Disappointing battery life M1 MacBook Pro and interesting Genius Bar appointment

Hi everyone,

I've already launched a post like this one in the early days of me using this new M1 MacBook Pro, 512gb and 8gb ram, bought in July this year, but it was deactivated as there was a lack of replies.

I had faced battery issues repeatedly and saw no improvements after continuously updating the system and following all advices, such as closing unopened applications, reducing screen brightness, running native apps, and so on. I've been monitoring the battery usage on this machine extensively, screenshooting every possible type of usage, and my conclusion is so strong: this machine practically never go above 10 hours of use, and with Safari, Mail, Spotify and Microsoft Word opened only, it won't go above 5-6 hours. When adding to this mix Power Point and Excel, I sometimes get under 5 hours.

I am very surprised since I have watched pretty much all battery drain review and testing you can find online and none seem to match my experience. They all sound so amazing and overly positive, and for the same usage some people get at least 9 to 10 hours, which is never my case.

I screenshoted the today usage, which consisted solely in Mail, Safari with 2 tabs open, none of which being a video, Spotify and Outlook running in the background but me not touching them. The battery drained in around 6 hours, as you can see. I was literally mailing with Mail and sorting things out in the finder. Please note that the apps open in activity monitor such as Telegram and Istatistica were open just a moment while I was making the screenshot.

For the record, I have an interesting experience in Genius Bar that is relevant to this situation. I have gone there in August this year related to this issue but not only. At the start I experienced also frequent reboot with no error message, although this issue looks to have resolved on its own. I also have problems with 2 keyboard keys working 1/2 and with the fans turning on much more than the reviews actually tell. For all these issues, the expert at the Genius Bar listened carefully and decided to replace the MLB, the keyboard and even the unusually scratched screen under warranty.

Unfortunately, due to an expected work even happening abroad, I had to leave the country faster than expected and they could not do the repair on time, so they gave me the machine back. When they did so, another expert told me "anyways, I don't understand why my colleague decided to do all these repairs, because this can be solved with software update". I did not respond to him, because obviously he didn't look through the file and didn't do the actual assessment that his colleague did, and I plan to go back to the Genius Bar when I return home in December as to further proceed with these repairs.

However, I am afraid they now changed their minds, even though all is documented.

This is why I am also coming to you today to tell that story, to see if I am ultimately the only M1 MacBook Pro used with such battery drain issues.

I am very concerned, as this was an expensive machine and I am not getting the advantages they are well renowned for as of today. In 6 months of usage every day, I never managed to keep it running the whole day and was obliged to plug it in once or even twice, depending on the length of use. But I never did any heavy workload, such as video editing, gaming or extensive microsoft office app all open at the same time, and never with the screen at fill brightness. This doesn't sound normal to me.

Thanks a lot for reading through, I hope all this make sense and I am looking forward to reading your opinion.

Many thanks and have a nice week !

Dale