MBA M1 battery issue?

[Bob Coxner]

Base unit. I've had it for 3 days.

I used it for several hours the first day and I'm assuming that most of the indexing should have been finished by then. I then plugged in to 100% and didn't use it again for 36 hours. There was 0% lost and it was 100% when I started today.

I've only been doing light surfing and installing a few apps. The battery has lost 9% in less than 2 hours. It's dropped another 1% simply being open while I'm typing this message on my desktop. The only open apps are Finder and Battery. Battery reports "no apps using significant energy". Safari and Chrome are both closed.

These results are obviously not in line with all the reviews and reports of fantastic battery life. I do have screen brightness at maximum since I prefer a bright screen. Could that alone explain the rapid battery drop? Is indexing still going on and how would I check? Activity Monitor is showing 98% idle.

And another 1% drop while I'm posting this message, about 5 minutes from the previous drop. And another 1% drop, 2 minutes from the previous drop. The MBA is simply open, I haven't been doing anything with it during these last 2 drops.

Suggestions other than turning screen brightness down? Bad enough to exchange it if this continues?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Your max brightness is killing your battery life. It is not practical to think you can get 15 or more hours use at max brightness. Try putting the brightness at 6 clicks.

 

[JLH81]

Definitely turn down your brightness!

 

[Bob Coxner]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll turn brightness down to 50% and see what I get. Maybe I'll leave it at 100% when I'm at home and not so worried about remaining time and then turn it down when I go out.

 

[Bob Coxner]

Update: That helped but it's far short of the 20 hour promise.

50% brightness. I simply left the lid open for 2 hours. The only thing running was the screensaver. The battery dropped 16%. 8% per hour = 12.5 hours of battery life and that's with doing nothing at all.

Correction: I've been thinking 20 hours but that's for the MBP M1 and Apple TV movie playback. We supposedly should get 15 hours wireless web or 18 hours Apple TV playback with our MBA M1. Either way, 12.5 hours at 50% brightness with just a screensaver running doesn't seem right.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Update: That helped but it's far short of the 20 hour promise.

50% brightness. I simply left the lid open for 2 hours. The only thing running was the screensaver. The battery dropped 16%. 8% per hour = 12.5 hours of battery life and that's with doing nothing at all.

Apple hasn't promised 20 hours use.

No need to user a screen saver. That uses unnecessary battery. Turn the screen saver off and just have the screen turn off after the default time or pick a short time.

You also may have third party apps running in the background Check the Activity Monitor.

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From Apple.com M1 MBA ("Up to" is the key phrase)

Battery and Power1

• Up to 15 hours wireless web
• Up to 18 hours Apple TV app movie playback
• Built-in 49.9‑watt‑hour lithium‑polymer battery
• 30W USB-C Power Adapter