Zoom Video Calls Drain Apple M1 MacBook Air Battery by Only 10-13% Per Hour
As more customers get their hands on the first Apple Silicon Macs, we continue to see some interesting performance and battery life tests surface based on real-world usage situations, with the latest including Zoom video calling.
MacRumors forum member "acidfast7_redux," who resides in the UK, spent most of their work day today on Zoom video calls using their new MacBook Air with the M1 chip and 8GB of memory. After a 2.5 hour video call, they say their battery life dropped by 17%, and after a second 36 minute video call, their battery life dropped by 7%, meaning that Zoom ultimately consumed roughly 10-13% of battery life per hour.
finishing the day at the office now:
09.11 to 17.25 (8h14m)
battery went from 100% down to 28%
time breakdown for the office part of the day was:
4h33m Zoom meetings (just closed Zoom for the first time since opening it this morning at 10.00)
3h01m web browsing / MS Office / emails
45m sleep (just closed lid and left the office)
These numbers are impressive given that Zoom has yet to introduce native support for Apple Silicon Macs, so the app is currently running through Apple's translation layer Rosetta 2 on Macs with the M1 chip. Zoom is known to be quite the battery hog on Intel-based Macs, so Apple Silicon's power efficiency gains will be much welcomed.
Over the last week, benchmarks and reviews have proven that the M1 chip lives up to Apple's hype, ranging from the new MacBook Air outperforming the high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro in multi-core Geekbench 5 results to the new Mac mini and 13-inch MacBook Pro compiling WebKit code as fast as a 2019 Mac Pro.
Apple revealed its plans to begin using its own chips in Macs at WWDC 2020 in June, promising industry-leading performance per watt. Apple expects the transition away from Intel processors to take about two years to be completed.
Popular Stories
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon.
Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week.
iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3 and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B30, up from 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 firmware is 8B28, up from 8B21.
There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3 are getting expanded support for Live Translation in the European Union in iOS...
Google Maps on iOS quietly gained a new feature recently that automatically recognizes where you've parked your vehicle and saves the location for you.
Announced on LinkedIn by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps' senior product manager, the new feature auto-detects your parked location even if you don't use the parking pin function, saves it for up to 48 hours, and then automatically removes it once...
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28.
The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
Apple has ordered 22 million OLED panels from Samsung Display for the first foldable iPhone, signaling a significantly larger production target than the display industry had previously anticipated, ET News reports.
In the now-seemingly deleted report, ET News claimed that Samsung plans to mass-produce 11 million inward-folding OLED displays for Apple next year, as well as 11 million...
Apple today released iOS 26.2, the second major update to the iOS 26 operating system that came out in September, iOS 26.2 comes a little over a month after iOS 26.1 launched. iOS 26.2 is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation iPhone SE.
The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings >...
The AirTag 2 will include a handful of new features that will improve tracking capabilities, according to a new report from Macworld. The site says that it was able to access an internal build of iOS 26, which includes references to multiple unreleased products.
Here's what's supposedly coming:
An improved pairing process, though no details were provided. AirTag pairing is already...
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below.
Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
Apple today released macOS Tahoe 26.2, the second major update to the macOS Tahoe operating system that came out in September. macOS Tahoe 26.2 comes five weeks after Apple released macOS Tahoe 26.1.
Mac users can download the macOS Tahoe update by using the Software Update section of System Settings.
macOS Tahoe 26.2 includes Edge Light, a feature that illuminates your face with soft...
