Why are people using their MacBook Airs on battery?

[t0rqx]

You are going to hate Airpods.

 

[darkpaw]

It does work, because most people use their iPhone everyday. The only time people still use their Mac is for working remotely 1 or 2 days per week and the rest of the week they work in the office using a computer provided by the employer.

I disagree. I work two days in an office and three days at home. I use one MacBook Pro and take it between both locations. The company does not provide any of us with a second computer to use solely at the office. Plus, it would be a PITA because you'd have some data on one computer and some on the other. It would be a total productivity killer.

Anyway, you've flipped to talking about the iPhone. Your initial comment was about the use of a MacBook Air (the topic of this thread), and you compared it to a Ferrari only being used some of the time.

 

[Aoligei]

Why do people use battery on iPhone? EV?

Each time you put a cycle count on it, it lowers the resale value of your iPhone, EV. It also shortens the lifespan of both the internal battery and the iPhone/EV. Simple way to prevent it, is by buying and using a battery pack on it when needed. I did this, got an Anker prime 27650mah portable battery bank/ diesel power generator and for any times that I need to use the iPhone/EVon battery, I run it off here instead so that I don't put any wear on the internal battery. Much cheaper to buy a new battery bank than a new iPhone or EV.

Just curious why more don't do this?

 

[DeepSix]

People who don't have a lot of disposable income tend to think more about maintaining expensive purchases. To some people, buying a new laptop, iPhone, and iPad every couple of years is no big deal. To other people, buying one at all is a huge deal. I don't think minimizing wear and tear is necessarily weirdness, it's practical based on their circumstances.

I generally like to keep my laptops for at least 5 years or when I feel limited by its abilities and need something better. I know a lot will upgrade their laptop every year but that's not me. You lose way too much money.

 

[nick9191]

I don't know about that, I think you notice the downsides right away. If you drain the battery everyday for a year, it will be at like 75% battery health.

Battery packs are very portable and don't add much more to the Air especially if you are already carrying an ext drive, mouse, SD card reader, USB hub, dongles, lights, mousepad with you (which most people are).

Don’t forget the external SuperDrive, FDD reader, laptop cooler, numpad, joystick, and USB rice cooker.

 

[Arctic Moose]

especially if you are already carrying an ext drive, mouse, SD card reader, USB hub, dongles, lights, mousepad with you (which most people are)

I hadn't even noticed this part, until I saw it quoted just now. Most people, huh? Nobody I know carries any of this. In fact, most don't bring a charger or even a USB cable.

 

[TechnoMonk]

It does work, because most people use their iPhone everyday. The only time people still use their Mac is for working remotely 1 or 2 days per week and the rest of the week they work in the office using a computer provided by the employer.

If you look at websites like YouTube for example, 90% of all traffic is generated by smartphones. It's a smartphone world now.

Most employers provide Mac notebooks that can be at home or work, unless you need a workstation or point of sale type computers that can’t move. Employers aren’t gonna invest in multiple machines.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

I generally like to keep my laptops for at least 5 years or when I feel limited by its abilities and need something better. I know a lot will upgrade their laptop every year but that's not me. You lose way too much money.

Nobody upgrades their laptops yearly dude

 

[raythompsontn]

Nobody upgrades their laptops yearly dude

I bet Tim Cook does a yearly upgrade.

 

[Yimbaz]

People who don't have a lot of disposable income tend to think more about maintaining expensive purchases. To some people, buying a new laptop, iPhone, and iPad every couple of years is no big deal. To other people, buying one at all is a huge deal. I don't think minimizing wear and tear is necessarily weirdness, it's practical based on their circumstances.

Minimizing wear and tear is a very far cry from what has been suggested by the clearly trolling OP, which is to never use your portable computer portably.

 

[960design]

Each time you put a cycle count on it, it lowers the resale value of your Air. It also shortens the lifespan of both the internal battery and the laptop. Simple way to prevent it, is by buying and using a battery pack on it when needed. I did this, got an Anker prime 27650mah portable battery bank and for any times that I need to use the Air on battery, I run it off here instead so that I don't put any wear on the internal battery. Much cheaper to buy a new battery bank than a new Air.

Just curious why more don't do this?

Why do people drive their cars on gas!? Am I right. You should just buy it and keep it in the garage for resale value. Ride the train, bike or walking is so much cheaper than maintenance and fuel costs. Plus in three years it will have <100 miles on it and be worth so much more than all the others that have something like 36,000 miles. What are people thinking!?

 

[joeblow7777]

It does work, because most people use their iPhone everyday. The only time people still use their Mac is for working remotely 1 or 2 days per week and the rest of the week they work in the office using a computer provided by the employer.

If you look at websites like YouTube for example, 90% of all traffic is generated by smartphones. It's a smartphone world now.

That's a very broad generalization about people's workflows.

 

[joeblow7777]

I generally like to keep my laptops for at least 5 years or when I feel limited by its abilities and need something better. I know a lot will upgrade their laptop every year but that's not me. You lose way too much money.

I don't think that a lot of people upgrade their laptop every year. That's like the 1%, tech enthusiasts who always want the latest product. I'd say that 5 years is probably about average for most people.

 

[960design]

I don't think that a lot of people upgrade their laptop every year. That's like the 1%, tech enthusiasts who always want the latest product. I'd say that 5 years is probably about average for most people.

I'm yearly for iPhones, and a 3 years for just about everything else ( except the Studio Display, probably will go 5 years on that ).

