Phil Schiller: Apple Working With Consumer Reports to Understand MacBook Pro Battery Test

[Abazigal]

You know how car manufacturers publish fuel economy and emissions figures, and how when you test them in the real world they're nothing like what they claim? Auto makers study the test regime and they tune the car to perform optimally for those tests. So the test measures fuel economy at a steady 56MPH? Let's put a small flat spot in the engine mapping code around there to reduce fuel consumption.

Apple will be doing the same with power consumption based on specific usage scenarios.

So for me, even if it is anecdotal, circumstantial or whatever - I'm always going to go on peoples real world experiences, and 3rd party reviews rather than the 'official' pitch.

The point is that people have been reporting good, okay and poor battery life. It's not as though the entire MacBook Pro user base has been unanimous in condemning it for poor battery life.

So why are people assigning so much weight to the few reports of poor battery life while seemingly ignoring all the reports of positive battery life estimates?

 

[MH01]

You know how car manufacturers publish fuel economy and emissions figures, and how when you test them in the real world they're nothing like what they claim? Auto makers study the test regime and they tune the car to perform optimally for those tests. So the test measures fuel economy at a steady 56MPH? Let's put a small flat spot in the engine mapping code around there to reduce fuel consumption.

Apple will be doing the same with power consumption based on specific usage scenarios.

So for me, even if it is anecdotal, circumstantial or whatever - I'm always going to go on peoples real world experiences, and 3rd party reviews rather than the 'official' pitch.

especially using your example, apple removed the fuel gauge to make the problem go away
[doublepost=1482573122][/doublepost]

The point is that people have been reporting good, okay and poor battery life. It's not as though the entire MacBook Pro user base has been unanimous in condemning it for poor battery life.

So why are people assigning so much weight to the few reports of poor battery life while seemingly ignoring all the reports of positive battery life estimates?

Common sense actually. It's based on usage .

I used my 2016 like my previous laptop, put that gorgeous screen on 80% and saw about 4-6 hours usage .

I than reduced the brightness to 30% and saw 8-9 hours .

I've run side by side tests versus my 2015 on the same settings , 2016 only matched the 2015 while both laptops do trivial Tasks. Tested both on intensive CPU task, 2016 was about 30% less battery, by the amount they reduced the battery.

There is no bad or good units, these new laptops with the "right" settings and doing trivial tasks can get very good battery life, use them with intensive tasks and high brightness to take advantage of the screen, battery life is bad .

 

[Radon87000]

In short, you would take random anecdotes of poor battery life from people on forums and social media at their word? Just like that?

Over a multinational corporation who may hide behind marketing with terms and conditions in small font?Sure
[doublepost=1482573422][/doublepost]

The point is that people have been reporting good, okay and poor battery life. It's not as though the entire MacBook Pro user base has been unanimous in condemning it for poor battery life.

So why are people assigning so much weight to the few reports of poor battery life while seemingly ignoring all the reports of positive battery life estimates?

Even at its best battery life is still not what it should be for a $3000 notebook.The MBA lasts longer than it and so does my XPS 13 and both cost a quarter of what the MBP does

 

[H2SO4]

The point is that people have been reporting good, okay and poor battery life. It's not as though the entire MacBook Pro user base has been unanimous in condemning it for poor battery life.

So why are people assigning so much weight to the few reports of poor battery life while seemingly ignoring all the reports of positive battery life estimates?

The point is that you have missed the point. Why not ask Tim to publish how he tested the laptop like CR has done?

 

[palseb]

Yesterday Consumer Reports revealed that Apple's 2016 MacBook Pro became the first MacBook to fail to achieve a recommendation due to inconsistent battery life. Apple SVP Phil Schiller today tweeted that the Cupertino company is working with Consumer Reports to understand the battery tests.

"Working with [Consumer Reports] to understand their battery tests, " Schiller tweeted. "Results do not match our extensive lab tests or field data." Apple claims its internal testing has seen the new MacBook Pro providing up to 10 hours of battery life when watching iTunes movies or browsing the web.

