2015 MacBook Pro: Only 6 Hours Battery Light Use: Battery Used Up?

[tyusrex]

I'm perplexed by the amount of time I get from my 2015 rmbp. With light use (mainly web surfing, iTunes, watching a few videos, Microsoft office word), I am only getting a bit over 6 hours of use before the computer goes to sleep.

Apple was advertising 10-12 hours of battery life, with press reviews suggesting 9 or so web browsing or watching videos.

I suppose the only factor that could be leading to significantly quicker battery drain is that I have 1 or 2 external portable drives hooked up for access to a/v files and my iTunes library.

Still, that's a 2-3 hour disparity compared to tests in reviews.

Battery stats: only 120ish battery cycles. According to app battery health 2, the battery is 2.6 years old.

Does battery life decrease with the age of the battery even if the battery has only been lightly used?

edit: is it possible the app is giving me specs on the manufacturing date of the computer rather than the battery?

 

[christarp]

My main machine is a 2013 rmbp with 600+ cycles, and just today I was at 5.5 or 6 hours on battery doing light tasks and still had about 40% left. Maybe you should check activity monitor and see what's impacting the energy the most. Maybe you have a rogue background application sucking up some power. However, the external drives can be the issue if you're using them on a battery. You'd be surprised at how much power those can suck, typically 2 watts for an external 2.5" hdd, and if you're using two of them that 4 watts can be a significant increase. Just right now typing this out with slack running in the background I'm using about 8.5 watts at any moment. That's with a 50% display brightness and keyboard backlight on minimum (but still on). Running those two drives would add an extra nearly 50% of power under light usage. Make sure under energy saver in the preferences panel that you check put hard disks to sleep when possible.

 

[Nozuka]

If you are using Google Chrome, you might also be loosing a bit more power than with Safari.

 

[sergeyz]

Most users of this MacBook model have the same result

 

[johannnn]

6h sounds plenty with your setup!
If you're unsure of the battery status, download coconut Battery.

But you say you use TWO portable external drives? Those things sucks battery like crazy (don't forget they each have to rotate 5400 rotations every minute).

Web surfing, Safari or Chrome? Chrome has forever been known to suck battery.

Videos, what format and which app? Hardware och software acceleration can make a big difference.

And don't forget screen brightness, bluetooth, etc.

 

[tyusrex]

Yup, as I suspected, the external drive/s were sucking up power like crazy. I ran the portable on battery w/out any external drives connected, and got 9.5 to 10 hours (estimate based upon an hour or so of use).

Not to mention I always have a 7 hub USB port hooked up at all times, which draws power as well (3-5 of the ports in use at all times).

I'd estimate that this computer gets 10+ hours with light to moderate use as long as no external drives or a USB port is hooked up to it.

 

[jerryk]

Yup, as I suspected, the external drive/s were sucking up power like crazy. I ran the portable on battery w/out any external drives connected, and got 9.5 to 10 hours (estimate based upon an hour or so of use).

Not to mention I always have a 7 hub USB port hooked up at all times, which draws power as well (3-5 of the ports in use at all times).

I'd estimate that this computer gets 10+ hours with light to moderate use as long as no external drives or a USB port is hooked up to it.

You should get a powered hub. That will ensure that the hub, and not the computer, provides power to the connected devices.