MacBook Pro 2011 battery life?

[alexjholland]

Hey, I've been gifted an early-2011 MacBook Pro to take travelling, which has had the obligatory 1TB SSD and 1TB hard drive optical bay upgrade, plus 8GB RAM (might go to 16GB).

Although the battery has had 700 charges, CoconutBattery claims it has around 75% of its original capacity.

In contrast, my aunty's identical model laptop only had 400 charges, yet 4%!

That said, I get under two hours of casual internet browsing on it.. whereas I have heard up to 7 is possible?

MacUpgrades can sell me a 6000MaH battery for £65..

Should I?

 

[RCElectricFlyer]

Hey, I've been gifted an early-2011 MacBook Pro to take travelling, which has had the obligatory 1TB SSD and 1TB hard drive optical bay upgrade, plus 8GB RAM (might go to 16GB).

Although the battery has had 700 charges, CoconutBattery claims it has around 75% of its original capacity.

In contrast, my aunty's identical model laptop only had 400 charges, yet 4%!

That said, I get under two hours of casual internet browsing on it.. whereas I have heard up to 7 is possible?

MacUpgrades can sell me a 6000MaH battery for £65..

Should I?

The number of cycles is not that important. Sometimes I wish this information was not published for raw battery cells. It creates an unrealistic expectation.

The number of cycles only dominates the life calculation when all other variables are controlled - and they almost never are. This number is also commonly arrived at without accounting for cell ageing. Time at high charge state and/or elevated temperature are common ways battery capacity is reduced. A single event like an over-discharge (letting the computer sit for an extended period after leaving it at or near zero state of charge) can easily cause a large and sudden reduction in charge capacity. Minor variations in composition, processes and environmental conditions can all affect the life of an otherwise identical battery cell - particularly as it ages with time.

 

[alexjholland]

The number of cycles is not that important. Sometimes I wish this information was not published for raw battery cells. It creates an unrealistic expectation.

The number of cycles only dominates the life calculation when all other variables are controlled - and they almost never are. This number is also commonly arrived at without accounting for cell ageing. Time at high charge state and/or elevated temperature are common ways battery capacity is reduced. A single event like an over-discharge (letting the computer sit for an extended period after leaving it at or near zero state of charge) can easily cause a large and sudden reduction in charge capacity. Minor variations in composition, processes and environmental conditions can all affect the life of an otherwise identical battery cell - particularly as it ages with time.

Cool, that makes sense. I try not to let my battery run too low, or get real hot.

You think I should get a new one?

 

[RCElectricFlyer]

Cool, that makes sense. I try not to let my battery run too low, or get real hot.

You think I should get a new one?

Totally up to you. If memory serves, Apple just recently categorised that model as obsolete in most countries. I would guess this increases your risk as there may be no repair route if something else goes wrong outside of the new battery.

 

[ZapNZs]

If you are only getting two hours of casual browsing (and there are no rogue processes or background running apps dramatically elevating the CPU, and you aren't running tons of browser extensions which can really hog resources), you should replace the battery, in my opinion. IIRC 80% capacity is when the service life is considered exhausted, and other factors than charge-recharge cycles can influence how long of a service life the battery has (for example, heat, as lithium cells do not like it at all.)