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MacBook Pro Users Express Concerns About Limited Battery Life

Admittedly, I have not been in a position yet to really test the battery in my new MBP. Looks like I will need to set aside some time to properly do that. I'm glad I didn't sell my old MBP yet. If my new one doesn't really pan out with reasonable battery life, then I will have to return it and revert back to my old MBP.

I don't have time to worry about workarounds, resets or mythical software reloads. It either works or it doesn't. I paid $3,700 and in return, I should get a pro laptop that takes care of my working needs.
 
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I can absolutely confirm the mediocre battery life: I have a new 15" rMBP, and the longest time on battery I have seen so far was just short of 6 hours, doing nothing but some web browsing (with Safari), and virtually constantly using the iGPU. Streaming music with iTunes easily shaves off a whole hour.

This is significantly less than the battery life on my old 2012 rMBP: the battery easily lasted more than 7 hours back when it was new.
 
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KPOM said:
Anyone who thinks Steve Jobs would have insisted that the latest MacBook Pro have USB-A ports isn't paying attention. The only feature I could see him insisting on was MagSafe (perhaps an official charging cable akin to the Griffin Breaksafe). Regarding the battery, consider that the iPhone has always had relatively poor battery life and during the Jobs era was behind in cellular connectivity (e.g. 2G in the original, 3G in the 4S). Jobs might have taken this design and just claimed it had a 7 hour battery life.
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Who uses Ethernet these days? Macs have required adapters since 2012 (and 2008 if you include the MacBook Air). Same with the soldered SSD.
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I agree that Jobs wouldn't bother to go USB-C only, but the problem is that they have a major product with no way to connect to a USB-C computer without adapter. This, I think, Jobs would never conceive.
 
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I'm easily getting anywhere from 7-9 hours of every day use out of my MacBook Pro so I'm very satisfied. I could probably get more if I did some tweaking but I'm happy where it is now.
 
Personally, I get between 5 and 12 hours on my 15" MBP with touch bar. If I'm just using Safari and web browsing, it lasts about 12 hours. If I'm using Xcode and and the simulator along with Slack, Safari, Photoshop, I get around 5 hours.
 
Oh, you perverted customers....
Phil and Joni are getting 10+ hours standby time while being driven around the country in their Porches, Maserati's and Bentleys
So stop complaining if you reside in worse conditions - that's not the fault of those closer to God then you'll ever be...
 
robeddie said:
Exactly! But the Apple apologists will still somehow come up with a bs counter-argument.
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A Googlites will somehow try to explain Chrome is a well written piece of software. It hasn't been in years. It is a smoldering pile of poo anymore and should be wheeled out to the trash dump and Google should start over. It is slow and a serious resource hog.
 
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For anyone interested, just did a quick 30 minute test with a 2015 2.8 v 2016 2.7, browsing Macrumors, news etc.

Both Machines were set to 80% (I like to enjoy these nice screens) and this was just web browsing....

After 30 min, the 2016 was 85% battery, the 2015 92% battery.

Im sure I can get the 2016 to match the 2015 if I play around with the settings, though I have no interest of dropping down the brightness and systems setting to such a level that I cannot take advantage of the upgrades in the new machine. The 2015 machine, just works. The 2016 just plain lacks the battery to run its lovely screen....

Note : Browsing done in safari - Chrome is not the issue here.....its the thin design, so people blaming Chrome are just looking for excuses. I can rerun my 30 minute test in chrome, it will just make the numbers worse for both the 2015 and 2016.... the gap will still exist though.

Note 2 : Continued using the 2015 until I hit 85% battery (2016) to work out how much more actual time the 2015 got over the 2016....so the 2016 to hit 85% took 30 minutes, the 2015 to hit 85% took 54 minutes.

Though this is not scientific, it does show the superior battery performance of the 2015 v 2016 with both running 80% brightness. The 2016 is going back.
 
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Bryan Bowler said:
Admittedly, I have not been in a position yet to really test the battery in my new MBP. Looks like I will need to set aside some time to properly do that. I'm glad I didn't sell my old MBP yet. If my new one doesn't really pan out with reasonable battery life, then I will have to return it and revert back to my old MBP.

I don't have time to worry about workarounds, resets or mythical software reloads. It either works or it doesn't. I paid $3,700 and in return, I should get a pro laptop that takes care of my working needs.
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I am testing mine against a 2015 model. Its really good too have both side by side. Well I bought a 2015 max refurb at the same time as the 2016 so I am actually deciding which of these two upgrades I wish to keep. The 2015 is actually ahead while being £1000 cheaper.... I was hoping the 2016 would blow me away, though its coming down to battery life at the moment....
 
