Macbook Pro 14" Battery Health Drops Rapidly

The "design target" is 1000 cycles to 80% of nominal new battery capacity, but there's a range of what may or may not happen. All my Macs with batteries that Apple doesn't consider user serviceable lost capacity faster than 1% per 50 cycles as that design target would suggest. I even had one that was out of the box at about 94%.

Even if it's not typical, there's really nothing that you can do about it. There's really no guarantee outside of the battery dropping below 80% (and with less than 1000 cycles) during a warranty or AppleCare period. Apple also doesn't provide a battery replacement service for Macs unless the battery is below 80%.

If you really want to do it, Apple does have a self-service repair option where they don't require the battery health to be at any particular level, and at least the 2021 14" M1 MacBook Pro has available parts. However, there is no separate battery, and they only sell it as a complete top case replacement. They have an exchange value for the original top case, but it's something like (US) $500 for the replacement top case and about $80 credit for the returned top case.

ku4hx wrote:

Cycle count is eye candy with very limited application. The important metric is remaining capacity and 96% is outstanding. Capacity degradation is non linear. It could sit at 96% for months.

It can even go up. It's just an estimate and the value that Macs display has been known to go up and down.

Cycle count is eye candy with very limited application. The important metric is remaining capacity and 96% is outstanding. Capacity degradation is non linear. It could sit at 96% for months.

If it makes you feel any better, my 2021 MBP 14" is at 94% with 24 cycles.