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What is the significance of 11 battery cycle count on brand new MacBook Pro 16 inch M1 Max ?

Yesterday I bought a brand new Macbook M1 Max 16 inch and while opened it and check the machine and it comes to the surprise when the battery cycle count is 11, which is significance high than normal.

I already contacted with technical support to ask them about this issue but did not come with the officially solution for this problem. If anyone has the same issue like pls share it here.


Thank you guys.

Posted on Sep 10, 2023 3:49 AM

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Posted on Sep 10, 2023 4:13 AM

It means the battery had completed 11 full 100% battery charge cycles.


The number is basically eye candy and has no bearing on battery health. The metric to watch is remaining capacity. When it drops to 80%, regardless of cycle count, Apple recommends you replace the battery.


If you left the battery on constant recharge for ten years, cycle count would be vey low, maybe 1, but the battery will still have degraded. That's just how they work as consumables.

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Sep 10, 2023 4:13 AM in response to Halodmc

It means the battery had completed 11 full 100% battery charge cycles.


The number is basically eye candy and has no bearing on battery health. The metric to watch is remaining capacity. When it drops to 80%, regardless of cycle count, Apple recommends you replace the battery.


If you left the battery on constant recharge for ten years, cycle count would be vey low, maybe 1, but the battery will still have degraded. That's just how they work as consumables.

Sep 10, 2023 6:13 AM in response to ku4hx

Thank you for the answer. I get what you mean the conditions of the battery and the technical support already answers me same your opinion here. What I wonder here is : Normally the brand new one out of the box is around 1, 2 or maybe 5 battery cycle counts.

But 11 cycle counts for full 100% charged, it seems quite significance high for the MacBook directly from the factory. And I wanna know this situation is common or very rare to happen. And the officially solution from the Apple.

Sep 10, 2023 7:57 AM in response to Halodmc

You are in the same situation as if you got a brand new car, and instead of 3 miles on the odometer, it had 11 miles. That could mean "it did not sound right" and they did extended testing to be sure everything met that standard to be good enough to ship to you as new.


Every Mac that actually leaves the factory meets Apples standards. A battery with more than some small number of cycles (that exceeded Apple standard) would have been replaced before shipment.

Sep 10, 2023 9:14 AM in response to Halodmc

The most important thing here is for you to state whether you bought directly from Apple—either in an Apple-owned retail store or from their web site—or from a reseller, authorized or not.


I agree with the others that this can be an inexact gauge. However, I have never seen more that 3 cycles on a dozen or so Mac notebooks I've bought directly from Apple for my own use or for friends and relatives.



What is the significance of 11 battery cycle count on brand new MacBook Pro 16 inch M1 Max ?

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