MacBook Pro Users Express Concerns About Limited Battery Life

[Bill Gates]

I keep seeing people referring to Apple having QA problems. This machine has more than QA problems; it has fundamental design limitations as a result of packaging. The MacBook Air is supposed to be thin. The MacBook Pro was thin enough already, even in its pre-unibody construction. Apple should have left the form factor alone and increased the size of the battery to allow for long battery life even during compute-intensive workflows. Tim Cook and Jony Ive have got to go.

 

[Apple Corps]

I keep seeing people referring to Apple having QA problems. This machine has more than QA problems; it has fundamental design limitations as a result of packaging. The MacBook Air is supposed to be thin. The MacBook Pro was thin enough already, even in its pre-unibody construction. Apple should have left the form factor alone and increased the size of the battery to allow for long battery life even during compute-intensive workflows. Tim Cook and Jony Ive have got to go.

Be sure to add Art Levinson to the "must go" list. He appears to be sitting around oblivious to the obvious trends that need to be reversed. I really agree with you that Ives needs to go as well - tired of hearing all his blather about thin / thin / thin.

 

[WahWahWah]

Sorry that you guys are feeling bad about being suckered into a touchbar, but did you really think Cook could properly innovate anything without screwing it up???? I was contemplating the touchbar model and then wisened up and got a 13inch w/o touchbar instead. I get a good 10 hours of battery life, it doesnt heat up, and I LOVE IT. But then again, Apple's not innovating much on this model, just making things smaller, which is the ONLY thing Cook is good at doing.

 

[AndyJapan]

There are still 2015 models out there to be bought. I think thats the way to go as of now

Basically agree, but they are still too expensive. Apple should lower the price for both models, the rMBP 2015 & 2016, but as their focus shifted from customers/users to shareholders this won't happen. I'll keep my money.

 

[Works4Me]

Well, I might as well weigh in on this thread. I bought a refurb 2015 15" before all this battery life came out. In my case, it was purely about money. It cost me approximately $700 less to buy a similarly spec'd 2015 over a 2016. And this didn't include the extra cost of dongles. Now, of course there are improvements in the 2016, but to me it was just wasn't worth the cash. That said, I am disappointed to hear about a number of issues with the 2016. I'm invested on the Apple ecosystem and would like the company to put out solid machines that are at least closer to "Pro" (and yes, I realize what that word means is hotly debated).

For me, for a secondary machine, the 15" from 2015 will do just fine.

 

[trifid]

Battery dongles coming soon to an Apple store near you!

 

[NightwalkerUK]

Why anyone who uses an external monitor and doesn't automatically plug mac into mains really surprises me.
My magsafe adapter is pluged in right next to my 24'' Samsung 4K ready to go.
With apple wireless keyboard and logitech wireless mouse.
Simples.

Talk about totally missing the point! Why anyone would buy a laptop that's sits plugged into a monitor is beyond me fullstop tbh. Oh wait, that's right, Apple have neglected that market since 2013...

 

[derekamoss]

Apple is just not there anymore here is a link to my post about why I finally abandoned Apple.https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/why-i-am-now-a-proud-owner-of-a-surface-pro.2015071/

 

[tubomac]

You are charging it wrong!

 

[TheDannyBlack]

Seriously, what's going on at Apple? I've been a devoted user for more than 15 years, but now I'm really pissed off by the direction this company has taken.

[doublepost=1480832244][/doublepost]Same here!! Such a fanboy from good old os9... But it seems to me they have to much money and power Tim Cook is trying to make it into a completely different company... I doubt they even want to be in the computer business anymore because they do not make much revenue off of them. I just wish they could explain their path to the fans while they still have them !

 

[junkstory]

The chassis of the new Macbook would work well in the future when Intel chips are more efficient and powerful (alleviating the need of a discrete GPU altogether), but as of right now... the Skylake chips are just too weak, too hot, too power hungry, and relies on discrete GPUs.

