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Do majority of MBP users keep their laptop plugged in?
- Thread starter MacChinoNyc
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Run on battery whenever you need to and plug it in whenever you can. You can plug or unplug any time you need to, regardless of the charged percentage, and you never need to completely drain your battery. Just make sure you don't run on AC power exclusively, as your battery needs to be used regularly to stay healthy.
The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it. 
Why do people question the reason some purchased macbooks because their macbooks are almost always plugged in? It's funny that one would say if you wanted to keep your mac plugged in, get an iMac.
As if the only reason someone buys a mac is so they can brag about how long they can surf the net with one charge. The again, people brag about the oddest things here.
If I'm at my desk and choose to keep it charged because I know I have several hours in meetings away from my desk, why not? Why drain the battery and then have to carry a brick around or wonder if my battery would last. I know I'm going to spend a few hours on the plane/airport - why drain my battery at my desk?
I buy a mac to use it the way that suits me - not checking battery life, mulling over internal temperature, or carrying it around in a padded tomb after sealing it in a condom just so it can be resold for $5 more in a few years.
As if the only reason someone buys a mac is so they can brag about how long they can surf the net with one charge. The again, people brag about the oddest things here.
If I'm at my desk and choose to keep it charged because I know I have several hours in meetings away from my desk, why not? Why drain the battery and then have to carry a brick around or wonder if my battery would last. I know I'm going to spend a few hours on the plane/airport - why drain my battery at my desk?
I buy a mac to use it the way that suits me - not checking battery life, mulling over internal temperature, or carrying it around in a padded tomb after sealing it in a condom just so it can be resold for $5 more in a few years.
This made me lol.
Totally agree with the above.Mine is plugged in 90% of the time. For that 10% or so when I want to use the laptop somewhere, other than on my desk, the portability is there. Hence, why I ended up selling my Mac Mini for this very reason - lack of portability.
What you describe is actually ideal usage: a mix of running on AC and also on battery.
Yeah, I don't see a big deal. I certainly wouldn't get an iMac, because there are times when I need to be portable. But unless you are using it on a couch or dinner table or something, it makes complete sense to have it plugged in during usage.
I have used Mac laptops for nearly 11 years, a 17 inch PowerBook G4, followed by a late 2007 17 inch MBP, and by a 2010 13 inch MBA. I have always kept my Macs plugged in most of the time and will no doubt do the same when I upgrade to either one of the new 13 inch MBPr machines or to a new MBA.
So you're telling me that the macbook doesn't throttle on battery to save power? :roll eyes:
it does.
This is correct as GGJstudios said above. One can lower the screen lighting, and such to increase battery life, but one can crank up the works as well. Processor will perform either way.
They're fine. I fully expect to get the full 1000 cycles out of mine and a good few more besides before I need to replace the battery.
Thought I'd settle this, so I carried out an experiment.
I ran GeekBench first with the laptop being powered by the adaptor, then waited for it to cool back down and the fans to go back to normal speed.
Then I unplugged the magsafe and ran the same test on battery power.
The results are attached.
As you can see, the results are close enough to each other to conclude there is no throttling.
Attachments
Agreed. I have mine plugged in id say 50% of the time. I love the freedom of being able to use a computer anywhere in the home or anywhere I go. I don't even think id ever want a desktop again now.
Its also like the people who own convertibles but never put the top down. I hate that. Buy a normal car then. I have a vert and the top is down every time it is 60+ degrees and sunny.
Throttling has nothing to do with whether or not a Mac is plugged in or running on battery. Throttling can occur if temperatures get too high, but that has nothing to do with the plugged/unplugged state.
If only what you said were true.. *sigh*
I said what I said out of first-hand experience. And there're threads on mac boards (some lying about on this one) about people exhibiting similar problems (2012 rMBP)
I've since found a workaround. I might post a thread about it later.
It is true.
Provide evidence, if you can. You can't, because Macs have never throttled based on being plugged in or being on battery power.
The only scenario remotely close to that was with older Mac portables with removable batteries. If you ran on AC power with the battery removed, the system would throttle, but that is a completely different scenario that obviously no longer applies to Mac portables, as they all have built-in batteries that can't be removed. This scenario is described in the AC POWER section of the Battery FAQ I posted earlier.
On my machine (2012 rMBP) when benchmarking using geekbench (which focuses on cpu benchmarking) here are the results with the power brick plugged in and with battery use only:
plugged in
battery
No throttling exhibited as you can see.
Games and apps that stress the dGPU on the other hand paint an entirely different picture:
plugged in
battery
Major performance hit when plugged in as evidenced by the results. I don't need to rely on numbers to convince myself that it throttles when plugged in,, as stuttering would occur moments after starting a game while the laptop is plugged in, something that rarely if ever happens while running on battery alone.
I choose my words carefully. I didn't say on some machines for no reason. You may not have encountered this behavior, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist on some macbooks because of hardware limitations or issues.
plugged in
battery
No throttling exhibited as you can see.
Games and apps that stress the dGPU on the other hand paint an entirely different picture:
plugged in
battery
Major performance hit when plugged in as evidenced by the results. I don't need to rely on numbers to convince myself that it throttles when plugged in,, as stuttering would occur moments after starting a game while the laptop is plugged in, something that rarely if ever happens while running on battery alone.
I choose my words carefully. I didn't say on some machines for no reason. You may not have encountered this behavior, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist on some macbooks because of hardware limitations or issues.