TouchBar Battery life is Crazy!

[CaptRB]

When I first got the 15" TouchBar (This is the 256GB version), the battery life was terrible. I got under 3 hours. Then I loaded up my software, installed the latest updates from Apple and I got very good battery life.

The odd thing is that it keeps getting BETTER.

Now what you do and how you do it obviously has a HUGE impact on battery life, but at this point I'm starting to feel like this thing is giving my Air a run for the money and it's clearly bested my previous 2015 15" rMBP for battery prowess. The new Touch Bar MBP continues to exceed all of my expectations, Apple...now give me back my SD slot for crying out loud!

On an unrelated note...

I picked up the Logitech K811 illuminated wireless keyboard and it's a great little addition. I don't know why Apple is sleeping and not releasing a touch bar illuminated keyboard, but until it comes, this does a great job and also works with 3 other devices at the tap of a button. There are TWO VERSIONS, so be sure to order the K811 model for Mac.
Cosmetically it fits nicely with the Mac look with a color in between space grey and silver. Works perfectly and looks great.

Cheers...


R

 

[Ethosik]

When I first got the 15" TouchBar (This is the 256GB version), the battery life was terrible. I got under 3 hours. Then I loaded up my software, installed the latest updates from Apple and I got very good battery life.

The odd thing is that it keeps getting BETTER.

View attachment 690296

Now what you do and how you do it obviously has a HUGE impact on battery life, but at this point I'm starting to feel like this thing is giving my Air a run for the money and it's clearly bested my previous 2015 15" rMBP for battery prowess. The new Touch Bar MBP continues to exceed all of my expectations, Apple...now give me back my SD slot for crying out loud!

On an unrelated note...

I picked up the Logitech K811 illuminated wireless keyboard and it's a great little addition. I don't know why Apple is sleeping and not releasing a touch bar illuminated keyboard, but until it comes, this does a great job and also works with 3 other devices at the tap of a button. There are TWO VERSIONS, so be sure to order the K811 model for Mac.
Cosmetically it fits nicely with the Mac look with a color in between space grey and silver. Works perfectly and looks great.
View attachment 690297

Cheers...


R

Yep. Mine said 17 hours remaining one night. We were playing a dice game and I was using it for the scores. Only had numbers open and around 30% brightness. We did one round for an hour and a half and my battery was only down to 98%

 

[CaptRB]

The thing is, I'm at 32% at the moment and I have the screen at 75% brightness. Battery time remaining is 3 hours, 31 minutes. I'm not trying to conserve power at all. Music is streaming as well.

Now if I run a game like Bioshock...battery drains in a few hours, but that's to be expected. I can also kill the battery by driving a monitor, but why would I need to do that?

If I do photo editing I can easily get 7 hours, and I used to get about 5-6 on my rMBP. So I'm seriously impressed.




R.

 

[sohilpandya]

What app are you using for showing the battery life in the tb?

 

[jerryk]

As always it is function of what you are doing. Streaming music is pretty easy, not a lot of data coming down, easy to present to user. Try streaming 4k movies or YouTube videos.

 

[Mefisto]

What app are you using for showing the battery life in the tb?

Not OP, and he will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the app is Battery Health 2, available at the App Store or at https://fiplab.com/apps/battery-health-for-mac

 

[Ethosik]

As always it is function of what you are doing. Streaming music is pretty easy, not a lot of data coming down, easy to present to user. Try streaming 4k movies or YouTube videos.

Yes. Battery life is never a 100% accurate measurement. Just like people say "Safari only two tabs and that is all and I get 3 hours battery life". Well, what two tabs? I can KILL my 2013 rMBP battery life to only last 1 hour with just ONE website! Or, I can make that last 12 hours (did this one day when the power was out and I was bored).

 

[sohilpandya]

Not OP, and he will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the app is Battery Health 2, available at the App Store or at https://fiplab.com/apps/battery-health-for-mac

thanks! shame you can have it on the touch bar at all times, it disappears if you are not looking at the app.

 

[CaptRB]

As always it is function of what you are doing. Streaming music is pretty easy, not a lot of data coming down, easy to present to user. Try streaming 4k movies or YouTube videos.

