got 10 hours on my 13 inch MacBook Pro....

[yillbs]

So.. I managed to get 10 hours on my 13 inch MacBook Pro. I've already decided I'm not keeping this thing, but before I sent it back, I've been running countless ways to achieve 10 hours of battery, and I think I've finally figured it out.

It is obtainable... turn your screen brightness to about 70%, then, find a video that's local to the hard drive. Make sure auto brightness is off, then make sure you close all programs ( no mail fellas ). Once you do that, go ahead and make sure -everything- is closed. No battery management software ( I couldn't do this even with battery health 1, or 2 running ), anyhoo, close it all. go ahead and start the video, If you have anything other than half volume up, you won't get 10 hours, so set your volume to about 50%.. once you do that, start the video, and start a stop watch. Make sure you're at 100% battery, don't unplug once you hit 100%, use a battery monitor to ensure you're at the max capacity. Once you do that, play your video in full screen, and set it to the side. With what I listed above, I got 10 hours, and 5 minutes of battery usage. I did the same thing, and had slack / mail open, and got 9 hours and 15 minutes ,I did the SAMe thing, and had safari, mail, slack open, and got 8 hours and 45 minutes. I did the same thing and had mail, slack, safari, and I also had photo's syncing with my phone, I was gone much of that day, and my photos were obviously syncing, I got 7 hours, and 10 minutes.

There you go, you now all know the super secret to getting 10 hours of battery life. Apple didn't lie to anyone, they just didn't do any real world expectations. I did manage to squeeze 9 hours and 25 minutes on my very first try, I noticed when you watched a popular youtube video in a loop, the touch bar would light back up during a commercial, not sure why, but this drove usage time down to about 45 minutes less than the it remains off, and it will remain off if you watch a video on the hard drive. I'm assuming you can probably get the same battery life if you did it streaming, but I did not try, doing 10 hour tests all day every day unfortunately becomes time consuming lol.

Note : this is a touch bar model, has the I7 3.3, 256GB disk, and 16GB ram.

 

[R.P.G]

btw, why you are not keeping it?

 

[yillbs]

btw, why you are not keeping it?

well, honestly I can deal with less than 10 hours of battery, I can't imagine anyone sitting down at a laptop this small for 10 hours straight anyways, that makes ZERO sense. The fact it gets 7 hours is just fine, at least, IMO. In my case, I wan the screen, you don't buy a ultra portable with 500 nit display to not be able to use it. Having the display cranked up to 500 nits nets you about 4 hours. That's a bit to little. I fly a lot, and I write / code while flying, by the time I land I usually only have another hour or two left before it dies. Again, that ONLY happens because I want to use this beautiful screen. The fact I get mediocre hardware with bad battery just make me want to move. I'm going to pick up a XPS, and just deal with windows. I don't want to leave the apple ecosystem, but it's just not working for me. The design of the unit itself is amazing, which is why I don't want to go back to the 13 inch last year model. I can type probably twice as fast o the new keyboard, the track pad is amazing, and I actually USE the touch bar. But with the negatives I posted above, it's just not for me

 

[R.P.G]

well, honestly I can deal with less than 10 hours of battery, I can't imagine anyone sitting down at a laptop this small for 10 hours straight anyways, that makes ZERO sense. The fact it gets 7 hours is just fine, at least, IMO. In my case, I wan the screen, you don't buy a ultra portable with 500 nit display to not be able to use it. Having the display cranked up to 500 nits nets you about 4 hours. That's a bit to little. I fly a lot, and I write / code while flying, by the time I land I usually only have another hour or two left before it dies. Again, that ONLY happens because I want to use this beautiful screen. The fact I get mediocre hardware with bad battery just make me want to move. I'm going to pick up a XPS, and just deal with windows. I don't want to leave the apple ecosystem, but it's just not working for me. The design of the unit itself is amazing, which is why I don't want to go back to the 13 inch last year model. I can type probably twice as fast o the new keyboard, the track pad is amazing, and I actually USE the touch bar. But with the negatives I posted above, it's just not for me

..hmm..good luck then.

 

[yillbs]

..hmm..good luck then.

I still have a early 2015 15 in I use as my desktop, runs 3 screens, and makes my life easier. So I'll stick with that for the time being , I'm sure they will fix some of the battery woes in the next year or so, then everyone will just be screwed paying horridious amounts of money for something they can't upgrade.

