so my early 2011 almost 1 year old macbook pro has used 43 battery cycles and 98% health so far according to istat widget thing. how accurate is istat? also, my dad has a 2010 macbook (a little more than 2 years) and has battery cycle 21 :O he plugs in his laptop most of the time he uses it. so is it good to plug it in when u use the laptop to stop the cycle from increasing? also, does the ipad battery cycle work the same way... the more you use it while plugging in, the longer the batter lasts?
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battery cycle
- Thread starter pcomac
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Keeping it plugged in is a bad idea. It'll ruin the battery. My dad whom keeps his Macbook plugged in had 5 cycles, but only 80% battery "life" left. The iPad recharge cycle is pretty much the same. Apple has good information regarding its batteries on its website.
Up until 2 weeks ago, I had a 2007 MBP that was connected to the charger for the whole time I owned it except when moving it in sleep mode from my house to my office and back. The original battery was replaced in Oct 2010 due to it swelling up and splitting open (a known defect with some of those batteries) but at the time had less than 100 cycles and still held a 3 1/2 hour charge (about 1/2 hour less than when new). Perhaps it would have held a charge longer had I just plugged it in when the battery was low but it was far from ruined.
iStat Pro is very accurate. Both you and your dad are not running on battery often enough. Run on battery whenever you need to and plug it in whenever you can. You can plug or unplug at any time, regardless of the charged percentage. Just make sure you don't run on AC power all the time, as your battery needs to be used regularly to stay healthy. This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions: