Battery Life on 16" MacBook Pro?

[melman101]

Hey all,
I did a search, but didn't come across too much or maybe I didn't dig far enough down. What's been your battery usage on 16" MacBook Pro? I'm rocking the base, and I'm really disappointed coming from a 13" Touch Bar MacBook Pro. I can't seem to squeeze more than 4 hours out of this thing. Sure, sometimes I leave Parallels open and it breaks out the integrated graphics, but sometimes I'm just doing FaceTime and I watch the battery just tick away.

Just wondering what your experiences are.

Thanks

Mel

 

[datpricetho]

Specifications, usage type, and equipment setup (Monitors) matter. It would behoove you to be VERY specific when asking questions about such things.

 

[melman101]

Base model. No external monitors. FaceTime.

 

[duffyanneal]

You have discovered one of the caveats of the 16" MBP. The 45 watt CPU and discrete graphics make for a powerful package, but left unchecked can really drain your battery. This is one of the reasons I switched from the 16" to a 13" MBP. I don't have to constantly keep tabs on the battery when using the 13". On the 16" you can have an app running, but sitting idle in the background which can activate the discrete graphics. In the foreground you could be doing something light like reading an online newspaper. All the while your battery level is falling like a brick. I would recommend opening up Activity Monitor and looking at what is using your resources. I think you'll be surprised how much energy is consumed by apps like FaceTime.

 

[melman101]

You have discovered one of the caveats of the 16" MBP. The 45 watt CPU and discrete graphics make for a powerful package, but left unchecked can really drain your battery. This is one of the reasons I switched from the 16" to a 13" MBP. I don't have to constantly keep tabs on the battery when using the 13". On the 16" you can have an app running, but sitting idle in the background which can activate the discrete graphics. In the foreground you could be doing something light like reading an online newspaper. All the while your battery level is falling like a brick. I would recommend opening up Activity Monitor and looking at what is using your resources. I think you'll be surprised how much energy is consumed by apps like FaceTime.

yeah that’s what I’m noticing. Oh well. But yeah, battery is killer in this thing. I do miss the 13” battery life.

Turns out Oracle SQL Developer also kills battery life.

 

[bill-p]

FaceTime on Mac tries to grab as much CPU time as possible. And the 16" MBP doesn't have a "45W CPU". Intel lied. The i9 model that I have can easily eat >100W very briefly when it's Turbo Boosting and on sustained load can decimate easily 80 - 90W. It'll only behave like a "45W CPU" when the GPU is also stressed. The 16" can easily burn out its battery in less than an hour.

In contrast, the 13" Pro seemingly has its CPU hard-capped at 35W and the Air at 15W. So even in the worst case scenario, those will still easily last a few hours.

Anyways, you can try App Tamer (I think it's like the last CPU limit app that's still updated?) and try to limit CPU usage to 10 - 20% on FaceTime. See if that helps.

 

[chengengaun]

Definitely not exhaustive, but these might help:

• Normal for new machines; how to check power usage by apps
• Use integrated graphics only
• Repair Photos database if cloudphotod and nsurlsessionid consumes excessive CPU time (on Apple Communities)

 

[duffyanneal]

FaceTime on Mac tries to grab as much CPU time as possible. And the 16" MBP doesn't have a "45W CPU". Intel lied.

Yes, Intel has been playing games for years. This isn't anything new. The power rating of their CPUs is just an estimate that can vary drastically. The latest 10th gen H series has increased clock speeds over the 9th gen CPUs in the 16" MBP. The giant asterisk is that the laptop has to be able to support the additional thermal loads which it turns out most cannot. So the additional clock speed isn't even achievable. Thanks Intel...

 

[HoratioPerdu]

Mine is pretty abysmal, and has been since I got the machine 2.5 weeks ago. Averaging about 4-5 hours max. Not sure what the issue is.