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MacBook Pro 13 2018 battery life

A

Abaganov

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 30, 2016
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I can't really offer a good review because I've come from a 2013 to this, but I was using it all day yesterday without charging. Only writing and a bit of internet so nothing intensive.
 
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I typically do a battery cycle on the first charge after purchase. I got 3 days on the first charge. That includes setting everything up initially, a normal days work including spreadsheets, Word Processing, emails, browsing with flash. Also did some video edits on Final Cut for about an hour, and all while indexing in the background.

I’d say if you are making out processing power all day on battery power, any laptop will “take a hit”. But for normal everyday activity with higher processing power usage mixed in, it is like any other MacBook Pro.
 
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What's a battery cycle and should I have done one?

Since I unboxed, it's been on my desk plugged in...
 
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AdamA9 said:
What's a battery cycle and should I have done one?

Since I unboxed, it's been on my desk plugged in...
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Don't worry about it.
Use it like a laptop (plugged and unplugged) for a week then report battery life in terms of hours from xx% down to YY%

[doublepost=1532193625][/doublepost]
DougFNJ said:
I got 3 days on the first charge
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Reporting (estimated) usage hours is a little bit more useful for anyone reading this, because 3 days = 72 hours. Which is of course not a real use time....
[doublepost=1532193683][/doublepost]
fokmik said:
"took a hit" what do you mean? in good way or bad way?
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?? is it possible to have "took a hit" mean something positive?
 
AdamA9 said:
What's a battery cycle and should I have done one?

Since I unboxed, it's been on my desk plugged in...
Click to expand...

Just my own habit I do with any battery operated product. I charge it to full and run it until Dead the first time out.

laz232 said:
[doublepost=1532193625][/doublepost]
Reporting (estimated) usage hours is a little bit more useful for anyone reading this, because 3 days = 72 hours. Which is of course not a real use time....
[doublepost=1532193683][/doublepost]
Click to expand...

I’m not going to run a chess timer during actual usage to check the battery, but with regular use over 3 days, easily over 10 hours, I was impressed with the amount of processes running that I got that much out of it on the first charge.
 
My 2018 13" i7 battery life has exceeded my expectations. I'm coming from a maxed 2017 MBP, which has been very disappointing in terms of battery life. (usually 4-6 hours.) I bought this mostly to see if the battery life/temps were notably better, intending to return it if they weren't. So far, I'm definitely keeping it.

My normal usage is lots of Firefox tabs open, Mac mail, messaging, Numbers, Slack and intermittent Illustrator, Acrobat, and Photoshop. Still in my first few days, but doing all of the above at 50% screen brightness, it's running very cool and I'm averaging 9 hours, which I'm really happy with. It seems to get a little better each cycle, too.
 
It's pretty early for me, but I'm super happy so far. I'd say I'm averaging 8-9 hours of total battery life on my 2018 MacBook Pro i7 (but I never run it down fully). I keep a ton of Safari tabs open and usually have Photos, Calendar, 2 email programs and Contacts open at the same time.

I watch the active watts pretty closely using iStat Menus and it averages roughly 6-7 watts and get as low as 2-3 watts at idle which is pretty remarkable and comparable to my m3 MacBook. Apple did a fantastic job!
 
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I'm seeing >10 hours of battery life in my typical daily usage. I'm actually impressed with it compared to my old 2015 MBP.
 
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cep55 said:
My 2018 13" i7 battery life has exceeded my expectations. I'm coming from a maxed 2017 MBP, which has been very disappointing in terms of battery life. (usually 4-6 hours.) I bought this mostly to see if the battery life/temps were notably better, intending to return it if they weren't. So far, I'm definitely keeping it.

My normal usage is lots of Firefox tabs open, Mac mail, messaging, Numbers, Slack and intermittent Illustrator, Acrobat, and Photoshop. Still in my first few days, but doing all of the above at 50% screen brightness, it's running very cool and I'm averaging 9 hours, which I'm really happy with. It seems to get a little better each cycle, too.
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This is good news. I also get 4-6 hours on the 2017 13" (TB). I hope I get several more hours out of the 2018 13", when I purchase it in January. I will be getting the i5.
 
conradpritzker said:
This is good news. I also get 4-6 hours on the 2017 13" (TB). I hope I get several more hours out of the 2018 13", when I purchase it in January. I will be getting the i5.
Click to expand...

I can only ever seem to get about 2 hours of battery life on my 2018 MacBook Pro (I've had it for a few months, but it's never done much better). I mentioned it to my tech person who was initially surprised, but then did a little investigating and told me that this year's model did in fact "take a hit" with battery life. Which makes me wonder... why is no one on this thread having the same battery issues as me? I thought my previous model (a MacBook Pro from about 5 years ago) had gotten bad with its battery life, but it was actually better at that old age than this new model is.

I do get some other problems too (like software updaters popping up and freezing the whole machine, forcing me to quit all programs, which happens about once a day), so I'm wondering if they're related...
[doublepost=1548123472][/doublepost]
a:-i said:
I can only ever seem to get about 2 hours of battery life on my 2018 MacBook Pro (I've had it for a few months, but it's never done much better). I mentioned it to my tech person who was initially surprised, but then did a little investigating and told me that this year's model did in fact "take a hit" with battery life. Which makes me wonder... why is no one on this thread having the same battery issues as me? I thought my previous model (a MacBook Pro from about 5 years ago) had gotten bad with its battery life, but it was actually better at that old age than this new model is.

I do get some other problems too (like software updaters popping up and freezing the whole machine, forcing me to quit all programs, which happens about once a day), so I'm wondering if they're related...
Click to expand...

Bottom line so far: I've never been as disappointed with a new computer as I am with this one.
 
mikethebigo said:
I'm seeing >10 hours of battery life in my typical daily usage. I'm actually impressed with it compared to my old 2015 MBP.
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What is your typical usage ? I'm guessing it's mostly web browsing or social media ?
[doublepost=1548124356][/doublepost]I'm seeing 4-6 hours. Typical usage: Programming on XCode, with video playback in background.
 
conradpritzker said:
This is good news. I also get 4-6 hours on the 2017 13" (TB). I hope I get several more hours out of the 2018 13", when I purchase it in January. I will be getting the i5.
Click to expand...
I’ve had my 2018 MBP for two weeks. Instead of 4–6 hours, I now get 5–7. (Exact same usage as with the 2017 MBP TB. Both base models.) That’s a 20% improvement. The quad-core processor, 3rd-gen keyboard, and T2 chip, among other things, add up. I spent $300 selling my 2017 model and buying this used, mint condition 2018 one. I’d do it again.
 
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Started using mine at 9am, it's now 13:59 and I'm at 9%. All I have done is browse the web, code using Textastic and use terminal to SSH into remote servers. This is a brand new machine and has only had the one charge. I do hope it improves!

My 2015 13 Mac Pro last has awesome battery life, even three years later.
 
5 hours?! That's unacceptable. Used to be getting 9-10 hours from my previous generation MBP - guess those days are long gone.
 
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