MBP 14" M1 Pro Battery life. Similar to Intel MBP?

[resolutiontime]

Hey All,

How is the battery life on the base model MBP 14" M1 Pro?

Will it crap out severely like all laptops and I'll be lucky to get 3 hours out of this thing 4 years from now? Like my 2015 15" MBP which is lucky to get 2 hours of run time at full brightness unplugged.

My major qualms with the MBP line is it's notoriously poor battery life. I'm not a heavy user. I just want to browse the web, play games and work on this thing while taking it out of the office. Can I take this thing into the field ? Will I get 8-9 hours?

I don't pay attention to Apple claims or think their "testing" is practical.

Basically, only Apple Laptop battery I like and that last long that I've used is the MBA. Will M1 Pro be any different than the previous Intel Macbooks?

Should I just get the M1 MBA 16/512 from the Apple store? I don't like the price of the M2 MBA.

TIA!

David

 

[ilikewhey]

na the m1 is great on battery, it's much more efficient compare to x86 intel platform because it's arm. you can leave it on youtube playback and it will last 14 hours easy.

 

[resolutiontime]

na the m1 is great on battery, it's much more efficient compare to x86 intel platform because it's arm. you can leave it on youtube playback and it will last 14 hours easy.

on 150 nits and 1 video playing? Like what Apple does to "benchmark" it's new products. I mean, for 20+ browser tabs and videos or music streaming in the background..can this $2000 laptop get 8-9 hours on 60% brightness (300 nits)?

What do you get in terms of battery life?

 

[Shadowbech]

I have the MBP 14" M1 Pro 10CPU/16GPU/16 Ram/1 TB model and it's pretty great. Yesterday about 12:47 PM I unplugged it from the charger at 100%. Currently sitting at 50% as I type this. Of course, I'm not on it constantly but been watching YouTube video and browsing. However I do have Aldante installed so I will keep it on charger and have it stop charging at 80%. I can easily get 15 hours plus on this thing with what I do with browsing and what not. I don't play games on my Mac as it's not really meant for gaming.

 

[resolutiontime]

I have the MBP 14" M1 Pro 10CPU/16GPU/16 Ram/1 TB model and it's pretty great. Yesterday about 12:47 PM I unplugged it from the charger at 100%. Currently sitting at 50% as I type this. Of course, I'm not on it constantly but been watching YouTube video and browsing. However I do have Aldante installed so I will keep it on charger and have it stop charging at 80%. I can easily get 15 hours plus on this thing with what I do with browsing and what not. I don't play games on my Mac as it's not really meant for gaming.

12:47 p.m. Yesterday to ~5:20 p.m. now? Or 12:47 p.m. today to 5:20 p.m.?
And on what brightness and browser?

This YouTuber shows vastly different results. Look at "Day 8"...more than halfway through Day 8.
1.5 hours of web browsing and FB and drained 13% battery using only Facebook/web on high brightness.

 

[Shadowbech]

12:47 pm yesterday as in 8/20/22 to 7:20 PM today. I use Safari. I detest Chrome on MacBook as they do drain battery. Brightness is always in the middle. I do have keyboard lights off tho as I don't really need the keyboard light at all. I really wished Apple would get rid of it. I understand some have their use case for them but I detest the keyboard lights. I don't use my computer in the dark.

 

[resolutiontime]

12:47 pm yesterday as in 8/20/22 to 7:20 PM today. I use Safari. I detest Chrome on MacBook as they do drain battery. Brightness is always in the middle. I do have keyboard lights off tho as I don't really need the keyboard light at all. I really wished Apple would get rid of it. I understand some have their use case for them but I detest the keyboard lights. I don't use my computer in the dark.

I see. Do you have a MBA m1/m2 to compare it to? People have experienced different than what you experience. Polar opposites. Checking reddit and the YTer that I posted. Some have gotten only 4-6 hours. It's sad because I like the MBP but the battery will crap out like all laptop batteries do.

The only laptop that I trust with good battery life is the MBA even the Intel version.

