Battery life for 13" and 15" Macbook Pro

[Ma2k5]

Same. I watched some youtube, and two Hulu shows ( 30 minutes a piece ). sometimes when you just assume, you think things are going better than they are. This time.. I ran my phones stop watch the entire time the laptop was on. ALL I did was watch youtube / Hulu, and browsed amazon / purchased a few things. I got exactly 4 hours, and 41 minutes until the battery was dead enough to shut off.

Their is no indexing, their is no.. anything. screen brightness is at about 70%, and keys have no backlight. I don't think anyone can convince me that this thing isn't just flat out the worst battery life ever on a MacBook. I've been defending it like mad, but at this point... how can you? 4.42 hours is just bad. THat's almost as bad as the surface pro 4.. which is almost the entire reason I left that platform to begin with. The horrid battery life.

I've been saying this will be the case well before anyone got their hands on, right after keynote. When you have a sub 50wh battery in a laptop like this, you are going to have a bad time! Damn, how great these laptops would have been if they kept their original 74wh batteries .

 

[SBruv]

Don't know if this is the same across the board or not, but Mail in Sierra on my rMB is an absolutely CPU hog. Might be worth quitting that if you battery testing cats have got it running…

 

[skids929]

Where can we see if iCloud Drive and iCloud Photo Library are still syncing? I haven't even opened Photos.app yet on this machine, so I doubt it's that. I do use iCloud Drive but can't tell whether it's syncing or not.

I had 4:00 remaining when I went to bed last night. This morning I woke up, opened it up, and it's showing 2:51 with 51% of charge remaining. As many others have reported, and as I experienced during my first charge cycle, that's on track for about 6 hours of battery life.

A lot of people making excuses about software etc are missing some fundamental points:

• When I bought my MBA 3 years ago, I went through the exact same process I'm going through now, but it got 12-13 hours on its first charge and continued to after that. I didn't have to limit what software I used, or mess around with Activity Monitor, or any of that.
• 13" non-TB users are reporting 10+ hours of battery life in normal usage. They aren't messing with any of this stuff either.

Look, I'm as big a fanboy as can be. I'm 42 and have used Apple computers and products exclusively since I was a kid. I remember that we had an Apple IIe in our house (I was probably 4 or 5 years old). I've never owned a PC or a non-Apple device.

Why is it so hard to accept that Apple may have flubbed this? The battery in the 13" non-TB is larger and power consumption is lower. Is it that big of a surprise that the 13" TB has significantly inferior battery life?

I agree..I don't think the batteries are flawed with so many reporting the same results, I think it just is what it is. When they advertise their battery life they need to give details on the state of the laptop and programs when they do. I have a 15 inch, only had one drain so far, so I am still optimistic it will increase a little. Overall though I am not that impressed with the battery on this $2700 laptop! On a side note we have a Lenovo Yoga 900 running windows 10 and the battery life is a full day of all the same things I am doing on this 15 MBP. I think what you said above could potentially be true and they flubbed it. Is what it is most likely, all we can do is just keep sharing our experiences so we can make sure its the case before we run to the store to return it.

I personally will have it plugged in but battery is still important to me. When I weigh what I paid for this thing and absolutely expect it to perform the way Apple said it would. Obviously the TB is drawing down on the battery. I love this laptop but battery HAS to be there for me.

Whats sad is the only programs I have run is Safari (stopped using Chrome so I could properly eval the battery). I haven't use anything else really at all, maybe the finder and sys pref. I can't imagine what would happen if I were to really do something on it. I may try and find a free game to see what happens to the battery then. I want to exercise the AMD GPU anyway.

 

[badlydrawnboy]

I agree..I don't think the batteries are flawed with so many reporting the same results, I think it just is what it is. When they advertise their battery life they need to give details on the state of the laptop and programs when they do. I have a 15 inch, only had one drain so far, so I am still optimistic it will increase a little. Overall though I am not that impressed with the battery on this $2700 laptop! On a side note we have a Lenovo Yoga 900 running windows 10 and the battery life is a full day of all the same things I am doing on this 15 MBP. I think what you said above could potentially be true and they flubbed it. Is what it is most likely, all we can do is just keep sharing our experiences so we can make sure its the case before we run to the store to return it.

I personally will have in plugged in but battery is still important to me. I weigh what I paid for this thing and absolutely expect it to perform the way Apple said it would. Obviously the TB is drawing down on the battery. I love this laptop but battery HAS to be there for me.

How long did you get on your first charge, and what is it saying now on your second?

I've decided to return the 13" TB, because 6-6.5 hours is not enough. Now I have to decide whether to get the 15" TB or the 13" non-TB. I need at least 8 hours of battery life, so if the 15" isn't reliably getting that I'll have to forgo the TB and stick with the 13" non-TB.

 

[skids929]

How long did you get on your first charge, and what is it saying now on your second?

I've decided to return the 13" TB, because 6-6.5 hours is not enough. Now I have to decide whether to get the 15" TB or the 13" non-TB. I need at least 8 hours of battery life, so if the 15" isn't reliably getting that I'll have to forgo the TB and stick with the 13" non-TB.

