MacBook Pro Users Express Concerns About Limited Battery Life

[chipped]

It's Google Chrome, there are long standing well known issues with it keeping the CPU clocked at a higher frequency. It's also an issue on Windows.

Aparrently they fixed it but in my experience it's still an issue.

Use Safari and it will be better.

 

[Ihm]

MacBook Pro(blems)

 

[Cycling Asia]

For the money people are spending on these... a reasonable person would expect to be able to use any internet browser they want to and have it last to within a reasonable amount of time that Apple states in their marketing. Of course "test conditions" are always going to be optimal and in favor of the device... but come on...

One user on this thread said they are also having issues with battery life and they aren't running Chrome. But even if they were... its a $2k machine... you should be able to

You do realise that for Apple to ensure that the device will get X hours of battery life, the device would have to limit the maximum amount of current drawn from the battery, or start throttling applications. Now I can imagine the headlines if it was discovered that Apple was throttling Chrome or Firefox to ensure that the user's battery lasts for as long as Apple has advertised.

The problem with fast computers is that they use a lot of power when pushed. The problem also with fast computers is that they allow developers to write lazy code. "Hey, its a quad core 3.2GHz processor, it doesn't matter if my application is running at 80% CPU on one core, the system will still have the other three".

 

[cult hero]

Take it back before it's too late.

No. I like the machine. I like the screen. I like the keyboard. I like the size and weight. I like the performance.

I'm "meh" on the battery life but I rarely need more than six hours which it handles fine, unlike my prior 15" machine.

With that said, I'm likely to sell this machine and upgrade on the next release. The storage prices should come down and the machines should be less buggy.

Also, hopefully the nonesense with Thunderbolt 3 will be resolved by then.

 

[mmorath09]

Just took mine off the charger (100%), playing some music with iTunes via airplay. Have email and this safari window open, apple quotes 4.14 hours remaining.

 

[tom vilsack]

When I upgrade my older 2009 Macbook to a newer version of osx (Mac os) I always do a clean install. More times then not this ramps up my fans and shortens battery life. Solution that always fixes this issue is to do a simple "SMC" reset.

 

[stanman64]

Was considering getting a TB 13", but this is issue is giving me the most pause.

I regularly get 9+ hours of use out of my late-2013 rMBP 13". Full day of microsoft office/web browsing/email, so nothing too intensive, but do stream 1080 YouTube and Netflix some days, and still have ~20% once I get home.

 

[Johnny907]

Right here, 13" w/ touchbar. As I've said a couple times, battery life is trash. Sitting at SeaTac last weekend I went from 100% to 9% in 4 and half hours just by responding to emails, reading the news and perusing various forums like this one. The only videos playing that whole time were those annoying autoplay ads that pop up sometimes which I quickly shut down. It's not unmanageable but it's pretty ridiculous compared to my last two MacBooks and Apple's promised ten hours.

What's also worth mentioning is the battery icon used to give me a time remaining estimate but as of Tuesday night no longer does that. Not sure what that's about but I've gone through all the preferences trying to figure out what I could have done to disable that feature.

 

[SRLMJ23]

I am on my 2015 MacBook Pro, and decided to do a little unscientific test.

I am currently at 6:18:26 on battery and have 55% battery left. I have been doing light and heavy browsing. Did some streaming on Netflix & DirecTV NOW, and YouTube. Did some Apple Email, Microsoft Word & Outlook.

I am really glad I got the 2015 MacBook Pro even though I knew a new 2016 model was just a couple months from coming out.

Hopefully for those of you that bought the 2016 MacBook Pro, Apple can get some firmware updates and whatever else that can help this machine perform better for you, sooner than later!

 

[Regbial]

Yesss, YESSSS! The time has come for Apple to be humbled >:^)

 

[ColdShadow]

please do not buy the 2016 MBP.
you won't get a good products,you will receive a basic laptop with MBP badge on that has many issues and shortcomings..
I know everyone is aware but this must be repeated over and over : it doesn't even have USB ports, and you will end up a few dongles attached to it.
just boycott this p.o.s.
and buy a 2015 model instead,MUCH,MUCH better machine.
let's tech Apple to reverse this mistake and make a new,addequete MBP.
ion you buy this junk, they will shove it deeper.and wouldn't care.

 

[jamezr]

Video issues and now battery issues too..... Glad my 2015 rMBP is still going strong.....

 

[Mr. Donahue]

There is no problem with the batteries - you're just consuming the power wrong.

It took courage to sacrifice battery size and longevity for sleeker aesthetic body. Look how thin it is.

 

[Rob_2811]

My maxed out 15" was in the first batch, got it the week before Thanksgiving. Battery has gone through 9 charge-recharge cycles. Restarted, fully charged, have TextEdit, Safari, and VLC open, wifi off. Brightness at 75% (per Apple), keyboard brightness at 3 notches above 0 and sound at 3 notches above 0. Played stuff on VLC, exclusively, almost continuously. Average load during the time is 5% of the combined CPU cores. Battery lasted from 3:24PM until 7:22PM, just under 4 hours. Àmperage at the start was 6831, which is 162 mA above spec.

