• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Should I buy macbook pro if I leave it plugged in all the time?

David B

An Idiot
I have already read so many things that say the battery will go down to 80% to more % down the longer I leave it plugged in. I didn't buy yet. But the battery in a macbook worries me as I would mostly just leave it plugged in all the time as I only use my computer at home. I use to have a toshiba laptop and I left it plugged in all the time and only lasted 6 months before the motherboard fried out so dead laptop it was. So guessing it would be better to buy an imac as I leave stuff plugged in and I don't want a constant grief of a battery dying on me.
 

Drew1440

Member
If it's going to be stationary then yes, go for the iMac instead, or the Mac Mini. On older laptops it was recommended to remove the battery if it wasn't going to be used for a long time, but most modern laptops have the battery fixed and internal. The worst case scenario is the battery starts to bloat and starts to put pressure on the mainboard which can happen if left on charge.
 

David B

An Idiot
If it's going to be stationary then yes, go for the iMac instead, or the Mac Mini. On older laptops it was recommended to remove the battery if it wasn't going to be used for a long time, but most modern laptops have the battery fixed and internal. The worst case scenario is the battery starts to bloat and starts to put pressure on the mainboard which can happen if left on charge.
Yup so again motherboard fries and burns if left plugged in. Macbook pro M2 pro powerful yes but worry about battery constantly is a headache.
 

Kilau

Gold Member
My laptop is plugged in almost all the time. It won’t charge past 60% unless I tell it to if I’m taking it somewhere. Battery life is still good.

Macs don’t have that setting?
 

David B

An Idiot
Have a look at this


Still a nightmare to even remove the battery. I live pretty far away from an apple store to do it even. Much rather have apple replace battery. So therefore thanks for video, I will sure not buy a macbook air or pro. Imac it is than.
 

David B

An Idiot
My laptop is plugged in almost all the time. It won’t charge past 60% unless I tell it to if I’m taking it somewhere. Battery life is still good.

Macs don’t have that setting?
Yeah they have more battery settings now indeed seen on apple website. But you may be stuck at 60% max as websites say % goes down for the max the longer you leave it plugged in. Meaning dead battery 1 or 2 years after leaving pluged in.
 

Artoris

Gold Member
Still a nightmare to even remove the battery. I live pretty far away from an apple store to do it even. Much rather have apple replace battery. So therefore thanks for video, I will sure not buy a macbook air or pro. Imac it is than.
I would not worry too much about the battery, It's unlikely to cause you any problems
 

eddie4

Genuinely Generous
Just get a desktop PC, and run macOS in a VM; best of both worlds. No batteries, no overpriced hardware.
 

David B

An Idiot
I would not worry too much about the battery, It's unlikely to cause you any problems
I know. I'm not a heavy user though. The battery worry has me return though. In the past I returned a macbook pro 13 inch as the screen is too small and battery worry.
 

daveonezero

Banned
I believe if you put on battery optimization and leave it plugged in you’d probably be ok. But only with the official charger. I haven’t found a 3rd party dock or charger that doesn’t make the CPU or fans freak out on a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro.

But if you don’t need a laptop get the mini. They are the best value device Apple makes.
 
Last edited:

David B

An Idiot
I believe if you put on battery optimization and leave it plugged in you’d probably be ok. But only with the official charger. I haven’t found a 3rd party dock or charger that doesn’t make the CPU or fans freak out on a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro.

But if you don’t need a laptop get the mini. They are the best value device Apple makes.
Thanks. I have a mac mini M1 now but I'd like to get an all in one so the camera works with imovie. In mac mini you have to capture first with photo booth.
 

Celcius

°Temp. member
My work laptop is a macbook pro and I leave it plugged in 99% of the time and I haven't had any issues with the battery.
 

daveonezero

Banned
My work laptop is a macbook pro and I leave it plugged in 99% of the time and I haven't had any issues with the battery.
Yeah and I’d turn it off or unplug it at night or something. Then you really could avoid potential issues.

I don’t think the batter on a Mac is always “charging” when it is plugged in and at 100%
 

David B

An Idiot
There has to be a work around other than buying a new machine….
Wish there was but that's how mac has been since the beginning. Mac mini, mac studio, and mac pro require that you record yourself with photo booth or something else and than copy paste to iMovie.
 

eddie4

Genuinely Generous
Wish there was but that's how mac has been since the beginning. Mac mini, mac studio, and mac pro require that you record yourself with photo booth or something else and than copy paste to iMovie.
Can you not use something like OBS to capture the webcam and whatever else you're trying to record? Then import it into iMovie?
 