But then, by the time such Intel chips arrive, Apple would have made a new Macbook that is even more thin and we are back at square one again.

 

[skellener]

At Apple, "Pro" means "courage" to stick with the crap they are making now. Oh how the mighty have fallen. C'mon, Apple, get yer crap together. Make a "Pro" laptop for "Pros"!!!

 

[nathan_reilly]

I still don't understand why apple didn't put the touch bar above the function keys... Couldn't we have both?

 

[Slackula]

A serious decline in quality control, innovation and direction after Steve died. That's what.

That's the most truthful comment I've read here in quite a while.

 

[Canadia69]

I dont understand why macbook users insist on using chrome instead of safari when they should know that chrome drain so much battery

 

[v0lume4]

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?

Surface Book with Performance Base, maybe? I don't personally own one, but it is advertised as having a 16 hour battery. Can any SB with Perf Base owners weigh in?
--
edit: To be fair, the Surface Book uses dual core processors, like the 13" MBP's.

 

[deany]

Talk about totally missing the point! Why anyone would buy a laptop that's sits plugged into a monitor is beyond me fullstop tbh. Oh wait, that's right, Apple have neglected that market since 2013...

Hi
I bought my 2015 rMBP 13" 19 months ago, yet I only bought the display last month. I snagged it for £276.99 from fulfilled by amazon not the 3rd party seller https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-U2...=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00WUACDIU its great as I now have a 24" iMac and a laptop.
I doubt many folk buy a laptop just to use with a display.
Cheers
PS
I whole heartedly recommend this 4K display esp at £276.99 the cable needed is https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00YOQYQWY/?tag=ho01f-21

I dont use the stand as my desk is too small but folks with larger desks this is the go to - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rain-Desig...=1480834106&sr=8-2&keywords=rain+design+stand

to get this similar effect

please note magsafe is plugged in!

 

[Mcmeowmers]

Chrome doesn't sap up an extra 7 hours of battery.

You're right. It saps about 4 whilst system and other tasks take the other 2-3.

 

[alleggerita]

I use to read all the reviews online whenever a new Apple product comes out, up till the 7/7 Plus. I haven't read a single review about this new MBP with Touch Bar.

That's how many flying Fs I give. None. Worst MBP ever.

 

[Mcmeowmers]

If you're using Chrome, it's going to trigger the dGPU. This alone eats up the battery. Not sure how any of this is new news. If you were a previous MBP owner, you should know this already. On my 2011 when my Nvidia kicks in full, I get about 2.5 hours from full charge. With onboard GPU, I get around 7 hours.

I have a 2015 and the dGPU doesn't turn on but when it does come on it stays on until I quit Chrome. Chrome doesn't seem to be able to release the dGPU. Even with the dGPU off Chrome still eats the battery but I admit Chrome is much faster and smoother than Safari.
[doublepost=1480835376][/doublepost]

THIS IS WHY I DIDN'T BUY THE NEW MACBOOKS.

How did you know that this was going to occur?

 

[Jyby]

Google products are notorious for being inefficient on mac. So the battery drain from 15% to 10% in five minutes is reasonable. Look at this post where Google Sheets uses 9GB in Safari... Scroll to the bottom, see my post. Google products are awful on Mac. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6640430?start=0&tstart=0

 

[kwandrews]

A majority of the people complaining about poor battery life are using Chrome and won't even entertain using Safari.

Nope. Safari here...hate Chrome. 3-4 hours recently with the 15".

 

[cppguy]

Gotta find a way to make it thinner...

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Battery dongles coming soon to an Apple store near you!

It's called a "charger".

 

[NightwalkerUK]

The whole point of a laptop is mobility, if the supplied battery can't even last a day freelancing then to me it's a complete waste of space. This model of MBP is such a failure it's laughable and I am a Mac user now for the past 22 years.

I've become totally disheartened with their offerings of late, so much so,that I've invested a huge amount in one of the last cheese grater MP's recently. I seriously doubt anything new is on the horizon that I'd be tempted with.