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Consumer Reports Reverses Course, Recommends MacBook Pro Following New Testing After Apple Bug Fix

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Consumer Reports is out with an updated report on the 2016 MacBook Pro, and following retesting, the magazine is now recommending Apple's latest notebooks.

In the new test, conducted running a beta version of macOS that fixes the Safari-related bug that caused erratic battery life in the original test, all three MacBook Pro models "performed well."


The 13-inch model without a Touch Bar had an average battery life of 18.75 hours, the 13-inch model with a Touch Bar lasted for 15.25 hours on average, and the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar had an average battery life of 17.25 hours.
Now that we've factored in the new battery-life measurements, the laptops' overall scores have risen, and all three machines now fall well within the recommended range in Consumer Reports ratings.
Click to expand...
Consumer Reports originally denied the 2016 MacBook Pro a purchase recommendation in late December due to extreme battery life variance that didn't match up with Apple's 10 hour battery life claim.

Apple worked with Consumer Reports to figure out why the magazine encountered battery life issues, which led to the discovery of an obscure Safari caching bug. Consumer Reports used a developer setting to turn off Safari caching, triggering an "obscure and intermittent bug reloading icons" that drained excessive battery.

The bug, fixed by Apple in macOS Sierra 10.12.3 beta 3, is not one the average user will encounter as most people don't turn off the Safari caching option, but it's something done in all Consumer Reports tests to ensure uniform testing conditions. A fix for the issue will be available to the general public when macOS Sierra 10.12.3 is released, but users can get it now by signing up for Apple's beta testing program.

Each of the three 2016 MacBook Pro models, including the 13-inch MacBook Pro without Touch Bar, and the 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro models with Touch Bars, are advertised as achieving 10 hours of battery life on a single charge when watching iTunes movies or browsing the web.

Real life Battery usage can vary significantly, however, based on factors like screen brightness and the applications being used.

Article Link: Consumer Reports Reverses Course, Recommends MacBook Pro Following New Testing After Apple Bug Fix
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/01/12/consumer-reports-recommends-new-macbook-pro/
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Appleaker

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Jun 13, 2016
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Apples software really isn't up to scratch anymore. At least this is fixed now but it doesn't tell the story for Chrome users.

For those who got confused by this ^, here's what it does NOT say:
"at least this is fixed now but Apple haven't fixed Chrome"

Here's what it DOES say:
"at least this is fixed now, but it [the report] doesn't tell the story for Chrome users"

While the first report said results with a Chrome were consistent, I don't believe the numbers were published nor were they compared with the Safari results.
 
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KPOM

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The 13" Touch Bar model is rated 75 vs. 77 for the 12" MacBook.
 
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macTW

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As expected. If battery life is poor, clearly there is a hard flaw. But to have inconsistent battery life is indicating of issues easily fixable. Like Apple did.

Time to see consumers reporting better battery life.
 
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jozero

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Sep 14, 2009
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"The 13-inch model without a Touch Bar had an average battery life of 18.75 hours, the 13-inch model with a Touch Bar lasted for 15.25 hours on average, and the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar had an average battery life of 17.25 hours."

Uh ??

Yah definitely trusting Consumer Reports.
 
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flaw600

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Jan 21, 2014
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Appleaker said:
Apples software really isn't up to scratch anymore. At least this is fixed now but it doesn't tell the story for Chrome users.
Click to expand...
What does Apple have to do with Chrome? Chrome has poor resource usage and leads to poor battery life on every platform that it's on natively, so that isn't really Apple's fault. There's also the fact that Safari is the most used browser on Mac according to Apple if I remember correctly
 
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VirtualRain

VirtualRain

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Aug 1, 2008
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jozero said:
"The 13-inch model without a Touch Bar had an average battery life of 18.75 hours, the 13-inch model with a Touch Bar lasted for 15.25 hours on average, and the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar had an average battery life of 17.25 hours."

Uh ??

Yah definitely trusting Consumer Reports.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't get how this is possible. 15-18 hours? I can't imagine the machine will even run that long at idle with the screen off.
 
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