I believe yesterday I got around 7. Today I am trending towards the same. I am going to completely drain this time, yesterday I didn't. Although I have been told you don't want to completely drain LI batteries all the time. I think 8 is possible and I'd be happy with that. But I prefer to get a solid 8 whether I use programs or just surf the web.

Like I said I am still evaluating, and this thing could end up getting 8, but need to keep using and using and using. I'd say it's safe to say that battery life isn't a strength for either the 13 or the 15. Apple is seriously on a downward trend under cook if this is the way a $2700 laptop is going to function. This thing should rip it up in the battery dept. and this is something Jobs was a stickler about. Instead they spent all their money getting SSDs which were insanely fast, rather than give us a larger battery. I'd take a slower ssd, and a larger battery, thanks COOK! I think Cook is too much of a candy ass to run this company.

 

[yillbs]

I believe yesterday I got around 7. Today I am trending towards the same. I am going to completely drain this time, yesterday I didn't. Although I have been told you don't want to completely drain LI batteries all the time. I think 8 is possible and I'd be happy with that. But I prefer to get a solid 8 whether I use programs or just surf the web.

Like I said I am still evaluating, and this thing could end up getting 8, but need to keep using and using and using. I'd say it's safe to say that battery life isn't a strength for either the 13 or the 15. Apple is seriously on a downward trend under cook if this is the way a $2700 laptop is going to function. This thing should rip it up in the battery dept. and this is something Jobs was a stickler about. Instead, they spent all their money getting SSDs which were insanely fast, rather than give us a larger battery. I'd take a slower SSD, and a larger battery thanks, COOK! I think Cook is too much of a candy ass to run this company.

I think I'd be happy with 8 hours as well. Like you said, though if we have to close everything to get that.. it almost defeats the purpose. Though all things considered, I know the 15 inch gets 8 hours, so I'll happily just trade up if I have to. Can grab a 512GB, BTO CPU upgrade + BTO Ram upgrade for about 3300, so about 1k more than I paid fro my maxed out 13. I don't want to, but I will if I need to. I'd go back to the 2015, but this thing is noticeably smaller, and much easier to hold in hand, so I'm not sure I could, even if I wanted to.
[doublepost=1479401482][/doublepost]

How long did you get on your first charge, and what is it saying now on your second?

I've decided to return the 13" TB, because 6-6.5 hours is not enough. Now I have to decide whether to get the 15" TB or the 13" non-TB. I need at least 8 hours of battery life, so if the 15" isn't reliably getting that I'll have to forgo the TB and stick with the 13" non-TB.

You're loosing to much with the non-TB IMO, or I'd do the same. I think the 15 is reliably getting between 8 - 9 hours. Which is what I'd like to see on the 13. I just don't wanna wait another 4 - 5 weeks for delivery lol.

 

[tjleonard]

like others have said, apple would not have released it with these issues, it must be something we're doing. Do you have flash installed ?
[doublepost=1479362464][/doublepost]on a side note... If I kill everything running on mine, slack, mail, iTunes, App Store, my estimated time remaining wen't up by almost 3 hours, and it's showing over 7 hours now. Not a good solution, but seems to matter.
[doublepost=1479365290][/doublepost]

Welp... I turned off my 25GB full of files iCloud Drive... battery estimate is showing, and has been showing 9+ hours for the last hour, and it's going down at about 10% every hour now... any of you happen to have very very large iCloud drives syncing?

Flash is not installed.

If I kill everything (and I do mean everything), I'm looking at 6 hours from what it says. If I use it exactly like I used my 2015 pro (with the same exact things installed and running) with my normal day to day....I get 50% of the battery life than the 2015 13" pro.

 

[yillbs]

Flash is not installed.

If I kill everything (and I do mean everything), I'm looking at 6 hours from what it says. If I use it exactly like I used my 2015 pro (with the same exact things installed and running) with my normal day to day....I get 50% of the battery life than the 2015 13" pro.

Seems to be the norm. I asked apple if i could swap it out with mine, and he told me to wait and take advantage of the extended holiday return period. Then he made a note that apple is aware of the reviewers claiming less than 10 hours, and said they are looking into it.

 

[skids929]

I think I'd be happy with 8 hours as well. Like you said, though if we have to close everything to get that.. it almost defeats the purpose. Though all things considered, I know the 15 inch gets 8 hours, so I'll happily just trade up if I have to. Can grab a 512GB, BTO CPU upgrade + BTO Ram upgrade for about 3300, so about 1k more than I paid fro my maxed out 13. I don't want to, but I will if I need to. I'd go back to the 2015, but this thing is noticeably smaller, and much easier to hold in hand, so I'm not sure I could, even if I wanted to.
[doublepost=1479401482][/doublepost]
You're loosing to much with the non-TB IMO, or I'd do the same. I think the 15 is reliably getting between 8 - 9 hours. Which is what I'd like to see on the 13. I just don't wanna wait another 4 - 5 weeks for delivery lol.

