Battery life for 13" and 15" Macbook Pro

[lobo1978]

Ok, here are some more thoughts on battery life/system estimated time on battery:

First of all when I check system it turned out it is miscalculating estimated time. Do your own math with picture attached.
I am sitting in dark room with all lights off, i have to crank down brightness to one click. Live probing of power usage is 330 mAh (stable in last couple minutes) - juice left 4701 mAh. Estimated time is 4701/330 = +14 hrs -- system shows 7:46. Something is wrong here.

This might explain discrepancies when using system calculated time on battery. With new Skylake they might have some issues with calculation battery life. You don't want to update time with every change of power drawn - algorithm is trying to smooth it. Take away - don't base your estimates on this system meter.

Another observation: system is constantly setting very high brightness - it seems they screwed with ALS calibration in this new and much brighter screen. In dark room, system is setting brightness in middle (!) -- it might burn your eyes out

Take away: that's why some users are reporting better battery life after SMC reset (which is resetting ALS).

 

[SurfaceBookUser]

The comments here had me worried so I tested the battery myself today and it seems to be within acceptable levels. This is my 3rd charge cycle on my 13" TB and I was able to get 8 hours at about 70% brightness doing mainly web development work.

 

[ryanfang]

The comments here had me worried so I tested the battery myself today and it seems to be within acceptable levels. This is my 3rd charge cycle on my 13" TB and I was able to get 8 hours at about 70% brightness doing mainly web development work.

Wow, that's a acceptable time for me. I gonna use it for front end development too. Really don't want to carry the adaptor all day around...

 

[Mobster1983]

I've only had mine a couple days, but long enough for everything to get set up. I seem to be getting about 10+ hours of battery life so far. Brightness at 80%, but nothing too intense yet.

15" BTO with everything maxed.

 

[markusberger]

SMC reset doesn't "solve" the issue.

It simply resets the battery estimation. Which then just shows you an unrealistic estimate that is NOT based on actually using the machine on battery till it's empty.

Also, use a timer to see how long your battery actually lasts and don't rely on the estimation (especially if you reset the SMS, then the estimation is useless).

Come on people, a little logic here and there: claiming to "solve" the battery issue by reseting the estimation without actually using the battery and then saying "I reset SMC, the battery is at 100% and it shows I have 23h battery life" while in reality you have 5h....

 

[Kimcha]

SMC reset doesn't "solve" the issue.

It simply resets the battery estimation. Which then just shows you an unrealistic estimate that is NOT based on actually using the machine on battery till it's empty.

Also, use a timer to see how long your battery actually lasts and don't rely on the estimation (especially if you reset the SMS, then the estimation is useless).

Come on people, a little logic here and there: claiming to "solve" the battery issue by reseting the estimation without actually using the battery and then saying "I reset SMC, the battery is at 100% and it shows I have 23h battery life" while in reality you have 5h....

There were several people here who used their MBPs for several hours noted down how much the battery went down and then used that to calculate the remaining battery at similar usage. Their results show an estimate of 7-10 hours.

I think it did do something to fix the issue. Perhaps it fixed the brightness adjustment like someone else mentioned or something else that will make it suck less energy.

 

[fokmik]

yes, markusberger just copy and paste that message all over the forum

 

[JohnnyGo]

SMC reset doesn't "solve" the issue.

It simply resets the battery estimation. Which then just shows you an unrealistic estimate that is NOT based on actually using the machine on battery till it's empty.

Also, use a timer to see how long your battery actually lasts and don't rely on the estimation (especially if you reset the SMS, then the estimation is useless).

Come on people, a little logic here and there: claiming to "solve" the battery issue by reseting the estimation without actually using the battery and then saying "I reset SMC, the battery is at 100% and it shows I have 23h battery life" while in reality you have 5h....

IMHO the SMC reset might be correcting the use of all battery cells. The picture of the MBP internals show several separate batteries. Maybe some of them were not being 100% utilized or not utilized at all. It's just a reset so it should be done just once.

 

[archimon]

yes, markusberger just copy and paste that message all over the forum

Well, it's been relevant to the threads he's posted it in.
[doublepost=1479555319][/doublepost]

I've only had mine a couple days, but long enough for everything to get set up. I seem to be getting about 10+ hours of battery life so far. Brightness at 80%, but nothing too intense yet.

15" BTO with everything maxed.