As an experiment I opened Youtube and chose a 4K video, adjusted for 4K in settings. Looks GREAT with my display set for 70%.

It's been running for just over 45 minutes and I started at 100% charge and I've got screenwriting software running and I've been browsing the web, Facebook and email at the same time. Within 10 minutes the battery adjusted down from over 10 hours to 7 hrs and 15 min and it held there. So the 4K obviously had a big effect with the app suggesting 3 hours less time based on the drain of the 4K video. But is this reasonably accurate?

So, 45 minutes later and I'm at 93% battery and time remaining is 6:29. Keep in mind that I'm messing around with Facebook and stuff while the video runs, so I'd say this is excellent battery life while running a video. The Battery Health 2 App and Final Draft 10 software is also a drain.

Awesome battery life. Only my Air can compete.



R.
[doublepost=1488239555][/doublepost]Oddly enough...battery life shot up to 7:22 just now at 92%.

Anyway....jazzed!



R.

 

[jerryk]

As an experiment I opened Youtube and chose a 4K video, adjusted for 4K in settings. Looks GREAT with my display set for 70%.

It's been running for just over 45 minutes and I started at 100% charge and I've got screenwriting software running and I've been browsing the web, Facebook and email at the same time. Within 10 minutes the battery adjusted down from over 10 hours to 7 hrs and 15 min and it held there. So the 4K obviously had a big effect with the app suggesting 3 hours less time based on the drain of the 4K video. But is this reasonably accurate?

So, 45 minutes later and I'm at 93% battery and time remaining is 6:29. Keep in mind that I'm messing around with Facebook and stuff while the video runs, so I'd say this is excellent battery life while running a video. The Battery Health 2 App and Final Draft 10 software is also a drain.

Awesome battery life. Only my Air can compete.



R.
[doublepost=1488239555][/doublepost]Oddly enough...battery life shot up to 7:22 just now at 92%.

Anyway....jazzed!



R.

Sounds great. As you saw, I have never been a big fan of time remaining. It is just an estimate, subject to the vararies of load, etc. The only really way to know is to run until the system shuts down.

 

[CaptRB]

Sounds great. As you saw, I have never been a big fan of time remaining. It is just an estimate, subject to the vararies of load, etc. The only really way to know is to run until the system shuts down.

Yup...and now that the video ended, my battery shows 80% with 8:23 remaining. LOL

I guess my main point is that the battery is pretty darn good on this thing.



R.

 

[jerryk]

Yes. Battery life is never a 100% accurate measurement. Just like people say "Safari only two tabs and that is all and I get 3 hours battery life". Well, what two tabs? I can KILL my 2013 rMBP battery life to only last 1 hour with just ONE website! Or, I can make that last 12 hours (did this one day when the power was out and I was bored).

Good point. All of function of what you are doing. I can write a script that will max the cpu and get horrible battery life pretty. Just need to set the disable cache and continue to cycle through a number of heavy sites.

 

[puckhead193]

I just if and when apple release a toucher keyboard it works with the Mac Pros via USB 3.0 and not just USB C (better if it was BT, but battery life would prob be awful) ... Also its gotta have a number pad on the side.

 

[CaptRB]

The Logitech keyboard is BT and has good battery life and can work plugged in. The touchbar really shouldn't be that big a deal for power. Apple could sell such a keyboard for 149.99 and they'd sell all day long.

In the meantime, the Logitech works great for 90 bucks and is better than the Apple version.


R.

 

[MH01]

When I first got the 15" TouchBar (This is the 256GB version), the battery life was terrible. I got under 3 hours. Then I loaded up my software, installed the latest updates from Apple and I got very good battery life.

The odd thing is that it keeps getting BETTER.

View attachment 690296

Now what you do and how you do it obviously has a HUGE impact on battery life, but at this point I'm starting to feel like this thing is giving my Air a run for the money and it's clearly bested my previous 2015 15" rMBP for battery prowess. The new Touch Bar MBP continues to exceed all of my expectations, Apple...now give me back my SD slot for crying out loud!

On an unrelated note...

I picked up the Logitech K811 illuminated wireless keyboard and it's a great little addition. I don't know why Apple is sleeping and not releasing a touch bar illuminated keyboard, but until it comes, this does a great job and also works with 3 other devices at the tap of a button. There are TWO VERSIONS, so be sure to order the K811 model for Mac.
Cosmetically it fits nicely with the Mac look with a color in between space grey and silver. Works perfectly and looks great.
View attachment 690297

Cheers...


