12" MacBook vs 13" MBP with Touch Bar battery tested

[vmflapem]

So I decided to test the battery life on both devices and got the following result. I thought I'd share this with you just in case anyone was wondering the same thing.
Both devices had the exact same things running (Adobe Pro, Power point, Youtube video on Chrome) at 50% brightness + background dropbox & icloud + bluetooth on.

12" MacBook's battery can last ~1.5 hrs longer.

Note: Green dot = 13" MBP with Touch Bar; Blue dot = 12" MacBook Retina

 

[iizmoo]

What are the X & Y axis? what do you mean by the exact same things running? ie: Are doing the exact same thing on both computers, or are you using the same apps casually without exact empirical test conditions?

 

[GBlansten]

What are the X & Y axis? what do you mean by the exact same things running? ie: Are doing the exact same thing on both computers, or are you using the same apps casually without exact empirical test conditions?

I would also like some basal data on atmospherics at the time of testing like humidity level and temperature and barometric pressure.

 

[vmflapem]

What are the X & Y axis? what do you mean by the exact same things running? ie: Are doing the exact same thing on both computers, or are you using the same apps casually without exact empirical test conditions?

Oops sorry - I should've been more specific. Y-axis = remaining battery (%); X-axis = time (min).
By exact same things running, I meant exact same programs/apps running. I didn't use the laptops while testing it but instead just ran a never-ending youtube video.

 

[macintoshmac]

So other apps were just "napping" right? If video was in foreground, MacOS would put the other apps in a nap state, unless they were actively processing something.

Effectively, your test might be showing results for youtube on chrome with two apps napping in the background.

 

[vmflapem]

So other apps were just "napping" right? If video was in foreground, MacOS would put the other apps in a nap state, unless they were actively processing something.

Effectively, your test might be showing results for youtube on chrome with two apps napping in the background.

Oh I did not know that! I use my laptop for note-taking in class so I was trying to mimic that environment. Since I can't be typing for 8-10 hours, I decided to play a video instead (I assume this would drain the battery more than typing).

 

[iizmoo]

Oh I did not know that! I use my laptop for note-taking in class so I was trying to mimic that environment. Since I can't be typing for 8-10 hours, I decided to play a video instead (I assume this would drain the battery more than typing).

Youtube uses HTML5 videos nowaday, that goes through the iGPU, super duper efficient. I just checked it out on my 2016 MBP a few days ago, it barely peaked at 4% CPU usage on an HD video. This is why I was asking if you were just using apps, or setting up empirical testing conditions that are exactly the same. Minor variances in how apps are used, run over many hours can magnify erroneous results.

There's also a question of how many sample runs in the test, or according to graph, it looked like you just ran each once?

 

[Karnicopia]

So I decided to test the battery life on both devices and got the following result. I thought I'd share this with you just in case anyone was wondering the same thing.
Both devices had the exact same things running (Adobe Pro, Power point, Youtube video on Chrome) at 50% brightness + background dropbox & icloud + bluetooth on.

12" MacBook's battery can last ~1.5 hrs longer.

Note: Green dot = 13" MBP with Touch Bar; Blue dot = 12" MacBook Retina

That's a really great test. I'd just point out that the difference is pretty significant from the data you showed or at least the equations. If you solve for x you get the minutes that these would run out at and for the 12" you get 967.4 min (16.4 hours) and for the 13" MacBook Pro 527.5 min (8.8 hours) so the equations show pretty much double battery life. You can see it in the equations too they both start at pretty much the same point at x = 0 basically ~104.4% and for every unit in the x direction the second equation decreases by twice as much as the first -.19 vs -.10. Your numbers on the 13" seem pretty close to what I'm seeing in web usage, I'm getting right around 9 hours for that.

 

[Trixs]

Any chance you have a no touchbar pro as well to do this test with?