M4 MacBook Air Battery Drain when off

Hey everyone,

I need some help with the battery on my new MacBook. I bought it at the end of August for university, so I've had it for about a month. Overall, it's great, but I'm having a weird issue with the battery draining for no apparent reason when I'm not using it.

The Problem: The battery seems to drain significantly even when the laptop is closed, put away, and not in use. For example, as you can see in the photo, the MacBook was shut and sitting on my desk, not used at all, and the battery dropped from over 50% to almost dead.

What I've Checked:

· I've looked through the battery usage in System Settings. · I've checked the battery health, and it shows as normal. · My app usage is pretty light: I mainly use the Brave browser with a maximum of 6-7 tabs (some of which are set to sleep), and I have a VPN running. That's usually it.

My Charging Habit: I typically use the 20%-100% cycle. I use it down to around 20% and then charge it back to 100%. I don't leave it plugged in all the time.

Additionally, I should mention that at one point during a university lecture, the bottom-left corner of the MacBook became extremely hot for no apparent reason. I was mid-lecture, so I had to keep using it, but I immediately closed as many applications as I could to try and minimize the heat. It stayed warm for the duration, and while it hasn't happened again since, it makes me wonder if that unexplained heat event is related to the random battery drain I'm experiencing. For context, I usually use it on a desk with adequate airflow, and if I do use it on my bed, I place it on a cooling pad (which is off, but elevates it for ventilation) to prevent it from sitting directly on the bedding.

This is my first high-end laptop after always using mid-range Windows machines, so I'm not sure what to expect. Has anyone else experienced this random drain while the machine is asleep? Is this normal for macOS, or does it sound like a hardware defect that I should take to Apple for a replacement?

Any advice or shared experiences would be really appreciated!

[Edited by Moderator]