Awful battery life on 2018 MBP: am I alone?

[The Reasonable One]

hey like the tile says I am getting horrible battery life out of my 2018 MBP and have since if got it. I thought it was all of that years models being defective but after talking to people that’s not true.

Anyway I need more specific data. How long do all of you programmers who use Xcode or IntelliJ get on battery and also when just web browsing?

I’m trying to diagnose if this is just my computer or not since I am getting 2.5-3 hrs IntelliJ/Xcode and 6 hrs max with just web browsing. I have the i9 32 gb highest gpu for mid 2018 model ( I think 560X ).

Thanks in advance. I need this data so I can go to Apple and call them on their usual bs when it passes their “tests” that all of us who’ve had issues know are bs.

Ps they’ve already reflashed my OS and issue persists so it’s not that I have a virus or something like that unless it’s a really scary virus

 

[jandrso]

Any external peripherals? TB monitors? External disks? TB dongles? With all of those items connected I have found to crush my battery life. I would get like 4.5 - 5hours. Mind you this is literally a 1week old MBP 15. I7 16gb.

Undongled (is that a word) internet browsing, Ms Outlook running and other sundry processes like terminal RDP with open sessions..... I get a little over 11 hours give or take.

The more video intensive web content seems to drain it faster.

 

[The Reasonable One]

Any external peripherals? TB monitors? External disks? TB dongles? With all of those items connected I have found to crush my battery life. I would get like 4.5 - 5hours. Mind you this is literally a 1week old MBP 15. I7 16gb.

Undongled (is that a word) internet browsing, Ms Outlook running and other sundry processes like terminal RDP with open sessions..... I get a little over 11 hours give or take.

The more video intensive web content seems to drain it faster.

Wow. Cuz I have nothing plugged in at all. And it’s still awful. Not even Bluetooth peripherals, headphones (wired or Bluetooth) or anything. So I’m now absolutely pissed. Just got a spot at Apple store for 5:10 so let’s see what happens

 

[jandrso]

How old is the MBP and what rev of OS? I would go to the latest .5 release of Mojave because they will suggest it as a solution. Definitely Genius Bar material. Only difference is the i9 and ram number between our machines. Could be a GPU issue as well. This should explain that much battery drain. Perhaps a wonky application process. They will make it right.

I would expect this will be more than one visit as they tweak here and there and review results after.

Unless the battery is trashed which happens too.

 

[Thysanoptera]

Get some monitoring app, like iStatMenus (preferably the non-sandboxed version from outside of Apple store) and see what is the power usage of CPU/GPU and system total - check first if the numbers add up when compared to battery capacity. If the battery is ok check if you don't have anything running on dGPU. And, obviously, use Activity Monitor to see which processes use the most CPU time.

Like watching this very thread in Safari, doing nothing, my CPU uses less than 1W (core, package is higher because of iGPU) and with brightness at 50% system total is below 5W, so I could be watching it for 19 hours (7.3 Ah battery x 13V), although the battery indicator shows only 15 hours.

 

[The Reasonable One]

Mid 2018 model and got it at release since my old Mac broke 2 months prior. RIP 2012. It was sitting with no apps open and idle in the Apple store and lost 7% in 20 min. So approx 5 hours idle expected which is ridiculous. Also at the west valley Apple store I hope you don’t get the guy I got EVER. Had to ask for the manager after he told me that it’s normal for the battery percentage to jump to a higher number randomly (+7%). He was confusing time remaining and percentage and I was livid. He also treated me like I’m a f’ing idiot and not a programmer who actually understands the tool he uses for school and internships. He also said and I quote “I know you have a strange attachment to your 2012 machine but this is a different machine”. Like wtf it’s a 2018, it damn better be better than my base model 2012 when it has been fully speced. All I asked them for is for my computer to get 5-6 hrs on battery and that’s it. Not even the advertised 10. Manager agreed and sentencing to depot.

Thanks for gettinge to show them the issue. Your input pushed me over the edge needed to take it in.
[doublepost=1558548234][/doublepost]

Get some monitoring app, like iStatMenus (preferably the non-sandboxed version from outside of Apple store) and see what is the power usage of CPU/GPU and system total - check first if the numbers add up when compared to battery capacity. If the battery is ok check if you don't have anything running on dGPU. And, obviously, use Activity Monitor to see which processes use the most CPU time.

Like watching this very thread in Safari, doing nothing, my CPU uses less than 1W (core, package is higher because of iGPU) and with brightness at 50% system total is below 5W, so I could be watching it for 19 hours (7.3 Ah battery x 13V), although the battery indicator shows only 15 hours.

Sad part is in the Apple store I lost 7% in 20 min idle. And the genius manager saw it thankfully so he understood.
[doublepost=1558548558][/doublepost]

How old is the MBP and what rev of OS? I would go to the latest .5 release of Mojave because they will suggest it as a solution. Definitely Genius Bar material. Only difference is the i9 and ram number between our machines. Could be a GPU issue as well. This should explain that much battery drain. Perhaps a wonky application process. They will make it right.

