2020 MacBook Pro battery life

[joefoong79]

That 11 hours is amazing in case you were actually using the machine all the time and it was not sleeping half of the time (or it was not plugged to charger )?

Max brightness sure would drop run time but still Apple claims they test 10 hours at 75% brightness which is much brighter than what I usually use mine… Anyway, I guess my use is such demanding because I often use AirPods with my MBP. 🤫

People always report more base from working hours not real using hours. Like me working 8 hours a day, if my laptop can survive until the end of the day then will said is 8 hours. What about the idles time? Lunch time? Meeting? If 8 hours working and I can guarantee 2 hours is idles.

 

[joefoong79]

Yes, but only with browsing very light websites such as this one. My screen brightness was definitely lower than 75% (I believe it was around 40 - 50% if I remember correctly). But I don't consider this as the benchmark for battery life as I doubt anyone would use their MBP like this. I just simply wanted to see what is the maximum battery life I can get with the lightest task possible.

I'd say around 6 to 7 hours is more realistic if you actually use this laptop.

Simple test. I did was close all my WiFi & Bluetooth and set brightness to 60% to watch movie will get 7 hours 18 minutes. Surfing 5-6 hours max.

 

[0906742]

People always report more base from working hours not real using hours. Like me working 8 hours a day, if my laptop can survive until the end of the day then will said is 8 hours. What about the idles time? Lunch time? Meeting? If 8 hours working and I can guarantee 2 hours is idles.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is something like that or they happen to use such apps that have extremely low resource use. I'm pretty sure I can run mine longer if I just open text editor and start to write a novel.
Anyway, just some simple task like using safari to play music from YouTube basically "melts" the battery, percentage run down before your eyes.

Simple test. I did was close all my WiFi & Bluetooth and set brightness to 60% to watch movie will get 7 hours 18 minutes. Surfing 5-6 hours max.

Same here, and you can drop 1/3 of those times in case you don't want to stress your battery by running it to 0%, so if you practice good battery health procedure, you need to charge again around when battery it down to 1/3, so practically around 4 hours of Safari surfing is max. That's about what my 12 year old Acer (that cost like 400 buck) does. Too bad MacOS is lacking all possible controls to limit CPU use to prolong battery life like in Windows.

 

[UBS28]

Simple test. I did was close all my WiFi & Bluetooth and set brightness to 60% to watch movie will get 7 hours 18 minutes. Surfing 5-6 hours max.

There is also a test were YouTube videos are played till complete battery drain, it was 9 hours what they got. So you should be able to see more than 7 hours in very light usage.

Quite interestingly, the Dell XP13 got about 14 hours. No idea what Apple is doing, but perhaps Dell is not that bad after all as it outperformed every MacBook Pro in the battery test (MBA, 13” MBP and 16” MBP)

So, if you are in you are still in your 14-day return window, get the XPS 13 if you want to see crazy battery life.

The Dell XPS 13 also runs cooler so it should also be more reliable.

 

[Mr D]

There is also a test were YouTube videos are played till complete battery drain, it was 9 hours what they got. So you should be able to see more than 7 hours in very light usage.

Quite interestingly, the Dell XP13 got about 14 hours. No idea what Apple is doing, but perhaps Dell is not that bad after all as it outperformed every MacBook Pro in the battery test (MBA, 13” MBP and 16” MBP)

So, if you are in you are still in your 14-day return window, get the XPS 13 if you want to see crazy battery life.

The Dell XPS 13 also runs cooler so it should also be more reliable.

MBP has a higher resolution. But that probably isn't the only thing that contributes to the significantly longer battery life you are claiming with the XPS 13.

 

[hungryghosty]

So, if you are in you are still in your 14-day return window, get the XPS 13 if you want to see crazy battery life.

The Dell XPS 13 also runs cooler so it should also be more reliable.

I've bought 3 Dell computers and all have failed within 5 years. Maybe they're better these days but my past experiences have put me off buying Dell ever again!

I hope I'm not saying the same about Mac's 5 years from now

 

[souko]

The Dell XPS 13 also runs cooler so it should also be more reliable.

It is not the question of CPU temperatures. But the question of quality parts on the motherboard. CPU rarely dies even with high temperatures.

