How good is the M1 MacBook Air's battery? | A day in the life | Mark Ellis Reviews

How good is the M1 MacBook Air's battery in reality? Will it sail through an 8 hour workday with loads of percentage to spare? I decided to put it to the test on a typical day's work - and filmed what happened. The result was... fascinating.

CHAPTERS
00:00 - Intro
01:14 - The rules
01:54 - The test
12:01 - Conclusion

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LIST OF APPS I USED DURING THIS TEST
- Safari
- Discord
- YouTube Studio
- Google Drive
- Spark email client
- Fantastical
- Toggl Track
- Notes
- Day One
- Ulysses
- Omnifocus
- Slack
- Trello
- Word
- Teams
- Final Cut Pro
- Messages

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WHAT IS THIS CHANNEL ALL ABOUT?
I have zero interest in deep spec dives or long-winded comparisons. I review laptops, smartphones, tablets, headphones and the latest tech based on real experience. I'll tell you how it'll make you feel, whether or not it's worth your time (and money) and help you find the tech you need to get stuff done.

WHO AM I?
I'm a UK-based freelance marketer and broke free of a regular job many years ago. Watch my videos to find the tech you need, without the jargon.

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[MarkEllisReviews]

This really took me by surprise. Let me know what you think. What's going on?

[SamAlexanderYouTube]

I love that where we are in computing is that 8 hrs of real work battery life is disappointing 😂
my first laptop I was lucky to get 1-2 hrs

[berkensayilir]

Any typical windows machine will run out of battery in 3-5 hours with maximal screen brightness. I‘m actually stunned by the fact you pretty much manage to get a full day of battery at maximal brightness.

[katunik.]

Great video, thanks! Hahah I really watched all your vids about MacBooks! Waiting for my M1 Air cuz I’m quite impressed now. It works great! No more 3-4 hours and then sitting near the sockets

[prebenhansen]

As far as remember I have seen a test on Youtube where the tester more or less left the computer doing nothing, but with the screen at full brightness. It lasted about 8 hours.
So I think the problem definitely is the full brightness.

[JianGongWeb]

I don't think your battery is defective. The screen brightness setting has a huge effect on battery life. If you reduce the brightness when you don't need it, it is possible to stretch the battery life for longer, I believe. Thanks for the video.

[_ritamghosh]

Your review gave me a proper reality check about the battery life of this m1 macbook air, coz I was also having the same experience 💁🏻‍♂️

[EspenJohan]

Great video and good test, im still watching videos of the new Mac m1. Im a Windows user always wanted to buy a Mac. And finally the price is right. I edit in Davinci Resolve and I see they have a beta version. Im thinking of buying the Mac mini, do you think it can handle 4K footage with effects in fusion. You got a new subscriber from Norway🇧🇻. And I join the discord. Have a wonderful day.

[Mockedarche_old]

Screen brightness is the largest battery draw unless you're running the machine at like 100% load.

[workhardforit]

My M1 MacBook Pro easily gives me 18-20ish hours when doing productivity stuff @40% to 50% brightness.

It’s more expensive but the capability to be away from the wall socket for longer is worth it!

[brianrobinson]

My wife works for a school and is on Zoom about 5-6 Hrs a day. She typically ends the day with around 50% with the M1 MacBook Air.

[zazzlezzz]

oh, man, I'm forced to use Teams for work calls and chats. Over 14 months and they still haven't provided an M1 version. I did order my Macbook Air a few days ago, gotta arrive here in 4-7 weeks (custom order, long delivery time) but we'll see how it performs.

[MBlankestijn]

Maar 100% helderheid heb je dat echt nodig? I will try monday my brand new M1 Air en let you know how my workday go. I try it by 60% brightness.

[bobg]

Try the test again using 50% screen brightness. You'll get a full day of work out of the battery.

[furqanQadri]

can you update the video? Like was it a defective battery?

[Deetroiter]

I have the m1 pro and usually at 25% or 50% brightness at max. Don’t really have any major background apps running nonstop, etc and can easily top 20+ hours of use. I do always keep Bluetooth off too. Random question, what is your method for cleaning the screens on these laptops?

[mplovecraft]

I haven't properly documented the battery and time, but when it comes to "everyday" usage such as browsing with an unseemly amount of tabs, YouTube, some programming, messaging etc it just seems to go on and on forever. I can't say for sure, but it HAS to be way more than 8 hours. However, when I play World of Warcraft it will go through the battery much, much faster (no surprise). Maybe 4-6x faster or even more? Like I said, I haven't properly looked into it so I'm just guessing.
LTT did a battery test recently and they found that the MBP M1 did significantly better when it comes to the battery. It shouldn't though as the battery is just slightly larger.

[GamezeveR]

...do you need max screen brightness when using a laptop indoors? I barely ever feel the need to go beyond 2 bars above the middle point and LCDs consume considerably less power at around half brightness (it diminishes at less than that, tho, you don't save as much going from 60% to 20% as you would going from 95-100% to 55%).

Going from 95% on my T470p to around 60% made it go from around 2h battery life to just over 4h. at 20% brightness it barely gets to 5 hours.

[lawlessfpv]

This is the real test. I've been dying to see a battery test with unity and visual studio running but this is as close as it gets.

[sondp]

My M1 MacBook Air only lasted 6 hours with only 3 hours of video watching and light file transferring, screen brightness was 50%. ☹️ I’m running Big Sur 11.6.2