M2 Air Battery Vs Zoom Meeting

I’m not an expert but based on my experience, regardless of what the internet say, any program that uses:

• ⁠Camera(especially with virtual background)

• ⁠Microphone

Always drain battery more. (However, even on high volume, i found that my MacBook pro’s battery does not drain a-lot due to the speaker.)

Additionally, unlike browsing, the program like zoom also constantly update the video and audio from participants which can contribute to high power consumption since the CPU & GPU is utilized more.

I did some internet researched too and find mixed opinion but on average people do get around 4-5 hour of battery life using zoom.

Thing may take into consideration:

• ⁠Screen brightness

• ⁠Background process

A smart way to tell if your mac’s battery is ok is to just perform other task beside meeting and see if the gap is big. Click on activity monitor and under the energy tab, you can see an estimated of battery life based on current usage which means you don’t have to actually wait for the battery to drain. Just use your mac for like 5-10 minutes and check it immediatally.

Other people from other platform also experienced the same thing too in case you wondered.