Better Battery Life on 13" TB with Serra Beta?

[Freshjs59]

Hi everyone!

has anyone tried the recent Serra Beta to see how the battery life is impacted by it? I would really hope that a fix would be included in that.

On the fence about going nTB vs TB. I know the TB makes the most sense for a long term investment with the spec bum and additional ports, but not at the cost of many hours of battery life and (apparently) not as great sounding speakers because of their location.

Much appreciated!

 

[Ma2k5]

Simple maths.

54wh vs 49wh

Hours you will get will be the above divided by the average wh consumption by you.

If you can manage to use your laptop at 4.9wh, you'll get 10 hours on the touch bar. That would require very low CPU usage, GPU usage and screen brightness. Something like just playing a downloaded video itself, or extremely light browsing.

The base wh used by the non-touch will be lower, due to of course, the 15w CPU/GPU, not having to power touch-bar and the slightly lower speed RAM. You also get of course an additional 6wh, which could translate to an additional hour at 5-6wh usage.

You are right that the speaker location is different, to me it isn't an ideal location but I haven't seen any proper testing.

I wish there was a magic software update that would significantly improve battery life, but you have to just think scientifically, it has 49wh, and average consumption might be between 6-10wh, which would lead to maybe a 5-8 hour battery at best. Last years model had 74wh for comparison, and many other Windows laptops now have > 54wh batteries paired with 1080p screens which allows for the much longer battery times.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the software, and the touch bar model actually has good battery life for its components and for the battery size it holds. The only way to get more is really, to do less on the computer/remove features. This isn't a situation like when there was a battery issue on some XPS laptops which got fixed with a BIOS update. It has bad battery life based on user expectation to previous models, not bad battery life based on specs, if that makes sense?

Some claim to see improved performance after a fresh install, this in my opinion is, something that was syncing/program/app installed/cache in the background that might have been affecting their battery life but got resolved accidentally after re-install (as some have reinstalled with no difference). Also things like SMC resets don't improve battery life, and don't go by the battery life estimator,

 

[Shadow Puppets]

Simple maths.

54wh vs 49wh

Hours you will get will be the above divided by the average wh consumption by you.

If you can manage to use your laptop at 4.9wh, you'll get 10 hours on the touch bar. That would require very low CPU usage, GPU usage and screen brightness. Something like just playing a downloaded video itself, or extremely light browsing.

The base wh used by the non-touch will be lower, due to of course, the 15w CPU/GPU, not having to power touch-bar and the slightly lower speed RAM. You also get of course an additional 6wh, which could translate to an additional hour at 5-6wh usage.

You are right that the speaker location is different, to me it isn't an ideal location but I haven't seen any proper testing.

I wish there was a magic software update that would significantly improve battery life, but you have to just think scientifically, it has 49wh, and average consumption might be between 6-10wh, which would lead to maybe a 5-8 hour battery at best. Last years model had 74wh for comparison, and many other Windows laptops now have > 54wh batteries paired with 1080p screens which allows for the much longer battery times.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the software, and the touch bar model actually has good battery life for its components and for the battery size it holds. The only way to get more is really, to do less on the computer/remove features. This isn't a situation like when there was a battery issue on some XPS laptops which got fixed with a BIOS update. It has bad battery life based on user expectation to previous models, not bad battery life based on specs, if that makes sense?

Some claim to see improved performance after a fresh install, this in my opinion is, something that was syncing/program/app installed/cache in the background that might have been affecting their battery life but got resolved accidentally after re-install (as some have reinstalled with no difference). Also things like SMC resets don't improve battery life, and don't go by the battery life estimator,

That's all well and good, but it doesn't really explain why some users are reporting as little as 3 hours battery life on high spec machines?

 

[Ma2k5]

That's all well and good, but it doesn't really explain why some users are reporting as little as 3 hours battery life on high spec machines?

Yes it does? More usage, less battery life. I doubt two people with calibrated batteries, doing the EXACT, and I mean EXACT same task, will have a difference of more than 5% in battery. There are so many factors which results in the wide range of user reports.

 

[Freshjs59]

i like how we are breaking things down to science and math, but the fact is that apple advertised about 10 hours of normal use, which they are usually very conservative on. If people are reporting 6 hours, thats a 40% variance on expected outcome. Theres no way they would communicate 10 hours if the expectation is that u barely use the machine and turn off a lot of functionality. Apple was one of the first to break that battery benchmarking.

 

[Shadow Puppets]

3 hour battery life on any machine is 100% not right... regardless of what spec you have. There is not a chance in hell Apple would advertise 10 hours of battery life knowing full well that the higher spec'd machines (i.e. the ones most pro users would buy) would only be getting 3 hours. They just wouldn't knowingly do that.

I'm sooo confident that this is actually a software / setup issue more than it is "just what the battery should do".

