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2016 was not a good year for batteries. First Samsung, now this.

Makes you wonder if companies need to stop rushing product out the door?
I'd rather have a shorter battery life than an exploding battery. If you believe the Bloomberg report Apple wanted a larger sculpted battery but ran into issues so shipped it with a smaller battery. My guess is they wanted to avoid a Note 7 situation.
 
Yep. I'm sure some people get good battery life, but there's been too many stories of bad battery performance for me to take the risk.

Besides, let's not pretend that would be the only reason not to buy it anyway

I am kinda torn here. I do own a 15" MacBook Pro with touchbar, and while I do have some strange battery stats, I have yet to see the machine turn off in less than 6 hours or so on the AMD GPU. My theory is that the software is not perfectly calibrated for the new Polaris architecture and therefore it does funny things. Still the best mac i've used in a long time. Time will tell if there is a real issue with the GPU or if its a software issue.
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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.


Damage control or simply a mature response from Apple...
 
I can confirm the battery life is terrible. I took a flight from the west coast to the east (of the US), and the laptop died before the end
That's a 5 hour flight, right? Pretty bad that it couldn't make it, although it depends on what you were doing of course.

BTW from what I've read, one should be able to charge the MacBook a bit with a USB-A to USB-C cable. I assume that all flights nowadays have a USB-A receptacle which delivers 5V@500mA. That should give at least 2.5W. Assuming the laptop uses about 10W on average, one should be able to extend the runtime with 25% or so.
 
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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.

For some reason everybody feels entitled for all kinds of things. By the way this forum seems these days (and yes I have been reading MR for many years), no matter what Apple comes forward with, it will never be enough, revolutionary enough, good en ought, chap enough...
 
This all sounds like Apple making a car that does 200 miles to the gallon of gas, with tyres pumped up really high, a good tail wind, travelling at 20 miles per hour, no luggage, and the bodywork waxed with APPLE WAX to help the air flow over the bodywork.

Doing anything other than this will cause the fuel economy to plummet.

Really, and I think EVERYONE here would agree.
What we all, as consumers could do with is an independent series of tests by 3rd party, that runs the exact same tests and apps on a range of machine to give real world results.

They could offer a range of results, from movie playback, A certain game running a loop, file transfers etc.

THEN we would all get a genuine and realistic number to make a informed purchase upon.

If the MacBook is amazing as it seems to be, when doing very very little, but as soon as you put it to "PRO" work, the fans kick in, the CPU starts throttling due to heat and the battery life crashes, than really that's no good at all.
 
I am kinda torn here. I do own a 15" MacBook Pro with touchbar, and while I do have some strange battery stats, I have yet to see the machine turn off in less than 6 hours or so on the AMD GPU. My theory is that the software is not perfectly calibrated for the new Polaris architecture and therefore it does funny things. Still the best mac i've used in a long time. Time will tell if there is a real issue with the GPU or if its a software issue.
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Damage control or simply a mature response from Apple...

It's obviously damage control, stop making it out to be a 'mature response'.. because that funny. Other reviews have said about the poor battery life, Apple ignores them, a major body in America who's advice Americans go by to purchase products test the battery life as poor, and suddenly Apple is publically announcing it is 'working with them'.. that's called damage control.
 
This and tonspther bugsand crap is a proof that apple software programmers have zero talent. Maby they should change software production to other country than usa too.. and not only hardware production
 
I'm sure that apple can replicate the results if CR can and thousands of their users . They have countless reports of poor battery life
Except some CR tests gave them 18 and 19 hours battery life. Nothing poor about that.
 
Over a multinational corporation who may hide behind marketing with terms and conditions in small font?Sure
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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

rather different products for totally different markets. If you truly want a "Pro" laptop (whatever that means to you), and you expect it to last 10 hours while doing your AutoCAD or photoshop, or video editing, then you better buy a backpack full of batteries to go with it. these machines are directed more to those who use the laptop plugged in to do their daily work, and when they need to be on the go and do lighter work (email, media consumption...) they still have 10 hours of battery life. I am by no means defending Apple here, their figures are specific to their own tests, however i am not going to expect some magical battery at work in a machine so thin and light.
 
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Some guy in the CR lab installed Flash during a pause and enabled it on Safari. For the battery test, the web pages used were pointing at different random Flash ads. Chrome had Flash disabled (default) and wasn't draining the battery faster than usual.

Just trying to guess :D

Anyway, now that CR outed itself, it could be the right time they consider a new cross-platform battery test, that would test more than the WiFi connection and web pages loading in the default browser, maybe? I mean, 19 hours of battery life for the 2015 rMBP13? Come on .. xD
 
I hope the machine was glued so well that CR couldn't open it; it only contains 4 button cell batts
(keep this confi please...)
 
