Battery life with 2018 Macbook Pro i9

[Parikh12345]

Seems I am getting no where near good battery life. I am only running Chrome, mail, calendar, excel, and a few more basic apps. I can barely squeeze out 3 hours. My screen is on full brightness. Bluetooth off.

Also I noticed my battery health has been draining pretty quick. Ive had the notebook two weeks and its down to 98%.

Thoughts?

https://imgur.com/Du6yPkd

 

[sennomulo]

Chrome on MacOS eats through battery life like nobody's business. I like Chrome, but I'll only use it on my MacBook Pro when it's plugged in. Mostly I use Safari though, it runs all day and all night long on the battery.

Screen brightness also makes a big difference. I only use max brightness when plugged in, otherwise I set it as dim as I'm comfortable with in the lighting environment I'm in.

 

[hulkk]

How about this or Activity monitor's energy tab? It will tell you what is using energy...

 

[iMacDragon]

I wouldn't worry about the capacity drop unless it continues, that figure can be quite changeable depending on how charge cycles go.

 

[GerritB]

I've had no problems with the battery life. I'm currently running Windows within Parallels next to MacOs, SPSS, Word, Chrome and the Kindle reader app, full screen brightness as I'm sitting outside, and after an hour its at 86%. I also have the fans spinning a bit higher than normal to keep it cool on my lap so that may take some additional energy.

Three hours seems really short with your applications. Might go to the store and have it diagnosed.

Edit: Capacity seems to be the same as mine, I also had a drop from 7300 to 7180, but that's no cause of concern I think, had the same happen on my 2014 and the battery replacement I got this year.

 

[M.Rizk]

You have to use Safari if you want to get anything close to what Apple claims. Safari is really good and is not lacking much when compared to Chrome.

I personally use Safari as a main and Chrome only on websites that require it.

I’ve read your comments on Reddit regarding having all passwords on Chrome. I know how it feels but you will need to retype all passwords manually on Safari for now. The best thing about Safari is that Chrome can import and sync bookmarks with it (even when using Chrome on Windows).

One more thing. Using Safari on Mojave when released will help secure your accounts as it will use randomly generated passwords for each and every website. I am loving this feature so far on iOS 12 and can’t wait till I get the new MacBook Pro and get to use it there too.

 

[Macshroomer]

You have to use Safari if you want to get anything close to what Apple claims. Safari is really good and is not lacking much when compared to Chrome.

+1, I am running Safari, Mail, apps for invoices, etc, medium screen brightness for one hour now and I am at 93% battery.

 

[GerritB]

I'm now at 18% so I'm looking to get about 4 hours with 2 OS's running and while installing some applications as well. In normal use it should be longer.

 

[Ma2k5]

Just look at your activity monitor and see how much power draw each application is using. I did find both Chrome and FireFox to use 5+x more than Safari.

 

[Lobwedgephil]

Chrome kills the battery.

 

[justinf77]

Aside from using Safari over Chrome, also check Activity Monitor and see if any processes are running at an abnormally high CPU usage. I was experiencing the same problem, 3-4 hours on my 2018 MBP, and found a rogue process using over 30% of my CPU constantly. Fixed that issue and my battery life is great now, over 10 hours.

 

[Parikh12345]

Thanks everyone, trying to make the switch over to safari. Will lose Reddit's RES though

 

[transpo1]

Not to re-open this convo, but-

Deciding between the i9 and i7 and am wondering about 1) battery life and 2) excessive heating and fan noise. I spend about 25% of my time video editing, etc., so want the speed, but for the other 75% of my days I’m mostly surfing, word processing, playing videos and just need great battery life- great battery life as in actually getting the up to 10 hours Apple claims. Two questions here:

Does the i9 decrease battery significantly from the i7?

And will the fans on the i9 run more than the i7 when performing everyday tasks and non-heavy workloads?

Any input is much appreciated.

Thanks,

Transpo1

 

[coolX]

If google has the best coders, why does Chrome eat battery and memory?

 

[Qaulity]

If google has the best coders, why does Chrome eat battery and memory?

Because they code for other outcomes?

 

[Pangalactic]

I'm still very surprised that there is no energy saving mode on the Macs like in Windows, they really really need it.

 

[transpo1]

+1, I am running Safari, Mail, apps for invoices, etc, medium screen brightness for one hour now and I am at 93% battery.

Any more reports on i9 battery life- does it measure up? I'm looking to get at least 8-10 hours for non-intensive word processing, web browsing, etc.

 

[matram]

I'm still very surprised that there is no energy saving mode on the Macs like in Windows, they really really need it.

Honestly i thank not. My 2016 consitently give 10+ hours under light utse. For me when i get 4 hours is either due to a program using the dGPU or some external equipment connected. I rarely have problems with CPU load but I do run Safari.

I use gfxCardStatus and iStatMenu to monitor and control.

 

[Parikh12345]

So I have a brand new MBP 15" with i9, 32GB ram and 2 TB SSD. I am barely getting an hour of battery life. I have open the following apps:

Safari
Mail
iCal
Messages
Skype
Slack
Excel

Basic stuff. See screenshot, cant use the laptop for more than an hour without having to charge it. Bluetooth Off, screen is at 100%. Not sure what else to go. I already switched from Chrome to try and get better battery life. No where near the 8 hours stated by Apple
[doublepost=1537321644][/doublepost]P.S. I am on 10.14 (latest release)

 

[SDColorado]

So I have a brand new MBP 15" with i9, 32GB ram and 2 TB SSD. I am barely getting an hour of battery life. I have open the following apps:

Safari
Mail
iCal
Messages
Skype
Slack
Excel

Basic stuff. See screenshot, cant use the laptop for more than an hour without having to charge it. Bluetooth Off, screen is at 100%. Not sure what else to go. I already switched from Chrome to try and get better battery life. No where near the 8 hours stated by Apple
[doublepost=1537321644][/doublepost]P.S. I am on 10.14 (latest release)

Chrome would likely have the opposite effect as it is more resource intensive and uses hardware acceleration, but that just ain’t right. Nor is the 26 cycles on a brand new laptop.

Are you still within your exchange period? I would swap it out if so. My experience with the i9 was that the battery life is actually pretty decent.

 

[Parikh12345]

Its funny with Chrome I got about 2 hours. With Safari I get about 1 hour.

I am not, I got the laptop pretty much when the released it. I do have AppleCare though

 

[SDColorado]

Its funny with Chrome I got about 2 hours. With Safari I get about 1 hour.

I am not, I got the laptop pretty much when the released it. I do have AppleCare though

That is funny hahaha. Well done Chrome!

Even without Apple Care, that would be covers under the standard warranty I would think.

I have already done the NVRAM reset? Though I am not sure that’s going to help.

 

[Parikh12345]

That is funny hahaha. Well done Chrome!

Even without Apple Care, that would be covers under the standard warranty I would think.

I have already done the NVRAM reset? Though I am not sure that’s going to help.

I just did that and I have it sitting on the desktop with nothing running and its telling me I have an hour left with 65% battery life. Nothing running.

 

[SDColorado]

I just did that and I have it sitting on the desktop with nothing running and its telling me I have an hour left with 65% battery life. Nothing running.

Have you downloaded Coconut Battery? I am curious what it will show your design capacity, current full charge capacity, current charge and “discharging with” amps.

I

 

[Parikh12345]

I havent but iStatMenu shows Design capacity at 7336 mAh, the Current Capacity keeps changing between 6800 and 7200. Mfg date is June 9, 2018