Then there's something physically wrong with it. My M1 MBP - which is near-constantly at 100% CPU doing neuroimaging tasks - gets about 9 hours. If I'm not running high-cpu tasks and just web browsing, I've gotten 13-18 typically (e.g., two full days of use between charges).
>If I'm not running high-cpu tasks and just web browsing,
You state this as if they are 2 different things. Sadly, more and more shittily designed sites are using more and more resources. Whether that's just a poorly written bit of JS or a maliciously written bit of JS, web browsing is becoming more compute intensive.
I believe the M1 is much better at computing JavaScript as well. Comparable intel x86 CPUs have 60% more branch misprediction during JS benchmarks and ARMv8.3-A added the processor instruction FJCVTZS (Floating-point Javascript Convert to Signed fixed-point, rounding toward Zero).
Especially due to the better branch prediction, the M1 simply does quite a bit more web browsing with fewer VPU cycles used, thus less power consumption.
Let me guess the device is over two years old, your display is always above 70% brightness, you have chrome opened with over a dozen tabs, alongside it a bunch of other background apps you don't actually need open. Oh and probably a VM or docker. How close was I? ;-)
The only one that matters is if their MBP is over 2 years old. I got my M1 the week it released and I only run it under the conditions you describe. Sometimes accidentally leaving baldurs gate 3 / Stellaris / Civ6 running in the background.
It still gets a battery life of “oh I showed up to an all-day working session with a friend with 50% battery life and forgot my charger and I don’t have any anxiety about that” battery life.
I think the least it’s ever gotten was around 10 hours. I’m still getting 14+ after a couple years of abusing the battery charge levels.
The iPhone 13 Pro Max is also the first phone I truly never worry about battery life since a late-stage flip phone in 2007. (Or the Samsung S5 Active which had a replaceable battery, I just carried a couple extra around in my pocket).
>The only one that matters is if their MBP is over 2 years old
I wasn't just asking because of the potential wear on the battery from abuse, but M1 laptops did not exist 2 years ago. Although the intel macbooks still had great battery life for their size. People who put their device through it's paces and wonder why the battery is draining so fast are a special breed that's for sure.
I never get more than a couple hours on my MBP, 2.5-3 tops.