What 'should' the full charge capacity of a new Macbook battery be?

I am curious what the average full charge capacity for a new Macbook should be. This is the information I am getting:

Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 3614
Fully charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4242

Macbook Aluminum 2.0 C2D

Posted on Oct 22, 2008 12:51 PM

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14 replies

Oct 27, 2008 7:58 PM in response to Andrew Rumbach

Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 4212
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4212

I actually got paranoid when I tried to do a search online; there was an old discussion over at Macrumors and people were getting about 5200-ish on their full charge capacity. Can anyone be sure that our current full charge capacity is normal? My Macbook is only 3 days old and I'd be really upset if I got a dud battery.

Oct 27, 2008 10:04 PM in response to Andrew Rumbach

My 2.4GHZ model has five charge cycles on it and it is now showing 4254 as the full charge capacity. I hope this doesn't keep declining. My old white plastic macbook battery was bomb. This has gotten better after each charge cycle though. I went about 3 hours and 45 minutes today and still had 33% left when I plugged it in. I really hope I start seeing closer to five like my other one is able to achieve.

Oct 28, 2008 2:19 AM in response to Andrew Rumbach

These are the figures I'm getting - seems to be a little low from the numbers I'm seeing above. I haven't seen the estimated time remaining on the battery much more than 3 hours after being fully charged (currently at 2:40 - after only just unplugging it with about 3/4 brightness).

What time estimates are people seeing when web-browsing (nothing running in the background)? I'm wondering what a 100mAh drop actually has on the effective battery life. Anyone think these numbers are abnormal? Can I expect these to improve at all after full charge cycles (I'm guessing not)?

Cheers.

Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 4112
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4134

Oct 28, 2008 11:03 AM in response to Andrew Rumbach

My charge time has improved significantly. I had my computer running off battery power during class yesterday from 9:30 in the morning until about 1:20. It had 33% when I put it to sleep and charged all the way back up to 100% in about 3 hours and 45 minutes. The battery is lasting longer too, now that it has gone through 5 charge cycles. I'm running on battery now with screen brightness at 50% and I have 97% remaining (says 4 hours). I'm on safari, listening to iTunes, and I also have mail and iCal open. I think the battery needs to go through a few charge cycles before its true potential is realized.

Nov 7, 2008 7:54 AM in response to bunnydrumming

My two week old Macbook seems on the low side too... the full charge capacity just recently dropped below 4000 mAh, and when I run it off battery power, the estimate is usually only 2-3 hours. I tried calibrating the battery, it didn't help.

Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 3948
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 3983
Health Information:
Cycle count: 5
Condition: Good

Nov 12, 2008 3:34 PM in response to Andrew Rumbach

I've got a 2yo 15" MacBookPro (C2D generation, October 2006), and I've just ordered a brand new battery to replace the old one (which had less than 30 minutes of capacity). The new battery just arrived (10 minutes ago), and shows the following numbers:

- Full charge capacity (mAh) 5569
- Cycle count 0 (well, its only been in the machine for 10 minutes now)
- Amperage (mA): 784
- Voltage (mV): 12257

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What 'should' the full charge capacity of a new Macbook battery be?

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