 

[Shadowbech]

I only have mbp 14 in. I traded my mbp 13 in m1

 

[0906742]

I don’t notice any dramatic difference with my MBP 14” base to my previous MBA M1. Could be even a little better in light use at the same display brightness level in both.

 

[resolutiontime]

I don’t notice any dramatic difference with my MBP 14” base to my previous MBA M1. Could be even a little better in light use at the same display brightness level in both.

Read these Reddit threads. One poster said he got 4 HOURS. Utter garbage. You know this will crap out like other intel MBP and it'll be time for an "upgrade" in 5 years.

" I see quotes of "14 to 17 hours of battery life watching videos on YouTube in Safari on full screen," for example. So I tested that. I had only Safari as the only application running, and only one tab open: YouTube. I put on a fairly long video with my brightness setting right about in the middle and volume also in the middle. I got a measly 4 hours max.. very far off from the claims of others. Is there something I'm doing wrong? Correct me if I'm being stupid."

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/qoxfyc
Also, common theme is that non native apps and programs drain the battery fast. ARM architecture isn't optimized for Zoom. Google Chrome is a battery hog. etc


Another poster who said he gets 5.5 hours of use...
"I was looking to see how long the battery should last on average. I saw someone got 11 hours while another 4 hours, with basic browsing and Office use. I kept mine on today without using any programs or apps and it lasted 5.5 hours. Is that about average for this laptop? TIA."

https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookpro/comments/skwlzd
https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookpro/comments/s0vn7w
Please watch the YT video...Day 8. His MBP 14" drains 13% of battery just by watching measly FB videos on high brightness. Battery will last only 7 hr 45 minutes...for browsing FB on high brightness..

The battery gimps on a brand new MBP? Imagine this a year from now.

 

[Gelam]

Read these Reddit threads. One poster said he got 4 HOURS. Utter garbage. You know this will crap out like other intel MBP and it'll be time for an "upgrade" in 5 years.

" I see quotes of "14 to 17 hours of battery life watching videos on YouTube in Safari on full screen," for example. So I tested that. I had only Safari as the only application running, and only one tab open: YouTube. I put on a fairly long video with my brightness setting right about in the middle and volume also in the middle. I got a measly 4 hours max.. very far off from the claims of others. Is there something I'm doing wrong? Correct me if I'm being stupid."

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/qoxfyc
Also, common theme is that non native apps and programs drain the battery fast. ARM architecture isn't optimized for Zoom. Google Chrome is a battery hog. etc


Another poster who said he gets 5.5 hours of use...
"I was looking to see how long the battery should last on average. I saw someone got 11 hours while another 4 hours, with basic browsing and Office use. I kept mine on today without using any programs or apps and it lasted 5.5 hours. Is that about average for this laptop? TIA."

https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookpro/comments/skwlzd
https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookpro/comments/s0vn7w
Please watch the YT video...Day 8. His MBP 14" drains 13% of battery just by watching measly FB videos on high brightness. Battery will last only 7 hr 45 minutes...for browsing FB on high brightness..

The battery gimps on a brand new MBP? Imagine this a year from now.

From my experience with intel MacBooks (Pro & Air).
I have the activity monitor with energy tab on all the time. What happens in almost every single wake from sleep is that some random safari tabs (2-5) or apps will become bugged and consume like 30-100+ energy usage unit.

Even if those tabs are not in use it will drain the MacBook's battery down more than twice as fast and the fans will spin. So what I do is go through the energy tab every wake from sleep and quite those "tabs" or apps. Then the mac will have the battery life it deserves.

If I have never discovered this weird occurrence I would wonder why the hell the mac battery life is so short even with light task.

It might be possible some short battery life is from this cause. But it might not be.

 

[0906742]

Read these Reddit threads. One poster said he got 4 HOURS. Utter garbage. You know this will crap out like other intel MBP and it'll be time for an "upgrade" in 5 years.