David B

An Idiot
Can you not use something like OBS to capture the webcam and whatever else you're trying to record? Then import it into iMovie?
You can import anything from mp3 to mp4 to mpeg or whatever. Just not windows only file extensions.
 

eddie4

Genuinely Generous
You can import anything from mp3 to mp4 to mpeg or whatever. Just not windows only file extensions.
OBS works on macOS, and you can set up the 'scene' to record multiple things, whether a webcam, application, game, another webcam, etc. Then if you want further editing, you can import it into iMovie. I'm not quite sure what you want to do or record at the same time as the webcam, but I know that OBS has plenty of features to do it.
 

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
Don’t lose your warranty by taking the battery out! Leave it plugged in. Mine is plugged in all the time.
 

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
If you never take the computer out then get a Mac Studio. If you use it occasionally away from home, get the laptop and don't worry about the battery, it'll be fine. My MacBook Pro is mainly plugged in, and I noticed the OS monitors usage patterns and automatically won't charge the battery past 80% to protect it most of the time. I assume you can say you want it fully charged, but battery life is really good so I haven't even looked.

Ultimately, the battery will fail eventually in every device, but you won't see a significant drop in capacity within 5 years, would be my guess. When I bought mine the retailer gave a 4 year warranty, which includes battery problems, so I think they're quite confident.

You can always pay to have the battery replaced by Apple too.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
My company laptop's battery charge is capped at 70%. It's supposed to prevent battery deteriation from continued power supply. It's not a Macbook but perhaps something similar can be installed on a Macbook?
 
I leave my MacBook plugged in all the time but when I do use the battery I get about 45 mins out of it with the screen brightness at 50% lol.
 
Last edited:

gundalf

Member
I have already read so many things that say the battery will go down to 80% to more % down the longer I leave it plugged in. I didn't buy yet. But the battery in a macbook worries me as I would mostly just leave it plugged in all the time as I only use my computer at home. I use to have a toshiba laptop and I left it plugged in all the time and only lasted 6 months before the motherboard fried out so dead laptop it was. So guessing it would be better to buy an imac as I leave stuff plugged in and I don't want a constant grief of a battery dying on me.

I have my Macbook Pro from 2019 plugged in all the time with a total of 152 charging cycles and according to my math it lost a shy 4.165% of its total capacity, this is fantastic!


You see once the battery is full, the BMS turns off charging and the system is then powered purely from the external charger. There is no battery degradation from keeping it plugged it constantly.
Back then I think until the early 2010s, shitty Windows Laptops had a horrible BMS and would be constantly charging the battery while the cell chemistry also being so poor that they got high degradation from aging.
 

Tams

Member
All the time? Then no, buy a Mac Mini for cheaper and not have to worry about the battery.

If you do plan on using the system as a laptop, well, get a Macbook then. Battery management has improved a lot, but Macbooks still don't have a battery bypass (nor do most other laptops), so you'll want to occasionally use it on battery power to not bork the battery.
 
Nope. Get an iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Studio.

The whole point of a laptop is portability. That's why there is a battery in it. If you are just going to fully charge it to 100% and keep it there forever it defeats the point and the battery will be dead real quick. You'll probably wreck your motherboard too. Have you seen the repair costs for Apple products by any chance? When I had a MacBook the motherboard fried and it cost £400 to replace it....and it died again after 5 months lol.

or you could get a MacBook and just let it run on battery every now and then to keep it healthy.

It's up to you. It's your money but Apple products are expensive as fuck and I'd be taking damn good care of them and not running them into the ground.

I have my Macbook Pro from 2019 plugged in all the time with a total of 152 charging cycles and according to my math it lost a shy 4.165% of its total capacity, this is fantastic!


You see once the battery is full, the BMS turns off charging and the system is then powered purely from the external charger. There is no battery degradation from keeping it plugged it constantly.
Back then I think until the early 2010s, shitty Windows Laptops had a horrible BMS and would be constantly charging the battery while the cell chemistry also being so poor that they got high degradation from aging.
You've had it plugged in all the time but still there are charging cycles so you've not really had it plugged in all the time and have been using the battery and as such that is why it has still good health

Or...the laptop is running on charger power and then using battery for a little while and then topping it up but to you it looks like 100% charge all the time with mains power. And as you're not using the battery properly (draining/charging it) then it could throw the battery stats off. I know battery calibration is a thing of the past but if you are leaving the laptop plugged in all the time then you're not giving the system the time to monitor it. It could be that if you drain and charge the battery (like you're meant to) you'll find that the battery health will drop significantly.

You should be charging ANY product with a battery every few months whether you are using it or not. Leaving batteries uncharged or fully charged for months on end will severely decrease their life span. Again....the whole point of a battery is to power the device. So maybe you should let it do its thing.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom