Jan 2021 purchase. 47 cycles, 93% battery capacity. is this normal? Apple support says unless it fails, they will not replace.
ref. screenshots below.
questions to the forum:
1. Is this something i should even care about.
2. Given the behaviour of apple support - what is to be done here now.

1. No
2. No

Apple will replace it under warrenty or Apple Care, if it goes below 80%.

It only matters if it drops below 80%. Until then, stop worrying. The numbers aren't even real. They're all just estimates and if you stare at them enough you see them go up as well as down.

Just enjoy your computer. If it drops below 80%, your laptop will warn you with a battery warning and ask you to service the battery.

93% not so bad to change the battery.

My MBA M1 (04/2021) actually shows 93% in Coconut Battery after 32 Cycles . Systemreport shows 100%

My MBA M1 was sitting at 99-100% for the first 8 months and then suddenly dropped to 93% for the past two months and has now been sitting there at ~60 charge cycles. Funny because I use Al dente and was limiting my charge to 80% and was really proud that I had maintained 100% health over the first 6 months.

I bought my M1 Air when it was released. My battery health is still 100%. Cycle count is 66. I have never had optimised charging enabled.

yikes. first bad screens. now bad batteries.
they sure are not building them to last many years.

Just out of interest, have you noticed a drop in autonomy at all because that would be something to worry about?

Freeangel1 said:

yikes. first bad screens. now bad batteries.
they sure are not building them to last many years.

Batteries have been an issue since forever because they're batteries.

I actually just checked and I'm on 101% after 48 cycles (according to CoconutBattery) – mentioning this because I came to search the forum for a different reason and saw this thread.

I don't think Apple will replace anything until the battery capacity drops below 80% before 1000 cycles are achieved.

navaira said:

I actually just checked and I'm on 101% after 48 cycles (according to CoconutBattery) – mentioning this because I came to search the forum for a different reason and saw this thread.

I don't think Apple will replace anything until the battery capacity drops below 80% before 1000 cycles are achieved.

80% is the magic number. When you drop to 80%, Apple's battery app itself will tell you to bring your laptop in for service and warn you that your battery is degraded.

How accurate is Coconut Battery? I just installed it for the first time about a month ago and it has the battery health on my 9 month old, 30 charge cycles M1 MacBook Air at 88.6 while the battery health onboard is at 96. I know it can vary but which would you consider to be more reliable?

andyx3x said:

How accurate is Coconut Battery? I just installed it for the first time about a month ago and it has the battery health on my 9 month old, 30 charge cycles M1 MacBook Air at 88.6 while the battery health onboard is at 96. I know it can vary but which would you consider to be more reliable?

Dumb question, but where you do find your Apple official battery health number? My battery app doesn't show that anyplace obvious.

Anyway, Coconut Battery and other similar battery apps are just reading the numbers available in the system report under "About this Mac" and doing the math against the published battery capacity.

The numbers in my screenshot are slightly out of sync, but if I refreshed the numbers, they'd be back in line. The numbers put out by System Report can fluctuate from minute to minute.

smirking said:

Dumb question, but where you do find your Apple official battery health number? My battery app doesn't show that anyplace obvious.

Anyway, Coconut Battery and other similar battery apps are just reading the numbers available in the system report under "About this Mac" and doing the math against the published battery capacity.

The numbers in my screenshot are slightly out of sync, but if I refreshed the numbers, they'd be back in line. The numbers put out by System Report can fluctuate from minute to minute.

View attachment 1852468

Click to expand...

You're right where you should be. It should be right under cycle count and condition. It is on mine and it says Maximum Capacity and then your percentage. It's odd you don't have it there.

andyx3x said:

You're right where you should be. It should be right under cycle count and condition. It is on mine and it says Maximum Capacity and then your percentage. It's odd you don't have it there.

Are you on Big Sur? I've never seen that number before. If it's in Catalina, it might explain why I've never seen it. I skipped over that OS version.

smirking said:

Are you on Big Sur? I've never seen that number before. If it's in Catalina, it might explain why I've never seen it. I skipped over that OS version.

Yep I am on Big Sur.

I have seen many many people report similar concerns with the battery after only a few months of use. I almost wonder if the new better performance is a trade off for shorter battery life. Or if the current way battery condition is measured is too sensitive.

smirking said:

Dumb question, but where you do find your Apple official battery health number? My battery app doesn't show that anyplace obvious.

Anyway, Coconut Battery and other similar battery apps are just reading the numbers available in the system report under "About this Mac" and doing the math against the published battery capacity.

The numbers in my screenshot are slightly out of sync, but if I refreshed the numbers, they'd be back in line. The numbers put out by System Report can fluctuate from minute to minute.

View attachment 1852468

Click to expand...

Third party apps like Coconut and Bettery Battery 2 use the ioreg value which fluctuates daily up and down. Because Apple don't want people reacting to these varying numbers they supply a different number calculated in some way which eliminates these fluctuations. When the Apple number drops to 80% they will take notice.

The Apple number (always the same in System information and Sys Prefs > Battery Health) is not the same as the ioreg number.

Not all models and OS versions have the Sys Prefs > Battery Health.

Here is my ioreg number after 53 cycles reported by Better Battery 2 since Feb, when I started using it (Machine was new in Nov 2020). My Apple Sys Info and Sys Prefs numbers are both 100%.

I have used AlDente since Feb to keep max charge to about 60% since I am mostly plugged in.

Mike Boreham said:

The Apple number (always the same in System information and Sys Prefs > Battery Health) is not the same as the ioreg number.

Below is a composite screenshot showing the ioreg value appearing in Better Battery 2 with max capacity (=Health) at 93.8%, and my Apple Battery Health and System Info numbers at 100%. (Edited to show info from same computer as previous post #19)

1. No
2. Nothing
3. Just keep using your Mac as normal.