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How is the battery on your MBP 13" 2020?

Z

zehcnassurfero

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 17, 2019
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I bought the base model of i5 10th processor, and I have two issues, the MBP was so hot with simple tasks like web browsing, and the battery was draining in a few hours so fast. I think its not normal.

How long does your battery last with mixed use of apps and programs?
 
I have absolutely the same model and exactly the same problem. Maybe the new update will solve the problem mac os big sur.
 
Over 1+ month of use, mine lasts 8-9 hours @50% brightness.

Check Activity Monitor and see if there are processes using a lot of CPU and resources.

Spotlight may go on high utilization for a day or two to index your data.

Other apps may be doing who knows what with your new install.

Your login may have startup items that could be causing issues. In this last case, try creating another user account and logging in with that one to see if your system runs cooler. If it doesn't run any cooler, boot up in safe mode and see if it runs cooler then.
 
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I have the same issue with battery life. From my testing, if I use my macbook very carefully (only safari open, no videos or music), I can just about eke out Apple's promised 10 hours. But if I do anything more, the battery drains like crazy. Just watching videos on Youtube is enough to reduce that to 6-7 hours max. I have hardly anything installed and have been watching Activity Monitor so I'm fairly sure there's nothing eating the battery in the background.

I've also noticed it can get very warm when put under a bit of load, for example when watching Youtube, but from everything I've read online it seems this is normal behaviour.
 
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Are you using Chrome? Often when I'm watching YouTube on Chrome the fans come on and temps get to around 70 Deg C, so the CPU is working hard. On Safari I get much better run time.

YT on Safari doesn't have this issue so if you are using Safari, medium brightness and some YouTube, 6-7 hours is normal. On Chrome, using YouTube sometimes, medium brightness, I get 3-4 hours. This is with a 2016 MBP but with a new battery.
 
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Wait till you see the battery with external monitor and sound card. You'd be lucky to get 3-4 hours of youtube.

For the heat, I wrote this thread:

forums.macrumors.com

A way to resolve overheating issues and random fan bursts on 2020 13" MBP

Hello, as many of you know - some of the 2020 13" MBPs run quite hot. It will always vary depending on which chip you have, but also on the luck you had with chip binning. Chip binning "lottery", as the call it, basically means that some chips can deliver the exact same level of performance for...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com

Hopefully you can make use of it. I highly suggest buying the app so you can have 2 custom profiles to be on the safe side, or switching to "auto" when you are about to do some heavy-load tasks (but auto will blast the fans at very high temps and my profiles will start much sooner).

These profiles work good with external monitor. With just the mac, results will be even better.
 
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I have not depleted the battery in one session, but the battery got down 10 % every half hour so far, so I guess I also only get around 6 hours of use - but I have to say, that I did also watch some YouTube videos via safari in this scenario.
 
I have the model with the 10th gen processor. Battery life is far shorter than my 2019 13" model. Estimate about 70% of the life of the older model.
 
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urbanlegend179 said:
How does Apple justify charging 1800 for the 10th gen model if multiple people are having these battery/heat issues?
Click to expand...

The additional cost brings the potential for higher performance. Higher performance comes at a cost and that is additional heat, decreased run time on battery, fan noise, etc. This isn't unique to any particular brand or type of computer. If you don't push the machine it will run cool and the battery will last as advertised. Alternatively, if you push the machine you'll get your work done faster than the 8th gen, but at the cost mentioned above. As with most things in life you don't get anything for free.
 
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I've had my 13 for 2 months now. haven't used it on battery that much, what surprised me is that the battery health is already at 95%. this behavior is similar to what several users have reported for the 16in.

battery life itself is not bad but I did purchase turbo boost switcher and I keep turbo boost disabled 100% of the time on battery (works just fine). battery stats usually tells me around 7 hours. so also not great.

heat and battery are certainly the cons on an otherwise great computer.
 
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involuntarheely said:
the battery health is already at 95%. this behavior is similar to what several users have reported for the 16in.
Click to expand...

Mine is the same, but it is due to new battery health feature. It is artificially limiting the max charge. When i turn it off my 13” goes from 96% to 101%. You might give that a try.
 
duffyanneal said:
Mine is the same, but it is due to new battery health feature. It is artificially limiting the max charge. When i turn it off my 13” goes from 96% to 101%. You might give that a try.
Click to expand...
I have deactivated a couple of days ago to check if that's what's happening, but for now I still see 4910mAh max charge capacity (from 5088)
 
MacLawyer said:
I have the model with the 10th gen processor. Battery life is far shorter than my 2019 13" model. Estimate about 70% of the life of the older model.
Click to expand...

That’s not normal in a new 2020, do you think it’s going To be better with the new MacOs?
 
I'm getting about 3 days worth on my MacBook Pro currently with medium usage, mostly photoshop and YouTube on safari and Apple Music. a lot of threads consistently say chrome is awful on battery on macOS so I didn't download it. I also have Clean my Mac which I run ever so often to clear my cache and background apps which I think helps me
Screenshot 2020-07-21 at 3.39.40 am.png
 
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Peter Alexander said:
I'm getting about 3 days worth on my MacBook Pro currently with medium usage, mostly photoshop and YouTube on safari and Apple Music. a lot of threads consistently say chrome is awful on battery on macOS so I didn't download it. I also have Clean my Mac which I run ever so often to clear my cache and background apps which I think helps me View attachment 935900
Click to expand...

Medium usage is like 3-4 hours per day?
 
Quackington said:
Damn! That's a lot longer than I'd have ever expected.

EDIT: people say Chrome kills battery...how about Firefox. Is that any better?
Click to expand...
im not sure about firefox i only use safari cause of all the forums saying other browsers drain the battery so i stuck with safari and its been fine, i have adguard on there and works great and i use clean my mac ever so often to clear cache and all the junk from my mac
 
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