New 2019 MacBook Air already 81 days old

[lambertjohn]

One of my buddies just purchased a 2019 MacBook Air from Micro Center here in Dallas. He asked for my help setting it up so I happily obliged. All went well. The computer works fine. However, out of curiosity, I installed Coconut Battery (something I always do on new Macs) to check the age of the computer and the age of its battery, and I'm kind of shocked at what I found.

This brand new, 2019 MacBook Air which was supposedly released earlier this month, is already 81 days old, and the battery is 200 days old! See attached screenshot. Curious what the MacRumors community thinks about this. Is this normal? Is this really a 2019 MacBook Air? FYI: Micro Center just started carrying these about a week ago.

2019 Air = 81 days old.
Its battery = 200 days old.

Thanks.

 

[MacDawg]

Just a guess, but all the components aren't manufactured the day you buy the computer
Many different components made at different times all come together eventually and you buy it
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[lambertjohn]

Just a guess, but all the components aren't manufactured the day you buy the computer
Many different components made at different times all come together eventually and you buy it
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

uh, yeah, I get that. But this thing is already 81 days old and it just came out a week ago. 81 days. You would think it would be something more recent than that, like early July or even late June. And the battery...made in January. I'm just saying, I thought the date stamp on this thing would be a little more recent than it is.

 

[MacDawg]

Production has to start a lot earlier than it gets released in order to build up stock and inventory
I'm not saying I know what I'm talking about (I rarely do), but that would just be my guess

 

[vaugha]

Very normal. If you want the newest mba, then you need to do a bto. W/ btos, you can get a machine that's less than 2 weeks old. Even w/ btos, the battery will be older than the machine itself. For example, my 2019 mbp which was a bto was manufactured on July 8 of this year. Battery was made on June 19. I picked it up on July 18.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

.

 

[0906742]

One of my buddies just purchased a 2019 MacBook Air from Micro Center here in Dallas. He asked for my help setting it up so I happily obliged. All went well. The computer works fine. However, out of curiosity, I installed Coconut Battery (something I always do on new Macs) to check the age of the computer and the age of its battery, and I'm kind of shocked at what I found.

This brand new, 2019 MacBook Air which was supposedly released earlier this month, is already 81 days old, and the battery is 200 days old! See attached screenshot. Curious what the MacRumors community thinks about this. Is this normal? Is this really a 2019 MacBook Air? FYI: Micro Center just started carrying these about a week ago.

2019 Air = 81 days old.
Its battery = 200 days old.

Thanks.

There is a pretty big difference between battery and machine build date in your unit. Otherwise that sounds about right since these are being manufactured long before actual release and they can be sitting in warehouse quite a while. Maybe they designed 2019 Air updates much earlier but wanted to sell old 2018 model first.

Anyway my point here is that it is good if your battery did not arrive empty when you got your machine. Or did it? How is your battery health? If it is over 100% and stays there for a while and not go down almost immediately you should be fine.

I had briefly Air 2018 model I bought a month ago or so and it was manufactured like 5,5 months earlier and battery couple weeks before that (so battery was totally just over 6 months) and that machine arrived with completely drained battery and it would not turn on for the first time until I plugged in charger. It turned out that battery was not very good and was already under design charge capacity and it did go even much lower within first couple weeks (it was around 96-97% with under 10 charge cycles), so I ended up returning it and bought entry Pro that was only about month ago manufactured. Bad battery was not my only reason for returning Air but just released entry Pro was just too tempting with nice discount so these reasons combined and still within return period from my dealer, it was no brainer because price between the two machines was very close.

 

[Macintoshrumors]

They are not manufactured the day you buy them. Give me a break, stop trying to force a “gate” here and use common sense.

 

[NT1440]

uh, yeah, I get that. But this thing is already 81 days old and it just came out a week ago. 81 days. You would think it would be something more recent than that, like early July or even late June. And the battery...made in January. I'm just saying, I thought the date stamp on this thing would be a little more recent than it is.

Apple always ramps up production months before a new release. The iPhone is notorious for coverage of this. Just a few weeks ago we saw on this site reporting that the new iPhones logic boards are already in production.

Welcome to the world of global supply chains.

 

[Saturn007]

They are not manufactured the day you buy them. Give me a break, stop trying to force a “gate” here and use common sense.

Whoa! That's harsh! The OP was legitimately taken aback by what he found and posted here to get input. His was a reasonable post, thoughtfully expressed. He wasn’t trying to create a “gate”! Indeed, he was doing exactly the opposite, asking if what he found was normal.

You owe him an apology!

 

[kp98077]

Was your house built in a week or two ? The wood? Windows ? Etc ?????

 

[0906742]

When we are talking about batteries I'd say better analogy would be to compare it to something that also has limited shelf life. Houses generally have parts that are usable for decades to centuries, while battery is more like milk, it goes sour very fast.

Especially if laptop has been stored for a long time and battery has depleted fully, it usually will be weaker.
I had Air 2018 briefly, and that was old stock and arrived with empty battery. It was weak battery and dropped sharply under nominal design capacity right out of the box...