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Mba m1 vs mbp 14 vs mbp 16 battery life

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Love-hate 🍏 relationship

macrumors 68040
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Sep 19, 2021
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I’d very much like to hear your experience on how much battery u get with any of these devices

I’m considering getting a pro ,originally wanted to get the 14,but I read the battery isn’t as good the mba m1,which spoiled me .

My m1 lasts me a full day of 10-12h at the university and I wouldn’t want to compromise on this

When on the go/at the univ all i do is paperwork ,taking notes ,listening to music during the pause (maybe watching a movie) ,listening to music

I also have a lot of background utilities such as better touch tool for example

And a bit of browsing (although the univ wifi sucks )

The 16 being a monster of battery ,I thought I’d get it instead ,but it is much more expensive ,and has a bigger footprint …
 
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the m1 is a fantastic laptop, abeit slow in some day to day operation compared to the 14, previously the mba lasts me throughout the day with around 40% battery left, with my 14 after an entire day at the office i'm around 25-30%, i know its not scientific but thats my observation so far. and ofcourse the pro chip will have better battery than the max.
 
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ilikewhey said:
the m1 is a fantastic laptop, abeit slow in some day to day operation compared to the 14, previously the mba lasts me throughout the day with around 40% battery left, with my 14 after an entire day at the office i'm around 25-30%, i know its not scientific but thats my observation so far. and ofcourse the pro chip will have better battery than the max.
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Out of curiosity, do you have the binned or the unbinned M1 Pro in your 14? I've always been curious if there is any significant battery life difference between the two.
 
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ilikewhey said:
the m1 is a fantastic laptop, abeit slow in some day to day operation compared to the 14, previously the mba lasts me throughout the day with around 40% battery left, with my 14 after an entire day at the office i'm around 25-30%, i know its not scientific but thats my observation so far. and ofcourse the pro chip will have better battery than the max.
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so the 14 max lasts nearly as much as the m1 air ?? that is crazy ,i thought it would be 40% worse at least

one should thus expect the m1 pro 14 to last just as much as the air then,right ?

slow for day to day operation? what is it you call day to day operation ?
 
0089294 said:
so the 14 max lasts nearly as much as the m1 air ?? that is crazy ,i thought it would be 40% worse at least

one should thus expect the m1 pro 14 to last just as much as the air then,right ?

slow for day to day operation? what is it you call day to day operation ?
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no thats not what im saying at all lol, the max does take a battery hit, but dependent on your usage, i have mustered 10 hours out of my max on couple of occasions but mainly on light workload. the m1 air is the true king of all day battery life, when i was using it i can go a day and a half without charging, the max is like a apple watch where you have to charge it at the end of the day, but it still can get you throughout the day.
 
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0089294 said:
so the 14 max lasts nearly as much as the m1 air ?? that is crazy ,i thought it would be 40% worse at least

one should thus expect the m1 pro 14 to last just as much as the air then,right ?

slow for day to day operation? what is it you call day to day operation ?
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A lot of that comes down to the difference in the physical battery capacity I believe.

M1 Air: 53 watt-hours (or 58 watt hours on the 13" pro)
14" Pro: ~70 watt-hours
16" Pro: 99 watt-hours
 
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ilikewhey said:
no thats not what im saying at all lol, the max does take a battery hit, but dependent on your usage, i have mustered 10 hours out of my max on couple of occasions but mainly on light workload. the m1 air is the true king of all day battery life, when i was using it i can go a day and a half without charging, the max is like a apple watch where you have to charge it at the end of the day, but it still can get you throughout the day.
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i see . well im considering the pro anyway.but i really would like it to last me a full day with no issues.still kinda hesitant .i prefer the 14 but the 16 with its big screen and outsanding battery is really tempting .
but for the price of the 16 base i could get a 14 with 32gb of ram...albeit with less cores ,but i dont need multicore perf for what i do
 
