Almost certainly? Why would your wi-fi driver behave differently than that of most other people, including most reviewers of the 15", who don't have the issues with battery life that you do?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Battery life for 13" and 15" Macbook Pro
- Thread starter fokmik
- Start date
-
- Tags
- batteries macbook 15"
- Sort by reaction score
I obviously didn't say only you. I've already explained to you that the vast majority of complaints about battery life after the first couple weeks are not about the 15".
Now, do you have any explanation or not for why your wi-fi driver would cause battery issues for you but not most other people, including most (actually more than most) reviewers of the 15" model?
Anyone else still having an issue with their 13"?
I have the 3.3/512/16GB with TB. I'm at somewhere between 5-7 hours of battery at best.
Is this normal?
I have the 3.3/512/16GB with TB. I'm at somewhere between 5-7 hours of battery at best.
Is this normal?
It has been fairly common with the 13" with TB, not sure about normal. There may be things you can do to stretch the battery life if it's important to you.
Is it? That's about what I get on my 15" with moderate use. I don't know if the battery has more capacity in the larger MBP or not.
I have 13" 2.9/16/512. I have found it varies greatly on what you're doing. I can get 10 hours if I'm mindful of what I have open. I believe iTunes video tested at 9 hours, Apple claimed 10 (close enough for me). If I just go all out with open apps, I think I was getting about 7 give or take. If you are maxing out at 7, than you likely have some energy draining, non-optimized app or something else. There are so many variables, and the only way to know what's causing it is to test apps if battery life matters. If it doesn't, than don't worry about it. If I didn't do any testing and just ran wild on whatever I was using, I would have lower battery life too. You'd be surprised at what draws significant power. Don't take this as a recommendation to change your workflow. It is only to get knowledge on what draws power so when you need battery, you know what apps you need to shutdown or minimize use of.
Yes, the 15" has a larger battery. It gets nice battery life, as does the 13" without TB--that one has a slightly larger battery than the 13" TB and less power-hungry components. The 13" TB is the hardest one to get good battery life with due to smallest battery and more powerful processors than the one without TB.
Alright; I have a 13" touchbar 2.9 512GB with 16GB and I get around 6-7 hours of usage, which seems average for the 16gb model when I look online. It had dead pixels though, so I got a loaner; a 13" touchbar 256 with 8GB ram. I can easily get 11 hours of usage out of this machine, with the exact same apps running (Google Drive, Dropbox, Pages, Word, Spotify, Mail and Safari.)
Gdrive and dropbox Kill your standby time though!
Gdrive and dropbox Kill your standby time though!
That's a real interesting observation. Who'd have thought different specs on tb made that big of a difference. I have the same exact specs as yours. I agree, certain random apps kill the battery. Thanks for the data point and please report back if you notice more differences between your loaner and yours.
It's highly unlikely that 8 GB less RAM is making much difference, especially if you weren't using most of the RAM before most of the time. None of those specs is likely to matter much to battery life. Would be interesting to know why there is such a large difference, though!
From my 2 month usage of this machine, what I've realised is that the secret to awesome battery life lies in your brightness setting. Mine stays around 50% and I get 10-12hrs easily on light browsing. Pro-apps still kill the battery in 2-3hrs.
I noticed my battery was having issues when my 15" died in about 2 hours. I installed coconut battery and it says its "good", but I noticed it's discharging with anywhere from 25-35watts. Does anyone else use this program and can tell me if this is high?
After several months of use and 55 charge cycles, I average around 6-8 until the battery is flat. Nevertheless, it is still enough for me to get me through a business day before I plug it in back to a charger. Because I still have the previous generation at home, I can compare how bulky and heavy it was... I could never, ever go back.
The whine brigade wholeheartedly disagrees with the practical you.
Many (many) people on this 102-page thread (and others) have remarked that battery life is significantly worse in 13" models with 16gb RAM. Those remarks are quickly followed by replies of "well gosh that doesn't make sense! Especially if the extra 8gb isn't constantly activated!" Readers assume the 16gb vs. 8gb users have different brightness preferences, or workload is different, or one has a flawed machine. Many people, like thesaint024, have made peace with their own machines/battery life and wonder at the point of comparing.
For me, still trying to figure out which iteration of the MBP will not feel like the wrong decision, there is a worryingly strong coincidence, if no correlation.
Technical insight into the battery issue. Starts at 09:55
I think this should be pinned to the startpost to be quite honest.
I think this should be pinned to the startpost to be quite honest.
Basically, Apple made thinner and lighter. Battery is physically 25% the size of previous. 10 hour claim only makes sense counting long periods of idle time.
I have the same configuration as you and I'm getting about the same. I don't know if its normal but it seems to be the consensus for the high end 13 TB models.
Come on, guys. The battery is smaller dimensionally and capacity-wise because of other optimisations that meant Apple could make a laptop this thin and light while maintaining everything else.
7 hours new battery life on my 15" MBP 2011 advertised when it came out. It delivered. 2.5kg behemoth. If my 1.3kg far more portable new 2016 MBP can give me 7 hours, instead of the advertised 10, do I call about something wrong or do I be happy that:
1. My processor runs 20 degrees cooler
2. The machine feels swankier
3. The IO is speedier than Safari can ever be snappy
4. I get USB-C which brings far better transfer speeds coupled with APFS on my external hard drive
5. New speakers are very, very good
6. I get 6-7 hours of normal use with Safari, Outlook and OneNote open. Two of those apps are not particularly optimised for battery.
The new machine is a fantastic upgrade for those who are coming from some generations ago, like I am, from Late 2011. If you are on 2013-15 retinas, the only real deal is reduced size and weight for you. For the older generations, this machine is a hell of an upgrade.
7 hours new battery life on my 15" MBP 2011 advertised when it came out. It delivered. 2.5kg behemoth. If my 1.3kg far more portable new 2016 MBP can give me 7 hours, instead of the advertised 10, do I call about something wrong or do I be happy that:
1. My processor runs 20 degrees cooler
2. The machine feels swankier
3. The IO is speedier than Safari can ever be snappy
4. I get USB-C which brings far better transfer speeds coupled with APFS on my external hard drive
5. New speakers are very, very good
6. I get 6-7 hours of normal use with Safari, Outlook and OneNote open. Two of those apps are not particularly optimised for battery.
The new machine is a fantastic upgrade for those who are coming from some generations ago, like I am, from Late 2011. If you are on 2013-15 retinas, the only real deal is reduced size and weight for you. For the older generations, this machine is a hell of an upgrade.
Had same experience on fully loaded 13" and returned it.
The only folks who seem to be championing this release are 15" buyers and non tb 13" people who are coming from previous gens of Mbp.
If tomorrow's release includes the terraced battery the 2016 loaded 13 is perhaps A bummer for folks who couldn't wait.
while its not the 10 hours that apple claims I'm not all that upset about it. My machine sits on a dock most of the day anyways and I'm more about performance than battery life so I've been very happy with my purchase.