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How is the 14” M1 Pro Battery Life?

Makisupa Policeman

Makisupa Policeman

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 28, 2021
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Sorry if this has already been discussed. I’m gonna splurge a bit and probably get the 14” MBP M1 Pro instead of the 13” MBP M1, but I’m seeing some people say the battery life is a little lacking.

It will mostly stay connected to power at my desk but occasionally I may want to be disconnected from power and do Netflix/Youtube streaming, browsing and other light-duty work. Will the battery be sufficient for say, 5-6 hours of this type of stuff? How does it compare to Intel?
 
I have the M1 Max in my 14”, and I have no concerns about battery life at all. In fact, I have read the Pro uses less battery than the Max if you aren’t pushing the needle. Mine will last for nearly two days before I need to hook it back up to charger. 5-6 hours to me would not be a concern.
 
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Makisupa Policeman said:
Sorry if this has already been discussed. I’m gonna splurge a bit and probably get the 14” MBP M1 Pro instead of the 13” MBP M1, but I’m seeing some people say the battery life is a little lacking.

It will mostly stay connected to power at my desk but occasionally I may want to be disconnected from power and do Netflix/Youtube streaming, browsing and other light-duty work. Will the battery be sufficient for say, 5-6 hours of this type of stuff? How does it compare to Intel?
Click to expand...
See these two reviews
Apple MacBook Pro 13 2020 Laptop Review
Apple MacBook Pro 14 2021 M1 Pro Laptop in Review

they cover everything in these reviews including battery power consumption.
 
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TheRdungeon said:
If you want the most battery life and don't do too much then get the base 8-core processor, it's the least power hungry and actually the model Apple use for the battery life estimates
Click to expand...
I am getting 8-core assuming I pull the trigger on it. Can’t really afford the 10 core; I’d rather put money towards the bigger 1TB SSD.
 
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I've got a 14" M1 Pro 32GB RAM. Can get a day out of a full charge depending on what I'm doing - if just browsing, email, Office, etc., it goes far. If using some Adobe software and some other "less-optimized" software, it drains faster, but overall I've been super impressed with battery life.
 
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I wonder how much low power mode affects usability and longevity. My assumption is on the M1 Pro and M1 Max the low power mode would have a significant impact?

I know on my M1 13' MBP - I could read for hours and hours doing basic tasks and only see that thing drop a few battery % points.
 
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I bought an M1 14 MBP the first week it went on sale in Oct. Battery life is 5 hours max using Firefox surfing and apple email. Disappointing. So many things were wrong on Monterrey I spent 10 hours over 2 months with Apple Care trying to get simple stuff (Pages translate, Photos slideshow Ed Burns) to work....AirPlay does not work with Photos Slideshow. I think I should have waited a year to buy the M1 Monterrey. I've had a Macbook since '92 and this model has had the most problems ever. Sad.
 
Battery life is much better for me since Zoom got patched.

I can get 12-18 hours with my workload which is mostly sysadmin stuff - remote terminal sessions, zoom, teams, office apps, remote desktop, 2-3 web browsers with many tabs, etc.
 
GaryandCarlos said:
I bought an M1 14 MBP the first week it went on sale in Oct. Battery life is 5 hours max using Firefox surfing and apple email. Disappointing. So many things were wrong on Monterrey I spent 10 hours over 2 months with Apple Care trying to get simple stuff (Pages translate, Photos slideshow Ed Burns) to work....AirPlay does not work with Photos Slideshow. I think I should have waited a year to buy the M1 Monterrey. I've had a Macbook since '92 and this model has had the most problems ever. Sad.
Click to expand...

There’s something wrong with yours. One of the multiple browsers i have running most of the day is firefox.
 
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BigMcGuire said:
I wonder how much low power mode affects usability and longevity. My assumption is on the M1 Pro and M1 Max the low power mode would have a significant impact?

I know on my M1 13' MBP - I could read for hours and hours doing basic tasks and only see that thing drop a few battery % points.
Click to expand...

Low power mode results in marginally less smooth browser scrolling, outside of that i haven’t noticed much difference.

I play games on low power mode for less heat and fan and they still run well. Divinity Original Sin 2 runs smoothly on default settings in low power mode and looks great.
 
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It's not as good as the M1 Air I got rid of, but the 14 in" MacBook's battery can easily get me through the day. For what it can do, I'm super happy with the battery life.
 
Last edited:
I have the top spec 14" and battery life is great. No worries. Way better than my previous 13" and 16" pros. Haven't measured but it's got to be 50% more easy.
 
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It's amazing on the 10/16/16 14"! I usually use it on charge but today I used it on battery. Used it for mostly word processing/reading files/browsing on chrome and an hour zoom call on moderate brightness but no keyboard backlight. It is still above 80% and it has been 5-6 hours of use.
 
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I have the 14" M1 max 10/32/64 MBP. The battery life on it is insane. It will easily last 10-12 hours for everyday casual use. I do use low power mode when it is on battery and I really can't see any difference it makes as far as scrolling or playing a video.

Lisa
 
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