 

[Patron_Saint]

well, honestly I can deal with less than 10 hours of battery, I can't imagine anyone sitting down at a laptop this small for 10 hours straight anyways, that makes ZERO sense. The fact it gets 7 hours is just fine, at least, IMO. In my case, I wan the screen, you don't buy a ultra portable with 500 nit display to not be able to use it. Having the display cranked up to 500 nits nets you about 4 hours. That's a bit to little. I fly a lot, and I write / code while flying, by the time I land I usually only have another hour or two left before it dies. Again, that ONLY happens because I want to use this beautiful screen. The fact I get mediocre hardware with bad battery just make me want to move. I'm going to pick up a XPS, and just deal with windows. I don't want to leave the apple ecosystem, but it's just not working for me. The design of the unit itself is amazing, which is why I don't want to go back to the 13 inch last year model. I can type probably twice as fast o the new keyboard, the track pad is amazing, and I actually USE the touch bar. But with the negatives I posted above, it's just not for me

Why not get the non Touchbar model? Not only is it significantly cheaper, but it gets you all of the things you love about the new MacBook Pro while removing the negatives. I did a ton of downloading and updating at a coffee shop today - was there for a solid three-three and a half hours - and spent it all downloading and updating the MacBook Pro. We're not talking small stuff - big installs, system updates, syncing my music library to Apple Music, indexing in the background, etc.

I didn't pay attention to the screen brightness - left it auto, enjoyed the screen.

Apps running during the timeframe: safari, App Store, battle.net, messages, mail.

The whole time I was using messages fairly heavily, browsing online, and replying to occasional emails.

Started at around 90%, ended at 68%. Estimated time remaining was 6 hours and around 40 minutes. Paired with 3.5 hours of heavy usage? I'd call that pretty solid battery life.

I also had an XPS for a time. The non-TB Pro blows it out of the water. There's no comparison here, and the XPS's battery was even more lacking than the TB Pro. It's still what I'd call the best option for a windows notebook, but i personally wouldn't consider it in the same league as the current or even 2015 MacBook pros.

 

[yillbs]

Why not get the non Touchbar model? Not only is it significantly cheaper, but it gets you all of the things you love about the new MacBook Pro while removing the negatives. I did a ton of downloading and updating at a coffee shop today - was there for a solid three-three and a half hours - and spent it all downloading and updating the MacBook Pro. We're not talking small stuff - big installs, system updates, syncing my music library to Apple Music, indexing in the background, etc.

I didn't pay attention to the screen brightness - left it auto, enjoyed the screen.

Apps running during the timeframe: safari, App Store, battle.net, messages, mail.

The whole time I was using messages fairly heavily, browsing online, and replying to occasional emails.

Started at around 90%, ended at 68%. Estimated time remaining was 6 hours and around 40 minutes. Paired with 3.5 hours of heavy usage? I'd call that pretty solid battery life.

I also had an XPS for a time. The non-TB Pro blows it out of the water. There's no comparison here, and the XPS's battery was even more lacking than the TB Pro. It's still what I'd call the best option for a windows notebook, but i personally wouldn't consider it in the same league as the current or even 2015 MacBook pros.

I've seriously , seriously considered potentially grabbing the non touch bar version. I've also considered a 15" version, just to give it a try, but I'm thinking I'll have even less work with that, the footprint is just so nice with this 13 inch model. I will need to take your word for it, I've heard tons of mixed reviews with the XPS. Money really isn't an issue, so I could grab a non touch just to see if it's more my fancy, I just want to be Able to enjoy the screen cranked up, and get more than a few hours. If that's the actual battery life you're getting, then I can't argue that, those are certainly solid numbers, as you're stating. I'll go order one and give it a try.

 

[Patron_Saint]

I've seriously , seriously considered potentially grabbing the non touch bar version. I've also considered a 15" version, just to give it a try, but I'm thinking I'll have even less work with that, the footprint is just so nice with this 13 inch model. I will need to take your word for it, I've heard tons of mixed reviews with the XPS. Money really isn't an issue, so I could grab a non touch just to see if it's more my fancy, I just want to be Able to enjoy the screen cranked up, and get more than a few hours. If that's the actual battery life you're getting, then I can't argue that, those are certainly solid numbers, as you're stating. I'll go order one and give it a try.

I'd definitely try that before jumping ship to the XPS. I had a maxed 13" model for about a week - between the mediocre battery life, the awful trackpad, and subpar keyboard I just couldn't justify keeping it. Performance was decent, and the screen was nice (not 2016 MBP level, but definitely nice), but the issues outweighed the perks.

So far I'm very impressed with the 2016 non-TB Pro, and I came from a mid-range 2015 15". I think you'll find that it gives you the features you're seeking without having to sacrifice.

 

[PhoneI]

well, honestly I can deal with less than 10 hours of battery, I can't imagine anyone sitting down at a laptop this small for 10 hours straight anyways, that makes ZERO sense. The fact it gets 7 hours is just fine, at least, IMO. In my case, I wan the screen, you don't buy a ultra portable with 500 nit display to not be able to use it. Having the display cranked up to 500 nits nets you about 4 hours. That's a bit to little. I fly a lot, and I write / code while flying, by the time I land I usually only have another hour or two left before it dies. Again, that ONLY happens because I want to use this beautiful screen. The fact I get mediocre hardware with bad battery just make me want to move. I'm going to pick up a XPS, and just deal with windows. I don't want to leave the apple ecosystem, but it's just not working for me. The design of the unit itself is amazing, which is why I don't want to go back to the 13 inch last year model. I can type probably twice as fast o the new keyboard, the track pad is amazing, and I actually USE the touch bar. But with the negatives I posted above, it's just not for me

