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Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

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Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#111

Post by praseodym »

duskwuff wrote: post #108
rb808 wrote: post #105

Its amazing how dumb most charging is for smart devices. I plug my phone in every night and it does a quick charge then sits there and does nothing the rest of the night. It even knows my alarm clock time, surely it should be smart enough to slowly charge all night.

iPhones will selectively delay charging past 80% if you're at home and if your usage history indicates that the phone will be left on the charger for a while longer. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210512

Apparently a notification will show up when optimised charging is enabled. I’ve never seen it, because the functionality also requires Significant Locations and other location services (listed near the bottom of the page) to be enabled.

That seems to me to be quite unfriendly to privacy. And given that I always charge my phone overnight and use my phone’s alarm function, it could simply use that as the target time to finish charging to 100%. No complicated location-based ML needed.

Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#113

Post by [deleted] »

rb808 wrote: post #105

Its amazing how dumb most charging is for smart devices. I plug my phone in every night and it does a quick charge then sits there and does nothing the rest of the night. It even knows my alarm clock time, surely it should be smart enough to slowly charge all night.

[deleted]

Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#114

Post by bdcravens »

frizkie wrote: post #68
bdcravens wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yikes - I have the same, and with a cycle count of 41, I'm down to 94%.

Just another datapoint here for a 2019 16" MBP bought at launch: 8542/8587 mAh for ~99.5%. I have 46 cycle count, I keep it at my desk plugged in at 100% the vast majority of the time.

I don't think that's how you calculate it. You measure the Full Charge Capacity against what it's originally rated at. (What I've seen online is that the original capacity is 8790)

In your case, that'd be 8587/8790, or 97.7%.

Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#115

Post by floatrock »

atombender wrote: post #104
cmckn wrote: post #80

Why doesn't the UI report 80% as 100%? It seems like exposing this to the user is more confusing than anything, when the cells could be over provisioned and treated politely by a system controller, without the user being part of the decision. Aren't SSD's over provisioned in this manner? You sell a drive with a terabyte of storage, but actually ship more than a terabyte of chips in the case to accommodate degradation…

It's my understanding that modern EVs like the Kia Niro EV or the Chevy Bolt work this way. When nominally charged to 100%, the actual charge is closer to 80%. A 75 kW battery will typically only go to 64 kW.

During one of the last few hurricanes, Tesla did an OTA update that unlocked extra range for people trying to leave.

I seem to remember it being something like the hardware capacity is one number but there's a software upsell that you normally need to pay to unlock full capacity. But it may have also been a "we'll push the normal operating parameters to give you this extra boost", don't quite remember.

Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#116

Post by AlphaSite »

praseodym wrote: post #111
duskwuff wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iPhones will selectively delay charging past 80% if you're at home and if your usage history indicates that the phone will be left on the charger for a while longer. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210512

Apparently a notification will show up when optimised charging is enabled. I’ve never seen it, because the functionality also requires Significant Locations and other location services (listed near the bottom of the page) to be enabled. That seems to me to be quite unfriendly to privacy. And given that I always charge my phone overnight and use my phone’s alarm function, it could simply use that as the target time to…

It’s all on device so I don’t think there are any significant privacy implications.

Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#117

Post by floatrock »

rb808 wrote: post #105

Its amazing how dumb most charging is for smart devices. I plug my phone in every night and it does a quick charge then sits there and does nothing the rest of the night. It even knows my alarm clock time, surely it should be smart enough to slowly charge all night.

It's not necessarily that it's dumb, there's a bit of battery physics and chemistry involved. If you look up EV charging curves for example [1], the first bit goes fast and the last bit slows down. A rough analogy I've heard is it's like blowing up a balloon -- as it gets bigger, there's more back-pressure so it gets harder to fill up the last bit. That's why the EV roadtrip strategy is "frequent fast-charging" -- you spend less time if you recharge from 10% to 60% twice instead of going from 10% to 100% once (also safer to take driver breaks).

If your phone never gets past 80%, it could be the battery just needs replacement. Batteries are consumables, and they do degrade after a year or two or three (depending on cycling, temperatures, use, etc). iOS has a battery health indicator giving you a rough estimate of the state... if the health is low, get a repair kit from ifixit and then it's a fun evening activity to open one of those puppies up and see just how tiny everything in there is!

[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=ev+charging+curves

Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#118

Post by szhu »

floatrock wrote: post #115
atombender wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's my understanding that modern EVs like the Kia Niro EV or the Chevy Bolt work this way. When nominally charged to 100%, the actual charge is closer to 80%. A 75 kW battery will typically only go to 64 kW.

During one of the last few hurricanes, Tesla did an OTA update that unlocked extra range for people trying to leave. I seem to remember it being something like the hardware capacity is one number but there's a software upsell that you normally need to pay to unlock full capacity. But it may have also been a "we'll push the normal operating parameters to give you this extra boost", don't quite remember.

Tesla sells two versions of that car, one with longer range, even though they have identical hardware. During the hurricane, they lifted the software cap on the shorter-range version.

Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#119

Post by Sephr »

It would be nice if I could keep my MacBook battery at a healthy level without having to drain it.

With the MacBook Pro 16 you can easily draw enough energy to drain your battery while using a 100W power adapter.

Dell addressed to this issue in their USB-C laptops by making and allowing 130W power adapters. Apple requires you to tap into your non-user-replaceable battery to supplant the power usage.

Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#120

Post by greedo »

rubber_duck wrote: post #53

I got a top spec 15 MBP a year ago and I have to say the experience is appalling - 4000$ device that goes full airplane takeoff levels of noise at any serious workload, no ability to control performance (I would gladly throttle the CPU sooner to avoid everyone in the office turning my way when I start an emulator or keep the fans at lower RPM but constantly instead of letting the CPU idle at 60-70 degrees with no fan…

Perhaps try https://www.rugarciap.com/turbo-boost-switcher-for-os-x/

This can extend your battery a decent amount, and obviously would cut down on fan noise.

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