All I can say from my person experience with both MBP 14" base and MBA M1 I have owned, there is no dramatic difference in battery life between the two in my usual usage. If anything MBP 14" is even a little better.

IMHO 5 years is something when it is time to get a new one anyway. I believe OS support is for 5 years and in 7 years these are vintage models. Also batteries age and 5 years is quite long time for them anyway.

Please watch the YT video...Day 8. His MBP 14" drains 13% of battery just by watching measly FB videos on high brightness. Battery will last only 7 hr 45 minutes...for browsing FB on high brightness..

I did not watch that but I take your word for 7 hrs 45 minutes browsing FB on high brightness. That sounds about right to me since Notebookcheck says 6hrs 30min at 100% brightness in Wifi web browsing tests. I personally use rather low screen brightness since I like it that way and it uses less battery (much less) and so it did in my MBA M1. FYI, in Notebookcheck test MBA M2 lasted 6hrs 35min at 100% brightness in Wifi web browsing test.

 

[dizmonk]

I don’t notice any dramatic difference with my MBP 14” base to my previous MBA M1. Could be even a little better in light use at the same display brightness level in both.

That sounds like the experience I'm having also. I thought the M1 MBA was incredible on battery and I'm very positively surprised how good this 14 MBP is...

 

[januarydrive7]

I regularly get 8-14 hours on my 14' with brightness averaging about halfway (auto-dimming is on). This is with light browsing (including YT), compiling large C++ code bases using CLion IDE, and local LaTeX compiles (papers ranging from 10-100 pages in length) with TeX-live hooked into VSCodium. As with everything, YMMV, but I've had excellent results when compared to my 16" Intel MBP.

 

[ignatius345]

Hey All,

How is the battery life on the base model MBP 14" M1 Pro?

Will it crap out severely like all laptops and I'll be lucky to get 3 hours out of this thing 4 years from now? Like my 2015 15" MBP which is lucky to get 2 hours of run time at full brightness unplugged.

The M-series Macs use a lot less power, which means not only a longer run time per charge, but also fewer charge cycles over the lifetime of the machine. I charge my M1 Air every week or so instead of every couple days like I did with my Intel i5 Air, and as a consequence I haven't put it through very many charge cycles over the course of the 1.5 years I've had it.

That said, all lithium batteries will wear out eventually. That's not a design flaw, it's just a limitation of current battery tech. The remedy is to get your battery replaced.

 

[ignatius345]

Read these Reddit threads. One poster said he got 4 HOURS. Utter garbage. You know this will crap out like other intel MBP and it'll be time for an "upgrade" in 5 years.

Oh no, a rando on Reddit has some rogue process eating up his battery life! Scandal!

 

[ilikewhey]

on 150 nits and 1 video playing? Like what Apple does to "benchmark" it's new products. I mean, for 20+ browser tabs and videos or music streaming in the background..can this $2000 laptop get 8-9 hours on 60% brightness (300 nits)?

What do you get in terms of battery life?

not sure about nits but i have it around 4-5 level, and i often fall asleep watching documentaries on youtube with auto-next. when i wake up 7 hours later my battery still over 50% and youtube still playing. so if i add up im getting around 10 hours with more than 50% battery, ofcourse YMMV. i also don't close any tabs from work, so i'm running with 50gb ram filled if that makes any difference.

 

[Zest28]

That sounds like the experience I'm having also. I thought the M1 MBA was incredible on battery and I'm very positively surprised how good this 14 MBP is...

This is also my results between the M2 MBA and 14" MBP based on same testing I did. They are the same ballpark with light usage.

I didn't do heavy usage as the 14" MBP will obviously use more energy as it has way more power available.

 

[Zest28]

Read these Reddit threads. One poster said he got 4 HOURS. Utter garbage. You know this will crap out like other intel MBP and it'll be time for an "upgrade" in 5 years.

" I see quotes of "14 to 17 hours of battery life watching videos on YouTube in Safari on full screen," for example. So I tested that. I had only Safari as the only application running, and only one tab open: YouTube. I put on a fairly long video with my brightness setting right about in the middle and volume also in the middle. I got a measly 4 hours max.. very far off from the claims of others. Is there something I'm doing wrong? Correct me if I'm being stupid."

