had about half the battery life doing the same thing.

You can use the thing at 3 dots? Are you working in a cave? I can try lowering the brightness a bit - I turned of auto-brightness as well since I didn't really like how it was working. I've decided to reboot the machine too. I would still get through a day with this kind of battery life but it would be close - and that doesn't seem right. I should note that I notice the bottom is warm to the touch most of the time. I quit Safari and am now using Brave browser and the machine isn't warm anymore. Hmmmm

 

[figbash]

You can use the thing at 3 dots? Are you working in a cave? I can try lowering the brightness a bit - I turned of auto-brightness as well since I didn't really like how it was working. I've decided to reboot the machine too. I would still get through a day with this kind of battery life but it would be close - and that doesn't seem right. I should note that I notice the bottom is warm to the touch most of the time. I quit Safari and am now using Brave browser and the machine isn't warm anymore. Hmmmm

Yeah I basically am Mine is quite cool to the touch. Personally I experience more battery usage with Chrome and Brave.

 

[CheesePuff]

Here is how Apple gets 14 hours of web browsing on the 16-inch:

The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 8 clicks from bottom.

So its at half brightness, and browsing in Safari.

I know it kind of defeats the purpose of getting the new models, but if you enable Low Power Mode for when on battery, it will limit ProMotion and decrease the M1 Pro/Max CPU and GPU (but I can barely notice any slow down) and its a noticeable improvement on battery.

 

[Dovahkiing]

I don’t know if this is super useful, but I have the 16’’ middle tier M1 pro version and my battery life has been incredible. I watched an episode of HDR streaming on full brightness and it knocked 6% off the battery to finish at 94%.

 

[wyatterp]

I think something is up with my safari install - but will try on the next workday to only use brave. Now that I'm using Brave browser my macbook pro is cool to the touch and battery is barely draining just with normal website. For some reason Safari was keeping my macbook pro on the warm side - fans won't spin. Thanks for those chiming in here.

 

[NdTonks]

I only run at 3 dots on the brightness popup, so probably around 25%? I think it may be the brightness killing you.

3 dots? man, I can barely see the screen in the dark at 3 dots haha. Superman vision! Half way or more is the only time I find the brightness useable

 

[Technerd108]

I have the base model 16" and I usually have the brightness up around 75%. I usually do some light graphics work, web browsing Safari only, multiple apps open and battery lasts a long time. 3 hours of screen on time would knock it down in the 80% range and more likely to be 85% so 60% doesn't sound right after 3 hours. You should be getting better battery life unless you had the M1 Max with more ram and bandwidth. Something isn't right?? I had pre ordered the 14" and returned it for the base 16" and the 16" has significantly better battery life?

 

[jcevox]

I think something is up with my safari install - but will try on the next workday to only use brave. Now that I'm using Brave browser my macbook pro is cool to the touch and battery is barely draining just with normal website. For some reason Safari was keeping my macbook pro on the warm side - fans won't spin. Thanks for those chiming in here.

Off topic but how is Brave at managing ram? Does it at up a lot of it? Currently using Firefox and it’s been solid

 

[kvlq]

Almost 2 weeks with my 16" with m1 pro, and everyday i get around 8-8.5hrs battery life.
I dont know how you use them guys to get 10+.

For me it's just Safari. Telegram, Messenger,Notes,Messages and Mail opened in background.
Brightness 10 dots from bottom.

 

[CheesePuff]

Brave is the same as Chrome, based on Chromium, so its going to be the same resource heavy browser that Chrome is. Safari is far more resource efficient. I would do a clean install if you're really only getting a few hours with Safari.

 

[wyatterp]

This will probably take some time to sort out - going to experiment tomorrow using just BRAVE browser instead of safari and see what battery is by lunch. Yesterday it was down to 60% by noon with very light use - Safari was the only browser in use and was the only app that ever reported significant energy use. I will admit my brightness was probably 70% most of that time, so it may be the reason - but this screen is so amazing and bright and sharp it's hard to look at it dimly. I turned off auto screen brightness too.

 

[wyatterp]

Almost 2 weeks with my 16" with m1 pro, and everyday i get around 8-8.5hrs battery life.
I dont know how you use them guys to get 10+.

For me it's just Safari. Telegram, Messenger,Notes,Messages and Mail opened in background.
Brightness 10 dots from bottom.

This seems to me like where I'm at with a similar set of apps using Safari.

