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0922251

Cancelled
Aug 12, 2017
46
16
Apologies in advance for resurrecting an old thread but does anyone here have battery life numbers for the non-touchbar 2017 13 inch MacBook Pro?

I have been getting around 7-8 hrs moderate usage on about 70% screen brightness
 

SamVilde

macrumors regular
Oct 18, 2008
169
80
New York City
Since the thread was just reopened - I just got a refurbished 2017. I'm curious about the discrepancy between battery percentage reported by coconut battery (75%, currently) and the icon on the Mac itself (79% currently) - is that normal?

Also, what is the normal range of watts for discharging power when not doing excessively taxing things?

Thanks.
 

lobo1978

macrumors 6502
Sep 22, 2011
394
259
Since the thread was just reopened - I just got a refurbished 2017. I'm curious about the discrepancy between battery percentage reported by coconut battery (75%, currently) and the icon on the Mac itself (79% currently) - is that normal?

Also, what is the normal range of watts for discharging power when not doing excessively taxing things?

Thanks.
Yes. 100 x YES -- IT IS OK!

Do not freak out on battery "issues" and please, please just USE this beautiful machine.

Enjoy!:)
 

polbit

macrumors 6502a
Sep 18, 2002
528
650
South Carolina
I've had my first experience with battery drain on my new '17 MBP 15 - installing Windows applications while running Parallels 11. I went from 93% to 23% in 1 hour and 17 minutes... I've never seen anything like this on any recent MBP I've owned. Based on reading other people's commentary, this laptop's battery life is HIGHLY dependent on load. If you stress it with constant GPU (like Parallels in my case) and activity, it drains faster than a Tesla in Ludicrous mode. Under light loads, it performs fine.

Apple (and Intel, etc.) have done a great job optimizing a lot of use cases for battery life, and it shows. However this example above clearly demonstrates that you cannot overcome the reduced battery size in every scenario, and this does impact the Pro crowd more than the casual users. Yet another anti-Pro tick in the long list for this iteration...
 
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0922251

Cancelled
Aug 12, 2017
46
16
Based on reading other people's commentary, this laptop's battery life is HIGHLY dependent on load.

+1 This!! When i ran Parallells with a Linux VM for the first time I noticed CPU usage go to near maximum for a sustained amount of time and my battery drained fairly quickly. I've also noticed that Google Chrome consumes a lot of energy whilst watching YouTube videos.
 

joefoong79

macrumors regular
Jun 23, 2017
178
33
I've had my first experience with battery drain on my new '17 MBP 15 - installing Windows applications while running Parallels 11. I went from 93% to 23% in 1 hour and 17 minutes... I've never seen anything like this on any recent MBP I've owned. Based on reading other people's commentary, this laptop's battery life is HIGHLY dependent on load. If you stress it with constant GPU (like Parallels in my case) and activity, it drains faster than a Tesla in Ludicrous mode. Under light loads, it performs fine.

Apple (and Intel, etc.) have done a great job optimizing a lot of use cases for battery life, and it shows. However this example above clearly demonstrates that you cannot overcome the reduced battery size in every scenario, and this does impact the Pro crowd more than the casual users. Yet another anti-Pro tick in the long list for this iteration...
Welcome to 2016 and 2017 battery life. Get a battery pack. This battery not powerful enough for heavy stuff even surfing highly intensive graphic website will drain like a Dracula.
 

JohnnyGo

macrumors 6502a
Sep 9, 2009
956
620
Welcome to 2016 and 2017 battery life. Get a battery pack. This battery not powerful enough for heavy stuff even surfing highly intensive graphic website will drain like a Dracula.

I have noticed that wifi usage (browsing news sites, youtube, uploading files to iCloud, etc) has a significant impact on battery life. Have you noticed the same ?

I’m running Sierra on a 2016 MBP on Wifi AC 5Ghz networks.
 

Falhófnir

macrumors 603
Aug 19, 2017
6,146
7,000
I've had my first experience with battery drain on my new '17 MBP 15 - installing Windows applications while running Parallels 11. I went from 93% to 23% in 1 hour and 17 minutes... I've never seen anything like this on any recent MBP I've owned. Based on reading other people's commentary, this laptop's battery life is HIGHLY dependent on load. If you stress it with constant GPU (like Parallels in my case) and activity, it drains faster than a Tesla in Ludicrous mode. Under light loads, it performs fine.

