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Why are people using their MacBook Airs on battery?
- Thread starter DeepSix
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I try to take care of my devices for several reasons, including resale value, but buying and carrying an extra battery to keep the cycle count low is ridiculous.
Touch grass™
Touch grass™
That's not my experience at all. Up until recently I had two identical MacBook Pro M1 Pro's (both 2021 models). One personal, one from work. The personal one is actually around 5 months older, pretty much always plugged in at home (charged at 100%) and still has 100% of its maximum capacity after 3 years. My former work laptop that was used mostly on battery and not connected to power was already down to 90%.
My former 2015 and 2017 MacBook Pro batteries that were kept connected to power most of the time were in much better shape at the end than my partner's who used the same models mostly on battery.
That's not to say I find it asinine to buy a MacBook Air only to carry a bulky external battery with you all the time for the sake of resell value.
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Well, what if I don’t want to resell something I wasted almost 2k$ on? I won’t sell it for same price anyway, selling is always losing money.
I specifically purchased fully packed M1 Air for 16 hours of battery life, and I drain it fully each time I use it. Laptop is portable device after all, if I wanted to use something from power outlet it would have been some PC, Mac Mini or iMac. But currently don’t have a need to buy any of those, unless my M1 decides to stop working one day.
Power banks are cool, but I really doubt this theory works with modern MacBooks. When Mac is being used on charger it simultaneously drains power from the battery and constantly “upcharges” it to hit 100% mark. It is both inefficient and detrimental to battery health since substantial amount of heat being produced due to processor/GPU not being throttled as much as on battery.
Also there is a higher chance of overcharging and “pillowing” the battery if it is not used/not drained which would make resell value close to 0, especially if the bloated battery cracks the motherboard
I don’t see the difference between charging MBA’s internal battery from a wall socket or a power bank; surely, the internal battery will still count the charging cycles regardless of where the power is coming from. Or am I missing something? 🤔
Wow, it seems the OP doesn't really understand how this works.
I just had a computer at work, 5 years old and with only 150 cycles. The battery was toast...
Leaving a computer constantly plugged in ages the battery worse than using it.
I would not want to buy a 3 year old computer with very low cycles. Then I know for a fact that the battery has not been used and will fail rather quickly if I start using it.
Sure, I wouldn't want to buy a laptop with 1000 cycles on it after 2 years either, but a reasonable amount of cycles means the battery has been in use and therefore in better shape.
I just had a computer at work, 5 years old and with only 150 cycles. The battery was toast...
Leaving a computer constantly plugged in ages the battery worse than using it.
I would not want to buy a 3 year old computer with very low cycles. Then I know for a fact that the battery has not been used and will fail rather quickly if I start using it.
Sure, I wouldn't want to buy a laptop with 1000 cycles on it after 2 years either, but a reasonable amount of cycles means the battery has been in use and therefore in better shape.
I personally wouldn't trust it. I'd imagine they're doing the same as everyone else and just providing the best estimate they can based on a range of factors.
While I understand your point of view, and of course generally true that the less cycles the less wear, it does not always apply and the data is unfortunately ambiguous as the conditions by which you discharged and charged your other mbp will affect greatly the wear on the battery.
Heat is the number 1 reason for battery degradation, so charging the battery easily makes it go over 32C which is bad, really bad. And you don’t even know because (I assume) you’re not micromanaging it. But it does go over, and it Apple stopped charging at 32C you would take double time to charge it.
I hope you read my other section on battery degradation flags. I assume the battery was fast charging all the time on that work mbp, (which is normal use so nothing wrong, don’t micromanage)
Anyways, battery experiences (mine included) are very ambiguous due the large number of variables and conditions. I’m sure there is someone out there that did the “same” battery usage as your mbp and have above 95% health still.
In all, we only have general guidance and is not very reliable, you most likely won’t be able to duplicate the result if you tried.
But thanks for your feedback, it’s always good to read others experiences and get a slightly better overall picture👍🏻
you're that kind of guy who buys the best sounding vinyl records only to never remove their plastic wrapper, cause actually listening to those records would harm their resale-value. jfc.
It makes sense the work MacBook Pro had to fast charge more often instead of trickle charging since its battery was drained more frequently. That said my home MacBook Pro does have the faster 96 watt charger, while my work laptop came with the standard 67 watt one.
In any case I'm pretty amazed by the fact my personal MacBook Pro's battery is still at 100% maximum capacity after 3 years.
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When I was about 12 I got a pair of sick black and red roller blades. I kept them in great condition and never put them on. Then one day I went to put them on and they didn’t fit anymore.
