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Please share the battery capacity of your Macbook Pro 2021 M1 Pro/Max 14/16!
- Thread starter Paulo Henrique Baldassi
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I've set my M1 16' MBP to 70-80%. It's good not to just have your battery sit there all the time 24/7. That's why the "sailing" option was introduced - lets the battery use +-% - uses a lot more cycles but keeps the battery healthier. I don't use sailing - but every week or so I'll change the % a little and/or drain it to 60%.
While less of a problem today, in the past battery manufacturers would recommend making sure to do a cycle at least once a month (meaning full 100% and drain to 0%). I don't do this, but I might do a 100% charge and drain to 60% every few weeks. Most of the time my laptop sits at 70-80%.
Bro, here is my advice for you: I've started using Aldente Pro since 2nd of January to let my Mac charge to 50-65% and sit on that range + 10% sailing mode to let battery run better overall. I change % ranges each 1-2 days from 50-65 to 70-80% to let the battery exercise better. I've developed this type of MacBook battery living after I've lost 5% capacity (Mac settings) after 6 months of daily use of my MBP 16 M1 Pro, 61 cycles now.
I have Al Dente on mine as well and I have it set to 80%. I do however once in a while to use it on battery and then fully charge it to full. Then run it down to 80% and let it sit there. I purchased the Macbook Pro M1 Pro in August 2022 and it's still sitting at 100% design capacity and only at 18 cycle charges.
My MacBook Pro typically stays home and always plugged in tho.
I’ve heard that having it stay at any percentage for a long time is bad and will need recalibration, AKA running it down to 0 and recharging to 100. Probably causes more degradation but I’m not really sure
Batteries are a chemistry and the battery % reader on any device is an estimation that is imperfect. This was much more of a problem in the past (today laptops/phones rarely suffer from this). Back in the day if you had a charge limiter, (ex: old Lenovo laptops) - the laptop would eventually lose the actual charge.
So for example, say you spent 1 month leaving your laptop at 60% charge - in reality, the laptop was slowly losing charge and closer to 0% but the OS (Windows) would say the laptop is at 60%. You go to unplug it and poof the laptop shuts off after a few minutes.
To "recalibrate" the % reader, you need to charge it to 100% (or first drain it to 0% and then charge it to 100% without interruption).
Today's laptops are much less susceptible to this - but it's still not recommended to use AlDente to keep your laptop's charge below 60%, for example, because of risk of losing % calibration. To re-calibrate your % reader, draining it to a low state of charge, then charging it to 100% helps make the % reader more accurate.
Even on today's laptops you TECHNICALLY could gain a few % by recalibrating but it isn't recommended to do this anymore as today's % readers are far more accurate - some say today, you just need to do a drain to 40% then charge to 90% (from what I've read) to recalibrate.
The sail option on AlDente helps prevent this % calibration loss too (and keep the battery energized and healthier).
Hope this helps. (I am only a hobbyist so anyone who knows more please feel free to correct me).
Thanks for that.
Question - does the change in percentage just make the gauge more accurate or it an actual gain in capacity? The former means nothing to me, the later might be worth messing with I guess.
Just makes the gauge more accurate. One way the old laptops would let you know is spending hours and hours at 1% lol. So just the accuracy of the gauge.
M1 Pro 16" here - owned since December 2021.
64 cycles, 90.4% in Coconut, 94% in Apple
Always used plugged in, taking off out on battery roughly once or twice a week.
Just installed Al Dente today but this seems annoyingly low considering it has only ever gone below 50% maybe 5 times or less.
64 cycles, 90.4% in Coconut, 94% in Apple
Always used plugged in, taking off out on battery roughly once or twice a week.
Just installed Al Dente today but this seems annoyingly low considering it has only ever gone below 50% maybe 5 times or less.
Re: always used plugged in - when you weren't using it, did you unplug the laptop or was it plugged in 24/7 (other than when you used it on battery "like a laptop" out and about?)
Was Apple's own battery life enhancer (the 80% one) activated in Settings? That is, was your battery mostly max. at 80%, assuming you indeed kept it on AC power 24/7?
MBP 14" 2021 M1 Max, 32c GPU, 64GB RAM, 2TB. Purchased 4/2022. 100% battery health in system preferences. I used to be really anal about "battery care" but now I just follow some basic principles. Use the battery (don't leave it connected to the charger all the time), don't run it down super low, and avoid heat as much as possible (without limiting actual use of the computer). I don't use any apps like Al Dente as they really aren't necessary and I seem to be doing better than many of those who are using them religiously anyways...
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I'm starting to think there's some good luck and bad luck regarding batteries yields, it has to be. I have a friend who uses their MacBook Pro just like me and they are at 95% battery health.
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Yeah you are heading the same situation as me, I'm just waiting for it to reach 82% on Apple side (79% on battery coconut) so I can do the battery replacement program.
Just a small update. I have been running a MacBook 14 M1 Pro since launch. I have been troubled by the fast degrading battery problem since launch. Last March I was down to 94% battery health already and in the last year really had bad feelings about the extreme degradation down to 85%. (My iPad Pro late 2018 is at 86% with 0 F*** given to its battery health - One time it was at 0% for like nearly 2 Months - so yeah.... MacBook's battery seamed like a complete waste) I used it mostly docked for long periods at a time, but also 2–3 times a week on battery power down to 30% power. - Since my work changed, and I needed a solution for docking the MacBook responsibly, I installed AlDente. (70% target, 10% sailing). After installing AlDente at 85% battery health, the battery recovered its health now back to 94% over the last half year. (Monthly I top it up to 100% and let it go back down to 80% and start sailing again) - I don't use the MacBook unplugged if it can be avoided. - So now it's OK and I can have a good night's sleep, knowing that the resell price won't be complete trash in a few years's time.
