Yep. Mine says "check battery". I've got about 56% health after 182 cycles in 2 years. I'm quite skeptical on battery longevity since Apple states batteries are supposed to get down to 70% after 300 cycles (my battery clearly missed the mark).
It makes the wonder if the heat from gaming or not draining the battery once a month for calibration accelerates the deterioration. All companies have a tendency to work in "ideals" when the reality is FAR from the truth.
My MacBook Core2Duo is 31 months old with 777 load cycles and is at 94% capacity when fully charged. Some batteries are just bad. I doubt the heat from gaming would be any worse than Folding which I do with mine about 18 hours a day and maxes both CPUs.
personally I'd rather not know the status of the battery. It also makes the laptop look old with the "poor" battery condition. I guess they will eventually put on a status showing how old your laptop is - "Ancient -get it replaced"
Mac OS X versions seem to have been reporting the battery health conditions (as percentage) for years now. What's this? The user friendly name for 30%?
my 5 year old Dell Inspiron does this and it's annoying. the battery light on the laptop flashes orange all the time and there is a warning in the system tray to replace the battery. but it still lasts 60-90 minutes and i don't take it anywhere so i will probably get another few years of life out of it
HP does this with printer toner. they warn you when it's like half full just to get you to buy it
Mac OS X versions seem to have been reporting the battery health conditions (as percentage) for years now. What's this? The user friendly name for 30%?
Battery health and remaining percent of full charge are two different things.
When your battery is brand new a full charge might last say 3 hours - so 100% charge is 3 hours of use. 50% of remaining full charge is 1.5 hours of use.
As the battery ages and its capacity to hold a charge diminishes a full charge may only last 2 hours - meaning that 100% of full charge is now less than it used to be - and 50% of full charge is now only 1 hour instead of 2 hours.
I had an iBook that was showing 100% full charge but would drop to 50% after about 30 seconds and die after about 30 more second. A fully charged battery with 1 minute of useful capacity is not a healthy battery. That one I was able to get replaced under warranty -I have a MacBook with a similar condition but it is out of warranty and there are no recalls on that serial number.
I am wondering, How long will my battery last if i keep it constantly plug in the wall?
You don't want to do this--nearly all laptops (Apple included) constantly trickle charge the battery. Without some periodic discharge, the battery cells burn up from overcharging and your battery dies prematurely.
I haven't been overly impressed with Apple's notebook battery charging circuits or batteries since the PowerBook G4 to the first-gen Macbook. It seems the batteries just don't last as long as they should. My Macbook's 2006-era battery is almost shot after about 157 cycles while the batteries purchased with a Dell Latitude D800 in March 2005 just keep on lasting and still reach their rated operating time. (I have two, but one receives the brunt of use. And until the Macbook's screen got broken, I used both systems equally.)
I was thinking of a new battery for my Macbook, but since the display panel shattered I may just get a newer system and see how Apple's latest advances in battery technology and charging are really working.
Apple has lately been paying closer attention to battery life on all its devices and with iPhone OS 3.0 will add a numerical percentage to the iPhone's previously icon-only battery indicator.
The iPhone needs to support individually configurable power settings for battery and external charger. For example, people should be able to set the iPhone to never lock the screen when it is connected to a charger. Now that TomTom is making a navigation application for the iPhone, people will not want the iPhone to automatically lock while they are driving.
None of my phones have ever had a big battery status indicator. I have my old Treo 700p here on my desk, and the indicator is, if anything, even smaller.
I don't think it's all that important. we get the 20% warning, and then the 10% one. If you're not down that far, you're fine. Besides, seeing the 100%, 75%, 50%, 25% bars, and then the warnings should be enough, realistically.
Is it really going to help knowing that your battery is at 48% rather than seeing the 50% bar?
I am wondering, How long will my battery last if i keep it constantly plug in the wall?
Longer than if you don't...
Batteries are most stressed out when you discharge the completely, especially if you don't recharge it immediately.
It's recommended, however, that you do use your battery occasionally... every couple of weeks to a month should be fine. But basically, battery health is based on charge cycles most rather than time. The more complete charge cycles (fully discharged and fully recharged), the worse your battery's capacity will be.
No! Please don't leave your computer plugged in all the time with the battery installed (if you have a removable battery, that is).
Modern batteries last longest at room temperature and about a 40% charge. That's the state you want to store them in. The worst conditions for 'em are a 100% charge and high temperature, which is the state you're keeping your battery in if the computer is plugged in all day. In that case, take the battery out.
icfireball is correct in that deep cycling (full discharge) is also bad for them, so when you have the chance, top your battery off instead of draining it.
Be aware that many MacBook Pros cut performance when running without a battery, so pop it back in before that heavy gaming session.
Comments
Yep. Mine says "check battery". I've got about 56% health after 182 cycles in 2 years. I'm quite skeptical on battery longevity since Apple states batteries are supposed to get down to 70% after 300 cycles (my battery clearly missed the mark).
