MacBook Pro 16" Battery Drops Quickly?

[Moshe1010]

Hi,

via coconutBattery, I see that the % of my 16" MBP is dropping pretty quickly. If it's going to continue like that I may be below 80% at 250-300 cycles?

Is it normal, or should I worry?

Thanks

 

[tCC_]

97% here after 10 cycles...

 

[Moshe1010]

Getting weirder:

 

[ascender]

Is the battery still behaving as expected in normal, daily use? I'd put more stock in that than the reported stats - there's sometimes too much information these days.

 

[Moshe1010]

I can't really measure it since my laptop usage varies greatly from day to a day. Sometimes I'm just browsing, sometimes casting, sometimes editing, so I can't really have a "feel" of my battery if I get a few mins less or not. Def. not hours less if any.

 

[Honza1]

These statistics seem to vary up/down and their precision is not really clear. My 15 inch 2017 has had as low as 96% and is now back at 99% in ~50 cycles (new battery due to keyboard replacement). If you do not discharge sometimes bit deeper, try discharging intentionally to may be 20% or so. And see, if that improves the reading. Those measurements used to calculate the capacity are not perfect. Some people do "re-calibration", you can google it. I am not sure if it is really healthy and useful, though.
In any case, if it drops under warranty below 80%, Apple will replace it. Keep an eye on it. There are here and there bad batteries.

 

[Moshe1010]

The problem is the trend. I know it's not 100% accurate and fluctuates 1-2% here and there, and that it's not linear, but it's weird that every 10 cycles or so it goes down by 1%

 

[maflynn]

If you don't think its working as expected, take it back, but I believe apple doesn't consider it defective until the 80% mark.

 

[smirking]

I have a 2018 MBP that exhibited similar odd battery readings. It took 9 months for it to continuously drop to 87%. In the months since it then started to bounce back upward as high as 95% and as low as 88%. It's been steady at 92-93% for months now.

Do you do any high drain activities on you MBP? I'm suspecting that's what happened with mine. I sometimes will do heavy photo editing or run VMs to do development work and those chew through battery. Those heavy drain activities may have thrown off the estimates... just my guess.

In any case, if you have AppleCare, you can bring it back for a new battery once it drops below 80% and stays there. If you don't have AppleCare, use it hard and maybe it'll drop below 80% before your warranty's up and you can get a new battery.

 

[Beau10]

I've been through many batteries on Mac laptops over the years. The problem is there is no real clear trend. I had a battery on a former MBP go down to about 90% in less than 100 cycles, then very slowly go down to about 86% by 300 cycles, then barely dip below 80% at like 900 cycles. So the rate of depletion significantly slowed. (note: Apple would not replace despite it being reported at the time their internal memo was to do so for 80% at < 1000 cycles).

Also make sure you deplete to 0 and recharge to 100 every once in awhile to get a more accurate reading from battery chip.