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Early 2011 Model: A1278 / 2.3 GHz i5 or 2.7 GHz i7 processor

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Do I have a bad battery?

Hello everyone,

So recently, I purchased an Early 2011 Macbook Pro 13" off of a friend because he got an upgrade for his birthday. Laptop works fine, and I love it, especially after using an old Windows 10 laptop for multiple years. Despite being old, the things feels snappy. I have had one issue though, the battery. 

I know how to replace the battery and am not looking for assistance in that area, but I think I have an issue with the battery? My friend said it worked fine for him, but I can barely make it through an entire day on this thing. The battery only has 92 charge cycles on it, and both the System Diagnostics and a 3rd party application called Coconut Battery say it is in good health, still supporting 100% capacity. The laptop is rated for 10 hours of usage, but after 55 minutes (1 class period), with the brightness a little under halfway (like 1 or 2 notches), the keyboard lighting off, and only editing documents, scrolling the web, or watching YouTube, I am at 70-75%. I don't think this battery is in fully working condition and was wondering if anyone has some expertise in this area.

Thank you anyone for help!

(The photos attached are the diagnostics and a picture of the actual battery)

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Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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I would love to only use 25% an hour on my 2016 MBP...

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I would be more than happy to trade you ;)

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Haha! In all seriousness, that's about the runtime I see on Pros around that age. What kind of times were you expecting to see?

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I didn't really have a true expectation, just longer than a school day. Seeing less than 50% at the end of a school day after leaving a Windows 10 laptop that managed 80% at the end of the day just felt weird, so I thought there could be an issue with the battery.

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Even when the 2011 came out, battery life in most use cases was around 3.5-5 hours: https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbo...

The Pro lineup has never had *exceptional* battery life, that's more of the Air thing.

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3 hours is pretty average for an aftermarket battery. Note that the ratings are probably for an older Mac OS at the time so I think it's normal. Other users here can give their opinions on battery life.

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Thanks for the response! The battery is an iFixit battery though, so I would somewhat expect better performance than something like Amazon.

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I second @benjamen50 , about 3 hours is quite a reasonable amount of time for an aftermarket battery, but even an original one at release was nowhere near 10hrs, let's say 5 at the best. Also take into account informatics world of today is very different from 2011, Apps are heavier, webpages have multiplied weight tenfold, videos resolution is much higher, etc..all points to heavier loads on graphics, CPU=higher energy demand.

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From the responses I have been getting from users and reading about how long it should last in 'real life' usage, 3-5 hours seems to be normal for these machines, and on the lower end for the older ones. So, turns out I don't have a battery issue! I didn't really know what usage I was supposed to get, just because I switched from a Windows 10 laptop that at the end of a day I had around 80% left. Thank you all for your help!

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Your CoconutBattery capture shows the draw of the system, What does the MagSafe charger look like? Plug it in and take a second snap. I’m thinking the charging logic is having issues. The Battery its self took fine!

I get about 5hrs surfing the web of static pages, Vids can push it back to a few hours depending on the app.

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I have gone ahead and added the photo to the original post. It says 30.53 watts.

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That looks OK! When it gets to 90% it should drop off or go to zero.

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