Apple (and Intel, etc.) have done a great job optimizing a lot of use cases for battery life, and it shows. However this example above clearly demonstrates that you cannot overcome the reduced battery size in every scenario, and this does impact the Pro crowd more than the casual users. Yet another anti-Pro tick in the long list for this iteration...
I'd have thought if anything it'd have been the other way round - increased efficiency of the processor would make it better when under load (when CPU is a more significant portion of power draw) whilst under lighter use, the increased efficiency would not have been able to offset the smaller battery so well?
 

joefoong79

macrumors regular
Jun 23, 2017
178
33
I have noticed that wifi usage (browsing news sites, youtube, uploading files to iCloud, etc) has a significant impact on battery life. Have you noticed the same ?

I’m running Sierra on a 2016 MBP on Wifi AC 5Ghz networks.
Yes. Any impact keep using trackpad a lot or highly graphic and downloading with bandwidth will decrease a lot faster than usual. I mean is a lot.
 

Nik

macrumors 6502a
Jun 3, 2007
681
1,412
France
I got a new MacBook Pro 15" 2017 with the 2,8GHz CPU.

Tested two times under the following conditions: Display brightness set to 70% (like Apple does for their testing), surfing the web, listening to some music. No apps with high power usage. 11.3 watts is used. I get a batterylife of 7:20hrs. Confirmed it twice now. Not exactly a good result.
Once I start doing anything beyong browsing, even without using the dedicated GPU, I get 4-5 hours.
What a joke.

The 3 year old MBP 13" with 80% health battery gets 7:30 hours under the exact same conditions (mirrored system). I dont wanna know what happens once the 15" is 3 years old, it will probably only get 4 hours by then.
 
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polbit

macrumors 6502a
Sep 18, 2002
528
650
South Carolina
I got a new MacBook Pro 15" 2017 with the 2,8GHz CPU.

Tested two times under the following conditions: Display brightness set to 70% (like Apple does for their testing), surfing the web, listening to some music. No apps with high power usage. 11.3 watts is used. I get a batterylife of 7:20hrs. Confirmed it twice now. Not exactly a good result.
Once I start doing anything beyong browsing, even without using the dedicated GPU, I get 4-5 hours.
What a joke.

The 3 year old MBP 13" with 80% health battery gets 7:30 hours under the exact same conditions (mirrored system). I dont wanna know what happens once the 15" is 3 years old, it will probably only get 4 hours by then.

I've read a review somewhere that mentioned screen brightness as one of the big battery drainers on the new MBPs, since they are significantly brighter than the old ones. I have gotten over 10 hours at around 40-50% brightness, surfing with Safari on 5GHz WiFi, using Youtube, and running just Python. I have also gotten a tad under 4 hours using 60%+ brightness, running Anaconda heavily (fixed to disable dGPU only usage), Spotify streaming, and having iBooks and/or Kindle app open. Man what I wouldn't give for another 2-3mm thicker design with original or bigger battery...
 

joefoong79

macrumors regular
Jun 23, 2017
178
33
I got a new MacBook Pro 15" 2017 with the 2,8GHz CPU.

Tested two times under the following conditions: Display brightness set to 70% (like Apple does for their testing), surfing the web, listening to some music. No apps with high power usage. 11.3 watts is used. I get a batterylife of 7:20hrs. Confirmed it twice now. Not exactly a good result.
Once I start doing anything beyong browsing, even without using the dedicated GPU, I get 4-5 hours.
What a joke.

The 3 year old MBP 13" with 80% health battery gets 7:30 hours under the exact same conditions (mirrored system). I dont wanna know what happens once the 15" is 3 years old, it will probably only get 4 hours by then.
stop complaining. this MacBook battery is not that good is not first day rumors. just go get a battery pack. this is what buy for lighter and slimmer technology now a day.
 

Woodcrest64

macrumors 65816
Aug 14, 2006
1,308
519
I got a new MacBook Pro 15" 2017 with the 2,8GHz CPU.

Tested two times under the following conditions: Display brightness set to 70% (like Apple does for their testing), surfing the web, listening to some music. No apps with high power usage. 11.3 watts is used. I get a batterylife of 7:20hrs. Confirmed it twice now. Not exactly a good result.
Once I start doing anything beyong browsing, even without using the dedicated GPU, I get 4-5 hours.
What a joke.

The 3 year old MBP 13" with 80% health battery gets 7:30 hours under the exact same conditions (mirrored system). I dont wanna know what happens once the 15" is 3 years old, it will probably only get 4 hours by then.



