I have a MBP 13-inch Late 2011, OS X 10.8.2. iStatMenus, CoconutBattery all have a battery health indicator stating the current capacity. But is it accurate? Does it merely count the health based on the number of cycles or does it actually gauge the health (and true capacity) of the battery? I understand it asks the battery driver for the capacity of the battery. There are other reasons other than the number of cycles a battery undergoes which can cause it to deteriorate, including heat. I live in a hot country, and I thus wonder whether the battery health it states is accurate. I say this because I now only get about 5 hours of runtime not doing much with my MacBook Pro, and sometimes the projected battery life can dip to just above one hour. According to Anandtech, even downloading stuff, surfing the web and playing a video simultaneously still allows the battery to last 3.6 hours. How is this possible? Thank you!
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Is the battery health indicator accurate?
- Thread starter caspersoong
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Battery life will vary depending on what you're doing. I can get 4 or 5 hours of battery life out of my mid 2009 MBP for very light usage, but if I'm doing anything processor intensive, it'll die in an hour or two. The health indicator will fluctuate up and down sometimes.
Don't worry about your battery, just use your computer and enjoy it. Make sure you run off of the battery about once a month to keep it in good condition.
Don't worry about your battery, just use your computer and enjoy it. Make sure you run off of the battery about once a month to keep it in good condition.
The "health" indicators determine the current overall capacity of the battery (in mAh) and compare it to maximum designed battery capacity. I don't think the number of loadcycles matters very much as I have nearly 500 and the battery health still hovers around 90%.
As for battery life, that can depend on many factors, including the version of OS X you're using. I was getting 7hrs on 10.7.4 Lion doing basic browsing/word processing whereas I am only getting about 4hrs doing the same tasks in ML. Right now, as I type this, with 51% charge remaining, iStat Pro tells me I have 2hrs 33mins left. So, it all depends.
As for battery life, that can depend on many factors, including the version of OS X you're using. I was getting 7hrs on 10.7.4 Lion doing basic browsing/word processing whereas I am only getting about 4hrs doing the same tasks in ML. Right now, as I type this, with 51% charge remaining, iStat Pro tells me I have 2hrs 33mins left. So, it all depends.
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Thanks! I was worried that this was due to permanent damage to my laptop's battery. Now, only if Apple was a bit more caring they could just improve battery life via a software update. Great and useful answer.
Laptop Batteries Are Far different than Phones and Tablets
Laptop are power hunger, for example it says it has still 100% and you can still use it for 7 hours, but eventually after 5 minutes it's only 96% then it's completely normal. My Macbook Pro 15" Touchbar if playing league of legends or dota 2 or mine craft it will dramatically change from 7 hours to 1/2/3 hours max of playing before it completely dies. And i consider it as normal. Because Online games relies on CPU, GPU and RAM and heats your laptop too fast and drain the most.
Browsing the web is also a factor, if you have multiple tabs like 10 tabs or more it will drain 2 times faster because it uses the ram. So be sure to minimize the tabs for saffari and close some websites you aren't using that much.
Charging devices like iPhone and power bank/pocket wifi can also drain your laptop even more. Don't ever dare to charge your iPad using your laptop OK because it charges way too slow to no charging and just drain your Laptop more..?? only if your laptop is plugged.
For casual use like Microsoft Word, Excel, powerpoint this is where Laptops and Macbooks battery became accurate.
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