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How often do you plug your rMBP
- Thread starter krishmk
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I keep my 2015 15" MBP plugged in most of the time at work, and only unplug when I need to roam around. In my experience with my 2010 MBP, limiting the charge cycles was key to making it last 4 years. Basically every time you use only the battery, you're lessening it's ability to hold an additional charge (Apple advertises around 1,000 charges, I got 1,300 out of my old one). I try to plug in whenever I can.
My 2015 15" MBP gets around 7 hours of battery life with normal/light usage
My 2015 15" MBP gets around 7 hours of battery life with normal/light usage
Well I'm student so I'll be working on Pages and a whole lotta tabs spread across Safari and Chrome. Oh and iTunes is always open, half brightness on the display and the keyboard lighting isn't turned on until I want to go work in my bed (then I put the keyboard lighting up by one) I get on average 10-11 hours.
Don't keep it plugged in 24/7 but it won't damage it if it stays on charge at 100 percent for a long time.
I've heard a number of different things on this subject. Some say once your battery is at 100%, leaving it plugged in does the most damage. Is there any definitive source I can figure out how to treat my battery to make it last the longest?
I plug it in when it's getting low and needs to be charged so I can keep using it. Since I'm a part-time student that's probably twice a week. I used to charge my old cMBP every night and got 4 1/2 years and over 400 cycles out of it.
I'm no expert, but I do know that you don't want to leave it plugged in 24/7. Probably the best rule of thumb is to use it on battery and plug it in when it needs to be charged.
I'm no expert, but I do know that you don't want to leave it plugged in 24/7. Probably the best rule of thumb is to use it on battery and plug it in when it needs to be charged.
Just use the battery when you need to and plug it in when you can. Ideally you want to complete 1 charge cycle per month.
I'm going to give my opinion on the subject. I really wouldn't worry about it. Apple advertises around 1,000 charges. That doesn't mean at around 1,000 charges your battery is shot it means you'll see a decrease in performance of your battery at around 1,000 charges. I'm a power user and have had my rMBP a year and a half and i'm at a 127 cycle count...no idea how. I'm on the thing all day. I certainly wouldn't leave it plugged in all day every day but there's no harm in leaving it charged up. Just unplug it occasionally and use it as you would. This isn't a windows laptop battery that lasts 3-4 hours. You'll be very impressed with how consistent the batteries are on apple laptops. I get around 6 1/2 - 7 hours on my MacBook Pro Retina. The 13" rMBP will get longer battery life than the 15. Regardless of the model you go with you'll be very satisfied and they're both very capable machines. I always suggest refurbished unless you really really want force touch and faster PCIe speeds...which you probably won't notice as compared to the 2014 models.
Agree totally with this. My original (mid-2012) rMBP has 170 charge cycles on the battery. I keep it plugged in most of the time, but at least once a week, I unplug it and run it down for several hours, then back on the charger. I often unplug it and change locations. Typically, I only plug it in at my desk - if I am working elsewhere in the house, I'm running on battery. No worries or issues here.
That was true 10 years ago.
LiPo batteries don't really care how you treat them. Deep discharges (ie having your computer run out of juice, then having it die after the reserve power's run down) and excessive heat are the worst things you can do to em.
Apart from that, your battery will die from plain old age around the 5 year old mark, no matter how much you tried taking care of it. There's absolutely NOTHING you can do to prevent that.
The charging circuit built into any modern laptop takes care of the battery for you, preventing overcharging and even trickle charging and discharging the battery to keep it from being stored at 100% if you're plugged in the majority of the time.
I'll bet a few bucks you don't give even a second thought for your cell phone battery. They use the exact same technology. Most cell phones go through a full cycle every day or every other day. They still hold a decent charge 3-4 years down the road without you really doing anything special, or worrying about when to plug it in (or not).
TL;DR: don't worry about it, you have next to zero control over your battery's health.
I found a rather general article by Apple about this. The main thing seems to be temperature...
https://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance
https://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance
Thats the ambient temperature range specification for the device. Nothing to do with what temps the CPU etc will run at. Sure follow it but its not the be all and end all, its in the section headed "Avoid Extreme Ambient Temperature", nothing more. Far more important to use the battery as you need and charge as and when you can.
It's always on the wall. Like, always, unless I need to roam around the house with it. Then, once a month I almost deplete the battery (like to 3 or 2%) and then plug it in again and let it charge to 100%. It keeps the battery from going lazy. It's how I made my last MacBook Air (2011, 13", i5/4/256) last for 4 years and it's still going strong.
I don't see any problems with what you're doing. You should plug your laptop in when you can and run it off of the battery when you need to. There is no reason to make it more complicated than that.