If you are on a M-series MacBook and aren't running a 3D Benchmark the entire time, your Mac is broken if it is dying after 2.5 hours.
Have you checked your Battery Health?
If you have an intel-based Mac, it's the same expected battery life as Windows and 2.5 hours on an intel MacBook battery sounds decent for something 5+ years old.
8+ hours sounds about right. I have a M1 Macbook Pro and even 5 years later I can still use it (a million browser tabs, couple containers, messaging apps) for an entire day without having to charge it.
Yeah, you have a dud. Or you have some processing running in the background that's gobbling up all the energy.
Re:M5 MacBook Pro
by brokencode on Wednesday October 15, 2025 @12:45PM
(#45595257)
With Apple Silicon? Yes, that is very low for typical dev usage.
Gaming is another story though, or any other uses that put a lot of stress the GPU.
Did I get a dud? I rarely get over 2.5