 

[TPadden]

Yes it does? More usage, less battery life.......

Not that simple - user program CPU (battery) usage doesn't necessarily equal OS battery (CPU) usage.

 

[Ma2k5]

i like how we are breaking things down to science and math, but the fact is that apple advertised about 10 hours of normal use, which they are usually very conservative on. If people are reporting 6 hours, thats a 40% variance on expected outcome. Theres no way they would communicate 10 hours if the expectation is that u barely use the machine and turn off a lot of functionality. Apple was one of the first to break that battery benchmarking.

No, Apple said, "Up to 10 hours" - and not via normal use. They have already stated the method they used to get the acquired 10 hour, and it isn't "normal use" by what we consider normal use.
[doublepost=1480433074][/doublepost]

Not that simple - user usage doesn't necessarily equal OS battery usage.

Usage as in, more power usage. Someone browsing a plain text browser and someone browsing youtube, will have different power usage.
[doublepost=1480433146][/doublepost]

3 hour battery life on any machine is 100% not right... regardless of what spec you have. There is not a chance in hell Apple would advertise 10 hours of battery life knowing full well that the higher spec'd machines (i.e. the ones most pro users would buy) would only be getting 3 hours. They just wouldn't knowingly do that.

I'm sooo confident that this is actually a software / setup issue more than it is "just what the battery should do".

3 hours of battery life under load/dGPU usage is perfectly normal. Stress a laptop enough and it can even finish in 1-2 hours. You will not find a laptop in the world which can get anyway near 10 hours doing those tasks.

If you are telling me someone got 3 hours by just "normal" usage, I'd like to see evidence of this. The dGPU would have been utilised, background processes must have been running etc. Or, it might be the very few lemons out there.
[doublepost=1480433327][/doublepost]For those interested (source: http://www.apple.com/uk/macbook-pro/specs/ at bottom):


13": Testing conducted by Apple in October 2016 using pre-production 2.0GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 13-inch MacBook Pro systems with a 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM (wireless web test, iTunes film playback test and standby test). Testing conducted by Apple in October 2016 using pre-production 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 13-inch MacBook Pro systems with a 512GB SSD and 8GB of RAM (wireless web test and iTunes film playback test) and pre-production 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 13-inch MacBook Pro systems with a 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM (standby test). The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The iTunes film playback test measures battery life by playing back HD 1080p content with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The standby test measures battery life by allowing a system, connected to a wireless network and signed in to an iCloud account, to enter standby mode with Safari and Mail applications launched and all system settings left at default. Battery life varies by use and configuration. See www.apple.com/uk/batteries for more information.

15": Testing conducted by Apple in October 2016 using pre-production 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7–based 15-inch MacBook Pro systems with a 256GB SSD and 16GB of RAM. The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The iTunes film playback test measures battery life by playing back HD 1080p content with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The standby test measures battery life by allowing a system, connected to a wireless network and signed in to an iCloud account, to enter standby mode with Safari and Mail applications launched and all system settings left at default. Battery life varies by use and configuration. See www.apple.com/uk/batteries for more information.

NB If you browse certain sites, especially on the 15", the dGPU unfortunately gets activated even though there is no need for it.

 

[Freshjs59]

From Apples Website - i think this is what people have been doing as well, according to the other posts these past couple of weeks, and are still seeing 6. Up to 10 hours = expected of 6 is extremely misleading, especially for apple. No way that they would do that and call it "all day battery life".



Impressive all-day battery life.
The new MacBook Pro packs more performance into a thinner design, yet still provides all-day battery life — up to 10 hours for the 13-inch model and 10 hours for the 15-inch model.4 So you’re free to keep watching, gaming, and editing from wherever you are.

The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The iTunes movie playback test measures battery life by playing back HD 1080p content with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The standby test measures battery life by allowing a system, connected to a wireless network and signed in to an iCloud account, to enter standby mode with Safari and Mail applications launched and all system settings left at default. Battery life varies by use and configuration. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information.

 

[TPadden]

Usage as in, more power usage. Someone browsing a plain text browser and someone browsing youtube, will have different power usage.
......

You are completely ignoring the OP's question. Either browsing plain text or browsing youtube CAN have different power usage with different OS's.

Hi everyone!

has anyone tried the recent Serra Beta to see how the battery life is impacted by it?

 

[PaulWog]

Ma2k5... who pissed in your cereal, and threw away your common sense? You should go look for that person and bug them instead.

 

[Ma2k5]

From Apples Website - i think this is what people have been doing as well, according to the other posts these past couple of weeks, and are still seeing 6. Up to 10 hours = expected of 6 is extremely misleading, especially for apple. No way that they would do that and call it "all day battery life".



Impressive all-day battery life.
The new MacBook Pro packs more performance into a thinner design, yet still provides all-day battery life — up to 10 hours for the 13-inch model and 10 hours for the 15-inch model.4 So you’re free to keep watching, gaming, and editing from wherever you are.

