Battery life for 13" and 15" Macbook Pro

[lobo1978]

Base noTouch - ultimate battery life evaluation:

1% of battery left - estimated time on battery 7 minutes (brightness 50%)
7 min x 100 = 700 mins = 11 hrs and 40 minutes.

This observation is similar to my other calculations.
MBPr NoTouch battery life = ca. 12 hrs
MBPr Touch battery life = ca. 10 hrs

 

[badlydrawnboy]

Base noTouch - ultimate battery life evaluation:

1% of battery left - estimated time on battery 7 minutes (brightness 50%)
7 min x 100 = 700 mins = 11 hrs and 40 minutes.

This observation is similar to my other calculations.
MBPr NoTouch battery life = ca. 12 hrs
MBPr Touch battery life = ca. 10 hrs

How/why do you keep doing these calculations for the 13" MBP TB when you don't even have one, and when users that have them are consistently reporting 6.5-7 hours (or less) in real usage?

 

[lobo1978]

How/why do you keep doing these calculations for the 13" MBP TB when you don't even have one, and when users that have them are consistently reporting 6.5-7 hours (or less) in real usage?

They are showing THEIR real life usage I'm showing MINE.

We are sharing observations here

BTW: how long users have been using new Touch? A week maybe -- and you are closing discussion with final verdict - I'm deeply disappointed 😀

 

[badlydrawnboy]

They are showing THEIR real life usage I'm showing MINE.

We are sharing observations here

BTW: how long users have been using new Touch? A week maybe -- and you are closing discussion with final verdict - I'm deeply disappointed 😀

What observations? My understanding is that you don't yet have a 13" TB. So you are not making observations, you are making assumptions/guesses based on your use of the 13" non-TB. As many reviews—both professional, and from individual users—suggest that is not a sound approach.

Why would we expect battery life to improve significantly, barring some kind of update from Apple, after one week of use? Please provide a precedent for that assumption.

 

[mercedes27]

Am I guessing right you are replying to my post regarding 100% CPU usage, or?

Yup 🙂

 

[Balaamsdonkey]

My 13TB

Oh, my. This will get confusing.

TB = Touch Bar
TB = Terabyte

 

[tjleonard]

That's what I'm still hoping. Unfortunately no one at Apple that I can reach on the phone seems to know anything about it.

Battery life has been fantastic....I'm not sure how many of you guys realize that i've been bitching on the forums about battery life. I did the chat with apple and they only asked me to do a NVRAM reset and SMC reset. I did both already and told them...They had me look at the System info > Power > and make sure the Battery said it was good.

They asked that I reinstall MacOS since it would re-download it...and to be honest, I was just going to do it to shut them up. Super glad I did it...Ive been using the battery all day doing the following:

Jump Desktop - Remoting into 3-4 servers at a time and switching between them (leaving them logged in entire time, not closing it)

Safari - 5-10 tabs open at a time...right now only 6 🙂

Fantastical has been syncing in the background as well as Mail.

iMessage - Not really sent or received too many messages, maybe 15 or so?

Snaggit - Grabbed 10 or so screen shots

PDF Expert - Marked up about 10 pages on a PDF

AText - Well, I just use it a lot...

Bartender, Better Touch Tool, Flycut, AdGuard, 1Password all running in the background...and i've even downloaded 2 600mb files and then transferred them to a server (all wireless).

Right now, 20% left and I have used 6 hours 23 minutes on battery. Mostly screen at 50% brightness, but about 20 minutes it was maxed out for a few minutes while I was looking at some pictures.

 

[badlydrawnboy]

Oh, my. This will get confusing.

TB = Touch Bar
TB = Terabyte

Earlier someone proposed this nomenclature:

• tMBP 13 (for the touch bar version)
• MBP 13 (for the non touch bar)

[doublepost=1479939096][/doublepost]

Battery life has been fantastic....I'm not sure how many of you guys realize that i've been bitching on the forums about battery life. I did the chat with apple and they only asked me to do a NVRAM reset and SMC reset. I did both already and told them...They had me look at the System info > Power > and make sure the Battery said it was good.

They asked that I reinstall MacOS since it would re-download it...and to be honest, I was just going to do it to shut them up. Super glad I did it...Ive been using the battery all day doing the following:

Jump Desktop - Remoting into 3-4 servers at a time and switching between them (leaving them logged in entire time, not closing it)

Safari - 5-10 tabs open at a time...right now only 6 🙂

Fantastical has been syncing in the background as well as Mail.

iMessage - Not really sent or received too many messages, maybe 15 or so?

