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m1mba battery champion!
- Thread starter acidfast7_redux
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I have briefly tested my MBA M1 and battery life is maybe better than my previous MBP 2019 1.4GHz, but not huge difference. For example just used battery from 100% 83% MacOS reading (79% in Coconutbattery) in 2hour 16 minutes. With my MBP I could get about 1h 30 minutes to 2 hour 15 minutes using the same percentage battery (but it has bigger wattage battery, so a bit more watts used that M1 MBA does). Still I doubt I could get 10 hours of use out of my MBA M1...
What's your normal workload? My MBP M1 is a huge boost to my previous 2017 13, the battery life is almost tripped.
Just basic surfing on the internet with maybe 5 tabs open, but I often play music from YouTube using my AirPods. I always use Safari and also installed Wipr to wipe off ads. Display brightness manually set to max -5 clicks.
This YouTube + AirPods used to drain battery very fast in my previous MBP, and it ran rather hot. This MBA M1 is cool al cucumber doing the same but it seems to use battery still pretty much doing that.
I just clocked 2 hours 40 minutes battery is 100 to 75,5% in Coconutbattery (80% macOS reading). So extrapolating that I could get about 10.5 to 11 hours using battery 100% to 0%.
This YouTube + AirPods used to drain battery very fast in my previous MBP, and it ran rather hot. This MBA M1 is cool al cucumber doing the same but it seems to use battery still pretty much doing that.
I just clocked 2 hours 40 minutes battery is 100 to 75,5% in Coconutbattery (80% macOS reading). So extrapolating that I could get about 10.5 to 11 hours using battery 100% to 0%.
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This is quite different from my side, as Youtube playback almost use "nothing". About 1hour and a half, battery only drained 5% on my MBP, brightness is min + 8 clicks, or 50%.
Maybe the panel used by MBA is consuming lots of power? As the CPU is not the most power hungry part in this case(only ~500mW whole package from powrmetrics)
This is taken from playing a youtube video, with 9 tabs open, an Linux VM in the background running VS code server, email apps and IM apps open. The whole package is using less than half watt.
Can you measure it by typing
sudo powermetrics -s cpu_power in terminal?
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All I know is that I go to my office at 7am and am on my MBA M1 ALL DAY on six to ten apps, surfing, computing, zooming until 6:30pm and as I type this at 8:43pm I am at 43%. This is the iPad Pro killer for me. Game changer and Battery Champion for certain!
According to Notebookcheck, for most users, screen brightness is the biggest driver of battery life. I usually keep mine at minimum +4 or 5 (I know it’s personal preference but I’m genuinely amazed that folks have it higher, as it begins to hurt my eyes) and while I haven’t tested to a full drain, I generally drain about 10% max every 2h or so.
That’s what mine has consistently been. Seriously. 47-60% at the end of a long day, every day.
And my numbers have been consistent with that. If that seems outrageous, I’m guessing you have either a very high bright monitor setting and/or super intensive workflow
From what percentage that was from, was it 100% to 95%? If it was then it is actually 10% battery use, as MacOs start to count down to 99% when battery is actually 94%. That behaviour is easy to check with Coconutbattery.
Mathematically you shoud get 30 hours of use on full battery, but I’m pretty sure it is actually half of it.
Also birghtness min. +8 clicks is actually much dimmer in nits than just 50%, it is likely around 200 nits.
It may be the panel. It is obviously worse panel than in MBP so maybe it draw more power. Also I’m running it brighter, usually max -5 clicks.
Not sure about CPU power needs, as I could see it draw well over 20W running benchmark. I cannot remember exactly how much it was.
That is incredible low. I just looked at coconutbattery during that and it was around 4-7W. I was using Airpods so bluetooth will use some power then.
Thanks. I need to try that code to see CPU power usage and that will tell if it is LCD panel draining power.
Also MBA has smaller battery than MBP, I think real world difference is 10W or more. MBA battery health seem to start around only 99% while MBP often are over rated capacity, usually 102%-103%, so from battery MBP gets easily 20% or more boost compared to MBA.
Wipr drains the battery. Once I stopped using it battery life gained exponentially. I’m still trying to figure out an alternative
Really? I mean I did not install it right away and I don't think I saw any noticeable change after installing it.
Just checked system monitor and seems that Wipr does not take much at all resources. Cpu time was reported 0,03 and percentage 0. Windowserver and system something were only that have noticeable resource use, especially windowserver.
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I would avoid all browser plug-ins or adblocking software, period.
If you value battery life and/or overall experience.
If you value battery life and/or overall experience.
So you mean all the ads running background do not use battery at all? Are you sure?
I notice that even browsing speed is improved when my internet connection does not have to load all the additional that come with ads. Anyway, I never noticed Wipr causing battery use in my previous MBP (Intel) and so far not in my MBA M1.
My time has value and my brain processes adverts as white noise.
I don't see any reason to employ an AdBlocker as it won't resolve the problem because you won't train your brain to ignore advertising.
As far as ads using battery, the website doesn't run for free so either simply pay for the ad-free version or just deal with the adverts.
Sure I could ignore them if I wanted but I happen to have limited ISP speed (can't get fibre in my location at all) and these ads are eating pretty much half or more of my limited bandwidth alone. Plus it is not the first time some rogue ad tries to load some malware or at least completely useless stuff. These cleaners and other similar BS, I fed up with those ads.
Sure if Wipr would cause something noticeable issues for me I would not use it, but I've seen only positive things so far!
Cool man. I understand it's a personal decision based on bandwidth and the like. I am spoilt for choice in SE England.
I wish it was like that here. I would have to pay for 5 figure euros to get ISP even think about bringing fibre to my house. Anyway, still with the ads I have all the harmful stuff they often have. It is so easy to press them mistakenly and suddenly something just was installed on your computer!
I agree. I have lived in several part of Europe that have low internet speeds and I like it that way.
They're installing gigabit fibre now with a box about 1.5m outside of the front of my house.
Being in a dense urban area does have benefits sometimes.
Currently I'm using a Pi-hole which removes most of the ads on the internet, The only ads that it doesn't block are Reddit's and Youtube. But for that, I use Apollo and I have a friend's YouTube Premium account.
So no Wipr is ok and once I removed it, battery life jumped significantly. I'm now getting 16-18 hours, which is unreal! But I wish I can still have it, because once I leave my local network, I'm back to having ads on my device.
Mine has gone >24 hours on only 57% usage... and it wasn't like I didn't use it yesterday.
But then again, it's a Pro M1. Battery is a bit larger than whatever is in the Air.
Talking about usage not standby. Just glancing at this looks like 5-6 hrs
Mine has gone >24 hours on only 57% usage... and it wasn't like I didn't use it yesterday.
But then again, it's a Pro M1. Battery is a bit larger than whatever is in the Air.