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/qoxfyc
Also, common theme is that non native apps and programs drain the battery fast. ARM architecture isn't optimized for Zoom. Google Chrome is a battery hog. etc


Another poster who said he gets 5.5 hours of use...
"I was looking to see how long the battery should last on average. I saw someone got 11 hours while another 4 hours, with basic browsing and Office use. I kept mine on today without using any programs or apps and it lasted 5.5 hours. Is that about average for this laptop? TIA."

https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookpro/comments/skwlzd
https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookpro/comments/s0vn7w
Please watch the YT video...Day 8. His MBP 14" drains 13% of battery just by watching measly FB videos on high brightness. Battery will last only 7 hr 45 minutes...for browsing FB on high brightness..

The battery gimps on a brand new MBP? Imagine this a year from now.

4 hours watching youtube is definitely not normal. Even my Intel MBP gets more battery life watching youtube videos. Was he watching HDR videos or something so that the screen was pumping out 1600 nits all the time?

7h and 45m browsing FB and high brightness seems normal. The screen at high brightness will eat batteries.

And don't believe Apple their claims. They claim my 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro can get 21 hours of battery life, I have never seen this happen. But then again, if you get 21 hours battery life on this machine, you are obviously using it wrong as they are so much more capable than watching videos all day.

 

[TSE]

Bro I won't go back to Intel after using my M1 14" MacBook Pro and now M1 MacBook Air. The battery life and thermals are game changers.

Any questions about battery life are erased after using it for a couple hours.

 

[0906742]

That sounds like the experience I'm having also. I thought the M1 MBA was incredible on battery and I'm very positively surprised how good this 14 MBP is...

Exactly the same as my experience with those two machines. I was prepared for bad battery life but I was positively surprised after using my MBP 14”. My use is obviously pretty light so I easily see my MBP 14” hovering around 5W power draw.

 

[dizmonk]

Exactly the same as my experience with those two machines. I was prepared for bad battery life but I was positively surprised after using my MBP 14”. My use is obviously pretty light so I easily see my MBP 14” hovering around 5W power draw.

Are you planning on keeping the 14? Did you consider the m2? What helped you make your final decisions about which one to keep?

 

[0906742]

Are you planning on keeping the 14? Did you consider the m2? What helped you make your final decisions about which one to keep?

Yes, the MBP 14" is a keeper! There is no way I could accept MBA M2 after testing it few times in local shops. It just feels flimsy to me, very flexible both keyboard deck and chassis. Chassis is more solid in MBP 14" even that is not the same level solid as previous generation MBP 13" or MBA 13" was, but close. As far as size and weight, I did not find any issue using it on the sofa MBP on my lap.

Also display is excellent, easily match my LG OLED and speakers are incredible too. Plus it has active cooling when needed. Do far I have got it running only once, I was looping Cinebench. Also because of the active cooling I feel more confident having this machine also replace my Mini M1 as desktop, so I get to use my MacBook now 100%. When I had MBA, it was sitting in the closet for at least 99% of the time.

 

[kp98077]

Does anyone know if you can use the new flat 35 W charger with the 14 pro? any negatives to this other than slower charging?

 

[ignatius345]

Bro I won't go back to Intel after using my M1 14" MacBook Pro and now M1 MacBook Air. The battery life and thermals are game changers.

Any questions about battery life are erased after using it for a couple hours.

I tend to run CoconutBattery in the menu bar to see how much wattage is being drawn. I find my M1 Air usually pulls ~5 watts and often down to 2.5 watts or so. The last Intel i5 Air I had was consistently pulling 10-15 watts, which translated to 5-6 hours battery life if I was lucky, with plenty of heat and blowing fans the whole time.

Been buying Macs since 1999 and I've never ever seen as dramatic (and cheap!) of an upgrade as the M1 chip brought.