Is it normal for a new Mac to have less than 100% battery health?

I bought a new Mac, a little over a month ago. It has exactly 15 battery cycles now (after my use, of course). So, definitely, a new battery.

But, my problem is that I can see, through CoconutBattery and iStats that it can only retain about 8100mAh. They state my battery is with a health of 92~93% (supposedly, this battery is rated around 8700mAh when new). I confirmed on Apple stats that it retains 8100mAh, but Apple tells me nothing about the total expected capacity.

Is there a problem with my battery, or is this just a normal manufacturing variation?

They all state the condition is normal. But I find it weird that it won't retain 100% or even close to that, like 97, 98, 99%.

I can only imagine in a year, this dropping to below 90, like around 80%. I had other Macs that retained that over the period of like 3 years or more.

Solution 1:

This happens regularly and we don’t have issues with them at work and often see a pretty wide range of FCC numbers initially. The measurements are precise but not accurate over short time periods. I would track use every three months and if at the 11 month period get a second read by Apple. They will have service notes for the battery diagnostic when new and also at almost a year so that will tell very accurately what the overall lifespan is.

If you haven’t contacted AppleCare and had them run one remote battery diagnostic, do that late January after the rush of holiday help requests has died down. Unless it’s popping a warning or you can’t get reasonable life, there’s no rush to get the first scan done.

Here are some past posts on whether any one measurement is predictive and how to handle end of warranty situations.

I would use that battery hard for a week or two (empty to full) and you’ll know it’s performing or not without needing any special calibration steps that were used in the past.

Solution 2:

From what I remember reading, it's usual for there to be some small reduction from 'design' capacity in the first couple of months, and then it should be steady. If you are losing any more than c 93% over the first six months, then I would take it in to be looked at.