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Apple Warns You When Your Display is Using Significant Energy in Latest macOS Beta

If they just would have put a proper sized battery in the damned things they wouldn't have to play all these silly games, such as killing "time remaining" and now this.
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
I don't like setting my display to less than 100% bright most of the time. I think most people feel the same way. Using 100% just seems good.

Apple should rename 100% as 130% and scale accordingly. It sends the message that, though your screen can go that bright, you shouldn't set it that bright unless you really need to.
Click to expand...

Ophthalmologists love you!
 
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Good move by Apple. The energy usage is not proportional to the brightness. Setting to the highest two notches uses a lot more energy so reducing by just the last two steps can significantly increase battery life while only slightly dimming the display.
 
McTaste said:
Battery life of ten hours if you cripple performance and dim the screen.

Battery life of three hours under normal usage.
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I agree.
This new indicator is just a Jedi mind trick to say you're not using the laptop correctly; i.e. you should only be using Mail and Safari, but nothing else.
 
Isn't this....exteremly obvious? The display uses the most power on any device with a...well, display.

If you are chugging along at 500 nits, guess what?
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
I don't like setting my display to less than 100% bright most of the time. I think most people feel the same way. Using 100% just seems good.

Apple should rename 100% as 130% and scale accordingly. It sends the message that, though your screen can go that bright, you shouldn't set it that bright unless you really need to.
Click to expand...
I disagree. I rarely use my laptops at max brightness - only when outdoors in natural light. For indoor use it is best on your eyes to try to match the screen with the indoor lighting intensity. So in the evenings with artificial light its around 50% or lower (for me).
 
MacRumors said:



Apple advertises that the latest MacBook Pro models provide up to 10 hours of battery life on a single charge for web browsing and iTunes movie playback, but a user's mileage may vary based upon factors such as display brightness, which apps are running, and external devices connected.

For this reason, Apple lists apps using a significant amount of energy under the battery menu in the macOS menu bar. The feature enables users to monitor which apps are drawing a lot of power and impacting battery life, whether it be the built-in Spotlight tool or a power-hungry web browser with several tabs open.

mac-apps-using-significant-energy.jpg

Now, Apple has gone one step further and expanded the feature to include display brightness. On the latest macOS Sierra beta, when a Mac's display is set above 75% brightness--or at least 13 out of 16 notches--a new item called "Display Brightness" is listed under the battery menu.

Clicking on "Display Brightness" lowers the Mac's brightness to 75%. Likewise, when we updated a new MacBook Pro to the fourth beta of macOS Sierra 10.12.3, the display's brightness was automatically lowered to 75%. This is the same brightness level as Apple used during its latest MacBook Pro battery tests.

mac-significant-energy-display-brightness.jpg

New: "Display Brightness" is now listed and "Apps" has been dropped from the title​

Battery life on the latest MacBook Pro models has been a controversial topic since the notebooks launched in October. A subset of users have reported getting as little as three to six hours of battery life on a single charge, sometimes even with only basic web browsing and other non-intensive tasks.

Apple has consistently stood by its advertised battery life for the latest MacBook Pro. It did, however, remove the "time remaining" battery life indicator on macOS Sierra 10.12.2, noting the estimates "couldn't accurately keep up with what users were doing" because of the "dynamic ways" people use their Macs.

Consumer Reports initially failed to recommend the latest MacBook Pro because of battery life inconsistencies, but it later worked with Apple and learned that a Safari bug triggered by its own testing configuration was to blame for the mixed results. Apple fixed that bug in macOS 10.12.3, and Consumer Reports has since reversed course and now recommends the latest MacBook Pro after retesting.

The new feature is currently limited to beta testers. It will be widely available when macOS 10.12.3 is officially released over the coming days.

Article Link: Apple Warns You When Your Display is Using Significant Energy in Latest macOS Beta
Click to expand...

Nice! I'd also like them to add one for "fans" to let people know if the fans are blowing and how much energy is being consumed.
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
I don't like setting my display to less than 100% bright most of the time. I think most people feel the same way. Using 100% just seems good.
Click to expand...

Have you tried using a 2016 MBP at max. brightness?
Can't see when you would want to use a display that bright at 100% other than in direct sunlight.
It actually hurts.
 
aeshaettr_ said:
I wish there was a way to see if whomever writes these comments actually has the machine in question or they are simply talking from their ass...one may disagree with many things, but one should never criticise products they do not own. I do apologise if you do own a new MacBook pro.
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I've never been president, so I guess I can't criticize the president. Your logic makes absolutely no sense.

I had the new macbook but returned it. Poor battery life was not the main reason but it was one of them. My 2015 machine I bought instead has far better battery life.
 
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Unnecessary useless information. When your screen is at full brightness you know yourself that it is draining significantly more power => less battery runtime.

Just get the remaining time information back (where it belongs), not this nonsense.
 
jerry16 said:
Leave the MBP a few mm thicker and battery life wouldn't even be a conversation. Foolish obsession with thin.
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Why can't you just admit that YOU want the MBP to be thicker and accept that others wanted it to be lighter and thinner while having a powerful CPU and Retina screen.

You need to let it go dude, it isn't a "foolish obsession."

Additionally I'll repeat again in this thread the last three betas seem to have fixed the battery drain issue. My 2016 13" MBPTB is now averaging 8 and with light use (no BT or WFI) over 10 hourd(I saw 12 hours once). The issue seems to have been some code which kept the CPU cranking at a higher watt use.

Great machine!
 
Somebody should make an app which caps the brightness at 75% (but makes it appear that you're actually using 100%) just to appease people with OCD who need to use 100% brightness. Quite honestly if the laptop output 1000 NIPS I would still put it on 100% because if I don't I would feel that my screen is too dark.
 
I don't think these updates will affect how I use my iMac. Apple need to stop tweaking and start producing hardware in their computer division that people actually want to buy.
 
jerry16 said:
Leave the MBP a few mm thicker and battery life wouldn't even be a conversation. Foolish obsession with thin.
Click to expand...
Don't say it too loud. They will figure out the screen uses most of the battery power and will be stripped next.
 
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So when will this be rolled out to the public? weeks, month? (not the beta but the final release)
 
I hope we can get back the time remaining indicator. Or maybe the Mac is going to be more and more like an iPad, where there is no time remaining indicator.
 
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