A Day in the Life of the M1 MacBook Air’s Battery
Apple’s M1 chip has signalled a brand-new era for computing on the Mac. Seemingly gone are the days of “ My RAM’s bigger than yours”, and endless arguments over who to blame for the slow progression of MacBooks (was it really always Intel’s fault?).
It has also revealed what many have claimed to be colossal improvements in battery life for Apple’s laptops.
I’ve been among them. I’ve referred to battery life as the M1 MacBook Air’s “best feature” and regularly call it “biblical” when answering comments on my YouTube channel.
However, recently, I stopped halfway through a morning of working solely on the M1 Air and found myself asking a rather simple question.
Is the battery life on these M1 MacBooks really that good?
Something had sprung a doubt in my mind. Maybe it was a cursory glance at the battery percentage which was lower than normal for that time of day, or perhaps it was because, deep down, I’m concerned that my opinion of the battery life has been shaped my marketing hyperbole and reviewer praise.
After all, is leaving a laptop to compile a bunch of code while unplugged really a decent reflection of how awesome its battery life is versus the outgoing model?
So, I decided to conduct my own M1 MacBook Air battery test. And the results were absolutely fascinating.
