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Let's look at the facts:

2015 15" MBPr has a 99.5 Whr battery
2016 15" MBPt has a 76.0 Whr battery

They both have nominally 35w CPUs. You bet the CPU in the touch bar is significantly better performing at low utilization scenarios but you have a smaller gas tank with an engine that uses just as much fuel at full throttle.

The reality of it is that everything running on the computer has an impact. Especially with the crazy workflows I've seen some people have. Plugging into a external monitor fires up the dGPU. If you're going to to run cloud syncing, streaming music, chrome, and all sorts of other stuff too, I'm honestly amazed that anyone would get more than 3 hours off of a smaller battery. People's expectations aren't aligned with reality or physics.
 
Neither are power-user applications. If that beast cannot even run a multi-platform browser like Chrome properly, well, kiss that "Pro" moniker goodbye and spend that money on a machine that deserves the name.
If Google doesn't want to make a browser that is power efficient then there is nothing that Apple can do about that. And Google has no motivation to make Chrome power efficient, quite the opposite.
 
"Up to ten hours battery life." Phil Shill

"You may be a winner." Publishers Clearing House

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

The new models rock. It makes no sense to choose old technology unless one is really tight for funds, in which case buying much older than 2015 makes more sense.

I would buy the top new MBPs in a heartbeat if my 17" i7 2011 MBP showed any signs of flakiness, but it remains rock solid driving a heavy graphics workflow using an external display. Still, the new 5k displays (if I can ever actually see one!) may drive me to upgrade; and anecdotal complaints of some 3-hour battery experiences will NOT have negative impact on my buying decision process.
 
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If I spent that much money on a laptop I'd made sure I liked it too!

Personally - I'm glad I skipped.

Having said that - I played with one in store - they do feel and look very nice, and speedy.

I love all the expert opinions from those "glad" they didn't spend thousands of dollars on the new machine. None were ever going to. But if bashing the new one makes you feel better about your outdated equipment, MR seems to be the place to do this. I have the new machine. I think it's the best damn thing Apple has produced in years. Mine is exceeding expectations, especially battery life and the speed at which it charges.
 
Why didnt apple keep the battery size and thickness the same. Increasing the total max battery one can get. Maybe if they did that, maybe 12-13 hrs battery?
 
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Wow, hold the front page! Laptop battery lasts less time when using power hungry apps!

To quote Apple. "UP TO 10 hours battery life".

Weasel words. I can hear the Apple dev leader now: "Technically TECHNICALLY we were not wrong in what we said. Read it again, genius. Note the phrase "up to".

Use better designed apps.

Okay I'll get right on that.

Look, I like Apple as much as the next guy. But they know what we as consumers are looking for and they're not delivering. And their explanation for how they come up with their stats on battery life is laughable. Use real world testing: test with full brightness (not 75%) and using the worst battery hog apps out there, starting with Chrome.
 
When I first upgraded to Sierra on my 2015 rMBP 13'' I was getting noticably worse battery life.
Activity monitor showed an app maxing out.
Alfred Q - enter and updates solved the issue.
The battery is back to normal now.
I'm certain this is software related just ask watchOS 3 users.
 
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SMC reset people! It works!
Used to get 3-4 hrs on the 15, now getting a real 12-13 hours!!! Meaning the strongest battery I've ever had on any MacBook Pro!!!
 
My 2010 17" MBP gets 6-8 hours with moderate use and it's over 6 years old.
 
Yes battery life is definitely worse, retuning mine, I can tolerate lack of ports, but I won't tolerate low battery life on a god damn macbook pro

MacBook Pros took pride in their long lasting batteries, now it's just as basic as any other cheap pc laptop
 
I will, but I really don't have time for these experiments, that's one aspect of a "Pro" machine. Oh well. Here is for reference what my estimate says right now, light browsing on low screen brightness, internal graphics. Did SMCD reset by the way.

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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.
 
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A subset of users who purchased a new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar claim to be experiencing shorter than expected battery life.

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In particular, some users claim to be getting as little as 3 to 6 hours of battery life on a single charge, or between 30% and 60% of the up to 10 hours advertised.

MacRumors forum member SRTM said:MacRumors forum member Aioriya said:Reddit user Azr-79 yesterday claimed his new base model 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar received only 3 hours and 45 minutes of battery life on a single charge, despite what he described as "normal usage" in the form of web browsing, watching YouTube videos, and software development.

mbp-battery-life-chart.jpg

MacRumors forum member Scott claimed he experienced a 5 percentage point drop in battery life, from 10% to 5%, in just 12 minutes. Google Chrome, a known battery hog, was listed as the only app drawing significant power. The discussion topic he posted in and others are littered with similar claims of sizeable percentage drops in mere minutes.

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Other claims on Reddit include anywhere from 3 hours to 5 hours to 6 hours -- sometimes more, and sometimes less.

