Taking care of my MBP

Hi, so I have had a MBP for 28 weeks (according to coconut battery). It says I have 98 % of battery function. It has 81 battery load cycles. So what I am wondering is, will my battery last longer if I have it plugged in will it keep the battery in good shape? Or will it not matter? Also, should I leave my computer off when not using it? I feel like it's a no brainer, being as the parts will not be in motion, leaving room for a longer overall life of the product. What benefits are there to turning it off?

Long story made short, your battery should last you about 5 years under normal use. Keeping it plugged in won't hurt it, but you should recalibrate it periodically (do a full discharge by using the machine normally and not plugging it into power until it goes to sleep for lack of a charge, then charge it fully before waking it from sleep).

You should never need to turn it off, unless you're going to be leaving it for a long period of time (think: days or weeks, not hours). When you're done with it, you can safely just close the lid.

All of this, and a lot more information are available here:

Apple - Batteries - Notebooks

I have read that information page before, but thank you for the link. About turning it off, I was just thinking that if it is off, none of the hardware is moving, making it less likely to wear out earlier than normal. Or is it such a minor difference that it is not worth it?

kribensis12 said:

I have read that information page before, but thank you for the link. About turning it off, I was just thinking that if it is off, none of the hardware is moving, making it less likely to wear out earlier than normal. Or is it such a minor difference that it is not worth it?

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Electronics from any brand could fail right out of the box ,next week,month or
last years its a flip of the coin there are no rules use it as needed replace when
broke or inadequate for the job.

That I understand. But is it better to leave it off?

kribensis12 said:

I have read that information page before, but thank you for the link. About turning it off, I was just thinking that if it is off, none of the hardware is moving, making it less likely to wear out earlier than normal. Or is it such a minor difference that it is not worth it?

Click to expand...

In sleep mode, none of the parts are moving either. Basically the computer uses just enough energy to keep the content of memory alive. So, no, there is no cost to longevity.

Some things that could add wear and tear over time would be running silly fan control programs (SMCFanControl comes to mind) and jostling the machine around a lot while it's running. But for the most part, these things are built to last a good long time. They're not 'disposable' machines like your average $400 Windows laptop.

kribensis12 said:

That I understand. But is it better to leave it off?

Click to expand...

The part most likely to fail due to turning a computer on & off is the hard drive (because it is a mechanical spinning device). It's actuality the starting & stopping (spinning up & spinning down) of hard drives which wears them out more quickly.

So technically speaking...to maximize the life of a computers hard drive...you should never shut a computer off or let a hard drive "go to sleep".

But in the "real world" this is not very practical or economical (electricity usage).

- Nick