2016 MacBook Pro Denied Recommendation From Consumer Reports Due to Battery Life Inconsistencies

[Elijen]

Good. I don't have an issue with my 15" tMBP, but as the media presses Apple, they will have to either optimize the heck out of their software or stop the wafer thin obsession. Good for the future either way, although nothing will make some here happy, ever.

Apple can super-optimize their software to get great battery life gains, but that would only make sense in MacBook or MacBook Air models. The Pro models are supposed to run heavy 3rd party apps that need as much performance as possible. Can't cheat this one.

 

[radgar]

While removing the indicator didn't fix battery life issues...

Any real expectation that removing the indicator would 'fix' battery life?

Besides, it's only an 'indicator'. Not a guarantee. I miss it already on my 2015 rMBP.

I'd be really surprised if it was a 'battery issue'. Sounds very much like a software effect. Maybe 'battery life problem'?

 

[flyinmac]

I hope Elon Musk or Peter Thiel can take over soon. Even Bezos would be better.

Why bother with them? We could scrape up an Amoeba, and it could do a better job. And it works for nothing. Being a simple being, it could better focus on one task to get it done right. Even better, we'll get one to run each Apple department. That kind of single mindedness could benefit Apple significantly.

Tim, meet your successor. Don't act surprised. This is how Apple evolves. You should know that by now. Remember the Mac Mini update? Yes, that's right... this is Tim 2.0.1

 

[maflynn]

Dang, Consumer reports words are LAW!

No but its a black eye for apple as they try to promote this laptop towards consumers and a lot of people rely on Consumer reports. Apple being so image conscience, this is yet another news story coming out putting Apple's MBPs in a negative light.

 

[clauzzz203]

Those proud appleheads may think they look cool in the starbucks with their apple watches and cripppled 2016 macbook pros - but most people look at them thinking - 'what a tool'.

Most people TL/DR when someone needs to use "crippled" or "tool" to validate a fantasy

 

[TheAustrianGuy]

I somehow doubt this is a MBP2016 issue, but rather a Sierra issue.
On my MBP 15" Early 2011, battery life has been unpredictable since Sierra's release.
Something's going on in this OS which (sometimes) silently eats away battery.

(Just to be sure: The battery in my MBP is new.)

 

[maflynn]

somehow doubt this is a MBP2016 issue, but rather a Sierra issue.

Yes, I believe that for the most part its an OS issue, but by the same token, Apple did shrink the battery size (at least in the 15" model), so there's just less capacity available.

 

[kodos]

I was in the market for a new Macbook Pro for occasional cross platform iOS development and some full stack dev (*nix based). Saw the new ones; hate the new keyboard, and just dislike the machine in general including that awful touchbar (#courage, #innovation).

So, instead, I got a Macbook (non Pro) when it was on sale just to build iOS apps on and decided to try a dedicated Linux machine; so my Developer Edition Dell XPS 13 is on its way today which is preloaded with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. It will be my first dedicated Linux machine. The new Dells are looking pretty good. I just hate the 16:9 ratio that they stick on their computers.

I have a Surface Book as well - and I have a hard time using any other laptop at this point. But I'm going to try to make 2017 my personal year of Linux and see what happens.

I used to love the Macbook Pros. I kept waiting, and waiting for two years to see if it was time to get another one. Apple proved to me that I would keep waiting for another two years to see if they would fix their mistakes.

 

[dingclancy23]

I am looking at my 2011 MacBook Air now and still am at awe with this design. The wedge design makes that thin profile look glorious. I am not sure why they had to make it thinner just because.

I am sure the new rtbMBP design looks much better than this, but it is is indulgent at this point.

 

[OzyOly]

I was in the market for a new Macbook Pro for occasional cross platform iOS development and some full stack dev (*nix based). Saw the new ones; hate the new keyboard, and just dislike the machine in general including that awful touchbar (#courage, #innovation).

So, instead, I got a Macbook (non Pro) when it was on sale just to build iOS apps on and decided to try a dedicated Linux machine; so my Developer Edition Dell XPS 13 is on its way today which is preloaded with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. It will be my first dedicated Linux machine. The new Dells are looking pretty good. I just hate the 16:9 ratio that they stick on their computers.

I have a Surface Book as well - and I have a hard time using any other laptop at this point. But I'm going to try to make 2017 my personal year of Linux and see what happens.