​

Consumer Reports' test has come under scrutiny since publication of the non-recommendation. The tests were conducted by opening a series of 10 web pages sequentially on Safari. This tests' inconsistency had the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar registering 16 hours, 12.75 hours and 3.75 hours of battery life. A 15-inch MacBook Pro ranged from 18.5 hours to 8 hours of battery life.

When Consumer Reports tried the test with Chrome rather than Safari, it found consistently high battery life. "For this exercise, we ran two trials on each of the laptops, and found battery life to be consistently high on all six runs," the report said. Consumer Reports did not think it was enough data to draw a conclusion, though they also point out their test results only take default browsers into consideration.

Critics, like iMore's Rene Ritchie, argue that inconsistent test results require more testing to ferret out whether the issue is easily fixable, like a Safari glitch. Consumer Reports noted in its report that if Apple issues a software update that it claims will fix battery life inconsistency, they will conduct fresh tests.

Article Link: Phil Schiller: Apple Working With Consumer Reports to Understand MacBook Pro Battery Test

[doublepost=1482573987][/doublepost]I have a new MacBook Pro with the Touchbar, and the battery is terrible. I paid close to $4,300 Canadian for a poor battery laptop! Terrible

 

[Marx55]

Great, Apple. You must pay more attention to Mac development, releasing new models of each Mac category every single year, as you do with iOS gadgets. Do not forget to update the Apple Thunderbolt Display.

 

[iamnotme]

The base non touch bar 13'" has been really good actually. I easily get the 10 hours plus with light usage. I managed to get 8 + with a VM running as well, of course without significant CPU load. I thought about sending it back and getting a 15" tb version but the early reports made me change my mind.

 

[mscice]

Agree Apple turns all settings off probably to get that 10 hours of battery life

I would agree haha turn everything off ... while this is not a real world test !

 

[asiga]

Apple SVP Phil Schiller today tweeted that the Cupertino company is working with Consumer Reports to understand the battery tests.

That's nice, but please don't forget the reports from professional users needing a professional Mac tower in the tradition of the pre-2012 MacPro.

 

[Reason077]

"When Consumer Reports tried the test with Chrome rather than Safari, it found consistently high battery life."

Well, this suggests to me that it's a software issue (not entirely surprising) that's causing poor battery life. Not something inherent to the MacBook's hardware.

 

[andreyush]

Still got 6:30 hours on my rmbp 2012 with 450 cycles and 85% health.
Also skype ,facebook messenger and itunes are open.
ALSO El Capitan ftw. Look I have a "time remaining" indicator <3.

 

[jacksmith21006]

The issue was reported somewhere in the last couple of days. They planned on using a new battery they developed and created the compartment for the battery in the new Mac.

Very late in the development cycle there was a problem with the battery so Apple had to resort to a battery that was smaller and less powerful causing battery life to decrease compared to previous version.

Apple should have delayed the Mac and fix the problem with the new battery and then release an "insanely" great Mac like the old Apple would have done.

 

[PabIoEscobar]

Does Apple want to "understand" the test so that they can write adequate test recognition software like VW^^

 

[mkeeley]

As previously mentioned just pop 'activity monitor' in the dock - all the info is there, just a few more clicks than before.

Such a step forward.

 

[bobob]

In short, you would take random anecdotes of poor battery life from people on forums and social media at their word? Just like that?

You think these people are secretly windows/android lovers?

One need only observe the tsunami of trolls that have flooded our own MacRumors forums over the past couple of years to realize that for every person that has actually purchased a new MBP, there are a hundred more merely pretending to own one in order to falsely reinforce their malicious arguments.

 

[cdmoore74]

I remember a few years ago when they couldn't recommend the iPhone (4?). I never had any issues related to their problems.

That said, yeah I hope they're wrong.

Wasn't that for antennagate? It must have affected many people because Apple started giving out cases at no charge to people that complained.
Just because me or you don't have an issue doesn't mean that thousands of people may have legitimate reasons of concern. Even if an issue affects 20% of buyers that's a very big pool of people, that's 1 in every 5. I really don't see any issues with CR and I don't see why they would lie. It actually takes "courage" to do what they do.