Does your usage include Safari? If so, what extensions do you have? Safari seems to be averaging over 10 watts on my machine.
[doublepost=1479556024][/doublepost]I've reset SMC and have enabled system integrity protection, but streaming music through iTunes and browsing in safari I'm averaging a power draw of 11-15 watts, and am definitely not getting more than 7 hours battery life. I can't imagine this load qualifies as particularly intense.
[doublepost=1479556127][/doublepost]

Ok, here are some more thoughts on battery life/system estimated time on battery:

First of all when I check system it turned out it is miscalculating estimated time. Do your own math with picture attached.
I am sitting in dark room with all lights off, i have to crank down brightness to one click. Live probing of power usage is 330 mAh (stable in last couple minutes) - juice left 4701 mAh. Estimated time is 4701/330 = +14 hrs -- system shows 7:46. Something is wrong here.

This might explain discrepancies when using system calculated time on battery. With new Skylake they might have some issues with calculation battery life. You don't want to update time with every change of power drawn - algorithm is trying to smooth it. Take away - don't base your estimates on this system meter.

Another observation: system is constantly setting very high brightness - it seems they screwed with ALS calibration in this new and much brighter screen. In dark room, system is setting brightness in middle (!) -- it might burn your eyes out

Take away: that's why some users are reporting better battery life after SMC reset (which is resetting ALS).

This is a bit weird to me - I have brightness at at least 50% even in a dark space because otherwise the screen seems noticeably dim. In a lit area 60-70% is necessary. I'm definitely not shocked by how bright this screen is - am I missing something? My iPad Pro 9.7" screen seems at least as bright.

 

[badlydrawnboy]

There were several people here who used their MBPs for several hours noted down how much the battery went down and then used that to calculate the remaining battery at similar usage. Their results show an estimate of 7-10 hours.

I think it did do something to fix the issue. Perhaps it fixed the brightness adjustment like someone else mentioned or something else that will make it suck less energy.

As I've reported earlier, I carefully tracked time on battery for my first few cycles and it was between 6-6.5 hours. When I unplugged after a full charge, both Apple and Battery Logger / Battery Health 2 would estimate about 6-6.5 hours on a 100% charged battery.

I did the SMC reset yesterday morning. Right after unplugging the estimate was >10 hours. That was new. But on top of that I noticed that the battery drained much more slowly. Here are my current specs from Battery Logger:

Time on battery: 2:54
Time asleep: 14:22
% charge remaining: 60%

If you do the math on those numbers, it would predict 7 hours of battery total on this charge. However, that includes >14 hours of sleep time, which surely drains the battery a little bit. Given that I only got 6-6.5 hours prior with continuous, light use of the computer, I think this is definitely an improvement.

Apple says 4:30 remaining. If correct, that would actually be more like 7.5 hours on battery, with >14 hours of sleep time.

Unfortunately I won't have a chance to test it in continuous use (without a lot of sleep time in between) until next week. Hoping others here will be able to do that.

If I could get 9 hours on this I'd be completely satisfied; it's extremely rare that I go more than 9 hours without access to a plug, so that's all I really need. 8 hours isn't as good, but I'd probably be willing to give up an hour for the convenience of TouchID and the potential of the TB (compared to the 13" non-TB), and the smaller form factor, lighter weight, and lower cost (compared to the 15").
[doublepost=1479567249][/doublepost]Another quick update. Hope I'm not imagining this, but this morning it does seem that the battery is running down more quickly again—closer to the rate it ran down before I did the SMC reset than after.

For example, in my last post I said it had 60% charge remaining with 2:54 on battery. It now has 3:04 on battery and the charge is down to 56%. That is a 4% drain over just 10 minutes. If we project that forward, it would be a 24% drain in an hour, which would leave only 2:20 left on the battery, and result in even less than 6 hours total on battery.

The "x" factor is that I've had 14 hours of sleep time in this cycle; I don't really know how that is supposed to affect battery life.

 

[tjleonard]

SMC reset doesn't "solve" the issue.

It simply resets the battery estimation. Which then just shows you an unrealistic estimate that is NOT based on actually using the machine on battery till it's empty.

Also, use a timer to see how long your battery actually lasts and don't rely on the estimation (especially if you reset the SMS, then the estimation is useless).

Come on people, a little logic here and there: claiming to "solve" the battery issue by reseting the estimation without actually using the battery and then saying "I reset SMC, the battery is at 100% and it shows I have 23h battery life" while in reality you have 5h....

It didn't reset the estimate for me. I used it for 30 minutes and could tell the power drain was less, the system ran cooler, and see a huge difference in the real battery usage.

 

[badlydrawnboy]

I'm down to 49% and I've been on battery for 3:27, which would suggest about 7 hours on this cycle. However, total sleep time has been almost 16 hours and I am still not sure how to factor that in. Does anyone know?

 

[poorcody]

I've been running Coconut Battery for the past hour or so, watching the real-time wattage on the menu bar. I can see why estimating time-remaining is so difficult -- the wattage can vary tremendously just by doing slightly different things.