These posts are hilarious to me. Complaining about mediocre hardware and then getting a DELL!!!!!. Funny stuff. My company is about half Mac's and half Dells (with some Lenovo's and SurfaceBooks thrown in too). I have seen first hand all I need to see about Dell.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

well, honestly I can deal with less than 10 hours of battery, I can't imagine anyone sitting down at a laptop this small for 10 hours straight anyways, that makes ZERO sense. The fact it gets 7 hours is just fine, at least, IMO. In my case, I wan the screen, you don't buy a ultra portable with 500 nit display to not be able to use it. Having the display cranked up to 500 nits nets you about 4 hours. That's a bit to little. I fly a lot, and I write / code while flying, by the time I land I usually only have another hour or two left before it dies. Again, that ONLY happens because I want to use this beautiful screen. The fact I get mediocre hardware with bad battery just make me want to move. I'm going to pick up a XPS, and just deal with windows. I don't want to leave the apple ecosystem, but it's just not working for me. The design of the unit itself is amazing, which is why I don't want to go back to the 13 inch last year model. I can type probably twice as fast o the new keyboard, the track pad is amazing, and I actually USE the touch bar. But with the negatives I posted above, it's just not for me

So you love everything about the computer apart from the fact that running it at eyebleeding brightness lowers the battery life a bit, any other computer you will buy will top out at 300nits anyway so why would it matter if you run it at 70% screen brightness.

It's way more powerful than the 13 inch xps. With its iris graphics and 28w processors, vs 15 watt with hd530 graphics in the xps.

Your logic is completely flawed.


http://www.trustedreviews.com/dell-xps-13-review

 

[jclardy]

When I first got my 13" I was getting around 7 hours of battery, now I get around 8.5, the main change was just turning off auto-brightness. I found auto to choose a setting that was too bright for the current lighting conditions (And plus if I leaned forward and cast a shadow on the sensor then it would drop to near zero instantly...I'm pretty sure something is wrong with it.) I haven't had any issues with auto on my past apple laptops but for some reason this one seems wonky (I'm wondering if it has to do with auto being configured for a linear scale, and this MacBook having a seemingly exponential brightness scale on its slider.)

 

[JohnnyGo]

When I first got my 13" I was getting around 7 hours of battery, now I get around 8.5, the main change was just turning off auto-brightness. I found auto to choose a setting that was too bright for the current lighting conditions (And plus if I leaned forward and cast a shadow on the sensor then it would drop to near zero instantly...I'm pretty sure something is wrong with it.) I haven't had any issues with auto on my past apple laptops but for some reason this one seems wonky (I'm wondering if it has to do with auto being configured for a linear scale, and this MacBook having a seemingly exponential brightness scale on its slider.)

Thanks for the feedback.

My guess is that auto brightness is not working properly on these new MacBooks. A lot of folks are getting much better performance with this function turned off.

At some point, a la iOS, Apple might add a "low power mode" that would turn off some functions (including touch bar) and give us better battery life.

 

[skids929]

I've seriously , seriously considered potentially grabbing the non touch bar version. I've also considered a 15" version, just to give it a try, but I'm thinking I'll have even less work with that, the footprint is just so nice with this 13 inch model. I will need to take your word for it, I've heard tons of mixed reviews with the XPS. Money really isn't an issue, so I could grab a non touch just to see if it's more my fancy, I just want to be Able to enjoy the screen cranked up, and get more than a few hours. If that's the actual battery life you're getting, then I can't argue that, those are certainly solid numbers, as you're stating. I'll go order one and give it a try.

I have no need to have this screen cranked up, for me I find it hurts my eyes after a while it's so bright so the 60-70% range works well. I do think you will be unhappy with that Dell overall, and I only say that because I have a Lenovo Yoga with Windows 10 (kids computer) and while it's a nice machine I am never happy with the OS. Get a pimped out non TB model and call it day, or at least try it out. I am still on the 13 TB model and consistently getting 9 hours or so. I had it open closed sleep alllll day yesterday, and last night closed the lid opened this am to 34%, so it's seems it will work for my daily usage, which is lite. AS I have said before I'd hate to do see what happens if I tax this thing, but I'd likely be corded up then anyway. I actually ordered the i7 TB model with 16gb of ram just to see how it is side by side with this TB. Once I have done this I will have done a complete (usage not technical) analysis and feel better about where I settle in, which will likely be a TB 13 with 16gb ram 512 and i5.

I hope you'll stay with a MacBook I think in the end you will find ways to make the machine work for you and put the up front hair splitting (we are all guilty of) behind you.

 

[benz240]

Get the non-TB 13" and you will definitely be happy. The battery life is awesome on this thing, I returned a 15" TB MBP which was getting about 3-4 hours less.