The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The iTunes movie playback test measures battery life by playing back HD 1080p content with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The standby test measures battery life by allowing a system, connected to a wireless network and signed in to an iCloud account, to enter standby mode with Safari and Mail applications launched and all system settings left at default. Battery life varies by use and configuration. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information.

You have to remember, just because a company has been known to be accurate with battery results, doesn't mean they always will be in the future. They went from 99wh/75wh to 74wh/49wh for the touch bar models.

It is poor marketing practices, but they weren't lying. I don't like it one bit - but I don't want people to think "Oh, well, it must be a software bug, because Apple wouldn't do that". No company is perfect.

 

[Shadow Puppets]

No, Apple said, "Up to 10 hours" - and not via normal use. They have already stated the method they used to get the acquired 10 hour, and it isn't "normal use" by what we consider normal use.
[doublepost=1480433074][/doublepost]

Usage as in, more power usage. Someone browsing a plain text browser and someone browsing youtube, will have different power usage.
[doublepost=1480433146][/doublepost]

3 hours of battery life under load/dGPU usage is perfectly normal. Stress a laptop enough and it can even finish in 1-2 hours. You will not find a laptop in the world which can get anyway near 10 hours doing those tasks.

If you are telling me someone got 3 hours by just "normal" usage, I'd like to see evidence of this. The dGPU would have been utilised, background processes must have been running etc. Or, it might be the very few lemons out there.
[doublepost=1480433327][/doublepost]For those interested (source: http://www.apple.com/uk/macbook-pro/specs/ at bottom):


13": Testing conducted by Apple in October 2016 using pre-production 2.0GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 13-inch MacBook Pro systems with a 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM (wireless web test, iTunes film playback test and standby test). Testing conducted by Apple in October 2016 using pre-production 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 13-inch MacBook Pro systems with a 512GB SSD and 8GB of RAM (wireless web test and iTunes film playback test) and pre-production 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 13-inch MacBook Pro systems with a 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM (standby test). The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The iTunes film playback test measures battery life by playing back HD 1080p content with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The standby test measures battery life by allowing a system, connected to a wireless network and signed in to an iCloud account, to enter standby mode with Safari and Mail applications launched and all system settings left at default. Battery life varies by use and configuration. See www.apple.com/uk/batteries for more information.

15": Testing conducted by Apple in October 2016 using pre-production 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7–based 15-inch MacBook Pro systems with a 256GB SSD and 16GB of RAM. The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The iTunes film playback test measures battery life by playing back HD 1080p content with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The standby test measures battery life by allowing a system, connected to a wireless network and signed in to an iCloud account, to enter standby mode with Safari and Mail applications launched and all system settings left at default. Battery life varies by use and configuration. See www.apple.com/uk/batteries for more information.

NB If you browse certain sites, especially on the 15", the dGPU unfortunately gets activated even though there is no need for it.

I agree that 3 hours batter life under heavy load is probably normal... but no-one said anything about heavy load. There are many reports in this forum and in the outside world of the higher spec'd batteries running down in 3 hours with moderate usage (I would call browsing YouTube and checking emails, editing the odd photo etc, moderate usage). No one mentioned that they were rendering videos the whole time or anything.

 

[Ma2k5]

Ma2k5... who pissed in your cereal, and threw away your common sense? You should go look for that person and bug them instead.

How do I lack common sense? The laptops seem to be working as expected, if anyone lacks common sense, is people thinking that Apple can somehow miraculously bypass science.

Last years MacBooks had good battery life, so this years not having as good battery life must mean a software glitch? Really guys?
[doublepost=1480434092][/doublepost]

I agree that 3 hours batter life under heavy load is probably normal... but no-one said anything about heavy load. There are many reports in this forum and in the outside world of the higher spec'd batteries running down in 3 hours with moderate usage (I would call browsing YouTube and checking emails, editing the odd photo etc, moderate usage). No one mentioned that they were rendering videos the whole time or anything.

Most reports on this forum have been based on what the battery estimator was displaying. Otherwise, I've been reading that peoples battery life has been between 5-7 hours when actually used, which seems reasonable enough to me? For the 15", when just using iGPU, people are getting 10+ hours, which again, seems reasonable to me.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I don't believe one will find any Sierra battery fixes (related to this problem) in the beta. Running beta will (more than likely) give one less battery life, as it contains logging scripts and hasn't been optimized for public use.

 

[Freshjs59]

I don't believe one will find any Sierra battery fixes (related to this problem) in the beta. Running beta will (more than likely) give one less battery life, as it contains logging scripts and hasn't been optimized for public use.

if it was the first Sierra beta, i would agree, but with it being a dot beta rather that a major revision, wouldnt that mitigate that factor? Perhaps im wrong