I used to love the Macbook Pros. I kept waiting, and waiting for two years to see if it was time to get another one. Apple proved to me that I would keep waiting for another two years to see if they would fix their mistakes.

It's just the blooming webcam of the XPS13 that puts me off. Why place it below?

 

[kodos]

It's just the blooming webcam of the XPS13 that puts me off. Why place it below?

Apparently to get the ultrathin bezels on the top to get the floating "infinity display" look. I rarely use my laptop for Skype / Slack calls (my desktop is for that) so it doesn't matter much to me. But of course, everyone will have to determine if that is a deal killer for them or not.

On the other hand I have a feeling that if Apple were going to go with ultrathin bezels they have removed the webcam, and made us buy one of these along with a USB-C dongle:

 

[tentales]

I somehow doubt this is a MBP2016 issue, but rather a Sierra issue.
On my MBP 15" Early 2011, battery life has been unpredictable since Sierra's release.
Something's going on in this OS which (sometimes) silently eats away battery.

(Just to be sure: The battery in my MBP is new.)

Yep, as I alluded to earlier, they should've stuck to "Mac OS X", this "macOS" re-naming indicates a further "iOS-ification" of a once stable OS while it had great cat names. Even up to Mavericks.

Having said that, I wasn't seeing any less battery time on my MBA on Sierra, even though I've now downgraded to El Cap.
This must be something in play with the new hardware in the 2016. Most probably the touch-bar, but also the different battery might be triggering different forks in the code that are otherwise unused in older MacBooks.

 

[litmag01]

The most interesting point in the CR article is the Chrome testing and how that outperformed Safari. I wonder if the SIRI integration is to blame? Although, that would likely be OS specific and not device specific.

That begs the question, has OS 10.12.x affected the power consumption performance on all Mac OS devices?

That metric does not seem to have been lab tested by CR.

 

[kodos]

The most interesting point in the CR article is the Chrome testing and how that outperformed Safari. I wonder if the SIRI integration is to blame? Although, that would likely be OS specific and not device specific.

That begs the question, has OS 10.12.x affected the power consumption performance on all Mac OS devices?

That metric does not seem to have been lab tested by CR.

I really have no clue how Chrome outperformed Safari. Chrome is by FAR a bigger hog on my non-Pro Macbook. Same on my Surface Book - Chrome is far worse than Edge on battery life. Unfortunately, for my work which involves the juggling of about four Google accounts, Chrome is by far the more useful browser for me. However when I am unplugged and want to eke out battery life I use different browsers.

 

[arnoz]

Am I the only one who doesn't have battery issues with the 15'' tbMBP?

 

[tentales]

It's just the blooming webcam of the XPS13 that puts me off. Why place it below?

and that coil whine, even on the new 9360. Also, the SSD speeds suck. 300-400MB/s on seq/write.
Except for the screen, the MBA still blows away the XPS 13.

 

[Sonic]

tried one in the store yesterday. felt worryingly flimsy. the touchbar was horrible (often failing to register clicks) - and i'm not sure i'd ever get over not having an ESC button (but somehow the ±/§ button made it through?! i mean, who's ever even used that?) - volume and brightness changes too ages compared to the old buttons, found it really hard to concentrate on two screens at once.

trackpad was too large and i'm not a fan of the haptic button, screen was oddly fluorescent, and a bit flickery compared to the 2012 rmbp i use, it also wobbled like it was about to break with the slightest movement of the machine, even typing caused some wobble - and man, that keyboard was truly awful, i could barely type, i felt RSI building up from the lack of key travel after 15 minutes playing with it. with Apple having put the price of the nearly 4 year old Mac Pro up £700 or so in the UK recently, for the first time since 2003, even as a Logic audio user, i'm really close to switching to PC

 

[Phoenixx]

A sadly typical response from the rotten Apple; try to hide that the problem exists by hiding the battery countdown, and then blatantly deny it.

 

[nikaru]

Did the products change or is it the world? We didn't have this echo chamber 5 years ago, for a start.

We did have it 5 years ago. If it was not for the MacOS, the new MBP wont outsell even something like the Razer Blade (if we compare it with something in the same price tag) and wont have even a chance against the Dell XPS (which is two times cheaper). The people now buy it because it is a Mac, has an incredible design and the overall quality is excellent. But it is not the Pro beast the professional community was expecting. The integrated GPU is pathetic compared to 1000$ PC laptops and the MBP is blown out of the water in literally every graphic-intensive Adobe tests.

