After using my MacBook Pro unibody 13” for about a week, I was introduced to an excellent widget which allows you to monitor various technical aspects of your Apple Mac.

My friend, who introduced me to iStat Pro, showed me on his Mac in passing and noted how even after 100 odd cycles his battery health was still at 100%

Click to visit their website

It was then that I became interested in the battery health of my Apple Mac. iStat initially reported my battery health at 98% which then over a few days dropped to 92%, and now it is sitting at 96%. All this with less than ten cycles?

Being a first time owner of a MacBook Pro, I was naturally concerned if this was a sign of a faulty battery. In my Google searches, and after reading many Apple Mac forums on the topic, I came across another great app.

Coconut battery, is an application as opposed to a widget, that gives you more detailed information on of your battery. Further to the monitoring I found that if you click the arrow by ‘Additional Info’ you can save the current stats of your battery which comes in handy.

Click here to visit their website

After several days of monitoring my MacBook Pro battery’s health, and reading about many experiences online about the same issue, I have concluded that this is normal behaviour for a new Apple MacBook Pro.

A lot of people suggested it takes a month for your new battery to ‘settle’ and only to be alarmed or consider contacting Apple if the battery health drops below 80%. In my search I also found this handy tip on how to ‘calibrate’ your battery provided by Apple. They suggest this is done once a month however it would be interesting to find out what Apple consider normal battery usage.

If you want a more direct non-software approach at finding out about your battery or any other component on your Apple you can go to: Apple Icon / About This Mac / More Info…

When the System Profiler opens just click to the Power category under the Hardware category and there you will find information that looks like this:

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number:    ******
Manufacturer:    DP
Device name:    ******
Pack Lot Code:    0000
PCB Lot Code:    0000
Firmware Version:    0003
Hardware Revision:    0002
Cell Revision:    0100
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh):    5203
Fully charged:    Yes
Charging:    No
Full charge capacity (mAh):    5230
Health Information:
Cycle count:    11
Condition:    Normal
Battery Installed:    Yes
Amperage (mA):    -1066
Voltage (mV):    12365

My Apple seems to be running pretty normal for now, however it will be interesting to track how quick the battery does degrade. I will be sure to update this blog once in a while to let Googlers hopefully stumble upon to compare with their own stats.

Be sure to let me know!

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