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User profile for user: GerardoRTobar
GerardoRTobar Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Low Battery Runtime in New MacBook Pro 13, 2020

Why am I seeing low battery runtime? I do not have a heavy usage, and my new MacBook Pro 13 in 2020 has shown me an average time of 4-5 hours of battery life. You can see in my attached image that I just got 4 hours of battery, I have another in which I had 5 hours of battery.


In both sessions I used Apple SideCar but I don’t know how many resources does it demand, as it is just bluetooth + wifi combined (I didn’t plug the iPad to the Mac). I’m worried because my Mac is brand new, I bought it like 3 months ago.


I’ll appreciate your help


MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Sep 15, 2020 8:36 AM

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User profile for user: neuroanatomist
neuroanatomist
User level: Level 9
50,065 points

Posted on Sep 15, 2020 1:37 PM

Your 'health' is normal, and I believe your battery run time is, as well.


Regarding health, there is not a linear decline. A new Mac might not start at 100% (I've had Macs start at 97% - 102%), since the denominator is the nominal design capacity and varies based on manufacturing tolerances. My experience has been that health drops to ~90% over the first 100-200 cycles, then stays there for a long time. For example, my 2019 16" MBP (bought in May) has 8 cycles and 95% health. My 2017 15" MBP has 315 cycles and 91% health. My 2010 17" MBP has ~760 cycles and 88% health. So, relax on the health!


For the run time, that's heavily dependent on what you're doing. I know Apple states, "Up to 10 hours wireless browsing" and I'm sure that's achievable under their testing (carefully selected 'popular' websites, display brightness at 75%, and pretty much everything else turned off), but streaming video is relatively processor intensive. As an example, my 15" MBP can run for >8 hours if I'm doing email and powerpoint, and my web browsing is on a site like Apple Discussions (no ads, no animations, no video). But, if I'm on continuous Zoom meetings I get barely over 3 hours on a full charge.

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User profile for user: neuroanatomist
neuroanatomist
User level: Level 9
50,065 points

Sep 15, 2020 1:37 PM in response to GerardoRTobar

Your 'health' is normal, and I believe your battery run time is, as well.


Regarding health, there is not a linear decline. A new Mac might not start at 100% (I've had Macs start at 97% - 102%), since the denominator is the nominal design capacity and varies based on manufacturing tolerances. My experience has been that health drops to ~90% over the first 100-200 cycles, then stays there for a long time. For example, my 2019 16" MBP (bought in May) has 8 cycles and 95% health. My 2017 15" MBP has 315 cycles and 91% health. My 2010 17" MBP has ~760 cycles and 88% health. So, relax on the health!


For the run time, that's heavily dependent on what you're doing. I know Apple states, "Up to 10 hours wireless browsing" and I'm sure that's achievable under their testing (carefully selected 'popular' websites, display brightness at 75%, and pretty much everything else turned off), but streaming video is relatively processor intensive. As an example, my 15" MBP can run for >8 hours if I'm doing email and powerpoint, and my web browsing is on a site like Apple Discussions (no ads, no animations, no video). But, if I'm on continuous Zoom meetings I get barely over 3 hours on a full charge.

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Low Battery Runtime in New MacBook Pro 13, 2020

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