15-inch MacBook Air (M2, base config) - Battery Life Test on macOS Sonama (developer beta 1)

[anshuvorty]

Hi,

I wanted to do a battery life test on my 15-inch MacBook Air (M2, base config, specs listed below).

I wanted to test what effect using either Safari or Google Chrome may have on battery life on a 15-inch MacBook Air running on macOS Sonoma (developer beta 1)

• Specs
  • M2 (8-core CPU, 10-core GPU)
  • RAM: 8 GB
  • Storage: 256 GB
• OS: macOS Sonoma (developer beta 1)
• Web Browser:
  • Safari: version 17.0 (build 19616.1.14.11.11)
  • Chrome: 114.0.5735.133

My methodology is listed below (tried to keep it as realistic of a workload as possible to gauge real-world battery life):

• I charged the computer up to 100% battery and noted the time
• Then, I used my computer like I normally do (without plugging in the computer to any power source, no Thunderbolt connection to a dock nor MagSafe):
  • lots of web browsing using either Safari or Chrome (noted in the battery life)
    • web browsing entailed the following activities
      • visiting various websites: NYTimes.com, TheVerge.com, Google News, etc
      • video streaming websites: Twitch.tv and Youtube.com
      • video conferencing: Google Meet mostly
  • using Wifi and Bluetooth almost constantly
  • using Electron apps
    • Slack
    • Discord
    • Zoom
    • Microsoft Teams
    • 1Password
• Energy settings
  • Low Power Mode: Only on Battery
  • Lock Screen settings
    • Start Screen when inactive: for 5 min
    • Turn display off on battery when inactive: for 2 min
    • Turn display off on power adapter when inactive: for 10 min
    • Require password after screen saver begins or display is turned off: after 5 min
    • Slightly dim the display on battery: enabled
    • Prevent automatic sleeping on power adapter when the display is off: disabled
  • Wallpaper: custom, static wallpaper (no animated wallpaper)
• I noted the battery % at various random times throughout the day
• When I was done with my work at the end day and I was going to go to sleep, I closed the lid of my computer and noted the time
• Then, when I re-opened the lid of the computer, I noted the time and battery %, and kept track of the time at various random moments throughout the day and the battery %
• I stopped the battery test when the battery % dropped down to 41% or less.
• Then, I generated a scatter-plot and generated a line of best fit
• Then, based on the linear equation generated from the line of best fit, I calculated an approximate total battery life (in hours).
• I did my test using either Safari (v. 17.0, build 19616.1.14.11.11) exclusively on macOS Sonama (developer beta 1) or Google Chrome (v. 114.0.5735.133) exclusively. I never used both browsers at the same time, so I could test out what impact the web browser may have on battery life.

Results:

15-inch MacBook Pro - energy saver mode on + Safari only (macOS 14.0 Beta 1)
Date	Max Capacity	Time	max capacity (%)	total elapsed time (hours)
6/13/23	100	21:00	100	0
	100	21:56	98	2:05
	100	22:25	95	9.41
	98	23:03	94	11.89
	95	23:34	93	12.12
6/14/23			91	12.37
	95	6:23	88	14.56
	94	8:53	79	15.28
	93	9:07	78	17.71
	91	9:22	71	19.71
	88	11:33	69	19.93
	85	11:43	58	21.38
	79	12:17	55	24.03
	78	14:42	47	25.66
	71	16:42	44	26.15
	69	16:55	39	26.9
	58	18:22	~ total battery life	45.38h
	55	21:01
	47	21:39
	44	23:08
	39	23:53

15-inch MacBook Pro - energy saver mode on + Chrome only (macOS 14.0 Beta 1)	Max capacity (%)	Time	max capacity (%)	total elapsed time (hours)
6/15/23	100	5:13	100	0
	100	7:09	97	3.65
	97	8:51	93	8
	93	13:13	88	8.51
	88	13:43	70	10.73
	70	15:56	66	11.16
	66	16:22	52	12.48
	52	17:41	50	12.62
	50	17:50	49	17.17
	49	21:22	41	18.86
6/16/23			~ total battery life	29.67h
	41	0:04

Conclusion

• According to my tests, while using Safari exclusively, the estimated battery life came out to be 45.38 hours.
• On the other hand, while using Chrome exclusively, the estimated battery life came out to be 29.67 hours.
• It seems, that using Safari (compared to Chrome) gives you 52.95% more battery life.

 

[wingennis]

I admire the work you put in to answer a question.