Is it better to let the battery in the new MacBook Pro fully discharge before charging it?

Any laptop battery’s life will benefit from being fully discharged to fully charged, especially within the first few uses.

This is a good explanation of how lithium-based batteries like to be treated.

Here’s what it says about the charging question: “A lithium-ion battery provides 300–500 discharge/charge cycles. The battery prefers a partial rather than a full discharge. Frequent full discharges should be avoided when possible. Instead, charge the battery more often or use a larger battery…Although lithium-ion is memory-free in terms of performance deterioration, batteries with fuel gauges exhibit what engineers refer to as “digital memory”. Here is the reason: Short discharges with subsequent recharges do not provide the periodic calibration needed to synchronize the fuel gauge with the battery’s state-of-charge. A deliberate full discharge and recharge every 30 charges corrects this problem. Letting the battery run down to the cut-off point in the equipment will do this. If ignored, the fuel gauge will become increasingly less accurate.

With modern laptop batteries, fully discharging shouldn’t really have any effect (memory effect is only with older batteries). The most important thing for extending the life of the battery is keeping it cool. The easiest way to do this is to take it out if you’re plugging it in at a desktop for a long time, and keep it from getting super hot by not working on blankets or poorly ventilated surfaces.

Ultimately, though, I wouldn’t worry too much. Squeaking out an extra 20% is less important than enjoying having a new laptop.

Usually the first couple few times its good to fully discharge the battery, rest it a while then fully charge it. The battery in my MBP may be an exception. It’s really acting wonky. This morning, it said it was 98% healthy, I took it to the….erm… reading room, and when I brought it back it said it was 65% healthy. Looks like another trip to the Apple Store for me.