Oh deary me. Can you point me to a single occasion Rene Ritchie has written anything remotely critical of Apple?
Yes actually. On the latest Macbreak Weekly he said since Apple chose to turn the Mac into an appliance it's on Apple to make sure it's properly updated with the latest technology (referring to the Mac Pro and mini here). Funny though that people who are routinely negative on Apple (like pretty much everyone who posts here and the whole of the tech world outside of Rene) don't get the same level of criticism. Of course it's easier to call Ritchie a fanboy and apologist than refute his arguments with facts, reason and logic.
 
It's obviously damage control, stop making it out to be a 'mature response'.. because that funny. Other reviews have said about the poor battery life, Apple ignores them, a major body in America who's advice Americans go by to purchase products test the battery life as poor, and suddenly Apple is publically announcing it is 'working with them'.. that's called damage control.


Call it whatever you like, it does not change that a real company in the real world has to act more like a mature person than a spoiled brat and say "you're using it wrong". Every company has an obligation to their owners or shareholders to minimise damage in the press. I am not sure that Phill's tweet is worth getting all angry. They are a company and they will do anything in their powers to paint the right image about themselves in the media (Apple most than others). They get away with things because their products are good/better than others (but by no means perfect). Having realistic expectations is key.
 
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rather different products for totally different markets. If you truly want a "Pro" laptop (whatever that means to you), and you expect it to last 10 hours while doing your AutoCAD or photoshop, or video editing, then you better buy a backpack full of batteries to go with it. these machines are directed more to those who use the laptop plugged in to do their daily work, and when they need to be on the go and do lighter work (email, media consumption...) they still have 10 hours of battery life. I am by no means defending Apple here, their figures are specific to their own tests, however i am not going to expect some magical battery at work in a machine so thin and light.
If these devices are meant to be used plugged in,then whats the point in making them thinner.Gaming laptops are meant to be constantly plugged in which is why they are thick.You dont see manufacturer tryng to reduce the weight on those things now do you?
 
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.
Exactly. Rene Ritchie is the opposite of a knee jerk reaction. And just because he doesn't automatically blame Apple and take Apple to task he's labeled the ultimate fanboy. Seems an easy cop-out for people who can't (or refuse to take the time to) give a factual well reasoned response. Goodness even Marco Arment is defending Rene on Twitter.
 
Yes actually. On the latest Macbreak Weekly he said since Apple chose to turn the Mac into an appliance it's on Apple to make sure it's properly updated with the latest technology (referring to the Mac Pro and mini here). Funny though that people who are routinely negative on Apple (like pretty much everyone who posts here and the whole of the tech world outside of Rene) don't get the same level of criticism. Of course it's easier to call Ritchie a fanboy and apologist than refute his arguments with facts, reason and logic.

Assigning blame is so much more fun.
 
Exactly. Rene Ritchie is the opposite of a knee jerk reaction. And just because he doesn't automatically blame Apple and take Apple to task he's labeled the ultimate fanboy. Seems an easy cop-out for people who can't (or refuse to take the time to) give a factual well reasoned response. Goodness even Marco Arment is defending Rene on Twitter.

I'm still waiting for you to point me to a piece that Rene Ritchie has written that is in any way critical of Apple? He cannot be considered objective in any way.

He rushes to Apples defense at the first sign of criticism, valid or not.
 
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I'm still waiting for you to point me to a piece that Rene Ritchie has written that is in any way critical of Apple? He cannot be considered objective in any way.

He rushes to Apples defense at the first sign of criticism, valid or not.

It's only valid if it's written? Podcast doesn't count? Are you away with the fairies?
 
If these devices are meant to be used plugged in,then whats the point in making them thinner.Gaming laptops are meant to be constantly plugged in which is why they are thick.You dont see manufacturer tryng to reduce the weight on those things now do you?

right, i think the answer to your question is common sense / usability. If you plan to go to a meetings / fly a lot for work / grab a coffee in starbucks and work on your presentations, then yes, weight and size is key. If what you do is game a lot, then the macs are deffo not something you should throw your money at. Gaming machines are 100% designed and sold for a specific task and use case. These macs are sort of do a lot of things and do them good. Loads of companies out there issue laptops to their employees, not to play games on but to do their work from wherever they can (hotdesking in officers is a real thing). For all those people, size and weight is truly important.
No laptop, desktop or any others thing in the world can perform perfectly under all circumstances. Each buy what works best for them. Were I a gamer, I would certainly look elsewhere. But for what I do, for what pays my bills, the 15"MacBook pro i have is almost perfect.
 
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It used to be that Apple PR was proactive, they seem incredibly reactive in 2016, needing to respond and put out fires on their products. While I agree that its probably a software fix, its still egg on Apple's face and it doesn't really help their case in selling laptops.

Given that so many people have reported less then stellar results, why couldn't Apple have uncovered this before rolling it out?
 



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.

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"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
What company was recently chided for adapting their engine software to cater to emission testing ? Apple better not follow that lead.

On the bright side, CR's critique has finally got someone at Apple to listen.
MR and all the youtubers reviews fall on deaf ears @ infinite loop.
 
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