Vazor said:
M1 Air lasts way longer than 14 inch MBP in my experience. That’s why I returned my 14 inch MBP for the M1 Air. Also, in normal day to day usage you will never notice any speed difference, because there is non.
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Damn ,max or pro ?
How much difference is there
For what kind of usage ? And at which brightness ? I rly want the 14 but I don’t wanna make a mistake as it’ll be a laptop I plan on keeping for at least 6 years
 
Vazor said:
M1 Air lasts way longer than 14 inch MBP in my experience. That’s why I returned my 14 inch MBP for the M1 Air. Also, in normal day to day usage you will never notice any speed difference, because there is non.
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It’s so weird that we get such different reports (for apparently the same kind of usage )
Some say it’s same if not better (@bill-p ) ,other claims it’s much much worse … some day it’s just unreliable (just like the iPhone 14 pro)

Idk what to think and what to do
 
0089294 said:
It’s so weird that we get such different reports (for apparently the same kind of usage )
Some say it’s same if not better (@bill-p ) ,other claims it’s much much worse … some day it’s just unreliable (just like the iPhone 14 pro)

Idk what to think and what to do
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A lot of the difference is going to depend on what software you use and how bright the screen is. If you are only browsing the web, getting email, and running Office it wouldn't be surprising to find out that the M1 Pro 14" gets as good battery life as the M1 MBA. But if you are using pro apps that require a lot of horsepower over long periods of time, you'll get more done on the 14" Pro but likely at the expense of battery life overall.

Screen brightness can also be a big factor. With my M2 MacBook Air, running idle with the screen brightness 1 notch under half, the battery is pulling just under 3 W sometimes even less. With the battery 1 notch below the highest setting, the battery pulls just under 8.5 W. With the 52.6 Wh battery an additional 5 W of power reduces the battery life by something like 10 hours. Massive difference. The 14" M1 MBP probably is even worse given the brightness of the screen.
 
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jdb8167 said:
A lot of the difference is going to depend on what software you use and how bright the screen is. If you are only browsing the web, getting email, and running Office it wouldn't be surprising to find out that the M1 Pro 14" gets as good battery life as the M1 MBA. But if you are using pro apps that require a lot of horsepower over long periods of time, you'll get more done on the 14" Pro but likely at the expense of battery life overall.

Screen brightness can also be a big factor. With my M2 MacBook Air, running idle with the screen brightness 1 notch under half, the battery is pulling just under 3 W sometimes even less. With the battery 1 notch below the highest setting, the battery pulls just under 8.5 W. With the 52.6 Wh battery an additional 5 W of power reduces the battery life by something like 10 hours. Massive difference. The 14" M1 MBP probably is even worse given the brightness of the screen.
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Yeah but as I said I have seen reports of people saying it lasts way less even in light usage

You’re right screen is a big factor

When on the go I won’t use anything intensive (maybe handbrake from time to time but not daily ,and not as part of my work ) .

I created this post because I wanted people who used both of these laptops to report how much they are getting under the same load with about the same brightness .
 
0089294 said:
It’s so weird that we get such different reports (for apparently the same kind of usage )
Some say it’s same if not better (@bill-p ) ,other claims it’s much much worse … some day it’s just unreliable (just like the iPhone 14 pro)

Idk what to think and what to do
Click to expand...

People are not taking objective measurements. It's really that simple.

14" M1 Pro draws 8W total when it's under light load and brightness is 2 notches below max (my regular usage model). Divide 70WHr by that and we get 8.75 or about 9 hours. Sounds about right to me from my experience.

13" M1 also draws around 8W with the screen at around that brightness from what is said above unless someone is lying. Divide 50WHr by that and we get 6.25 hours or let's say... 7 hours.

Massive difference? I think not.

When both devices are pushed to their absolute max, the chip will trump power consumption. Sure, but in order to reach that point with M1 Pro, you need an app that is massively multithreaded and also happens to stress both CPU and GPU to some insane amount. It's unrealistic to assume that even under gaming scenarios. For the most part, the 14" M1 Pro is about 15-20W under heavy load and that translates to still around 2-3 hours of heavy use.

Compare that to 15W max for M1 Air, still with the 50WHr battery and... it's still just around 2-3 hours of heavy use for Air.