I would expect this will be more than one visit as they tweak here and there and review results after.

Unless the battery is trashed which happens too.

Yah idk. It’s just so frustrating. Sent it to the depot after literally the worst genius imaginable tried to f me over and I called manager over. Anyway. Glad it might work out.

 

[MrInquestador]

getting almost 10 hours.

 

[Alch3mist]

Watching a rented/downloaded movie over wifi pretty much drains my battery from +85%-0% before the 2 hour movie is over. Is this normal? Has happened twice while watching "Ready Player One". Awesome movie btw.

2018 MBP I7 16GB Radeon Pro560X

 

[BigBoy2018]

Keep in mind the 2018 15” mbp battery is only rated at 83.6 watt hours, compared to, for instance, the 2015 15” macbook pro which came with a 99.5 watt/hour battery.
Maybe not related to this issue, but worth noting it was another compromise apple made in this generation of mbp’s in order to get that useless extra millimeter of thinness.

 

[CheesePuff]

On my Mid 2017 2.9 GHz/560 I get ~8 hours just web browsing and basic usage, if I am in Xcode and have the dGPU enabled then its down to 4.

 

[LogicalApex]

I get at least 10 or 11 hours light usage, but it will very depending on how hard I'm pushing the unit.

My first recommendation would be to take a peek at Activity Monitor and see what it looks like. I really like Activity Monitor for this as it stores the data for 12 hours (unless the Mac is rebooted in that timeframe) so you can get some idea on energy use even by processes you already killed.

As even simple web browsing can very a bit depending on how intense the pages are. HTML5 supports full scale GPU acceleration so you can get some pages that really push your machine and some that don't. You'll also need to consider screen brightness (mine is usually on the middle setting or lower) and things like wireless data use (wireless is more power efficient idle and resting than it is transmitting and receiving and the can be impacted by distance to AP and other factors).

Keep in mind the 2018 15” mbp battery is only rated at 83.6 watt hours, compared to, for instance, the 2015 15” macbook pro which came with a 99.5 watt/hour battery.
Maybe not related to this issue, but worth noting it was another compromise apple made in this generation of mbp’s in order to get that useless extra millimeter of thinness.

Components in the 2018 are also more power efficient so you can't only look at the battery size alone. The 2018 would run longer than it does now on a larger battery (as that's simply physics), but it doesn't mean a smaller battery size will equal a reduction in battery life in the new model compared to the old one.

 

[xealo]

Mid 2018 model and got it at release since my old Mac broke 2 months prior. RIP 2012. It was sitting with no apps open and idle in the Apple store and lost 7% in 20 min. So approx 5 hours idle expected which is ridiculous. Also at the west valley Apple store I hope you don’t get the guy I got EVER. Had to ask for the manager after he told me that it’s normal for the battery percentage to jump to a higher number randomly (+7%). He was confusing time remaining and percentage and I was livid. He also treated me like I’m a f’ing idiot and not a programmer who actually understands the tool he uses for school and internships. He also said and I quote “I know you have a strange attachment to your 2012 machine but this is a different machine”. Like wtf it’s a 2018, it damn better be better than my base model 2012 when it has been fully speced. All I asked them for is for my computer to get 5-6 hrs on battery and that’s it. Not even the advertised 10. Manager agreed and sentencing to depot.

OP, I'm curious to see what outcome you get post-whatever they end up doing. I too own a mid 2018 w/i9 and 32GB of ram and came from a mid-2012 non-retina pro. Other than performance and display size, i feel like the battery life is identical to that aforementioned 2012 model. Its main use is web browsing and word precessing.

 

[YonTom]

.

 

[0906742]

Out of curiosity how much battery MBP consume when it is turned off or left in sleep mode?
I'm reading Apple document https://www.apple.com/environment/p...ch_MacBookPro_w_Thunderbolt3_PER_July2018.pdf where is says power off 0.15W and sleep 0.45W consumption. I guess that should mean hourly consumption so counting from these values it would mean it can last only couple of weeks power off until battery gets empty or under one week in sleep mode. Is that for real, since Apple lists even on technical specifications for this model 30 days standby (does it mean sleep or off mode? I'd guess it must be sleep mode they mean).

I'm interested about this because I'm trying to figure out if it is possible to receive new MacBook with completely empty battery due to long time since manufacturing date? If the math above matches that would mean pretty much every machine with one month from manufacturing date would arrive with empty battery. That can't be right?

 

[Alch3mist]

Watching a rented/downloaded movie over wifi pretty much drains my battery from +85%-0% before the 2 hour movie is over. Is this normal? Has happened twice while watching "Ready Player One". Awesome movie btw.

2018 MBP I7 16GB Radeon Pro560X

Upon further review. I am getting better battery than I thought but still not great.