Macbook Pro M2 Pro at 97% Battery Health

I just unboxed my new Macbook Pro 16 M2 Pro and after less than 24h, Apps Sensei and Clean My Mac X say it has 97% battery health. I opened the Mac with 20% battery out of the box. Is there a problem with my battery?


MacOS Sonoma says battery is normal and at 100%.


I push my devices hard, but at the same time I am quite meticulous with my devices and maintain them to a tee. My M2 Macbook Airs 15, 13, and even M1 have still 100% battery health due to good practices and all of them have AlDente Pro installed.


I usually keep my Macs for 3-5 years.

MacBook, macOS 10.15

Posted on Oct 8, 2023 4:13 PM

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Posted on Oct 9, 2023 9:12 AM

Point 1—You are worrying over an inexact metric. Battery "health" is the current full charge capacity divided by the design capacity. The latter is a AVERAGE of all batteries of that model. Some ship with higher DCs and some with lower. So, right from the gate, "health" is calculated from an "variable" divisor.


Point 2—The current full charge capacity varies with time, causing blatant and non-linear changes in the value of health. This is from my older Macbook Pro as recorded over one year by the Coconut Battery app:



Note the first and fifth entries. There is a nine-point plummet in only 20 days that recovers quickly. Submitted as proof that "health" is not a "lose sleep over me" metric.


BTW, that Macbook Pro was ten year old this summer. The battery is only now at 80% health and still delivers usable runtimes. Not too shabby.





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Oct 9, 2023 9:12 AM in response to Totoerik

Point 1—You are worrying over an inexact metric. Battery "health" is the current full charge capacity divided by the design capacity. The latter is a AVERAGE of all batteries of that model. Some ship with higher DCs and some with lower. So, right from the gate, "health" is calculated from an "variable" divisor.


Point 2—The current full charge capacity varies with time, causing blatant and non-linear changes in the value of health. This is from my older Macbook Pro as recorded over one year by the Coconut Battery app:



Note the first and fifth entries. There is a nine-point plummet in only 20 days that recovers quickly. Submitted as proof that "health" is not a "lose sleep over me" metric.


BTW, that Macbook Pro was ten year old this summer. The battery is only now at 80% health and still delivers usable runtimes. Not too shabby.





Oct 8, 2023 7:04 PM in response to Totoerik

Not subjective. Quantitative measurements and observations of hundreds of Macs over decades of use.


To answer your question there is nothing wrong with that Mac's battery. The 97% maximum charge capacity value (even if it is correct, which I doubt) will fluctuate. It may fluctuate up or down, although the long term trend over years of use is down. It will never exceed 100%.


Read Apple's Tips for Extending Battery Lifespan.


I usually keep my Macs for 3-5 years.


I usually keep mine for about twice as long. I don't install junk.


This one is over twelve years old:



It's on its second battery. I have never paid any particular attention to how it's used. Newer Macs such as yours incorporate intelligent charging algorithms that this one doesn't. They should last a lot longer.

Oct 8, 2023 6:35 PM in response to Totoerik

If you were to take your Mac to an Apple service location, it is very likely that the tech would query the OS for the health of the battery rather than third-party apps you mentioned above. Also likely is that the tech would also run Apple Diagnostics or Hardware Tests.


My point is it's probably best to trust the report from the OS rather than the other apps, especially CMMX.


Oct 8, 2023 6:40 PM in response to Totoerik

I am quite meticulous with my devices and maintain them to a tee


If you were, you would not subject your devices to useless software.


Did you know that the OS is now "sequestered" in a read only volume for safety. That means no changes can be made, so the claims of the apps you installed are merchandising smoke intended solely to part you with your money.

Oct 8, 2023 7:47 PM in response to John Galt

Thanks John.


Announced in January 2022 which means manufacturing date can be months earlier. I bought this from one of its resellers and was able to determine its manufacture date.


Regardless, will it be a strong factor due to long (or improper) storage? Or perhaps due to fluctuation due to software as this was recently unboxed after a long storage period?


We are all Apple in the family and this MBP seems having some red flags.


I need to get resources from people like you because I have limited time or window to have it replaced where I am currently located. This device is not cheap.


On the other hand, I do not want to have be too much of a cry baby if this is normal.





Oct 9, 2023 7:18 AM in response to Totoerik

Personally I don't think it's anything to be concerned about, but your suspicion that something might be wrong is something only you can place a value upon.


If you suspect something isn't right and a return window is about to close then you have to decide to either return it, or live with whatever uncertainty you might have for as long as you own that Mac. Or, decide to dispose of the uncertainty and not devote any more thought to it.


I can't make any of those decisions for you, but it might interest you to know it's one reason I only purchase Macs directly from Apple: I don't want the uncertainty. Resellers don't get much of a discount, and whatever margin remains has to incorporate all the overhead in selling products they purchase from Apple. In the end their sell price is very close to Apple's direct to consumer price — and in the case of Certified Refurbished products (which in many cases are current production Macs) it's often more.


Perhaps there are reasons for purchasing Macs from resellers (Sales incentives? Better return policies?) but I don't know what they are, so I fail to understand why anyone would willfully do that. With the exception of Certified Refurbished, every Mac that I have ever purchased was built literally a few days before it arrived on my desk.


Resellers... who knows what they do. I do know that there are a disproportionate number of complaints on this site regarding new Macs obtained from resellers than directly from Apple.

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Macbook Pro M2 Pro at 97% Battery Health

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