How long is your 2016 MacBook Battery Lasting?

[TigerMSTR]

And what do you do on the computer?

 

[0983275]

It depends, with brightness set at 60-70%

Just browsing and occasional Skype (no call/videos, just text based) - 9-10 hours (also same for coding, nothing too special, just HTML, CSS, JS and some PHP)
Running VM(s) - 4-8 hours, depending on what I'm running
Just watching stuff on Netflix (with Safari, so I get HTML5) - sometimes I get 5 hours, sometimes I get 8 hours.

The most I got out of the machine was 12 hours, but that's with only Skype running and the machine idling most of the time, so realistically it's less than that.

This is with m5/512 rMB.

 

[where is it]

Getting all day battery life here.

Using it for web, spreadsheets, photoshop, unity, dreamweaver.

All I do at the minute is plug it in before I go to bed.

Been doing this for about 5 days now.

M5/512

 

[coelacanth]

I've been treating my rMB (m5) like an iPad or a phone. Just use unplugged all "work" day, plug in when I'm done with it. No complains here.

 

[Retops]

I've been treating my rMB (m5) like an iPad or a phone. Just use unplugged all "work" day, plug in when I'm done with it. No complains here.

My new rMB is becoming my work machine, sharing duties with 9.7 IPad Pro. Rather than worry about charging schedules, I do exactly what you are doing, just run it all day and then plug it in at night. It is always ready in the morning and I don't have any uh-oh incidents when I forget to charge the battery. It runs all day without problem.

This is the same schedule I use on my IPad, IPhone, and Apple Watch and all these devices seem to thrive on the schedule.

 

[Mollan]

4 to 5 hours maximum with Word, Excel, web browsing and PDF.

 

[Leo90]

Using for web, spread sheeting, light gaming, word processing and netflix. It lasts me an average of 8 hours.

 

[Ma2k5]

Almost too long I'd say. Easily 10+. For those who use it for browsing a lot, I strongly recommend to use Safari over chrome/firefox if you can, as I found that the other browsers usually drain the battery at almost 2-3x faster than Safari.

 

[Mollan]

Almost too long I'd say. Easily 10+. For those who use it for browsing a lot, I strongly recommend to use Safari over chrome/firefox if you can, as I found that the other browsers usually drain the battery at almost 2-3x faster than Safari.

I agree. Safari is far better for the battery than Chrome.
I noticed instead that Box Sync is a battery hog worse than Chrome. If you are working on documents on the cloud a you save a lot, the CPU consumption goes op to a constant 50% and the battery drains in 3-4 hours. I didn't experience the same with Dropbox.

 

[salbalboa]

been using safari web browsing for the past 6 hours with some you tube videos thrown in and I'm on 57% with an estimated 8 hours left. i have the screen set down to 3 bars and keyboard illumination off. so light use only. ebaying and reading forums nothing taxing.

 

[happyslayer]

I usually get all day battery. Just charge it at night. Sometimes every other night. And that's with off and on use throughout the day. I use Safari, Scrivener, and Mail the most. With DropBox in the background and iStat menus--because I'm a nerd and wanna know exactly what my laptop is doing all the time I also have Parallels with Win 10 and if i have to use it for a while, it eats battery about 25% more than normal, I would guess.

 

[Trey M]

4 to 5 hours maximum with Word, Excel, web browsing and PDF.

+1. Battery life has been about what I expected, though not impressive. Maybe it could improve in time; I'm only a few cycles in.

It's worth noting that I typically run the brightness around 75%, stick to mostly Safari (some Chrome), and run Dropbox in background.

 

[kingofwale]

5-6 hours, light browsing... but my battery is also at 79% health after 1 year. time to take it back

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

In my experience so far, turning up the brightness on the screen is by FAR the worst battery eater. If you live in a cave, or work during nights, then you should be able to pull 8-10 hours of battery out of it if doing light work.
During day though, 5-6 hours.

 

[boltjames]

I've been treating my rMB (m5) like an iPad or a phone. Just use unplugged all "work" day, plug in when I'm done with it. No complains here.

Same here, and I have last year's model.

BJ

 

[kis]

Depends a bit - to my own surprise (and not in a good way), the battery was dead after 3 hours last week during a conference. Apparently, Word idling in the background killed it (that's what the battery monitor said at least).

 

[titleistman18]

Hey all,

I just got a new rMB m7. I'm very impressed, but after two days, my battery still continues to be extremely unimpressive. I'm averaging around 4-5 hours.

Here's what my current status is:

Is there something wrong? Here's my battery info:

 

[kis]

Hey all,

I just got a new rMB m7. I'm very impressed, but after two days, my battery still continues to be extremely unimpressive. I'm averaging around 4-5 hours.

Here's what my current status is:

Is there something wrong? Here's my battery info:

Do you use MS word extensively? I've found that even keeping it open in the background cuts battery life in half on the rMB. Don't know why, though.