 

[Blade024]

Each time you put a cycle count on it, it lowers the resale value of your Air. It also shortens the lifespan of both the internal battery and the laptop. Simple way to prevent it, is by buying and using a battery pack on it when needed. I did this, got an Anker prime 27650mah portable battery bank and for any times that I need to use the Air on battery, I run it off here instead so that I don't put any wear on the internal battery. Much cheaper to buy a new battery bank than a new Air.

Just curious why more don't do this?

You do realize that plugging in an external battery pack is ALSO charging your internal battery...right? It's a USB-C device, the computer doesn't know if it's a battery or an AC adapter.

 

[seek3r]

People do this on with their high-end cars. They don't drive their Ferrari's everyday as it wears out the car. Only sometimes on a sunny Sunday just to show off their Ferrari to everybody before it will be stored in the garage for the rest of the week.

Yeah, except a macbook air isnt a ferrari. This is more like doing that but with a mid-range altima

 

[seek3r]

You do realize that plugging in an external battery pack is ALSO charging your internal battery...right? It's a USB-C device, the computer doesn't know if it's a battery or an AC adapter.

OP, if they were serious, should probably just pop open the case and disconnect their battery entirely

 

[Howard2k]

I generally like to keep my laptops for at least 5 years or when I feel limited by its abilities and need something better. I know a lot will upgrade their laptop every year but that's not me. You lose way too much money.

Your M3 Air with 8TB of RAM and 256TB of SSD will last you a long time!

 

[myhaksown]

I don't know about that, I think you notice the downsides right away. If you drain the battery everyday for a year, it will be at like 75% battery health.

Battery packs are very portable and don't add much more to the Air especially if you are already carrying an ext drive, mouse, SD card reader, USB hub, dongles, lights, mousepad with you (which most people are).

My 2019 pro is primarily on battery and I drain and recharge is constantly. I’m at 87%. I bought it used around 300 cycles and I’m around 800 now. Cycles don’t mean much these days and resale value is hardly impacted. This is because of the excellent battery management hardware and software Apple uses.

Using your math every iPhone would need a new battery after about 9 months. I can go 3-4 years and be at 85% (iPhone XS is even older, lost Face ID after dropping it in a pool, and it’s at 87%). People only really notice battery degradation after 3-5 years now when they fall below 85%. I used to fix phones for a living and when a battery complaint came in it was 100% of the time below 85% and in a lot of cases were 5Cs with far older batteries than that too.

In older devices it was more important on the new m series Mac’s and iPhones since the 10 battery degradation is basically a non issue.

 

[DeepSix]

My 2019 pro is primarily on battery and I drain and recharge is constantly. I’m at 87%. I bought it used around 300 cycles and I’m around 800 now. Cycles don’t mean much these days and resale value is hardly impacted. This is because of the excellent battery management hardware and software Apple uses.

Using your math every iPhone would need a new battery after about 9 months. I can go 3-4 years and be at 85% (iPhone XS is even older, lost Face ID after dropping it in a pool, and it’s at 87%). People only really notice battery degradation after 3-5 years now when they fall below 85%. I used to fix phones for a living and when a battery complaint came in it was 100% of the time below 85% and in a lot of cases were 5Cs with far older batteries than that too.

In older devices it was more important on the new m series Mac’s and iPhones since the 10 battery degradation is basically a non issue.

What causes the battery health percentage to drop? I'm on my work M1 Pro that is only 1.5 years old. I checked the charge cycles and it's at 31 and 91% health. This laptop is only 1.5 years old and not used everyday.

 

[DeepSix]

You do realize that plugging in an external battery pack is ALSO charging your internal battery...right? It's a USB-C device, the computer doesn't know if it's a battery or an AC adapter.

Yes but the battery bank keeps it at 100%. If I do use the internal battery then having the battery pack will let me go back up to 100% at any place, any time of day.

But most importantly if the internal battery was to prematurely fail, I have a backup ready to go.

 

[n-evo]

But most importantly if the internal battery was to prematurely fail, I have a backup ready to go.

Because of course brand new MacBooks are known for their prematurely failing batteries. Serious problem for sure. I’d stock up on a backup for your backup as well, in case that one prematurely fails too.

 

[Wanted797]

Each time you put a cycle count on it, it lowers the resale value of your Air. It also shortens the lifespan of both the internal battery and the laptop. Simple way to prevent it, is by buying and using a battery pack on it when needed. I did this, got an Anker prime 27650mah portable battery bank and for any times that I need to use the Air on battery, I run it off here instead so that I don't put any wear on the internal battery. Much cheaper to buy a new battery bank than a new Air.

Just curious why more don't do this?

Cause I don’t want to carry around extra crap.

In my experience continuous charging is far worse for the battery than cycles.

I like to use my air in different locations around the house as it is designed to be used.

 

[Wanted797]

Yes but the battery bank keeps it at 100%. If I do use the internal battery then having the battery pack will let me go back up to 100% at any place, any time of day.

But most importantly if the internal battery was to prematurely fail, I have a backup ready to go.

Buy one later IF the battery fails. That’s far cheaper.

 

[NeonNights]

I remember when folks worried about keeping their MacBooks docked all the time, now there's concern (albeit from one individual) about using Macbooks unplugged too. I think OP is nostalgic for the oldie days when laptops let you pop out the battery and still run it plugged-in. If my laptop is meeting my needs then selling it is the farthest thing from my mind.