Hi Nik, to achieve that magical 10 hours, you need to keep your battery load at 7.6 watts or less. The battery size in the touchbar 15" MacBook Pro is 76 watt hours. If you are drawing more than 7.6 watts you will never get the 10 hours.

At 11.3 watts drawing from a 76 watt hour battery you get 6.7hrs but there were times when your machine had to have dipped below 11.3 watts as you got 7 hours and 20 minutes.

On a full load that processor you have will draw up to 45 watts killing your battery in 1.67 hours but it likely be less when you factor in screen brightness, GPU usage, heat and etc. But what I'm telling you will give you a better indicator as to how to better judge your battery life.


Cheers!
 
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HarCees

macrumors member
Jul 15, 2013
45
9
A question to everyone:
Does Apple garantee any specific battery time?


I'm happy if I get over 3h of battery life while surfing with safari on LOWEST screen brightness. (15" MacBook Pro 2016)

Just writing this text drained 3% :(
 

0922251

Cancelled
Aug 12, 2017
46
16
A question to everyone:
Does Apple garantee any specific battery time?


I'm happy if I get over 3h of battery life while surfing with safari on LOWEST screen brightness. (15" MacBook Pro 2016)

Just writing this text drained 3% :(

No it doesn't, but based against real world usage from competitors laptops such as the Dell XPS, it really falls short sadly.
 

HarCees

macrumors member
Jul 15, 2013
45
9
No it doesn't, but based against real world usage from competitors laptops such as the Dell XPS, it really falls short sadly.

Nowhere did Apple provide the information for me, the costumer, that I'd get shorter battery life with this one than the 2012 cMBP. By marketing they have made us all expect great battery life, but delivered crap.

Fraud?
 

0922251

Cancelled
Aug 12, 2017
46
16
Nowhere did Apple provide the information for me, the costumer, that I'd get shorter battery life with this one than the 2012 cMBP. By marketing they have made us all expect great battery life, but delivered crap.

Fraud?

Fraud :)
 

polbit

macrumors 6502a
Sep 18, 2002
528
650
South Carolina
The simple fact is, the new MBP runtimes have regressed pretty significantly for higher workload scenarios from previous generations, while maintaining or even improving under certain light workloads. That is the wrong direction IMHO, especially in light of so many great PC laptops these days. This isn't 10 years ago when MBPs were the only real game in town.

At the end of the day, Apple has become a device company. I can't really blame them for focusing their efforts on emojis and $1k phones, as it has made them what they are today, but they should have more than enough resources to create a true, workstation-level Pro laptop. Something akin to the iMac Pro.
 

LogiLink

macrumors member
Dec 30, 2016
47
6
Poland
After a few months of use nTB MBPro 2016 "13 i7 16GB, my battery will withstand 6h without battery charging on the dim screen.
 

macintoshmac

Suspended
May 13, 2010
6,089
6,992
After a few months of use nTB MBPro 2016 "13 i7 16GB, my battery will withstand 6h without battery charging on the dim screen.

Kindly elaborate on your usage so we can better assess your battery performance compared to our own. I am personally satisfied with the battery performance of my stock 2.9GHz i5 Touch Bar MBP 13, 2016.

If I am "working", the battery life is stellar, I would wager decently close to the advertised 10 hours. Working for me is defined as Safari and Word constantly open, and frequent fire-ups of some other apps. No music, no videos.

When I am using the machine for entertainment purposes, I usually get about 6 hours of video watching, this is primarily because of being connected to an external disk and running a download in the background as well, the download software in question being Folx, and I do not think this software respects that you may be running on battery. External disk and Folx are exceptional battery drainers.
 
Last edited:

LogiLink

macrumors member
Dec 30, 2016
47
6
Poland
I have nTB 13" i7 with 16GB DDR, 256SSD
At the moment I have too many services installed on my system, so any measurements will be wrong.
At the end of the month I plan to reinstall system, then I will make a measurement with safari, mail and telegram.
 

terriyaki

macrumors 6502a
Aug 4, 2005
640
9
Vancouver
I have a mid 2012 15" rMBP.

According to System Information I have a 369 cycle count and my battery condition is normal yet I've noticed in the last couple weeks if I'm on battery and run down to about 30% my laptop will automatically shut down.
 

Roller

macrumors 68030
Jun 25, 2003
2,955
2,170
I have a mid 2012 15" rMBP.

According to System Information I have a 369 cycle count and my battery condition is normal yet I've noticed in the last couple weeks if I'm on battery and run down to about 30% my laptop will automatically shut down.

That's not normal. Have you tried resetting the SMC?
 
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