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KPOM said:
Who uses Ethernet these days? Macs have required adapters since 2012 (and 2008 if you include the MacBook Air). Same with the soldered SSD.
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Pretty much every company on the planet uses Ethernet because it's a damn site faster and safer then wireless.
And Apples own TimeCapsule machines work best with gigabit Ethernet and are MUCH faster using this then using wireless, and it wasn't until the new 2016 models have you needed to use an apdater with an adapter for Ethernet, if you go Apples route. Because they have deliberately gimped the third part adapter USB C support the new laptops have!
Oh and the 15" MacBook Pro as I understand has only had soldered SSD drives since this new 2016 machine... FYI...
 
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keysofanxiety said:
A majority of the people complaining about poor battery life are using Chrome and won't even entertain using Safari.
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Seriously. The second i saw them mention Chrome I stopped reading. I had a mid-2012 MBP. Using safari and doing light tasks it got well within the rated battery life. I start using Chrome and the battery TANKS. This is not a new issue. Chrome is a resource hog and it will kill battery life. Not to mention the complaint that mentions hes gaming on battery! ANY laptop battery would tank on Chrome or gaming loads. If your using an external display and gaming, PLUG IT IN! Complaints like this are ridiculous. They would have a cause for concern is the laptop sat idle and died in an hour. THEN maybe its a bug or defect somewhere. But when OSX itself is warning you that Chrome is a huge energy user then maybe consider plugging in or switching browsers. Chrome is the one that needs to be far more efficient.
 
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devsfan1830 said:
Seriously. The second i saw them mention Chrome I stopped reading. I had a mid-2012 MBP. Using safari and doing light tasks it got well within the rated battery life. I start using Chrome and the battery TANKS. This is not a new issue. Chrome is a resource hog and it will kill battery life. Not to mention the complaint that mentions hes gaming on battery! ANY laptop battery would tank on Chrome or gaming loads. If your using an external display and gaming, PLUG IT IN! Complaints like this are ridiculous. They would have a cause for concern is the laptop sat idle and died in an hour. THEN maybe its a bug or defect somewhere. But when OSX itself is warning you that Chrome is a huge energy user then maybe consider plugging in or switching browsers. Chrome is the one that needs to be far more efficient.
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Well you should have kept reading as Safari users are reporting poor battery life too.
 
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NoNothing said:
A Googlites will somehow try to explain Chrome is a well written piece of software. It hasn't been in years. It is a smoldering pile of poo anymore and should be wheeled out to the trash dump and Google should start over. It is slow and a serious resource hog.
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It's also a lot more secure then Safari is...

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/pwn2own-2016-firefox-missing-in-action,news-52637.html

But it will chew through your battery because on Macs it won't use the integrated GPU for some reason.
 
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mkldev said:
Want to know what I most want in a MacBook Pro? Removable batteries. I used to get about five or six hours of battery life on my black MacBook, because I always carried a spare 60 Wh battery and swapped batteries. If I could get a MacBook Pro with a removable 100 Wh battery pack, I could carry a spare and get six or seven hours, which would mean that I wouldn't be permanently tethered to a power outlet all day.
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For a lot less than a dedicated, and dated idea, of a removable replaceable laptop battery, you can easily purchase a LiPo battery in the size and price point of your choice. Bonus for the ability to charge nearly any other device you own and not chained to your laptop.
 
keysofanxiety said:
A majority of the people complaining about poor battery life are using Chrome and won't even entertain using Safari.
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Its a nice deflection, but sorry that is not the case.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ed-battery-life.2019376/page-23#post-24019401

Would you like me to rerun it in Chrome? One major point here is that the apologists are coming up with all the excuses in the world to justify the problem not existing.

So, I have a 2015 2.8 1TB SSD and 2016 2.7 460 512, both brand new, bought within 2 days of each other.

Please request ANY tests I should run to prove that the 2016 can match the 2015 in battery life. Do not forget the 2015 only has 9 hours Battery life, while the 2016 has 10 hours.
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SeanG1027 said:
Is there anything Apple can actually do to solve this or are we all just SOL?
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Someone said the time left estimator has been removed in the next beta of macOS ;)
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dwsolberg said:
Personally, I get between 5 and 12 hours on my 15" MBP with touch bar. If I'm just using Safari and web browsing, it lasts about 12 hours. If I'm using Xcode and and the simulator along with Slack, Safari, Photoshop, I get around 5 hours.
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Can I ask what brightness your screen is set to? Im fascinated what I need to do to get 12 hours. That would be double my best, and that is web browsing .
 
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