My 2011 15" MBP, >5 years later, has better battery life.

That is absolutely shocking. Feel bad for you, too late to return?

As most of us longtime Apple clients, we may disagree on a few minor things but we seem to agree on crucial points: quality and fragmentation/focus. Companies will pay attention if you hit them where it counts: vote with your dollars and make a concerted effort in voices our collective concerns. Enough emails, letters, voices combined with the first sip in fifteen years, something will give. If not, then we begrudgingly vote with our dollars, even if that means adapting to new workflows. Referenced below is an email I sent to Tim Cook regarding the discontinuation of Apple's router/wireless business. I doubt he read it however the more they receive the more likely they [may] pay attention.

Hope this helps.

----------------------------

After a disappointing few years. 2016 was the end of a fifteen year relationship. I sat down and thought what I would say to Tim Cook if we ever met. Suddenly I found myself typing out my thoughts which evolved into an email referenced below. I know Tim Cook will never read it, nonetheless it was fifteen years of my life, work and otherwise, that seemed it was necessary for me to send. As I referenced this very thread, I thought I'd share it with you as well.

Times are definitely changing, for better or for worse.

Absolutely trashed him and then put best regards at the end. Good skills, made me laugh a lot of truth in it as well.

 

[clauzzz203]

Google is the problem, not the MacBook. It's doubtful they will optimise for battery life on an Apple platform. This is not the only unfortunate coincidence for them involving Apple

 

[Bubba Satori]

First world, Star bucks problem.

Stockholm Syndrome.

 

[joeypore]

Adding a data point.

So far I've gotten between 3 1/2 hours and 8 1/2 hours of battery life on my 15" MBP 2016. Pretty much in line with what I'd expect any pro computer to do.

The lower end I was using an attached external drive and a lot of processing power. My old MBP wouldn't even get an hour and a half doing what I was doing.

And no, it's not perfect yet. But is there really any computer with this much power that can last 10 hours at full power?

 

[drewyboy]

Probably a software issue linked to Touch Bar that will be easily fixed.

A 25% reduction in the physical battery size is not something software can fix. Horrible decision so they can what... save half a pound in weight for a product that for 99% of their customers sits on a desk all day?

 

[Juicy Box]

Google is the problem, not the MacBook. It's doubtful they will optimise for battery life on an Apple platform. This is not the only unfortunate coincidence for them involving Apple

Google might be a problem, but there are 2016 mbp users posting crappy battery life while using safari.

 

[drewyboy]

Just took mine off the charger (100%), playing some music with iTunes via airplay. Have email and this safari window open, apple quotes 4.14 hours remaining.

View attachment 676029

The damning evidence is their own utility is saying no programs are using significant battery power.

 

[ThisBougieLife]

and buy a 2015 model instead,MUCH,MUCH better machine.

I'd agree but I'd miss that improved display quality (brighter, higher gamut) + higher default scaled resolution (1650 x 1050). That would seem like a big step back going to the 2015 rMBP.

Otherwise, I pretty much agree. The difference in internals wouldn't be enough that I'd notice it, and physically (save the screen) it's better (better keyboard, not such a huge trackpad that gets in the way, and I'd take a couple USB-C and A ports, but eliminating the A altogether is a pain).

 

[Attirex]

Repairing permissions should fix issue.

 

[luddx]

Google is the problem, not the MacBook. It's doubtful they will optimise for battery life on an Apple platform. This is not the only unfortunate coincidence for them involving Apple

maybe you should read the various reports from forum readers here and realize it's not google's problem...

 

[Aquaporin]

It's Google Chrome, there are long standing well known issues with it keeping the CPU clocked at a higher frequency. It's also an issue on Windows.

Aparrently they fixed it but in my experience it's still an issue.

Use Safari and it will be better.

Chrome is just an awful application. I know it's 'fast' but it is a memory hog and causes the work computers to hang. Why can't we just use Firefox or even IE?

 

[Flore]

You have some background daemon running at 100% CPU, in all likelihood. Figure out which one, then tell Apple so they can fix the problem.

Oh, and if you just got it and migrated a bunch of files from your old machine, Spotlight is probably still indexing, in which case the problem will go away in a few days.

Nothing taxing the CPU, checked Activity Monitor. Don't see any Apps with Energy Impact either.
Spotlight should be done indexing after the machine ran for over a week now.
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In all fairness, that calculated remaining time is a snapshot at a particular time. If the computer is doing lots in the background, it will look terrible. Check back in a few minutes, and it will show a vastly different time estimate.

Tells you basically nothing outside of "that moment." Your battery won't be dead in 2:56, guaranteed.

But the post fits the narrative, so there you go. Good job.

I had the machine for over a week and this has been consistently the case. Battery died after 3,5 hours.