Nice, enjoy your new baby and congrats. Nice job on not spending too much on an extended warranty as well
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Buy MacBook Pro 14 now or wait?
- Thread starter MrHoobs
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It will probably be a marginal upgrade, but the biggest issue with the 14" is the mediocre to- just ok battery life. Could the new model improve on this?
Like anything else YMMV - what I can say is this: if I do browser, email, office apps, a few hours of steaming video, etc. it is possible that on a long day I can run it all the way down. (Example: a day of airplane travel). Under that load it gets probably 8-9 hours if I do nothing to manage it (e.g. dialing back the brightness). It's not terrible. But it isn't sufficient for me to go on a business trip and not bring a charger (which would be nice). FWIW - If I didn't use it for streaming when I'm on the road, it probably would last forever.
I guess I don't understand what the bar is, because the MBP 14's battery life (which IS 8-10 hours like you say) is way better than any other laptop I've had.
I don't disagree. Doesn't bother me. But it is the one of, if not the most, common complaint about the MBP14. Maybe it just suggests how good the machine is since that's what people are complaining about!
It's not terrible - but I have the 16, the 14 and the M2 Air, and the 14 is definitely the worst of the lot.
It might be good enough, but for all-day work, the others have an advantage. With the M2 Air you can really forget about the battery life.
It's just something to consider.
I would also say 8-10 is with being careful. Also, those are the numbers with the base model - do not get the MAX or 64 gb configs - that will make it about 2 hours less - if you are concerned about battery life.
So, if the new processor is more efficient, this could help - I'm just putting out a factor to consider about whether to wait or not.
There is also no guarantee that other features won't be snuck into the new models. Likely only minor ones, but still.
no idea, folks looking for issue and redundancies when there is none, i have the m1 max with 64gb ram and i'm perfectly content with the 10 hours on avg battery life i'm getting.
Good for you!
But others' needs may differ, and this difference may be of interest in weighing a complex decision. All day means different things to different people.
By the way - I don't love windows, but there are a number of windows laptops that will beat the 14". Not many, if any, will beat the 16", M1 Pro, or M2 air.
in overall? i haven't seen one that comes close, but if you cherry pick and isolate a specific use case sure. but also applies to other laptops like the mba and 16 mbp.
I have no doubt that is right. It's "good enough" but for sure not a selling point on the MBP14. It's a very good machine but longer battery life would be nice. I'd love a machine that I can take on a two night trip and not have to charge. I don't believe any of them could do that quite yet.
Sorry man. I had no intention to start an argument here. You really don't need to feel bad about your 14" - it's a great computer!!!!!!
Just giving out some facts in case extra battery time was useful for this particular person. The M2 [M3?] 14" may not even have a better battery life - it's just a possibility.
Cool, I’ve got the same use case as you but went with 16 just because I prefer it and plan on it being my main machine and ditching my ageing iMac.
I’ve ordered online so have the agony of waiting
I’ve ordered online so have the agony of waiting
no need to apologize, i was genuinely curious how did you arrive at that conclusion, and for the record no one can make me feel bad about my 14", its hands down the best laptop i ever purchased dispite the price tag.
to give background, i upgraded from a max specced m1 mba which gave me on avg 15 hours of battery life, to my now 14inch mbp m1 max 64gb max specced, and the difference was so drastic that the shorter battery life was not even a factor.
this is what i'm saying, coming from any other laptop thats not apple silicon based, you probably avg 5-6 hours, 8 if you really stretch it, the fact that a machine this powerful can get more than 10 hours is pretty outstanding.
Depending on your usage, there are laptops that can go head to head against the 16" MBP, MBA and the 14" MBP. My 14" MBP is a fantastic computer but that doesn't mean there's nothing in the windows world that is unable to compete with the MBP. You said it yourself its a complex decision.
Speaking of batteries...
My MBP14 spends 99.99% of the time in clamshell mode, and the battery optimization percent has reduced to 76% from the 80% level I though the OS would sustain it at.
Anyone else experience this? The health is still at 100% and I assume these readings are all estimates anyway, but was just curious.
My MBP14 spends 99.99% of the time in clamshell mode, and the battery optimization percent has reduced to 76% from the 80% level I though the OS would sustain it at.
Anyone else experience this? The health is still at 100% and I assume these readings are all estimates anyway, but was just curious.
I have, at times, had my battery optimization percentage drop below 80% and stay there for a period of time. The OS learns your patterns as time goes on and adjusts according. I don't think you have anything to worry about, but if you are concerned, go to an Apple store or chat with an Apple genius online for more info.
My only advice - and I could be wrong - is not to keep that number at %99.99 as you've reported. I've had that hurt my batteries in the past. Maybe the OS now knows what to do, but I'm not sure.
Unplug it once a month and use it on battery power and let it cycle a bit.
There are probably people here that know more about this than myself.
Oh this is new - so like teslas you can’t charge to 100% often?
My MacBook as been plugged in constantly with the magnetic charge cable thingy - genius idea btw! My pc laptop fell on the floor with the kids running past it a number of times!
Had a look and not seen any general guidance on apple - best to run it down to 0% battery occasionally to ensure it fully discharged before charging up again?
Yes, lithium batteries have longer lifespans when not kept at a full state of charge or at too depleted of a state. Ventura seems to recognize that my MBP stays plugged in the majority of the time, and it only charges it to 75%.
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with Li-ion batteries, it is best to keep them at 50% all the time. Well, this is completely impractical, but the general guidance is to avoid fully charging or fully discharging (which is the complete opposite of Ni-Cd batteries), and avoid storing it at full charge, and avoid heat.
With the new MacBooks, provided you have optimize charging turned on, you do not need to worry about leaving it plugged in all the time. It will detect this, and stop charging above ~80% to protect the battery.
Still, avoid fully discharging if you can. The old notion of "cycling" the battery does not apply to Li-ion batteries. Li-ion batteries have a certain number of charge cycles in their life (like 1000), and deliberately "cycling" the battery just uses them up.
Batteries
Maximize the life and lifespan of the lithium-ion battery in your iPod, iPhone, iPad, or MacBook. Learn how to service and recycle it, too.
www.apple.com
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i wouldn't worry about it, macos manages the battery charge and discharge pretty well, i used to run al dente which you can cap the charge at 50% if thats something you are interested in.