One of the things that bothers me about how many people use their computers in the modern era is in how they feel like they need to baby them.

I think a lot of people feel like they need to baby their phone more than they do. Apple introduced optimized charging several years ago, which does quite a bit to play with charging behaviors so that it helps avoid the problems caused by things that used to hurt laptops. Like I said, if you do it and like it, carry on, but do with eyes open and knowing what trade-offs you’re making.

Well, today I was using my Mac, which is a 14” MacBook Pro that I use almost exclusively in clamshell mode connected to my monitor, and I noticed my battery indicated in the menu bar wasn’t completely full. I clicked into it and saw that it was capped at 80% and there was a message that indicated that the computer knew I basically never used it on battery power. At some point, and I don’t know how long it took to learn this about me, but it decided that holding the charge around 80% was best for me long term. And of course, if I’m in a situation where I am going to be on battery for a long time and need the extra juice, I can tell it to charge up right now. Love it.

This is exactly the sort of thing OS developers have been working on for the past decade or more to help do the right thing to maintain your device without you needing to fuss around yourself. All Apple computers and phones these days have optimized charging that works to preserve your battery performance in the long run. On iPhones that means waiting until right before you wake up to top off your battery when charging overnight, and with Macs it means recognizing when someone is on power all the time and letting the battery fluctuate at lower charge levels so it’s not always capped out.

As I said in the linked quote above, I am fine with people doing whatever they want with their devices, but I would again just make sure they’re doing it with eyes open. Do they need to carry the mental weight of tracking how much their phone is charging so they can take it off the charger at the right time? Do they need to live with less battery life in a new phone so that it might perform better a few years down the road? Do they need to force close all their apps to do whatever they find that useful to accomplish? Maybe! But I’m positive there are tons of people who do these things just because it’s what they used to do on old computers and they feel they need to do now. This feature of macOS protecting my battery for me as someone who almost never unplugs was a nice surprise, and is simply an example of why I don’t need to baby my Mac to protect the battery.