 

[titleistman18]

This is post SMC reset... I think I have a lemon.

 

[pogiboi]

So just picked up a ntMBP to replace my tMBP. I can say battery life is much better. On the rMBP, any "processor heavy" or non battery optimized app quickly drained the battery. The ntMBP is much more linear, despite what I run, it is predicting a 10 hour life. We will see if that translates to real life, but so far a much better start than the tMBP.

 

[yillbs]

Ok, here are some more thoughts on battery life/system estimated time on battery:

First of all when I check system it turned out it is miscalculating estimated time. Do your own math with picture attached.
I am sitting in dark room with all lights off, i have to crank down brightness to one click. Live probing of power usage is 330 mAh (stable in last couple minutes) - juice left 4701 mAh. Estimated time is 4701/330 = +14 hrs -- system shows 7:46. Something is wrong here.

This might explain discrepancies when using system calculated time on battery. With new Skylake they might have some issues with calculation battery life. You don't want to update time with every change of power drawn - algorithm is trying to smooth it. Take away - don't base your estimates on this system meter.

Another observation: system is constantly setting very high brightness - it seems they screwed with ALS calibration in this new and much brighter screen. In dark room, system is setting brightness in middle (!) -- it might burn your eyes out

Take away: that's why some users are reporting better battery life after SMC reset (which is resetting ALS).

What battery app is that ?

 

[fodaveg]

I can't understand why in apple's site there's no difference when talking about battery life on the 2 13" mbp

I hope this is only a software or firmware bug and gets solved fast. I'm starting to think about returning my tb13 and order a non-touchbar

 

[kokhoong0624]

Apparently it happens with the 2015 variants too... don't know why they wouldn't include the larger battery from the 2015... imagine the battery life we will get
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mid-15-macbook-pro-15-battery-life.1944039/#post-22356436

 

[StoneCold X]

I just setup my new 13" MBP TP, and my battery is at 100% with 11:47 remaining

 

[JackDaniels3]

I just setup my new 13" MBP TP, and my battery is at 100% with 11:47 remaining

Would you please describe what was your approach? You deplete the factory battery charge first and then charge the battery or you charge the battery during the setup?

 

[StoneCold X]

Would you please describe what was your approach? You deplete the factory battery charge first and then charge the battery or you charge the battery during the setup?

I charged battery during setup until I got to 100% and then I unplugged

 

[lobo1978]

What battery app is that ?

Battery health (free in App Store)

 

[archimon]

I charged battery during setup until I got to 100% and then I unplugged

Did you do a clean install, or did you migrate data? Can you tell me what your safari app is averaging in terms of energy draw? What extensions do you use?

 

[lobo1978]

This is post SMC reset... I think I have a lemon.

yeah right. Don't panic - download battery health in app store and show us screen with actual power reading and capacity left. Divide current charge by mAh usage to get your estimate - DON'T USE SYSTEM METER TO JUDGE YOUR BATTERY LIFE (read my previous post in this thread).

Example:

 

[thesaint024]

Seriously, people need to stop using the time estimate as a battery life indicator. It's wildly inaccurate as many have been pointing out. I have 3 screenshots within minutes of each other showing at 20% battery, 1:42 left, 2:09, 2:19. Estimate only reflects whatever you were just doing and does some weird extrapolation logic. SMC resets just clean up the consistency of the estimates, not increase battery life.

I have gone through 2 cycles and battery life has improved, but the jury is still out. Anecdotally, 6-7 hours on first charge and estimating 8+ on the second. This is not scientific at all, just rough estimates based on how long I am active on the computer. Also saw that overnight, sleep was draining about 1% per hour, which wasn't great. Need to test further. I have not been consistent the way I use the computer either. Setup activities and work during first cycle, more leisurely and battery testing activities on the second. My goal on the next cycle is just to have a "smart" profile regards to battery without completely stripping the machine of all reasonable battery using applications. This will be close to a workday on the go type of scenario.

There are a lot of factors that are probably decreasing battery. From what I've read, these things significantly affect battery life: Background activity like spotlight, time machine, outlook syncing. Screen brightness. Sierra vs. El Capitan. Applications. Keyboard backlight? Siri? Don't understand how the last two affect battery life materially.

On another note, the MBP charges up pretty fast. It looks like under 2 hours to get a full charge or close from 20%. Bottomline, take my assessment with a grain of salt. Not scientific, but I'm trying to get enough data points from what I've read and my own experience to get a real battery life estimate. So far, I am optimistic that 9 hours is doable, 10 depending on really light use, especially if MacOS related, but even maybe after my computer "settles" after syncing, indexing, etc. The screenshots of all over the place battery estimates are not helpful data points. Real life, timed estimates are very useful on the other hand.