R

Wait.....you had terrible battery life? Not according to your prior posts. Did you mean to write this as a serious posts? I've read many of your posts in the past and your were strongly arguing that you had great battery life. What gives ? Bored ?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/battery-experience.2020002/#post-24029780

Let's forget the estimated times, what actuals are you getting?

 

[CaptRB]

Wait.....you had terrible battery life? Not according to your prior posts. Did you mean to write this as a serious posts? I've read many of your posts in the past and your were strongly arguing that you had great battery life. What gives ? Bored ?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/battery-experience.2020002/#post-24029780

Read it again.

I'm talking about the 13" tMBP models in the previous threads. I just picked up the 15" tMBP about 10 days ago, which is what this thread is about.

I had planned to wait for the next cycle on the 15" but I got an unbeatable deal, so I snapped it up. You can read my comparison notes between the tMBP 13" and 15" here.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/review-13-touchbar-vs-15-touchbar.2033424/#post-24324805

Hope this clarifies things for you.


R

 

[MH01]

Read it again.

I'm talking about the 13" tMBP models in the previous threads. I just picked up the 15" tMBP about 10 days ago, which is what this thread is about.

I had planned to wait for the next cycle on the 15" but I got an unbeatable deal, so I snapped it up. You can read my comparison notes between the tMBP 13" and 15" here.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/review-13-touchbar-vs-15-touchbar.2033424/#post-24324805

Hope this clarifies things for you.


R

6:00 am here. Gotya, Yeah cheers, I'll have a read.

 

[CaptRB]

6:00 am here. Gotya, Yeah cheers, I'll have a read.

No worries.

But I might eat a bit of crow in my comments regarding the 15" being overkill for photo work. It's VERY snappy with big files and that makes a real pleasure vs. the 13" version.

No joke though...1st couple of times I charged it up and the 15" got dismal battery life. After that it got better fast.


R.

 

[8692574]

Well...102% ..... that should be impossible....

 

[Jaekae]

The computers have as advertised battery life for light usage up to 10 hours. But on heavy usage it goes down quicker than the older model because the battery is physically smaller. But people dont understand that and think those 10 hours is what they should always get

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Well...102% ..... that should be impossible....

That's 102% of the theoretical max charge, many Apple batteries exceed this theoretical when new.

 

[MH01]

That's 102% of the theoretical max charge, many Apple batteries exceed this theoretical when new.

You assume the software calculating is right

Be interesting if the OP tried about 3 different apps to calculate battery capacity to see what he got back. From my experience it varies per app used

 

[8692574]

That's 102% of the theoretical max charge, many Apple batteries exceed this theoretical when new.

I am 102 % sure I wasn't serious...

Yes yes I know , theoretical vs real, still doesn't make sense...as pointed out the software should still say 100% as in there should be nothing more than 100% of that I am 150% sure!

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I am 102 % sure I wasn't serious...

Yes yes I know , theoretical vs real, still doesn't make sense...as pointed out the software should still say 100% as in there should be nothing more than 100% of that I am 150% sure!

As a scientist in pharmaceuticals we often use percentages of theoretical it's perfectly valid and makes a lot of sense. There is no need to pander to ignorance and stupidity by dumbing everything down, it's one of the biggest problems in the world at the moment please stop supporting it.

It's not funny it's helped get Trump in power and helped get the uk out of Europe, it's anti science and is a rallying cry for religious fundamentalists. Challenging that at every opportunity is only a good thing.....

Sorry about that rant over!!

 

[Ma2k5]

I am 102 % sure I wasn't serious...

Yes yes I know , theoretical vs real, still doesn't make sense...as pointed out the software should still say 100% as in there should be nothing more than 100% of that I am 150% sure!

If the battery spec was say 2000mh, but your one came with 2100ma, 105% would be correct no? If it isn't baselining against the expected capacity, how will it know how much wear and tear it has? If our laptop brand new came with an 1800mh battery (which would warrant an immediate return), would you be happy for it to report it as 100%, because that is how it started?