Managing M1's Battery

[Clausewitz]

I am onto my 3rd MBP now. However, my last MBP is from Early-2015 & I haven't had any experience with other Macs in between these 5-6 years. Therefore I don't know how much the battery management techniques have changed. But Apple certainly seems to have changed a lot of things about Mac's batteries, especially with the new M1s. My question is whether the old battery management techniques still hold true for M1 or are they outdated? More specifically:

* Should we recalibrate the battery by draining it to 0% & recharging to 100%?

* Is it better to use M1 on battery or plugged in?

* Is "don't keep your Mac 100% charged" still a thing?

* Is maintaining maximum charge to percentile in the 80s still considered efficient?

 

[AndreRollins]

I have the battery efficiency feature enabled and it likes to keep mine at 80%. It depends on your usage pattern.

 

[enneen]

Having better battery management software is nice. But the batteries used nowadays are still Li-Ion batteries so the same old school principles still apply.

* Should we recalibrate the battery by draining it to 0% & recharging to 100%?

No need to do this calibration thing anymore.

* Is it better to use M1 on battery or plugged in?

Use it on battery, usage+charging generates heat that may reduce battery lifespan. Plus there are no performance penalty when using M1 on battery.

* Is "don't keep your Mac 100% charged" still a thing?

Yes, it's not good to keep the battery plugged in at 100% all the time.
It's a MacBook not an iMac/ Mac Mini

* Is maintaining maximum charge to percentile in the 80s still considered efficient?

Yes. Don't push the battery over 80% too much, and don't drain it below 20% for extended period of time.

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One more though about the M1 MacBook battery thing in general. These devices are incredibly efficient. I will give you a hint on my usage pattern.
Everyday I go to work with my MacBook Pro at 70%-75% roughly, I use it for about 6-8 hours. battery drops to 40%-45%. When I get home I plug it for about 30 minutes. Which is enough to pump some juice for the next day.
My point is you don't need to charge them to the max as the battery last almost forever.

 

[Clausewitz]

Something odd happened. I charged my M1 MBP today & went around doing other work. I intended to unplug it more or less at 80% but was late in doing so. The charge was at 92% when I arrived but I decided to leave it at that & disconnect it from the cord, which I did. I then decided to restart MBP to reset the Screen Time so I could see how much of an on-screen time I'll manage during this charge cycle. After the restart MBP battery began showing 97% charge instead of 92%. I then replugged the charging cord to take to 100%, thinking that since MBP was already showing 97% why not just take it to 100% then? But the MBP did not charge beyond 99% & stopped showing the estimated time to full charge. I finally gave up & disconnect the cord & immediately the battery icon switched from 99% to 100%.

Should I be worried about this behaviour of my MBP?

 

[leman]

I fell like you might be overthinking this. Just use your laptop as it makes sense to you. And, no, you shouldn’t be worried about this behavior, it’s just the battery controller doing it’s thing.

 

[Clausewitz]

I fell like you might be overthinking this. Just use your laptop as it makes sense to you. And, no, you shouldn’t be worried about this behavior, it’s just the battery controller doing it’s thing.

In all likeliness you are right. In fact, I believe you are. However, having paid a premium price for a premium product I expect premium performance, especially when it comes to the battery. If it runs 16-20 hours without charge, which in my book means at least 2 to 3 days, it adds to my work efficiency. With my older MBP I have recharge 2 or 3 times a day, which gives me a lot of time to procrastinate as well. Things don't get don then