Hello. I have a Macbook Air M1 that I bought used (99% battery health, 130 cycles). It has Mac OS Big Sur 11.6.2 installed. Is it normal that when I look at something in Safari (for example, a news site, and there are always no more than 3 tabs open) and every 5-7 minutes it takes 1%? The screen brightness is about 40%, the keyboard backlight is off. I've been using it for about a week now, but I don't have many third-party programs installed - only Photoshop. In task manager, nothing heavily loads the processor and battery. I also received an update to Monterey, is it worth trying?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Macbook Air M1 Battery Life
- Thread starter sonyablueberry
- Start date
-
- Tags
- battery life big sur macbook
- Sort by reaction score
Well, as in most cases, there's no reason not to update. Monteray also brings some features to the M1 models.
That "every 5 minutes % goes down by 1" isn't very accurate. Since in reality, it could have been only 0,2% Battery lost, that makes it jump by 1%.
But every 6 minutes, that's like 10% Battery in 1 hour.
How much % do you lose in an hour?
How much in 2 or 3 hours? That's MUCH more accurate. Also, because the Battery percentage is often not 100% linear from 100% to 0%. Apple devices like to stay at 100% for quite a while, untill they readjust.
If you do nothing but just some basic safari browsing, you should get at least 12-13 hours battery life, probably around 15-16 hours (according to Tests)
But yea, maybe do at least a 1 hour session (the longer, the better), and see how much % you lost in x Hours.
And i'd do the latest Update.
That "every 5 minutes % goes down by 1" isn't very accurate. Since in reality, it could have been only 0,2% Battery lost, that makes it jump by 1%.
But every 6 minutes, that's like 10% Battery in 1 hour.
How much % do you lose in an hour?
How much in 2 or 3 hours? That's MUCH more accurate. Also, because the Battery percentage is often not 100% linear from 100% to 0%. Apple devices like to stay at 100% for quite a while, untill they readjust.
If you do nothing but just some basic safari browsing, you should get at least 12-13 hours battery life, probably around 15-16 hours (according to Tests)
But yea, maybe do at least a 1 hour session (the longer, the better), and see how much % you lost in x Hours.
And i'd do the latest Update.
For an hour of browsing in Safari, it took me 12% (with the same 40% brightness, etc.). Then I watched YouTube in 720p for another hour, and it took 15%. I also read that people who upgraded to Monterey had poor battery life. I'm just afraid that it might get worse
Seems lower battery life than average for browsing. Some sites/ads hammer the CPU. Are you using an adblocker? Perhaps try the same test with Chrome + uBlock Origin adblocker before going through downgrading to Big Sur. I'm running Big Sur on MBA M1 but not because of battery life.
I don't know what all's going on here but in my case my M1 MBA gets outstanding battery life. I'm at 79% on my current charge and I still have roughly 16 hours of life left. I am on the latest Big Sur, FYI.
it should be a bit lower tbh. Maybe some things are running in the background, maybe Rosetta-Apps?
I bought my M1 Macbook Pro at release, and always installed the Updates whenever they came. Didn't even wait a Day.
I noticed absolutely 0 difference in Batterylife.
Not updating is simply not an option, you will soon have outdated security.
I don't like Chrome, so I downloaded Edge (it's more energy efficient and lighter) and installed uBlock Origin. Since the beginning of the test, the MacBook was 100% charged. After 40 minutes of browsing the sites left 1%. After 2 hours, 90% of the charge remains (it took 10%). After an hour of watching YouTube, another 11% left. It's better than it was, but not perfect (claimed 15 hours). Here is my task manager during the test:
Well, after a day of work using Edge with an ad blocker instead of Safari, I got the following results: in 1 hour of use 3% left, in 3 hours of use 11% left, in 4 hours of use 23% left, in 5 hours of use 38% left, and in 7.5 hours the MacBook was discharged to 20%. This is certainly much better than it was, but still half of the declared 15 hours
I'd still test Chrome + uBlock Origin for science to see if it can squeeze out even more battery life.
Also, install a utility to show charge capacity vs design capacity. With 130 cycles and if previous owner left it plugged into wall without battery health management enabled the battery could be degraded.
If battery is not degraded, consider doing an erase and clean install of MacOS via restore with Apple Configurator 2 or USB thumb stick method.
https://support.apple.com/guide/app...ore-a-mac-with-apple-silicon-apdd5f3c75ad/mac
If battery is degraded consider buying a new battery or present a good case to Apple to get it replaced under warranty.
https://support.apple.com/mac/repair/service
Also, install a utility to show charge capacity vs design capacity. With 130 cycles and if previous owner left it plugged into wall without battery health management enabled the battery could be degraded.
If battery is not degraded, consider doing an erase and clean install of MacOS via restore with Apple Configurator 2 or USB thumb stick method.
https://support.apple.com/guide/app...ore-a-mac-with-apple-silicon-apdd5f3c75ad/mac
If battery is degraded consider buying a new battery or present a good case to Apple to get it replaced under warranty.
https://support.apple.com/mac/repair/service
In CoconutBattery:
And can I erase my MacBook like an iPhone (select reset in settings)?
Not as thorough as Apple Configurator 2 (1st) or USB recovery erase and clean install (2nd). If going through the hassle might as well do it thoroughly.
You can also install MX Power Gadget now, which is similar to Intel Power Gadget and lets you monitor current power usage, clock speed, utilization, etc.