Snaggit - Grabbed 10 or so screen shots

PDF Expert - Marked up about 10 pages on a PDF

AText - Well, I just use it a lot...

Bartender, Better Touch Tool, Flycut, AdGuard, 1Password all running in the background...and i've even downloaded 2 600mb files and then transferred them to a server (all wireless).

Right now, 20% left and I have used 6 hours 23 minutes on battery. Mostly screen at 50% brightness, but about 20 minutes it was maxed out for a few minutes while I was looking at some pictures.

Well, I don't know what to make of this. I'm using a lot of the same software and the same brightness settings.

I did not migrate any data when I set up the tMBP 13"; it was a completely fresh install. I've done SMC and NVRAM reset.

I don't know how much sense it makes for me to reinstall OS X Sierra given that I set up fresh? But perhaps something was wrong out of the factory and a reinstall would help?

 

[tjleonard]

Earlier someone proposed this nomenclature:

• tMBP 13 (for the touch bar version)
• MBP 13 (for the non touch bar)

[doublepost=1479939096][/doublepost]

Well, I don't know what to make of this. I'm using a lot of the same software and the same brightness settings.

I did not migrate any data when I set up the tMBP 13"; it was a completely fresh install. I've done SMC and NVRAM reset.

I don't know how much sense it makes for me to reinstall OS X Sierra given that I set up fresh? But perhaps something was wrong out of the factory and a reinstall would help?

That's what I am thinking...I would try to do it - you really do not have anything to lose.
The funny thing is, I didn't have to reinstall any programs, any data, logins - everything was still there. I basically just started it, typed my password a few times, and it downloaded and then installed. To be quite honest, I'm REALLY shocked my battery life doubled...

 

[Balaamsdonkey]

Earlier someone proposed this nomenclature:

• tMBP 13 (for the touch bar version)
• MBP 13 (for the non touch bar)

Do we think there are enough non-retina MBP's out there to refer to the non Touch Bar version as MBP 13 confusing? Since the retina versions have come out the lack of an r has always meant anything not retina. What about ntMBP? It could double as "not touch" and "no touch" MBP.

It will be nice when we can go forward and either drop the reference to retina screens due to them being so prolific.

I do like "tMBP."

 

[agazoo]

I am getting about 5-6 hours on my 15" BTO maxed but 1TB storage; Doing third charge/discharge atm :-( Nothing going on, no usage, just safari no streaming, simple browsing with brightness at about 80%; Wired network;

The estimates OS X gives me vary wildly ...

 

[tjleonard]

I am getting about 5-6 hours on my 15" BTO maxed but 1TB storage; Doing third charge/discharge atm :-( Nothing going on, no usage, just safari no streaming, simple browsing with brightness at about 80%; Wired network;

The estimates OS X gives me vary wildly ...

It sound stupid - look at my post above in the last page or two...I am completely shocked it worked, but would encourage you to try it (even though, like me, i'm sure you don't think it will help).

 

[badlydrawnboy]

That's what I am thinking...I would try to do it - you really do not have anything to lose.
The funny thing is, I didn't have to reinstall any programs, any data, logins - everything was still there. I basically just started it, typed my password a few times, and it downloaded and then installed. To be quite honest, I'm REALLY shocked my battery life doubled...

Ah, so you didn't do a clean install? You just downloaded and installed Sierra over your current install?

In that case, I certainly can't see a downside.

 

[fokmik]

I am getting about 5-6 hours on my 15" BTO maxed but 1TB storage; Doing third charge/discharge atm :-( Nothing going on, no usage, just safari no streaming, simple browsing with brightness at about 80%; Wired network;

The estimates OS X gives me vary wildly ...

i think if you lower the brightness to 50% you can get 2 extra hours

 

[PTVMan]

I have a 13" MBP with Touch Bar. Fully charged, just unplugged and it says 6:15 Remaining. Went to System Information > Power and Battery Condition says "Normal." Should it say "Good" and should I consider taking to the Genius Bar?

UPDATE: After posting this message the batter remaining now reports 5:45 - that a 30 minute drop in 2 minutes.

 

[agazoo]

Just noticed it says Graphics Card: High Perf in activity monitor,
I have nothing but Safari going on, is this how it's supposed to be?
CoconutBattery shows 14.87 watts discharge ...

 

[poorcody]

Okay, I spent the last three days doing battery tests. I let the battery go from 100% to 0% three times. I have a 15" with 16GB RAM, low-end Intel and Radeon 450. I ran a timer in the menu bar to track actual usage. When I put the laptop to sleep, I turned off the timer, and turned it back on when I opened the lid. So these are real run-times.