 

[bill-p]

Would you assume most people in "reviews" are using Chrome instead of safari?

One of the reasons I'm sticking with Safari for some things is the superior HDR support for Plex and YouTube - I've never seen a display handle HDR content like this. In fact I've never seen HDR like this before lol. My 4k HDR rips in Plex only seem to properly work with HDR in Safari, Chrome, the Plex App all are simply tone mapped but support none of the actual HDR capabilities.

No, they most likely are using Safari, but they aren't browsing the web as... much you and I tend to. I don't just browse and read websites, sometimes I use web apps as well, and those are pretty intensive on CPU and GPU performance. It seems Safari handling of the GPU is too aggressive for some reason.

Chrome is indeed more manageable here.

 

[CheesePuff]

This will probably take some time to sort out - going to experiment tomorrow using just BRAVE browser instead of safari and see what battery is by lunch. Yesterday it was down to 60% by noon with very light use - Safari was the only browser in use and was the only app that ever reported significant energy use. I will admit my brightness was probably 70% most of that time, so it may be the reason - but this screen is so amazing and bright and sharp it's hard to look at it dimly. I turned off auto screen brightness too.

Brave is a Chromium browser so it will use more energy then Safari

 

[doublemycoresplz]

Almost 2 weeks with my 16" with m1 pro, and everyday i get around 8-8.5hrs battery life.
I dont know how you use them guys to get 10+.

For me it's just Safari. Telegram, Messenger,Notes,Messages and Mail opened in background.
Brightness 10 dots from bottom.

Wow I get exactly the same battery life on my 16' M1 Max.

 

[figbash]

Almost 2 weeks with my 16" with m1 pro, and everyday i get around 8-8.5hrs battery life.
I dont know how you use them guys to get 10+.

For me it's just Safari. Telegram, Messenger,Notes,Messages and Mail opened in background.
Brightness 10 dots from bottom.

I don't know how it's even possible to get to 8 hours with those apps, I wonder what is causing the power drain? In my office 10 dots is basically a flashlight shining in my face, but I've run at 6 dots today. I'm at 82% after a little over 3 hours, and I've been using Brave to watch videos and browse to see if it takes more power than Safari. I also have Messenger (which is Rosetta), Reeder, Messages, Mail, and Screen Sharing, and used VLC for a bit.

 

[kvlq]

I don't know how it's even possible to get to 8 hours with those apps, I wonder what is causing the power drain? In my office 10 dots is basically a flashlight shining in my face, but I've run at 6 dots today. I'm at 82% after a little over 3 hours, and I've been using Brave to watch videos and browse to see if it takes more power than Safari. I also have Messenger (which is Rosetta), Reeder, Messages, Mail, and Screen Sharing, and used VLC for a bit.

Well...im also wondering why i get just 8-8.5 hrs daily... i also checked activity monitor, but i havent seen anything wrong.

 

[UBS28]

I don't know how it's even possible to get to 8 hours with those apps, I wonder what is causing the power drain? In my office 10 dots is basically a flashlight shining in my face, but I've run at 6 dots today. I'm at 82% after a little over 3 hours, and I've been using Brave to watch videos and browse to see if it takes more power than Safari. I also have Messenger (which is Rosetta), Reeder, Messages, Mail, and Screen Sharing, and used VLC for a bit.

Maybe Apple gave you the M1 Max model by mistake.

 

[figbash]

Maybe Apple gave you the M1 Max model by mistake.

Sorry I meant I don't know how it's possible to get *down* to 8 hours with those light apps, I get at least 14 hours and usually more with the apps I generally use. I'm just trying to help narrow down why some people are getting 8! I certainly wish Apple accidentally gave me a Max though.

 

[senttoschool]

Almost 2 weeks with my 16" with m1 pro, and everyday i get around 8-8.5hrs battery life.
I dont know how you use them guys to get 10+.

For me it's just Safari. Telegram, Messenger,Notes,Messages and Mail opened in background.
Brightness 10 dots from bottom.

It could be Mail which does a lot of fetching and pulling.

I get 10 hours+ using an assortment of apps like Slack, Notion, Whatsapp, VSCode, Stocks, Chrome, etc. 16" M1 Pro, 16GB.

So far, it seems to be matching my M1 Macbook Air in battery life which was already spectacular.

I feel like battery life is so good now that it never becomes a problem anymore. How often is someone away from a power socket for 8+ hours?