How to know when to change the battery of Apple MacBook

Let's face it, no laptop or any machine is perfect. Whether it's an Apple MacBook or any Windows PC or laptop, the fast rate of technology obsolescence hits all. And as a result, after some point in time, we need to upgrade these devices to make them future proof or at least powerful enough to meet our current requirements.

Although there are numerous parts that can be upgraded in a laptop, here we'll be talk about Apple MacBook’s battery. We all have come across several MacBook owners who don’t know the typical lifecycle of the device’s battery or when exactly it needs to be replaced.

Those who have been using a MacBook since past few months or years would already know that the laptop’s battery depletes eventually and requires more charging time. So, here's how you can know when you need to change your MacBook’s battery.

You can check the status of the MacBook battery by using the inbuilt tool. All you need to do is to press the 'Option' button on the keyboard and click on the battery icon in the menu bar. The drop down will show you the 'condition' of the battery. In all probability, it should show you one of the four options - Normal, Replace Soon, Replace Now and Service Battery.

There’s nothing to be concerned about if the icon shows 'Normal' or 'Replace Soon'. However, if it shows 'Replace Now' you should know that the battery now has significantly less charge and that it's time you replace it. If it shows the message 'Service Battery', it means that it's time for you to take your laptop to a service centre and immediately get those batteries replaced.

To get the exact charging cycle numbers (see how many charging cycles the battery has gone through), you can hold the 'Option' key and click on the Apple menu. Then click on 'System Information', followed by 'Power' in the 'Hardware' section.

Apple has also given the cycle counts of every MacBook Air and MacBook Pro model launched. Most of the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and Touch IDs have 1000 charging, same as the recently launched MacBook Air with Retina display. The highest number of cycles mentioned are 1000 though.

“Batteries have a limited amount of charge cycles before they're considered to be consumed. Once consumed, a replacement battery is recommended. You can use your battery after it reaches its maximum cycle count, but you might notice a reduction in your battery life,” says Apple support website.

Talking about batteries, this year Apple has given a special attention to the battery life of iPhones. The firm was last year found to lower the performance levels of the iPhone to keep the battery performance intact. However, Apple apologised for not informing the customers and later introduced an option to let users decide how the device should perform and consume battery.