Zoom Video Calls Drain Apple M1 MacBook Air Battery by Only 10-13% Per Hour

[MacRumors]

As more customers get their hands on the first Apple Silicon Macs, we continue to see some interesting performance and battery life tests surface based on real-world usage situations, with the latest including Zoom video calling.

MacRumors forum member "acidfast7_redux," who resides in the UK, spent most of their work day today on Zoom video calls using their new MacBook Air with the M1 chip and 8GB of memory. After a 2.5 hour video call, they say their battery life dropped by 17%, and after a second 36 minute video call, their battery life dropped by 7%, meaning that Zoom ultimately consumed roughly 10-13% of battery life per hour.

finishing the day at the office now:

09.11 to 17.25 (8h14m)
battery went from 100% down to 28%

time breakdown for the office part of the day was:

4h33m Zoom meetings (just closed Zoom for the first time since opening it this morning at 10.00)
3h01m web browsing / MS Office / emails
45m sleep (just closed lid and left the office)

These numbers are impressive given that Zoom has yet to introduce native support for Apple Silicon Macs, so the app is currently running through Apple's translation layer Rosetta 2 on Macs with the M1 chip. Zoom is known to be quite the battery hog on Intel-based Macs, so Apple Silicon's power efficiency gains will be much welcomed.

Over the last week, benchmarks and reviews have proven that the M1 chip lives up to Apple's hype, ranging from the new MacBook Air outperforming the high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro in multi-core Geekbench 5 results to the new Mac mini and 13-inch MacBook Pro compiling WebKit code as fast as a 2019 Mac Pro.

Apple revealed its plans to begin using its own chips in Macs at WWDC 2020 in June, promising industry-leading performance per watt. Apple expects the transition away from Intel processors to take about two years to be completed.

Article Link: Zoom Video Calls Drain Apple M1 MacBook Air Battery by Only 10-13% Per Hour

 

[ilikewhey]

that is literally the biggest issue i'm dealing with right now on my intel macs, 2 mins into zoom call and my macbook sounds like a boeing 747 taking off. i don't mind being apple beta tester if it means i don't have to sit next to outlet during zoom.

 

[tevion5]

So now I'll have no excuse to leave long meetings early? 2/10

 

[Serban55]

that is literally the biggest issue i'm dealing with right now on my intel macs, 2 mins into zoom call and my macbook sounds like a boeing 747 taking off.

yes, zoom on 16" mbp takes around 33%-34% battery after 45min non stop, no breaks...under M1 around 8-9% in the same 45min

 

[DanielDD]

This is my dream. I can finally have a 9 hour zoom meeting on a single charge.

Oh wait...

 

[BornAgainMac]

Well, I would get the Mac Mini for "unlimited poooowwwweerrrr.'

 

[aesc80]

 

[bluespark]

That battery icon -- ugh.

 

[rhyzome]

The issue must have more to do with Zoom being inefficient, rather than the task of video conferencing being inherently taxing on computer systems, no?

 

[Isengardtom]

that is literally the biggest issue i'm dealing with right now on my intel macs, 2 mins into zoom call and my macbook sounds like a boeing 747 taking off. i don't mind being apple beta tester if it means i don't have to sit next to outlet during zoom.

Better than a 737 Max

glad to see the battery life is good on these M1 macs

 

[gnasher729]

The issue must have more to do with Zoom being inefficient, rather than the task of video conferencing being inherently taxing on computer systems, no?

I think sending / receiving the video through WiFi or mobile data might take a huge part of the energy. We will see how much improvement we get from a native version. If Zoom does all its video operations (encoding / decoding) through functions built into macOS, then Zoom's own code might do very little work.

 

[Benjamin Nabulsi]

Perhaps the wisdom behind not upgrading the crappy facetime cam is to get a higher battery score for video calls..
The only macs with 1080 cams are iMacs & iMac Pro.

 

[NT1440]

Perhaps the wisdom behind not upgrading the crappy facetime cam is to get a higher battery score for video calls..
The only macs with 1080 cams are iMacs & iMac Pro.

It’s because there was no chassis redesign. There’s no way to fit a BIGGER 1080p camera in that lid, and going smaller would result in much smaller pixels with way worse low light and way grainier images

 

[apparatchik]

The issue must have more to do with Zoom being inefficient, rather than the task of video conferencing being inherently taxing on computer systems, no?

Zoom is the worst, borderline malware. Inefficient, bloated, stealthy... I despise apps that require deep installation of God knows what and lack -by design- a lightweight client that can run from the DMG or a USB when all you're trying to do is quickly connect to a meeting.

I have zoom, microsoft teams, teamviewer, et al only on my iPhone, where I know they're strictly sanboxed and wont take over and install more crap than necessary... in case I need to share screen, I try to stick with the web client when available.

 

[Marbles1]

Anyone else getting the bug in Zoom under Big Sur, where if you have a virtual background, a ****** zoom process starts consuming 100% of processor time?

 

[adgoodma]

How about google meet?

 

[imola.zhp]

"Working" from home but not at a stationary spot where you can stay plugged in?

Weird.

 

[scartart]

The issue must have more to do with Zoom being inefficient, rather than the task of video conferencing being inherently taxing on computer systems, no?

I see high CPU and the fans ramping up on my MBP after a few minutes on a Teams or Webex conference if video is involved so not just an issue with Zoom.

 

[reallynotnick]

Zoom inefficient? Gosh it's the lightest weight chat client we use at my work, Google Hangouts and Slack calls destroy my MacBook Air if I have a web cam going and screen sharing I basically can't load up Jira pages to save my life unless I am using Zoom.

 

[CheesePuff]

Better than a 737 Max

glad to see the battery life is good on these M1 macs

Coincidentally, as of today the 737-MAX is certified for airworthiness again

 

[bsmr]

Zoom is the Beat concerning battery consumption. Followed by WebEx.
GoToMeeting,Jitsi, Teams,... using a lot of power.

 

[ph001bi]

How about google meet?

This never works on any laptop. What an horrible software.

 

[adgoodma]

This never works on any laptop. What an horrible software.

It’s a great program for what it can do for my needs. We need it for the functionality it brings for online education. I’m hoping the updated chrome software optimized for the m1 performs better.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

Jee, thanks for letting everyone know. Now my overlord boss has an excuse to make the meetings longer

 

[kgraf6]

This is literally one of the main reasons I’m picking up an M1 MacBook Air today.

I spend most of my days on video calls now, and my 2018 MacBook Pro just doesn’t cope.

We use Whereby for most calls, and within the first minute the fans start going crazy and my MBP slows to a complete hault. Sharing my screen or trying to do other work while on a video call is a nightmare. Forget trying to take the call while on battery - it dies within 20 minutes.

With that said, Google Hangouts and Zoom tend to be much less taxing.