Battery capacity 93% when cycle count only 64

Continued:

During this 9 month, it was using like work station in next way:

Almost all the time, the charger was plugged in. Once a week or during the night, I plugged out the charger.

2. It was working all day, and display was turned on all day. Turned off only on night periods.

This explains the low Battery Cycle Count and is a perfect example why the Cycle Count is completely irrelevant in determining the health of the battery except when the Cycle Count is nearing 1,000 cycles where the battery will be considered end of life. I you keep the laptop connected to the charger 24/7, then in 3 years you will have a very low cycle count, but the battery will be three years old while someone who is using the battery for 12 hours a day will have a high cycle count at that time. Battery age is very important part of determining battery health...much more important than cycle counts.

If you are using the macOS default settings for the battery which include Optimized Charging, then there is no need to unplugged the power adapter since Optimized Charging feature will automatically exercise the battery for you.

About battery health management in Mac laptops - Apple Support

If battery charging is paused or on hold on your Mac - Apple Support

Batteries - Maximizing Performance - Apple

Disclaimer: I support thousands of laptops for my organization so I have learned a lot about how these Lithium batteries work & behave. Most users tend to be able to use their laptops for 3 years before complaining about their battery not working long enough, but some users do have issues before 3 years while others never complain until about 5 years. In my experience many people have no complaints until their battery's Capacity drops to about 75% of its original Design Capacity.

I recommend people just ignore the Battery Capacity/Health value and ignore the Battery Condition reported by macOS. Use the laptop normally and only look at these values once you find the battery is no longer performing to your expectations so you can confirm it may be time to have the battery replaced, or you should look for other things which may be causing the battery issues.

okun_wills wrote:

Battery capacity 93% when cycle count only 64

1. I have my MacBook Pro M2 Max an about 9 months. But for me such low capacity only for 9 months it is really low.

That means in about 2.25 years (27 months) the Battery Capacity will be about 79% assuming a steady decline. Has the decline been steady so far at 1% drop every 38.5 days? I don't have enough experience with the Lithium batteries for the Apple Silicon Macs yet, but I do know for a fact that the Battery Capacity of the Intel Macs fluctuates all the time, meaning it can go up as well as down....I have no idea how often macOS updates this Battery Capacity percentage, but the percentage value can hide the real behavior of the battery. I've monitored the raw Full Charge Capacity (FCC) value of the battery measured in mAh. I personally would not put my complete faith in calculated percentage value which we have no idea how often it is updated. Keep in mind Apple never exposed this information to users before, so seeing this information now can be a confusing without any historical basis of how quickly your Intel Mac's battery's Capacity dropped. Can you even tell us what Battery Capacity had at 9 months so we can compare?

Plus, Apple's reporting of the Battery's Capacity is off by 3% (this also includes its charge level). If you use Coconut Battery, then you will see the percentage of Battery Capacity (lower of the two bars) is about 3% higher than Apple is reporting. You can even do the math to confirm that Coconut Battery is performing the correct calculation since Coconut Battery provides the raw FCC value as well as the original Design Capacity.

Battery Capacity Percentage =  ( FCC  /  Design Capacity )  *  100

So with this new revelation, your Battery Capacity is not 93% at 9 months, but 96% at 9 months. Trust me, the information provided by Coconut Battery is correct and is being read directly from the battery itself. I've used the command line to use built-in macOS utilities to retrieve the RAW data from the battery and it matches the information reported by Coconut Battery. So 4% drop in 9 months...assuming a steady decline means a 16% drop in 36 months which gives you a Battery Capacity of 84% well above having any battery run time issues since Apple only replaces batteries at around 80% (or 77%).

Keep in mind most batteries need to be replaced in about 3 to 5 years (some in just two years). So this all matches up just fine...no need to worry. Keep in mind a lot of things can affect the health of the battery including temperature (heat is bad), impacts can disrupt the internal connections in the battery which can cause problems (laptops take more impacts than you may realize), letting the battery stay at 0% charge level for too long can also damage the battery and easily affect the Battery Capacity.

Even currently I have opened Parallels Desktop, Telegram, Notion and battery went from 100 to 91 within 40 minutes.

Could anyone help with explanation, is it okay?

I would look for issues with third party apps and the system configuration. Typical culprits are anti-virus apps, cleaning/optimizer apps, and third party security software....none of which are needed on a Mac and usually cause more problems than they solve. Uninstall Norton by following the developer's instructions. Also file sharing & syncing software & services will quickly drain the battery.

Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community

Even when the laptop is "sleeping", it can wake for various reasons and this will drain the battery.

Also, connected devices which use the laptop for power will drain the battery as will keeping the display at full brightness.

[Edited by Moderator]

okun_wills wrote:

Even currently I have opened Parallels Desktop, Telegram, Notion and battery went from 100 to 91 within 40 minutes.

Have you checked in the Activity Monitor how the energy had been used by those apps within that time limit? If not, you should run Activity Monitor with those apps running, and the MacBook on battery power to check how it is going.

Actually, I find it quite unacceptable a drop of the battery capacity to 93% just in 9 months with just 64 cycles. As your MacBook is still under guarantee, best get it exchanged to a new one, or get the battery changed, whatever that's covered by the guarantee.

In the EU,

When shopping in the EU, Norway, or Iceland, you are always entitled to a minimum 2-year guarantee at no cost, regardless of whether you buy the goods online, in a shop, or by mail order. The 2-year guarantee is your minimum right EU-wide. National rules in your country may give you extra protection.

Apple's One-Year Limited Warranty is a voluntary warranty provided by the manufacturer. Apple's One-Year Limited Warranty is in addition to your statutory rights and in no way excludes, suspends or limits these rights.

[Edited by Moderator]