U r over thinking this man. No one ever caree about cycle count when I sold my last 10 Macs
👍🏻
Not gonna lie, I’m amazed too about your 100% health.
But take into account that batteries are sent with higher than 100% health initially, (production byproduct)
This is why whenever you read people saying how it stays in 100% for so long and once it goes below it degrades at a faster rate and they are baffled? This is the reason, because the OS will never show above 100% health and the degradation will appear faster once it’s below…
Kind of a bizarre way to live a life.
I’m thinking why use any item that you first buy? Bought a new car? Don’t drive it. Instead, buy a used car and drive that. It’ll preserve the new car longer.
Bought a washing machine? Don’t use it. Instead, use commercial laundry so that when it’s time to sell your house your washer will look brand new and have higher resale value.
🤷🏻
Exactly. It’s like people are afraid to just live life or use things. Just use it. You bought something. Use it. Don’t worry about resale value. Consider it a sunk cost and go live.
So you’re buying a $180 battery pack and lugging it all over, kind of defeating the purpose of having an ultra-light laptop, so that the resale value of the laptop will be $120 higher in four years?
Or are you buying a $180 battery pack and lugging it around so that you won’t need to pay Apple $150 to replace the Air’s battery some day?
Neither option makes sense to me. Just use the laptop. Don’t worry about how much it will be worth in four years.
I will happily pay battery replacement for using the laptop, and not obsessing over battery. Mental peace is lot more valuable.
Is this satire...or? Especially comedic given it is a MacBook Air...so the external battery is 1/10 the price of the computer and probably doubles the weight of carrying it around.
I've already posted couple of times to the OP and am now convinced it's a joke thread. This, the OP's response to my suggestion of simply replacing the battery. Anyone serious would have quickly pulled up Apple's pages of battery replacement cost (someone mentioned CAD$ 229/269) and not just written the ludicrous amount of $500. It's nonetheless entertaining though.
Think of the battery like a muscle.
Yes, it wears out eventually and yes you can over strain—
But if you never use your muscle, when you go try, it may simply fail.
The battery has multiple cells, and sometimes the cells fail while never discharging for extended periods.
Also, the battery service fee includes labor. There’s no extra charge after the $159 or whatnot.
Resale value by the time you’re done with device should be negligibly affected, just like tire wear (unless extreme or damaged) doesn’t affect a cars value much.
Why are people driving their cars on the road?
Each time you put a mile on it, it lowers the resale value of your car. It also shortens the lifespan of the engine, transmission and every other part of the car. Simple way to prevent it, is by buying and using a tow truck on it when needed. I did this, got a Ford F-350 tow truck and for any times that I need to use the car, I tow it to where I need it so that I don't put any wear on the engine.
Just curious why more don't do this?
Each time you put a mile on it, it lowers the resale value of your car. It also shortens the lifespan of the engine, transmission and every other part of the car. Simple way to prevent it, is by buying and using a tow truck on it when needed. I did this, got a Ford F-350 tow truck and for any times that I need to use the car, I tow it to where I need it so that I don't put any wear on the engine.
Just curious why more don't do this?
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That battery bank you refer to retails for $179. You can have the battery on the MacBook Air M3* you list in your signature replaced by Apple for $159. Any more questions?
* the one with "8 TB of RAM" 😂
This post has to be a troll, and every reason why the whole premise is ridiculous and wrong has been posted over and over, yet it keeps going. One more time:
🥱
- You don't need a new laptop (Air or otherwise) because the battery is weak.
- It doesn't cost anywhere near $500 to replace the battery; it's $159 in the US.
- You're nearly doubling the weight by constantly using a spare battery.
- They intelligently charge anyway. I've had my M1 Air since 2020 and battery life is fine, and I've given zero attention or thought to preserving battery health.
- I don't give two poops about the resale value of my laptop.
🥱
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Struggling to understand the reasoning on this one. I hope OP is trolling?
The point of a laptop is to be portable. That’s why they have convenient built in batteries. In the case of a MacBook Air, this is even more the case, as it is a more compact design, cleverly able to last all day on a charge. Why would you run it on an external battery at all?
If you have to worry that much about resale value that you are eking out the cycle counts like that, do yourself a favour, save the money, and don’t buy the laptop in the first place.
The point of a laptop is to be portable. That’s why they have convenient built in batteries. In the case of a MacBook Air, this is even more the case, as it is a more compact design, cleverly able to last all day on a charge. Why would you run it on an external battery at all?
If you have to worry that much about resale value that you are eking out the cycle counts like that, do yourself a favour, save the money, and don’t buy the laptop in the first place.
But what about wear and tear on the F-350? Hopefully you've got a flat bed also to negate this. Hmm...the flat bed truck needs rescuing too
