Most people, including pros, don't expect the battery to last ten hours for moderate use. They only depend on the battery to last that long for low-intensity stuff, which might include writing, doing email, etc. Those pros who need more time unplugged for moderate use get an external battery pack. It's math, can't do much about it.
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Battery life for 13" and 15" Macbook Pro
- Thread starter fokmik
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Again: I seriously doubt anyone would purchase a 4000 bucks machine for writing and emailing.
Just NO
Besides - what machine then would you consider for Photoshop, Videoprocessing or Software Development? Certainly no Apple, I guess.
The picture you paint (mail, browsing) is more of an iPad average use case scenario, not exactly a professional computer scenario
Just NO
Besides - what machine then would you consider for Photoshop, Videoprocessing or Software Development? Certainly no Apple, I guess.
The picture you paint (mail, browsing) is more of an iPad average use case scenario, not exactly a professional computer scenario
Ha, I obviously didn't say anyone uses their machine only for writing and emailing. For many pros professional tasks do include writing and email, which is what you'll see many pros doing on planes. They mostly know better than to try to edit a 4K video on a plane, unless they can plug in or have an external battery pack. Again, if you need more power for more power-hungry things, you can do as many pros do and get the extra battery. Or you can alter the laws of physics.
The 15" gets better battery life for light to moderate use than most, maybe all other laptops in its category.
Not true. 3 and a half hours - what I get with light use - is way worse than pretty much any competitor, including machines below 1000 bucks
There's something wrong with your machine if it's getting 3.5 hours with light use. Running a VM isn't light use. Your machine should get ten hours or better for light use. If you do something that uses three times as much power, it will last one third as long. Guess how much power your VM uses.
If you can get better use from a sub-$1000 machine, go for it! But Apple's claims of ten hours for light use are backed up by many reviews, and user reports here including my own, and tests show good battery life for moderate use as well. In heavy-duty use you may find other machines do better, but you're looking at fairly short battery life for any machine in that case.
FWIW, my 2016 13" tMBP with the 2.9GHz i5 processor gets about 4 hrs on full brightness (sitting outside, for instance) and around 6 hours with 60% brightness. My usage pattern is the entire Office suite running (Outlook, Word, Excel, Skype for Business), MS Visio running in a Fusion VM in Unity mode, and several RDP sessions open through RoyalTSX. Browser is Safari only. I am on Skype calls with an active screen share or using Continuity with my iPhone for the majority of that time. Several of my coworkers have the early 2015 13" models and get about 6 hours and 9 hours respectively with similar usage patterns. These numbers seem to line up with the difference in battery size between the generations.
But they don't. The 2015 battery is 23.5 WH bigger, 31% more. You're reporting a 50% difference. A more carefully controlled comparison would likely show much closer numbers, quite possibly in favor of the 2016. That's what the reviews show for use that would last 5 to 10 hours. See the Notebook Check review, for example. For heavier use, the larger battery does win out.
Well - running a VM is not necessarily in all instances heavy use. In the mentioned case, its using 1 core (low usage within the Win instance) - and even activity monitor reports less than 15% total load.
There is no way I get even close to 10 hours. With 40% screen brightness, WiFi off, sitting idle I obtain slightly north of 8 hours.
According to the genius bar - where I have the machine checked - the machine is ok and the battery performance is as intended/designed.
As said earlier - I'm doing mostly programming, which is usually fine, with brightness to approx. 65% this gets me around 6 hrs. Anything more demanding (that is, CPU loads north of, say, 20 %) and battery is drained within 4 hrs. max.
Who knows what the Genius you talked to had in mind, but that's obviously significantly below the stated spec of ten hours for light use with 75% brightness. And well below what tests show the machine gets. Maybe you have something running in the background? Do you have the keyboard backlight on? Is auto brightness on for the monitor (in which case brightness may be more than you think)? Is the dGPU active for some reason?
Something odd is going on. If it matters to you, you might be able to track it down using the Energy tab in the Activity Monitor, along with the CPU tab you're already looking at, or maybe something like Coconut Battery, which tells you more about where power is going.
Truth to be told: I even contacted C. F., Apple SVP (as did some other forum member participating in this thread) and he actually came back to me immediately. Ran system tests, etc... No avail.
My 2 cents: they just screwed up the battery design/size, focusing way too much on their fetish thinness.
My 2 cents: they just screwed up the battery design/size, focusing way too much on their fetish thinness.
The facts don't support that. For one thing, there's already room for a larger battery in the thinner case. And, again, reviews with carefully controlled tests, user reports here, and my own experience show Apple's spec is more than valid. You should be getting 10 hours with light use, not 8 with no use.
Question is: which facts? Maybe there are alternative ones? 
As it seems I am not the only one with that problem (as evidenced by this this very thread).
As said: according to Apple, all is as intended, no fault to be found (hard- or software-wise)
As it seems I am not the only one with that problem (as evidenced by this this very thread).
As said: according to Apple, all is as intended, no fault to be found (hard- or software-wise)
Most of the complaints after the first few weeks have been about the 13" with touch bar. According to Apple's clearly stated specs you should get 10 hours with light use. As I've indicated, most people with the 15" have reported great battery life, in line with the specs.
Exactly, thus the inevitable conclusion that something about your case isn't as it should be. If this matters to you, there are things you can do to try to find the problem and fix it.
As @Sanpete said, without a controlled test, it's hard to make claims of "better" or "worse" battery life. The claims by Apple have been backed up by 3rd parties, but they were pretty specific on how they achieved those results. Unless replicated exactly, you won't get exactly the same life. As variables like different programs get introduced to the tests, they add more variability to the battery life. Such as in your case, I don't think they tested your exact set of programs.Question is: which facts? Maybe there are alternative ones?
As it seems I am not the only one with that problem (as evidenced by this this very thread).
As said: according to Apple, all is as intended, no fault to be found (hard- or software-wise)
I ran my own tests and was getting wildly different results due to different programs drawing unexpected power. If it means enough to you, you can see what draws higher power. Not that you should change your workflow, it will just give you the info you need to know how long your battery will last with different apps. If you don't want to, you can just plan for your sub 4 hour battery life and not worry about it. The power usage is more complex now, so the answer on battery life is usually "it depends on...". We can't just make blanket statements like the battery sucks or is great anymore. It was definitely simpler when all batteries were bigger and all processors just drew a lot of power.
I am aware of all that (holding a MSc in digital forensics).
Albeit: without going into details: power consumption characteristics are as described earlier. By and large I can live with - its just not exactly as advertised.
This is the more interesting, since in the past Apples statements regarding battery life have been rather accurate, even tending to under-estimate.
Albeit: without going into details: power consumption characteristics are as described earlier. By and large I can live with - its just not exactly as advertised.
This is the more interesting, since in the past Apples statements regarding battery life have been rather accurate, even tending to under-estimate.
No, you haven't done all the things that would show what the problem is. You clearly want to believe your case is normal despite very plain facts to the contrary. We can only direct you to the facts, not make you accept them.
Again, and there's no rational way around this, Apple's claims about the battery life of your model have been proven to be accurate, and then some.
The point is being missed. Not saying your machine is defective (possibly, but unlikely), saying your software combination or OS install or other "soft" issue is likely the culprit in less than claimed battery life. Your programs draw different power. That is all.
I haven't suggested you change your machine. Something is obviously preventing you from getting proper battery life, though. Again, it has been proven that Apple's spec is accurate, and more. You can check that in the reviews from Notebook Check, Ars Technica, Consumer Reports and elsewhere, along with the tests that have been made by users here. You still want to claim Apple's spec is wrong despite overwhelming evidence.