There were some statistics saying that MacBooks are almost 2x more reliable than Dell.

sources: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3012211/apples-macbook-air-takes-laptop-reliability-crown.html

Apple's MacBooks: Still the most reliable

It's popular to decry the "Apple tax" - the mythical premium Apple customers pay for Macs. But few look at the other side of the coins: what you get for your money. In Apple's case: the best reliability and tech support.

www.zdnet.com

 

[hungryghosty]

I would say that I'm disappointed by the 6-7 hours I'm getting from my new 13" MBP. Regardless of how you feel about them other brands can clearly last longer with similar hardware in Windows laptops?

Admittedly 6-7 hours isn't terrible but it's at least a couple short of what I'd expect for a laptop in 2020.

On the plus side CPU performance is pretty impressive so no complaints there!

 

[mimishi]

Hi,
I'm thinking about buying a MacBook and battery life is really important to me.
Do you guys think that the MacBook Pro 16 has a much longer battery than the 2020 13 version? Because I've also heard a lot of complaints about the 16" battery life..
Apple says the 16" has a battery life of 11 hours and the 13" 10 hours, but since its realistically only like the half on the 13", does that also apply to the 16"?

 

[pdude]

Day 4 of 2020 MBP 13 and battery lasts about 4.5 hrs under regular business use conditions... teams, outlook, safari... quite disappointing. Will be contacting support and possibly shipping the unit back.

 

[MCKLMT]

Any feedback about Big Sur vs Catalina in terms of battery life?

 

[CheesePuff]

Day 4 of 2020 MBP 13 and battery lasts about 4.5 hrs under regular business use conditions... teams, outlook, safari... quite disappointing. Will be contacting support and possibly shipping the unit back.

Thats what you can expect unfortunately since Teams is Electron so its basically a Chrome browser running, which eats away battery

 

[pdude]

What are you guys getting when streaming ie. Netflix, I'm looking at about 20%-25%/hr drain. I'm completely new to MAC, I got MBP since my daughters MBA is quite stable and it's 4 years old. Streaming is something that is important, outside of regular business activities, since most movies, shows and sporting events are all delivered in such fashion. Appreciate any and all feedback.

 

[cannotthinkname]

if you try to use mouse and avoid using trackpad, you can get a much longer battery life, it's weird but works

 

[urbanlegend179]

Im only getting 5 hours battery life on my new 13" MBP 2020. All I've been doing are light tasks such as browsing and listening to a little music. Does anyone know if Amazon UK will accept a return?

 

[robotica]

Im only getting 5 hours battery life on my new 13" MBP 2020. All I've been doing are light tasks such as browsing and listening to a little music. Does anyone know if Amazon UK will accept a return?

i think they will if its within 30 days. It should say in your amazon order page when you can return it up to.

 

[joloriquelme]

I have got a 2020 MBP (10th, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD). I am new on Mac.

I am having 2-3 hours of battery life! I must confess I was expecting better battery life.

I think it is due to very high use. I am using mostly:

- Microsoft Edge (better battery life with this than Chrome) - I use this and no Safari because I have a Windows PC and many things syncs across devices (even iPhone)
- Dropbox
- iCloud Drive
- Microsoft Outlook
- Mail.app (yes, simultaneously)
- TeamViewer
- 80% brightness
- WhatsApp
- Telegram
- Microsoft Teams
- A remote desktop App

These are very common apps so I don't think that they are so energy hungry for this level of battery life.

How reliable is the Activity Monitor to show energy consumption?

 

[matram]

MS Teams does draw a lot of power.

On my 16” power consumption goes from 10W to 60W when in a Teams meeting.

 

[joloriquelme]

I removed from "my life" some Apps and battery seems to have improved, not only on my Mac but also on my ThinkPad.

- Switched from Dropbox to OneDrive
- Closed Mail.app and only using Outlook for Mac (and waiting for the new one, check the screenshots! It will be amazing)

 

[maxplanar]

I'm highly entertained by all these "maybe it's only 5-6 hours". I'm lucky if I get 3 hours out of my 2020 16" MBP, 8 core i9 2.4Ghz, 64GB RAM, 8GB HBM2 GPU, and that does not include watching videos.

 

[Tricky22]

I am using a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016) and the battery life is terrible, I am hoping the new MacBooks this year have better life, I can see the % drain as soon as I unplug it...

 

[rookpsu]

I just had the battery replaced on my 2020 13' 2Ghz i5. I was getting 70-80min TOPS on a full charge. Health was hovering at 80% thus the replacement. HOWEVER, after picking it up I immediately took it to the coffee shop next door to see how we fared and sure enough, after 50min of MILD use, brightness at 70%, 1-2 tabs in chrome (no videos), light web programming....the battery is under half charge.

Only app using significant energy was Chrome.