I should elaborate on what I mean by simple logic.
Apple’s algorithm will eventually set a charge limit if you always leave your laptop plugged in. Conclusion: Charge limiting is probably a good thing to do if you can tolerate it.
Major laptop manufactures with the exception of Apple provide the user with the option to charge limit. Conclusion: Charge limiting is probably a good thing to do if you can tolerate it.
When I would take the laptop off battery it would drive the battery to 100% (and it seemed to stay there for a long time) when I only wanted to use for short intervals. As a consequence the battery level was at 100% or near it for a large percentage of the time. And other people saw this too. Conclusion: Charge limiting might be a good thing to try if a respected app provides that capability.
After trying Al Dente for more than a year, the charge capacity as measured by Apple remained at 100%. The “Current Capacity” did drop a bit below the “Design Capacity” (both measures provided by iStat Menus), so some battery capacity loss obviously did take place. Conclusion: I’m going to continue using Al Dente.
But I want dare to recommend it again, given people’s absolute faith in Apple’s algorithm.
I don’t think it’s that. Apple’s adaptive charging is really good at Mitch’s situation. If you’re always plugged in, it’ll maintain 80% almost all the time unless it decides to do a special cycle. That’s ideal. Al Dente would certainly not do worse, but since it sets charge targets the same way Apple’s adaptive charging does (both leave actual battery management to low level system functions), it wouldn’t offer an advantage either.
I’ve possibly spilled the most words on this forum over the years explaining how Al Dente works to people afraid of it, so I’m not attacking it.
I agree with Mitch about Bartender. I use Bartender even with an external monitor, but I think it is essential if you use a lot of menu bar apps and don’t have an external monitor. The real estate across the top of the menu bar gets limited really fast.
Currently I am a laptop only person by necessity rather than choice. I have an M1 MacBook Pro that generally stays on my desk connected to a Studio Display monitor. I also use a Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, a magic trackpad (that I should learn to take better advantage of) and a magic mouse. There are also a lot of external storage devices connected for time machine backup, carbon copy cloner backup, general purpose storage, and my DevonThink Database.
Ditto on most of the advice, above, except the battery management software. Been there, done that, never prevented any of the dozen or so laptops I’ve used over the last 30 years from aging out and need replaced.
Laptops, like everything Apple makes, are intended by the manufacturer to be obsolete. But that doesn’t mean we have to be on the same treadmill as Apple. I usually wait until the five or sixth iteration of new laptops before buying a new one.
Most important advice, given above, is treat the laptop with care. Obviously don’t drop, but don’t do things like leave a pen on the keyboard and closing the lid, as my wife did once.
I stopped using Bartender when I stopped traveling in December 2019. I didn’t need it, as I was never using my MacBook away from the big display. But I resumed a few months ago, as I started using one menubar app too many.
I honestly don’t think Apple practices planned obsolescence. I think they build their stuff to last. Batteries just wear out over time—it’s the nature of batteries.
I’m using a 2018 MacBook Pro and a 2018 iPhone XS as my daily drivers. I pound the heck out of those things and they keep going. I am in no rush to replace them; they are doing fine for me.
Sure, I’d like a new MacBook and a new iPhone. But I’m putting that off because we’re economizing in our household—and Apple’s quality means I have the freedom to do that.
And my wife is using my old iPhone 7 Plus, from 2016. It still works, but it’s getting long in the tooth and she probably should replace it … but she just isn’t interested. That seven-year-old phone serves her needs nicely.
Related: I remember listening to a quarterly earnings call for Apple back around 2008, back when I did that kind of thing. Financial analysts were hammering Apple for failing to make netbooks. Netbooks were poorly made but they were inexpensive, and consumers were flocking to them.
One analysts asked whether Apple was concerned that, in the middle of the Great Recession, consumers would turn away from Apple and turn to more inexpensive options. An Apple executive responded no, when times are tight, Apple customers don’t go to another brand. They just put off replacing their equipment.
And now 15 years later, netbooks are dead as a category. Apple was right.