When you ask 3k$ for a laptop you must offer the ultimate machine that outperforms everything on the market. This is not the case here. On top of that you now have this annoying battery issues and other dozens serious complains.

I do agree with Apple that the future is a single type universal port and no headphones jacks, the touch bar and many other things. I however do not agree that soldering everything on a single board and packing it with mediocre hardware is what would bring me to that future. With all of the popularity of the iPhone and the iPad, the Mac is struggling to achieve even comparable share of the market and thats the big problem here. The solution is not the 2016 MBP.

 

[maflynn]

A sadly typical response from the rotten Apple; try to hide that the problem exists by hiding the battery countdown, and then blatantly deny it.

I didn't like the move and the timing was horrible, but yet people have said that it was never that accurate anyways. I don't know, as I only used the battery percentage not the remaining hours

 

[litmag01]

I really have no clue how Chrome outperformed Safari. Chrome is by FAR a bigger hog on my non-Pro Macbook. Same on my Surface Book - Chrome is far worse than Edge on battery life. Unfortunately, for my work which involves the juggling of about four Google accounts, Chrome is by far the more useful browser for me. However when I am unplugged and want to eke out battery life I use different browsers.

Totally agree. I think that says there is at least something very wrong programmatically - at least with this tiny browser test by CR- in the interactions between OS, Safari and the Apple hardware. Someone else in here brought up the touch bar which seems probable, too, but one machine didn't have one.

 

[laudern]

Lolz my unibody Macbook 09 with its original battery lasts longer than this $3000 hunk of junk.

 

[kodos]

Did the products change or is it the world? We didn't have this echo chamber 5 years ago, for a start.

The company changed, the products changed in due course. The echo chamber was here ready to be made because many of us who were once excited to buy an Apple product have felt slighted. I still remember buying my first iMac and Macbook Pro (Core 2 versions). I had just switched from PCs and while there were pain points - I felt like I was in a whole new world.

My last Mac that I was excited about was the first generation rMBP. I loved that computer. I didn't get a bad screen on it, and it was beautiful and powerful and relatively light for what it was.

But then ... after Steve's death, it was starting to become painfully obvious that this was not the same company anymore. By the time Apple had acquired Beats and released the Apple Watch I knew that their focus was not on people like me who liked computers. Their focus was on becoming a fashion company, and while their laptops were always very nice looking - they were bringing the fashion ethos into the computing world so that the computer was becoming an iPhone accessory like your Apple Watch and AirPods.

That's not a place I want to go with my computers; I make a lot of money off of my computers and right now I'm writing this on an Alienware Area 51 Desktop since Apple doesn't make anything suitable for me in that price range, and I am using a SurfaceBook because I bought it during the Mac refresh drought thinking that I would buy it to hold me over.

But I have decided that until some major changes are made I will just stay in the Windows and Linux camps with occasional use of macOS for building iOS apps when the need arises.

I am not everyone. But I do think there are a lot of us who have similar (yet different) needs and perspectives regarding the future of Apple. I hope they turn it around, because I have to admit - when I turn on my Retina Macbook (non Pro) I still have glimpses of "what could have been".

Then I start to type on that awful keyboard and I wake up to reality.

 

[Phoenixx]

Apple is in so much trouble now. The decline is evident. I guess they just don't care anymore. They care about the profits but not making great products anymore. It's sad.

They seem to have forgotten that in order to make great profits, you need to make great products; the two go together. You can make insane profits for a short time by taking a loyal customer base, lowering the quality of your products substantially to reduce costs, and increasing your prices. People will continue to buy for a short period of time, but sooner or later your reputation becomes damaged, your customers feel betrayed, and profits drop sharply; it's a classic boom/bust situation. In this type of scenario, when the "bust" part of the equation kicks in, companies are usually hit VERY hard and often never recover.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

It will be very interesting when Dell releases the (recently leaked) XPS 15 9650. The leaked specs included Kaby Lake real Quad core i7-7700HQ, up to 32GB RAM, GTX 1050 w/4GB and 4K UHD Display. No mention of battery life, but despite what most of Apple's designers believe, users of such a machine won't complain if they don't have 10 hours of battery life.

I would imagine that like the new XPS 13, the new XPS 15 will be a combination of carbon fiber and aluminum.

This is what the latest MBP should have been.