It is well known that batteries are consumables. In laptops, they can last for years, but over time they will become weaker and shorter. In order to check the stage of the life cycle of the battery in your laptop, you can look at how many cycles it has passed.
What is a battery cycle?
Every time you completely discharge the battery (from one hundred percent to zero) it counts as one cycle. That cycle doesn’t have to happen in one round. For example, if you drain a battery from 100 to 50 percent and charge it to 100 percent again and discharge it to 50 percent again, that counts as one cycle.
The fewer cycles it has gone through, the better the battery should be (if there were no other problems, of course). A ‘healthy’ battery will have a capacity closer to the factory maximum than the one you use regularly every day.
Windows and macOS operating systems offer an easy way to check the number of battery cycles. Here’s how to do it.
How to check battery cycle count on Windows 10
Place the cursor of the computer mouse on the Start button (or press the Win and X keys together ) and click the right mouse button.
Choose Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell.
In the Command Prompt, enter this text :
powercfg /battery report
Then open your user folder and look for the battery-report.html file.
Double-click this file quickly. It should open in the web browser you are using.
See under the category Installed batteries the data under Design Capacity and Full Charge Capacity.
Design Capacity is the original factory maximum, while Full Charge Capacity shows the actual capacity. Cycle Count will show how many cycles the battery has gone through so far.
How to check battery cycle count on MacBook
Click the Apple menu in the upper left corner, and select About This Mac.
In the next window, click the System Report button .
Under the Hardware heading, click the Power category.
Then under Health Information look for Cycle Count where you will find the number of cycles so far.
Your computer will also display the condition. If the battery is healthy, it will say Normal, and if it needs to be replaced – Service Recommended.
In Catalina 10.15.5 there is a new battery management feature that can automatically lower its maximum capacity under certain circumstances.
