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2019 MacBook Pro 16 - battery health at 87%

A

anoobis

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 26, 2012
123
57
Hi,

I have a 2019 16" MacBook Pro that I bought at the end of February 2020.

My battery health is already down to 87%. Does that seem in-line with other owners?

118 cycles

I'm plugged in 90% of the time. 20% of that time through my LG Ultrafine.
 
I have a 2018 15"/44 cycles and my battery health is at 85%. If it’s above 80% I suspect if you call Apple they’ll tell you it’s functioning properly, and that’s likely true. Keep an eye on it, but don’t obsess. If it drops down close to 80%, call.
 
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If you have battery health management on, turning that off should raise the battery health.
On my 2018, I lost 10% a year but that was on Mojave, hoping Catalina fares better.
 
ChrisChaval said:
there is your problem, right there
Click to expand...
Any battery eventually will be consumed. Even if the laptop is always plugged in, you still lose charges while plugged in. Right now it's at 92% and says "Battery Is Not Charging", it will charge again later on because this part of the new battery health managment check below.
 

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ISKOTB said:
Any battery eventually will be consumed. Even if the laptop is always plugged in, you still lose charges while plugged in. Right now it's at 92% and says "Battery Is Not Charging", it will charge again later on because this part of the new battery health managment check below.
Click to expand...
it is the "always plugged in" part that is wearing out the battery prematurely

it might save you charging cycles but puts the battery under constant stress

keep it around 40-60% and it will last longer

of course, over time, any battery will eventually fail
 
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ChrisChaval said:
it is the "always plugged in" part that is wearing out the battery prematurely

it might save you charging cycles but puts the battery under constant stress

keep it around 40-60% and it will last longer

of course, over time, any battery will eventually fail
Click to expand...
How often do you unplug your laptop?
 
ISKOTB said:
How often do you unplug your laptop?
Click to expand...
use it unplugged most of the time, actually. it is a laptop, after all

I use it as you would your ordinary smartphone or tablet

Another older, stationary MacBook is plugged in all the time (when in use) with aldente keeping its battery at a constant 50% charge (which is what you would want to keep it at when storing it)
 
My MBP spent most of its first year plugged in and the battery health was falling fast to the upper 80 percent range.

I then started using it on battery mostly and charging it in a non-uniform manner, mostly when it needed it, often not fully. Basically I started using the laptop without regard to when, how much, or how often I charged it. The battery health has been responded well to that. It’s now 4 years old, 541 cycles and at 81 percent.
 
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anoobis said:
Hi,

I have a 2019 16" MacBook Pro that I bought at the end of February 2020.

My battery health is already down to 87%. Does that seem in-line with other owners?

118 cycles

I'm plugged in 90% of the time. 20% of that time through my LG Ultrafine.
Click to expand...

Battery readings vary between the actual laptop, Coconut Battery and Apple in store. None will be in agreement. Which is most accurate and trustworthy?
 
It being constantly plugged in is likely contributing. Combine that with heat and IIRC those factors multiply the impact of the other. Apple's Optimization feature isn't very aggressive, unfortunately. I'm at 95% health on 80 cycles over I guess about 2.5 months of ownership. If you use the Mac really intensely, another factor that may also impact it is not having the full 96 watts of power on hand.
 
canuckRus said:
Battery readings vary between the actual laptop, Coconut Battery and Apple in store. None will be in agreement. Which is most accurate and trustworthy?
Click to expand...
As far as I can tell, the most accurate reading is obtained by doing the following.

From the terminal, run:
ioreg -l | grep Capacity

Then divide:
MaxCapacity / DesignCapcity
 
I use mine plugged in almost 100% of the time. The cycles are only from the 100w charger not being able to handle the full load of the laptop. It's not going well. Oh well that is what Applecare+ is for.

Screen Shot 2021-01-05 at 6.15.58 PM.png
 
Hello,
I have my MBP 2018 for about 2 years and 4 months

Nowadays I always plug it for 2 full week then let it rest for one cycle then repeat.
I do that because I game a lot (looking at you StS and celeste)

And i just calculated it using post #13 method and my battery health is at 91%, And 221 cycle count.

Is that ok for my battery ?
 
Yes, mine is less than 2y/45cycle and I am at 85%
Islam


bo-waleed said:
Hello,
I have my MBP 2018 for about 2 years and 4 months

Nowadays I always plug it for 2 full week then let it rest for one cycle then repeat.
I do that because I game a lot (looking at you StS and celeste)

And i just calculated it using post #13 method and my battery health is at 91%, And 221 cycle count.

Is that ok for my battery ?
Click to expand...
 
Unacceptable.

2014 MBP, 392 cycles (on the charger 99% of the time) = 91% of original capacity. After 6.5 years of use.
 
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ISKOTB said:
Yes, mine is less than 2y/45cycle and I am at 85%
Islam
Click to expand...
How do you have 45 cycles? lol. Mine is 2019 model, 15 months in, 364 cycles. Mine stays plugged in a lot or it did till I saw this and other threads. I installed a charge limiter and tried to keep it below 80% when "Fully charged" and not letting get below 40. If plugged in all day will set it at 50% and just leave it plugged in. But it was like I was battery managing more than work so finally just said forget it and use it off plug and if it runs down to 10% so be it and charge it up to full (since new oS came out w/ management) and now I'm at 82% health...
 
Simple, the batteries in newer Apple products are garbage. I've seen this from some family members who have upgraded their devices but didn't change their usage or charging patterns.

My wife's iPad Pro 2017 degraded much faster than her original iPad Air (2013). As of today, the Pro has lost more capacity than the Air, even though it's 4 years newer and has a thousand cycles (!!) less.

iPhone 6 Plus went a strong 5 years on its original battery (90%). New iPhone 11 on the other hand has already lost 10% capacity after less than 1.5 years.

I could go on with further examples, but basically all of them indicate that the batteries in newer products degrade faster. At best it's just 2x as fast, at the worst it's more like 3-4x as fast.
I assume Apple simply discovered the potential of planned obsolescence when they noticed that people tend to hang on to their devices much longer than before.
 
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228 Cycles, 84%, ~13 months

Intermittently tells me that battery needs to be serviced. That last part is pretty rough for $4700 out the door. Glad I bought Applecare. ^^ Yes they now are all about maximizing profits and to do that they need you buying new equipment repeatedly. Will be interesting to see how Silicon line turns out.
 
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gim said:
iPhone 6 Plus went a strong 5 years on its original battery (90%). New iPhone 11 on the other hand has already lost 10% capacity after less than 1.5 years.
Click to expand...
My 11 month old iPhone 11 is still at a 100%. Never had a better battery and longer lasting phone - coming from an 8 Plus and 6/S Plus.

My refurbished and 9 month old MacBook Pro 16 on the other hand is down to 87% already. The MacBook Air 2011 that I used for over 8 years was down to 78% when I sold it. Plugged in most of the time with around 400 cycles. What a great machine that was. 🥲
 
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