It makes the wonder if the heat from gaming or not draining the battery once a month for calibration accelerates the deterioration. All companies have a tendency to work in "ideals" when the reality is FAR from the truth.
My MacBook Core2Duo is 31 months old with 777 load cycles and is at 94% capacity when fully charged. Some batteries are just bad. I doubt the heat from gaming would be any worse than Folding which I do with mine about 18 hours a day and maxes both CPUs.
HP does this with printer toner. they warn you when it's like half full just to get you to buy it
Mac OS X versions seem to have been reporting the battery health conditions (as percentage) for years now. What's this? The user friendly name for 30%?
Battery health and remaining percent of full charge are two different things.
When your battery is brand new a full charge might last say 3 hours - so 100% charge is 3 hours of use. 50% of remaining full charge is 1.5 hours of use.
As the battery ages and its capacity to hold a charge diminishes a full charge may only last 2 hours - meaning that 100% of full charge is now less than it used to be - and 50% of full charge is now only 1 hour instead of 2 hours.
I had an iBook that was showing 100% full charge but would drop to 50% after about 30 seconds and die after about 30 more second. A fully charged battery with 1 minute of useful capacity is not a healthy battery. That one I was able to get replaced under warranty -I have a MacBook with a similar condition but it is out of warranty and there are no recalls on that serial number.
Battery health and remaining percent of full charge are two different things.
I know this. But I see repeatedly somewhere (in System Profiler? in OnyX?, I will find out exactly) something like:
Charge: 99%
Health: 85%
Battery health is for sure already displayed by Mac OS X in the form of percentage.
I am wondering, How long will my battery last if i keep it constantly plug in the wall?
You don't want to do this--nearly all laptops (Apple included) constantly trickle charge the battery. Without some periodic discharge, the battery cells burn up from overcharging and your battery dies prematurely.
I haven't been overly impressed with Apple's notebook battery charging circuits or batteries since the PowerBook G4 to the first-gen Macbook. It seems the batteries just don't last as long as they should. My Macbook's 2006-era battery is almost shot after about 157 cycles while the batteries purchased with a Dell Latitude D800 in March 2005 just keep on lasting and still reach their rated operating time. (I have two, but one receives the brunt of use. And until the Macbook's screen got broken, I used both systems equally.)
I was thinking of a new battery for my Macbook, but since the display panel shattered I may just get a newer system and see how Apple's latest advances in battery technology and charging are really working.
Apple has lately been paying closer attention to battery life on all its devices and with iPhone OS 3.0 will add a numerical percentage to the iPhone's previously icon-only battery indicator.
The iPhone needs to support individually configurable power settings for battery and external charger. For example, people should be able to set the iPhone to never lock the screen when it is connected to a charger. Now that TomTom is making a navigation application for the iPhone, people will not want the iPhone to automatically lock while they are driving.
None of my phones have ever had a big battery status indicator. I have my old Treo 700p here on my desk, and the indicator is, if anything, even smaller.
Nokias were always good at this.
I know this. But I see repeatedly somewhere (in System Profiler? in OnyX?, I will find out exactly) something like:
Charge: 99%
Health: 85%
Battery health is for sure already displayed by Mac OS X in the form of percentage.
This is a different feature though.
With System Profiler, you have to open the app, and then the app needs to look through your machine.
This is making the information more easily available without having to open the app and all that entails.
Nokias were always good at this.
I don't think it's all that important. we get the 20% warning, and then the 10% one. If you're not down that far, you're fine. Besides, seeing the 100%, 75%, 50%, 25% bars, and then the warnings should be enough, realistically.
Is it really going to help knowing that your battery is at 48% rather than seeing the 50% bar?
Not really.
I am wondering, How long will my battery last if i keep it constantly plug in the wall?
Longer than if you don't...
Batteries are most stressed out when you discharge the completely, especially if you don't recharge it immediately.
It's recommended, however, that you do use your battery occasionally... every couple of weeks to a month should be fine. But basically, battery health is based on charge cycles most rather than time. The more complete charge cycles (fully discharged and fully recharged), the worse your battery's capacity will be.
No! Please don't leave your computer plugged in all the time with the battery installed (if you have a removable battery, that is).
Modern batteries last longest at room temperature and about a 40% charge. That's the state you want to store them in. The worst conditions for 'em are a 100% charge and high temperature, which is the state you're keeping your battery in if the computer is plugged in all day. In that case, take the battery out.
icfireball is correct in that deep cycling (full discharge) is also bad for them, so when you have the chance, top your battery off instead of draining it.
Be aware that many MacBook Pros cut performance when running without a battery, so pop it back in before that heavy gaming session.
This is a different feature though.
With System Profiler, you have to open the app, and then the app needs to look through your machine.
This is making the information more easily available without having to open the app and all that entails.
Yes, little sweet user-friendly touch.