If we were talking about 14" M1 Max, then it's a different story indeed. That chip can easily draw 10W at light load because the extra memory bandwidth comes at a pretty hefty cost in power consumption even in idle. I returned M1 Max immediately. It doesn't make sense for a portable device.
 
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mihirdelirious said:
The 120Hz Promotion display is the one true killer feature to choose the 14inch MBP over the MBA or 13"MBP. Hard to go back to 60 once you experience it.
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That's another difference that makes it hard to compare the M1 MacBook Air to the M1 Pro 14 MacBook Pro. The 14" display isn't just 120 Hz but variable rate. If screen is static the refresh rate can go low or up to 120 Hz depending on what's happening on the screen. Movies can use 24 FPS 48 Hz and save a lot of power vs. fast scrolling at 120 Hz in a browser.

The M1 MBA doesn't have any of that and the screen is going to use the same amount of power while it is on and at the same brightness. I'd imagine that makes it easier to guesstimate how long the battery is going to last.

Edit: Apparently the lowest the Pro Motion display can go is 47.95 Hz. According to Apple's specs it can do: 47.95Hz, 48.00Hz, 50.00Hz, 59.94Hz, 60.00Hz, and 120 Hz.
 
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Why not the m2? It has a better screen, better processor, better cam, and great battery life. Get the Pro and a tiny charger for the MagSafe. If you're willing to have that extra weight, a GAN charger that folds with the very lightweight MagSafe is the way to go. Do not get the 16 inch, it is stupid heavy for uni.
 
Klae17 said:
Why not the m2? It has a better screen, better processor, better cam, and great battery life. Get the Pro and a tiny charger for the MagSafe. If you're willing to have that extra weight, a GAN charger that folds with the very lightweight MagSafe is the way to go. Do not get the 16 inch, it is stupid heavy for uni.
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M2 doesn’t make sense considering it’s price ,at least to me
1500+200+200 and I’m 200 bucks away from the 14 pro
 
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M2 Pro and Max MBP's are said to be around the corner, they might come with upgraded internals such as better WiFi / Bluetooth, better HDMI, better external monitor support, or you can always get the then discontinued M1 at a discount, BTW I also think the 16" looses quite a lot in terms of portability, nothing like the MBA when you're going around campus
 
I don’t have an issue with my mbp lasting all day with note taking, perusing the web, a couple of YouTube videos here and there.

I normally have my brightness set to less than half (I don’t feel I need it to be any brighter.

The main drain for me is when I’m on Microsoft teams calls or FaceTime calls
 
It depends. M1 Max is more power-consuming when doing intensive tasks compared to idle, so the battery life seems to be:
When doing light tasks: 16' M1 Pro > M1 MBP > M1 MBA > 16' M1 Max > 14' M1 Pro > 14' M1 Max
When doing intensive tasks: M1 MBP > 16' M1 Pro > M1 MBA > 14' M1 Pro > 16' M1 Max > 14' M1 Max

M2 MBP/MBA seems to have a little more battery life than M1, so it would be pretty interesting to see whether M2 MBA can outperform 16' M1 Pro in batter life...
 
apparatchik said:
M2 Pro and Max MBP's are said to be around the corner, they might come with upgraded internals such as better WiFi / Bluetooth, better HDMI, better external monitor support, or you can always get the then discontinued M1 at a discount, BTW I also think the 16" looses quite a lot in terms of portability, nothing like the MBA when you're going around campus
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They MAY come with Hemi 2.1 but it’s not granted . Wifi 6E isn’t certain either given it’s still based on m2 which is limited to 6.
But it WILL come with a price increase for Eu,most likely 15-20% .
 
Misheemee said:
I don’t have an issue with my mbp lasting all day with note taking, perusing the web, a couple of YouTube videos here and there.

I normally have my brightness set to less than half (I don’t feel I need it to be any brighter.

The main drain for me is when I’m on Microsoft teams calls or FaceTime calls
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mbp 14 ? how many hours per day on average ? any background processes ?
 
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