First day: just under 7 hours. I was streaming radio or playing music about 80% of the time (which I found has a noticeable effect on wattage). Screen brightness was about 75%. I was running a lot of different things...

Second day: I did an SMC reset, turned-off auto-brightness, and set brightness to about 55% (8 ticks from left). I ran Airmail, Safari, Calendar, and a few random things I don't remember. Battery life was just over 10 hours.

Third day: Same conditions, but also did about an hour of php-coding, two hours of writing (Scrivener). Battery life just broke 11 hours.

I have to say, I am pleased with the battery. I am coming from a 13" Air which of course was the king of battery life, and I find the real runtime to be about the same. I'm sure if I run Xcode or Parallels it will go down, but that is to be expected.

Running Coconut Battery and watching the wattage usage closely, I totally see why battery life varies so much... one particular app can double your wattage and half you battery life...

Another note: estimated time left was all over the place. Coconut's estimate I found more useful than Apple's because Coconut's estimate is based on what you are doing right now, whereas Apple seems to average over some period of time.

 

[Blackvibes]

How is everyone getting over 4 hours on their Macbook? I received mine this afternoon, The Netherlands, and had to charge it twice already. It's currently telling 3:18 @ 77%..

 

[marcel500]

They are showing THEIR real life usage I'm showing MINE.

We are sharing observations here

BTW: how long users have been using new Touch? A week maybe -- and you are closing discussion with final verdict - I'm deeply disappointed 😀

Can u please do your observations somewhere else maybe by watching the stars. I told u already u are not helpful and u are just spamming and diluting the conversation. Buy a MBP TB and then u are welcome to the conversation until then stay out of it.

 

[poorcody]

Just noticed it says Graphics Card: High Perf in activity monitor,
I have nothing but Safari going on, is this how it's supposed to be?
CoconutBattery shows 14.87 watts discharge ...

Make sure you have "Automatic Graphics Switching" checked in the System Preferences -> Energy Saver.

Safari does not seem to activate my dGPU at all, even when running Flash.

 

[marcel500]

How is everyone getting over 4 hours on their Macbook? I received mine this afternoon, The Netherlands, and had to charge it twice already. It's currently telling 3:18 @ 77%..

Same here.

I spoke with parallels yesterday because discharge is at > 20 W. He did all the checks and couldn't explain himself what is going on. He will come back to me with after further investigations.

 

[thesaint024]

I have a 13" MBP with Touch Bar. Fully charged, just unplugged and it says 6:15 Remaining. Went to System Information > Power and Battery Condition says "Normal." Should it say "Good" and should I consider taking to the Genius Bar?

UPDATE: After posting this message the batter remaining now reports 5:45 - that a 30 minute drop in 2 minutes.

This bears repeating given these posts - stop using the time estimate. It's just extrapolating what usage you are doing right this minute. It's useless. You need to look at what apps are consuming what and your current watts or mah.
[doublepost=1479943914][/doublepost]

Just noticed it says Graphics Card: High Perf in activity monitor,
I have nothing but Safari going on, is this how it's supposed to be?
CoconutBattery shows 14.87 watts discharge ...

With 14.87 continuous discharge, you'll get 3-4 hours. Something is running that is drawing lots of power. Actually, that's based on a 13". No idea what you are testing.
[doublepost=1479944034][/doublepost]

How is everyone getting over 4 hours on their Macbook? I received mine this afternoon, The Netherlands, and had to charge it twice already. It's currently telling 3:18 @ 77%..

Time estimates are meaningless, except that it tells us that you are running a high power consumption process.
[doublepost=1479944218][/doublepost]

Ah, so you didn't do a clean install? You just downloaded and installed Sierra over your current install?

In that case, I certainly can't see a downside.

Strange, I wouldn't think that would work, but I guess it's case by case. It depends on what your old migrated setup was running that suddenly draws more power on the 16 MBP. Different processors would theoretically handle things differently. I.e. run full speed (and power) for something that was previously limited by processor speed. Just throwing darts. Glad we are finally finding SOLUTIONS and not just bitching about poor battery life.

 

[technoholic]

my current situation

 

[Apple_Robert]

my current situation

View attachment 674400

The battery estimate means nothing. It isn't accurate.

 

[technoholic]

The battery estimate means nothing. It isn't accurate.

it is just not accurate NOW or has it always been that way, as I had a very accurate time on my previous MacBooks