batterymacbook pro
I have my rMBP for 14 months, during the first month I barly used it and it was off most of the time. today I'm connecting it to a display (unfortunately the fonts are blurry!) and the lid is closed most of the time. the power charger is connected most of the time (prevents the computer from sleeping). from time to time I'm openening the lid and disconnect the charger to let the battary drain.
Is it normal that my max charge decreased to 98%?
Thank you.
You do not need to disconnect your MacBook Pro's battery. Your battery will stop charging once it is full. Apple's modern batteries are much smarter than previous designs.
To get the most out of your MacBook Pro's battery, follow the Notebook Battery advice from Apple: unplug and use your battery until empty about once a month, then charge back up to full.
At the time of answering, Apple's advice read:
For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time. An ideal use would be a commuter who uses her notebook on the train, then plugs it in at the office to charge. This keeps the battery juices flowing.
If you need help following Apple's advice, use Battery Guardian; it is free and will remind you when to deplete your battery.
Final Conclusion Given the sources and explanations below. I am officially going to do the following to optimize my battery life:
It turns out that the two methods I originally posited are largely moot. The only thing that really matters is temperature.
"Temperature was the most significant factor contributing to the cell degradation, with state-of-charge (SOC) and discharge pulse length of secondary importance." (Liaw et al.2)
Furthermore, it turns out that the decay can be accurately mathematically modeled:
(See Ramadass et al.1 for explanation of terms)
However, the dominant model is that of the Arrhenius formula, which generically predicts time-to-failure as a function of temperature.
The figure below shows the capacity at various cycle counts. Just look at the capacity on the x-axis. The top graph is at 25ºC, the bottom at 50ºC.
After 600 cycles, the cooler battery had ~2x the capacity
While I could still find no evidence on the behavior of Mac power circuitry, there was helpful information on the official Dell website. Two items specifically stood out.
Q. When docked or AC adapter is plugged into a wall outlet, am I using my battery charge?
A. No.
Q. Should I totally discharge, then recharge my Dell laptop battery occasionally to make it last longer?
A. No, discharging and charging does not increase the life of a Lithium Ion technology battery.
However It is important to note that Apple and Dell charging circuits may be different. Although, given that Dell does this, I assume apple does as well. On this assumption, unless someone can provide sources to claim otherwise, I will assume that the Apple charging circuitry is smart enough to know this.
I encourage anyone to continue exploring this question and challenge my assumptions. Please see the sources below if you're curious for a more detailed explanation.
Sources
1 Ramadass, P., Bala Haran, Ralph White, and Branko Popov. "Mathematical Modeling of the Capacity Fade of Li-ion Cells." Journal of Power Sources 123.2 (2003): 230-40. Web. http://www.che.sc.edu/faculty/popov/drbnp/WebSite/Publications_PDFs/Web33.pdf.
2 Liaw, B., R. Jungst, G. Nagasubramanian, H. Case, and D. Doughty. "Modeling Capacity Fade in Lithium-ion Cells." Journal of Power Sources 140.1 (2005): 157-61. Web. http://electrochem.org/dl/ma/204/pdfs/0253.PDF.
[3] Ning, G. "Capacity Fade Study of Lithium-ion Batteries Cycled at High Discharge Rates." Journal of Power Sources 117.1-2 (2003): 160-69. Web. http://www.che.sc.edu/faculty/popov/drbnp/website/Publications_PDFs/Web38.pdf.
[4] Ramadass, P., Bala Haran, Parthasarathy M. Gomadam, Ralph White, and Branko N. Popov. "Development of First Principles Capacity Fade Model for Li-Ion Cells." Journal of The Electrochemical Society 151.2 (2004): A196. Web. http://www.che.sc.edu/faculty/popov/Publications/Premanand1.pdf
[5] Zhang, D., B. S. Haran, A. Durairajan, R. W. White, Y. Podrazhansky, and B. N. Popov. "Studies on Capacity Fade of Lithium-ion Batteries." Journal of Power Sources 91 (2000): 122-29. Web. http://www.che.sc.edu/faculty/white/2000studiesoncapcaityfadeofzhangharandurairajanwhitepodrazhanshkypopov.pdf.
Best Answer
Definitely. I had a MacBook Pro for 5 years, and by the end, the battery health was 73%. Yours looks to be 98% after 14 months. Battery degradation is just a fact of owning a laptop and not something to be terribly worried about.
EDIT: Apple support website says this:
Occasionally, the battery may not show a full charge (100%) in OS X, even after the power adapter has been connected for an extended period of time. The battery may appear to stop charging between 93 percent and 99 percent. This behavior is normal and will help to prolong the overall life of the battery.