 

[HiFiGuy528]

I get slightly longer run time playing music in Airplane Mode. Although I never timed it, playing music only doesn't feel like 10 hrs. on my 2016 M5.

Battery life fine print on product page states Apple used the M5 512GB 2016 MB for battery life testing.

"Testing conducted by Apple in March 2016 using preproduction 1.2GHz dual-core Intel Core m5-based 12-inch MacBook systems with 512GB of flash storage (wireless web test and HD movie playback test) as well as preproduction 1.2GHz dual-core Intel Core m5-based 12-inch MacBook systems with 512GB of flash storage and 1.1GHz Intel Core m3-based 12-inch MacBook systems with 256GB of flash storage (standby test), all configured with 8GB of RAM. The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The iTunes movie playback test measures battery life by playing back HD 1080p content with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The standby test measures battery life by allowing a system, connected to a wireless network and signed in to an iCloud account, to enter standby mode with Safari and Mail applications launched and all system settings left at default. Battery life varies by use and configuration. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information."

 

[izzyfanto]

Almost too long I'd say. Easily 10+. For those who use it for browsing a lot, I strongly recommend to use Safari over chrome/firefox if you can, as I found that the other browsers usually drain the battery at almost 2-3x faster than Safari.

I agree. Safari is far better for the battery than Chrome.

Totally agree. Weird that some people seem baffled that their battery life isn't good when using Chrome since it is such a well documented horribly optimized browser.

Also, battery life is extremely subjective. People install all sorts of random background stuff that just destroys battery life, and then complain about how they have to carry their charger around. There is no way to truly know for each individual. You gotta use it with the exact setup you use currently to truly know what it's like. For me myself, I get great battery life, but I'm very strict with brightness and idle programs. But that means nothing for people who have 5 Windows, Chrome w/ 20 tabs, VMs running, video editing running, brightness cranked, background sync programs and audio playing through the speakers. It's impossible to conclude anything from just "It's amazing, 10+" or "It's unimpressive, only 4-5".

 

[maxsix]

I use Chrome and the full complement of Google Apps and Services.

Far more useful than Safari, I don't mind that it uses a bit more power. Considering how fast and efficient Chrome is, the trade off is negligible.

Even better is the sync with Chrome on my Nexus 5X, 6P, iPad, iPhone, MBPr, Mac Pro, Surface Pro 4 and my Windows 10 ThinkPads.

Although Apple abhors the thought of cross platform interoperability, it's essential to my work and personal computing.

Thanks to Google, I get to enjoy the various platforms and an exemplary experience.

 

[izzyfanto]

I use Chrome and the full complement of Google Apps and Services.

Far more useful than Safari, I don't mind that it uses a bit more power. Considering how fast and efficient Chrome is, the trade off is negligible.

Even better is the sync with Chrome on my Nexus 5X, 6P, iPad, iPhone, MBPr, Mac Pro, Surface Pro 4 and my Windows 10 ThinkPads.

Although Apple abhors the thought of cross platform interoperability, it's essential to my work and personal computing.

Thanks to Google, I get to enjoy the various platforms and an exemplary experience.

I can understand if one uses Chrome because it is more customizable and cross platform, definitely has way more apps and community behind it.

When I tried using Chrome on my MBA, the fans started screaming and it would get burning hot. This was 3 months ago. Maybe it's gotten better, but I refuse to use it for that reason. And the battery life just went to crap when using it, and I was just two tabs open doing math homework!

 

[maxsix]

I can understand if one uses Chrome because it is more customizable and cross platform, definitely has way more apps and community behind it.

When I tried using Chrome on my MBA, the fans started screaming and it would get burning hot. This was 3 months ago. Maybe it's gotten better, but I refuse to use it for that reason. And the battery life just went to crap when using it, and I was just two. tabs open doing math homework!

Sounds like you have a serious hardware problem.

Apple has had problems with inconsistent quality control over the last couple of years. We use Chrome on approximately 30 MBPR models at work without any problems.

I use Chrome extensively on my new MacBook, and my MacBook Pro Retina all without any problems.

 

[izzyfanto]

Sounds like you have a serious hardware problem.

Apple has had problems with inconsistent quality control over the last couple of years. We use Chrome on approximately 30 MBPR models at work without any problems.

I use Chrome extensively on my new MacBook, and my MacBook Pro Retina all without any problems.

Strange though it's only Chrome that'd cause that to happen. I ran Civ5 and other games and it wouldn't get that hot. It is a 2012 MBA.

 

[kis]

Sounds like you have a serious hardware problem.

Apple has had problems with inconsistent quality control over the last couple of years. We use Chrome on approximately 30 MBPR models at work without any problems.

I use Chrome extensively on my new MacBook, and my MacBook Pro Retina all without any problems.

Chrome Helper consistently uses 40% of my rMBP's CPU and results in constant fan noise.