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It doesn't mean there isn't some bug - when or how it is accessed, how it's interpreted, some misunderstanding of the spec on how to use it, single timings, some time that the reading is temporarily invalid....I did a lot of industrial controls software and especially with a new device (MacBook Pro 16) something could be a little different that introduced a bug. Seems I remember that there have been bug fixes to several of the performance utilities after OS updates and new computers are introduced. And why does "design capacity" fluctuate? Wouldn't that be consistent throughout the life of the battery? Or maybe it's like car batteries, whose capacity for charge clearly fluctuates based on temperature - I am not a battery expert but maybe there is some impact based on temperature or some other ambient condition inside the computer. I am not saying any of this is the case, I am just saying we are taking all these measurements as 100% gospel within 1%, when history proves that's not 100% true and there are a lot of factors that could skew the results that we are not aware of.

Just my opinion.
 
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Today my 16-inch model is reading 98.5%.

My 2018 model read 96% out of the box and pretty much stayed there until 8-10 months later when it started to show 98%. *shrugs*

As long as it's at 95% and above I would focus less on the numbers and more on the battery performance you're getting.

So far battery life is the best I've had in a laptop.
 
Remember that your battery is a chemical based device. It's going to give slightly varying readings depending on environmental factors etc.

think about if you bought a new ford mustang and put it on the dyno. One day it might read 300 horse power, the next day it might only read 294. Such a smaller percentage doesn't mean anything.
Especially when people are talking about 5, 10, 15 charge cycles. Get back to us when you hit 250 a year or two from now.
 
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mines 95%ish after 13 cycles and it used to be 99-100% first two days of purchase (when the cycle count was around 4-5) then it dropped to 97% around 8 cycles. So I calibrated it a couple of days ago, and it’s now been stuck on 95%... this is so disappointing

Think of it this way -- your battery is already at 95% and might be more likely to reach 80% before your warranty is up, meaning new battery, keyboard and case. Blessing in disguise.
 
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I have an interesting update to what Coconut Battery is reporting on my machine. Up till recently, I'd been using my laptop connected to power during the day, and then unplugged on the couch at night. Doing that rarely drained the battery more than 30-40% at a time, upon which it would be plugged back in before heading to bed. I'd check Coconut Battery every couple of days, and the battery always hovered around the 100% mark.

So earlier this week I had to work remote and let the machine drop to around 5% before going to bed. Woke up the next morning to find that Coconut Battery was reporting a massive drop in battery capacity: On the 14th I had recorded a 8811maH capacity, and on the 16th I had 8310maH capacity -- a 500maH single day drop in capacity! I figured it was an erroneous reading and assumed it would go back up over the next few charge cycles, but it's continuing to drop - today it's at 8277mah!

I'm going to keep an eye on it and report to Apple if it continues to drop. A single deep cycle of a battery shouldn't cause it to lose over 5% of capacity.

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After only one month of usage and 32 cycles my battery lost over 13% of it's original capacity. Every time I run coconut battery it shows less capacity :(
 

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I have an interesting update to what Coconut Battery is reporting on my machine. Up till recently, I'd been using my laptop connected to power during the day, and then unplugged on the couch at night. Doing that rarely drained the battery more than 30-40% at a time, upon which it would be plugged back in before heading to bed. I'd check Coconut Battery every couple of days, and the battery always hovered around the 100% mark.

So earlier this week I had to work remote and let the machine drop to around 5% before going to bed. Woke up the next morning to find that Coconut Battery was reporting a massive drop in battery capacity: On the 14th I had recorded a 8811maH capacity, and on the 16th I had 8310maH capacity -- a 500maH single day drop in capacity! I figured it was an erroneous reading and assumed it would go back up over the next few charge cycles, but it's continuing to drop - today it's at 8277mah!

I'm going to keep an eye on it and report to Apple if it continues to drop. A single deep cycle of a battery shouldn't cause it to lose over 5% of capacity.

View attachment 889171
what’s your battery manufacturer?
After only one month of usage and 32 cycles my battery lost over 13% of it's original capacity. Every time I run coconut battery it shows less capacity :(



battery manufacturer?
 
People work themselves up over these percentages but it's just part of the tech. Some batteries leave the factory reading slightly different capacities and they fluctuate a bit with use. Just because it doesn't read 100% and changes a bit doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the battery or the MacBook.
 
Screenshot 2020-01-17 at 17.11.09.png

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My friend picked up same config of MBP16, same day. This one has DSY battery, 98,6% of capacity.
photo_2020-01-17 17.13.45.jpeg
 
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My friend picked up same config of MBP16, same day. This one has DSY battery, 98,6% of capacity.View attachment 889181
this seems to corroborate my thoughts about this whole battery thing, simplo batteries seem to be the inferior ones so far.. I have yet to see one DSY battery exhibiting the same behavior (capacity loss and whatnot). This is frustrating. Mine is also Simplo and several others who are complaining, also have simplo batteries.
 
this seems to corroborate my thoughts about this whole battery thing, simplo batteries seem to be the inferior ones so far.. I have yet to see one DSY battery exhibiting the same behavior (capacity loss and whatnot). This is frustrating. Mine is also Simplo and several others who are complaining, also have simplo batteries.

Mine is DSY

Screen Shot 2020-01-17 at 9.33.21 AM.png
 
My DSY battery has been at 100% most of the time since launch. Occasionally it will be 99 something for a short time but goes back to 100% where it is now with 8810 mAh. I only have 12 cycles. Most of the time it is used plugged in.
 
I now have 7 cycles on the battery (still early, but it's a desktop replacement and I'm just periodically unplugging for a bit).

I have a DSY battery.

It has hovered between 98-99% pretty much since new per Coconut Battery, only seeing 100% a couple times.

I did a deep discharge to 20% to calibrate (didn't want to go deeper since deep discharges are hard on Li-ion batteries) and it did not change anything.

So last night, for cycle 7, I did a full tilt calibration and let the battery drain to 0 and have the machine shut off. Left it in a fully discharged state for about 10 minutes, then plugged it back in and left it for 12 hours until now, so it's fully charged and has been for some time. No change, still reading about 98% capacity.

That said, I'm getting the advertised 10 hours of battery life, so it's not a big deal, I just can't remember the last Apple product I had that had a capacity below design capacity out of the box - usually they are higher than design by 100-200 mAH.

I mean with 7 cycles, it's still early, but just thought I'd report.
 
One possibility is that the battery is 'smarter' than previous models and reading the capacity using system tools doesn't really give you the real picture. It's going to read differently as it wears.
 
Today my 16-inch model is reading 98.5%.

My 2018 model read 96% out of the box and pretty much stayed there until 8-10 months later when it started to show 98%. *shrugs*

As long as it's at 95% and above I would focus less on the numbers and more on the battery performance you're getting.

So far battery life is the best I've had in a laptop.
how many cycles was your 2018 model at when it started to show 98%?
 
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