 

[Paul Dawkins]

MR like any online community, it's strength is it's members, I'd trust thier opinions over that of someone getting paid to follow the company line. Problem is that if we let companies get away with crap like this, there is no consequences so history repeats itself.

I give companies that own up to thier faults / mistakes credit, at times Apple acts like a spoilt brat who has been caught and lies lies lies never admitting fault. Love their products but geez there is some brainwashing corporate wise in that everything is magical, great, awesome...etc.

I don't get apologists. I'll defend an Apple product if someone is making a false accusation and I own said product. If I don't own it, I will not lie.

You don't know those members just like you don't know the people who did this test if they were paid, simply stupid or just biased.

If someone started filtering this member data using a scientific method it would probably turn out to be a complete rubbish almost every time.

 

[weckart]

So why are people assigning so much weight to the few reports of poor battery life while seemingly ignoring all the reports of positive battery life estimates?

It's not just a few, though, is it? A few random posts about sub-optimal battery life would not have prompted Apple to respond in the way it did by removing functionality from the battery indicator. The posts are many and consistent.

As people have stated: No smoke without fire. Just ask Samsung.

 

[Paul Dawkins]

"When Consumer Reports tried the test with Chrome rather than Safari, it found consistently high battery life."

Well, this suggests to me that it's a software issue (not entirely surprising) that's causing poor battery life. Not something inherent to the MacBook's hardware.

That seems strange since Safari even when playing a video will not always shown as using more energy when at the same time chrome only needs to be open with a blank page and it will use more energy (based on activity monitor number).

 

[Rob_2811]

"C'mon guys! The check was in the mail! You couldn't have waited another day to post your review??"


(Also, lol @ Rene Ritchie. I can't go to iMore anymore. That guy has to be on Apple's PR team)

There's certainly a touch of Trump-esque hyperventilating in the iMore article. You probably nailed it with the Apple PR comment.

He's always been an embarrassment, lets be honest people seeking out the opinions of the like of Rene Ritchie, Jim Dalrymple and Gruber are purely looking to be told that the latest Apple device is fantastic.

Have you seen Rene Ritchies Instagram account? More marketing shots of Apple devices than the Apple website.

I've been listening to him on Macbreak Weekly for years and can scarcely remember anything he's really criticized Apple for, to use his own parlance that right there would be a red flag. A huge, glowing, neon red flag.

That's not true at all. He just chooses not to overreact and join the herd mentality. And he's pretty much the only one out seeing Apple's POV. My tech Twitter feed is full of anti-Apple everything every day. So rather than pile on Ritchie questions why CR would publish these findings when the variation is so large (I don't think anyone else has come close to 18 hrs battery life). If that's being an Apple "fanboy" then people here have a very liberal definition of "fanboy".

Oh deary me. Can you point me to a single occasion Rene Ritchie has written anything remotely critical of Apple?

 

[Abazigal]

He's always been an embarrassment, lets be honest people seeking out the opinions of the like of Rene Ritchie, Jim Dalrymple and Gruber are purely looking to be told that the latest Apple device is fantastic.

They do at least take the time and effort to craft out a coherent and well-reasoned post though. Which is more than can be said for the majority of the critics here.

 

[Rob_2811]

They do at least take the time and effort to craft out a coherent and well-reasoned post though. Which is more than can be said for the majority of the critics here.

Should think so too. I'm sure Apple aren't paying them for nothing

 

[petsk]

The criticism has been strong lately from top to bottom, also from fanpages like mac rumors. So what you think and what I think doesn't really matter at all.

I will say that Apple is serving this Apple fan very well.

 

[deany]

Such a step forward.

I know what you mean but in a strange way I prefer it as all the energy usage is all there, far more detail.

 

[apolloa]

DAMAGE CONTROL!!!!

Would be nice if they fixed iOS bugs whilst they are at it! I was using Waze the other day and iOS refused to turn off the GPS after I closed it, even after rebooting and powercydling the stupid phone, I had to open and close Waze again to fix it. Another iOS 10 bug so bad it doesn't fix itself by turning the device off and on! What a complete mess! iOS 10 for me has been the worst one ever.