Conversely, some users report battery life exactly in line with Apple's advertised figures. Reddit user Andrew J., for example, said he was working on non-intensive tasks on his new MacBook Pro for 90 straight minutes, and still had 92% battery life with an estimated 10 hours and 35 minutes of usage remaining.Estimates unsurprisingly vary widely based on screen brightness, background processes, and other factors, so user reports are only anecdotal evidence and your mileage may vary. It is also important to note battery life could be initially reduced until Spotlight finishes indexing your new MacBook Pro.

Battery life complaints are nothing new following the launch of a new Apple product. However, some users speculate battery life could be impacted by the new MacBook Pro switching from more efficient integrated Intel graphics to the power-hungrier dedicated AMD Radeon Pro GPU for unnecessary tasks.

Once again, however, there are always claims to suggest otherwise. Reddit user Lebron Hubbard claims he received 5 hours and 48 minutes of battery life on his high-end built-to-order 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar when forcing only the dedicated AMD Radeon Pro 460 graphics to run using gfxCardStatus:Apple's built-in Activity Monitor and third-party app coconutBattery are useful tools for tracking system processes and detailed battery information.

10-hours-macbook-pro-battery-life.jpg

Apple officially says the new MacBook Pro is rated for up to 10 hours of battery life. Specifically, its tech specs page says all new 13-inch and 15-inch models are capable of up to 10 hours of wireless web browsing, up to 10 hours of iTunes movie playback, and up to 30 days of standby time on a single charge.

TechCrunch placed battery life at 9 hours and 35 minutes for the 13-inch model. Mashable said 10 hours is a fair estimate overall. The Wall Street Journal got 9.5 hours on the 13-inch model. Engadget gauged between 9 and 10 hours of video playback on the 15-inch model. Nilay Patel got 5.5 hours on the 13" in real-world use.

Apple explains how it performs its battery tests on its website:Apple's website also provides tips for maximizing battery life on the MacBook Pro, including updating to the latest version of macOS, optimizing Energy Saver settings in System Preferences, dimming the screen's brightness to the lowest comfortable level, and turning off Wi-Fi while not connected to a network.

Additional battery optimization advice provided by users includes performing a fresh install of macOS Sierra and resetting the SMC.

Article Link: MacBook Pro Users Express Concerns About Limited Battery Life

5 percent in 12 minutes is not extraordinary in any way. That's 4 hours of battery life while using chrome, which is to be expected from Chrome. Because it's Chrome
 
Did just that. Will wait 2 yrs to check whether to go with what they'll have by then or go back to PC world.
Dell XPS 15 is a beauty...
I had a 4k 1tb 16gig XPS 15. Bug city. I sold it off to some poor soul. Nice hardware, but wholly unreliable. Dell can't get BIOS updates right. They always seem to break more than they fix. No bueno for a $2,399 machine, that's for sure.
 
A majority of the people complaining about poor battery life are using Chrome and won't even entertain using Safari.

No.

Why would I use safari? They said 10 hours of wireless web browsing, not 10 hours of wireless web browsing only if you use safari.

It is beyond obvious safari does not have all the plugins I need to browse the internet. Can I only expect apple hardware to work properly if I exclusively use Apple software?

Same goes for Final Cut. Using premiere with the exact same workload is choppy, and yet for Final Cut it's buttery smooth. See here:

Why doesn't apple fixate itself less on its anorexia and more in actually bringing the computers to appropriate specs that can run all software properly and not only Apple's? God damn, shave another gram from the computer at cost of functionality and I don't understand how people keep falling for this crap.
 
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Apple doesn't believe in choice so that's NEVER going to happen again.

You can more easily just buy an external battery. Small thin and easy to carry. What's the point of swapping them in and out of your computer. Plus external battery gives you lots of charging options. But an external battery is good solution to a problem that shouldn't exist.

FWIW, I have a 3-4hr battery situation under light load too. Totally unacceptable. I wonder if it's an issue with the GPU. I have the 460, anyone else? Anyone know of a more comprehensive way of doing a power usage diagnostic / audit?
 
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But... but... it's supposed to be good because it's Thinner!

Here's hoping Apple learns we want quality, not thinner or gimmicks like their new bar.

Im tire of everything these days getting thinner, give me a lap top thats half again thicker that can get an actual 6-10 hours of normal use and better graphics with great cooling.

Why is everything going thinner? its F----n annoying. Just give us something that works from day one and doesn't seem to come with issue because they think everyone want the thinnest possible device.

Been with apple for the past 20 years but am slowly getting tired of the direction they are moving and it seems to be about making the most they can and customer satisfaction is going down hill. the past 3 iPhone five had seem to have issues with every version and the same for the last two iPads. Bought my first PC in 20 years this past month for my son and can't believe the speed and graphics available for the price.

Apple needs some changes and I think its not about designing a car that know one will be able to afford and that will probably have issues if ti was ever to be released.

get back to what you know or knew best make great laptops and desktops that just work and software to support them.
 
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