Yeah I think this 15 could get 7-9 potentially, but I have not yet but I am close and relatively optimisti it will. Where I am flummoxed is two fold. 1) how the battery will perform if/when I start actually doing anything intensive on it and B) how it will perform over the years. Small battery not lasting now only degrades over time.

You will be faced with a new problem if you go the route you mentioned above and get the 15 for $3300. The law of diminishing returns may haunt you like it is me right now. The struggle I am having is deciding whether this thing is worth the $$. Sure that will fade over time, but right now that is the question for me, not whether or not the keyboard sucks, the TB sucks, etc..I like the hardware implementation, love Mac OS. just not sure I will give my hard earned money to a company who thought it was wise to put a super expensive ssd in the machine and underperforming battery.

 

[badlydrawnboy]

Yeah I think this 15 could get 7-9 potentially, but I have not yet but I am close and relatively optimisti it will. Where I am flummoxed is two fold. 1) how the battery will perform if/when I start actually doing anything intensive on it and B) how it will perform over the years. Small battery not lasting now only degrades over time.

You will be faced with a new problem if you go the route you mentioned above and get the 15 for $3300. The law of diminishing returns may haunt you like it is me right now. The struggle I am having is deciding whether this thing is worth the $$. Sure that will fade over time, but right now that is the question for me, not whether or not the keyboard sucks, the TB sucks, etc..I like the hardware implementation, love Mac OS. just not sure I will give my hard earned money to a company who thought it was wise to put a super expensive ssd in the machine and underperforming battery.

All good points. This is probably why I'll forgo the TB and get the 13" non-TB version. Maybe in another generation or two Apple will figure out how to get decent battery life with the TB. Until then, as much as I've enjoyed TouchID, I don't think it's worth 3-4+ hours of battery life.

I don't really want/need the 15" size since my primary use of this laptop is travel and a couple days a week where I work out of a different location. I have a 5k iMac as my main work/personal computer.

 

[tjleonard]

Seems to be the norm. I asked apple if i could swap it out with mine, and he told me to wait and take advantage of the extended holiday return period. Then he made a note that apple is aware of the reviewers claiming less than 10 hours, and said they are looking into it.

I sincerely think that it's a fluke and it isn't supposed to be doing this...im pretty patient if they are working on it. The battery isn't unusable, I just have to reach for the charger more than normal and want to make sure it's not the norm. Other than the battery, it's a fantastic machine and I'm sure that will get better.

Out of curiosity, what size is the battery in the 2015 13" pros?

 

[skids929]

All good points. This is probably why I'll forgo the TB and get the 13" non-TB version. Maybe in another generation or two Apple will figure out how to get decent battery life with the TB. Until then, as much as I've enjoyed TouchID, I don't think it's worth 3-4+ hours of battery life.

I don't really want/need the 15" size since my primary use of this laptop is travel and a couple days a week where I work out of a different location. I have a 5k iMac as my main work/personal computer.

Yeah that would be a good mix of equipment quite honestly. Thats the combo I would go with if I had an iMac. Quite honestly if I had an iMac I wouldn't consider the 15 or the 13 TB. I'd probably get the non TB with 16GB ram though. You're losing some ports, and port speed btw, and some overall performance, but who cares if you have a powerhouse machine at home. For the 15 is a way to save from buying the combo you have of iMac and laptop since the iMac I want is $1900 and then stack the non TB MBP on there and you've got a $3700 combo. So I am saving a grand with slightly less power and flexibility

 

[BenTrovato]

I got almost three hours with the 460 on the whole time. I've noticed the battery life is obviously much better with the integrated only but I'll see if I can get close to the 10 without any video.

 

[skids929]

I got almost three hours with the 460 on the whole time. I've noticed the battery life is obviously much better with the integrated only but I'll see if I can get close to the 10 without any video.

thats horrible no?

 

[shadow82x]

thats horrible no?

For a DGPU that doesn't sound too off. Integrated graphics always prove to be much, much more efficient.

That said even with only integrated graphics, I get around 5-6 hours of my 15". :/

 

[skids929]

For a DGPU that doesn't sound too off. Integrated graphics always prove to be much, much more efficient.

That said even with only integrated graphics, I get around 5-6 hours of my 15". :/

I am getting more than that on my 15. I am at 8% right now as I type, been off and on since 9am, mix of video and web surf, and from 6pm to 10pm last night off and on. all in thats about 8 I guess? Haven't been tracking super close. Overall I can't see how this thing would be getting 10, no way no how. I can live with 8, but 10 would be awesome and 10 is what apple claims, so I want it. And what I am doing is so light duty it SHOULD get that 10 I am doing exactly what apples spec claims it can get 10 hours doing. web surf, iTunes video = 10 hours

 

[BenTrovato]

Just to clarify .. almost three hours but on full load. Fans on high, GPU going the whole time. I thought it was decent. Was hoping for four hours. If I can't get close to 10 just doing work/emails, I'll be disappointed then.

 

[kokhoong0624]

So.... can the 15 inch reach at least 8 hours of battery life for light use (web browsing/editing files)? Just need to be sure before I place an order because there's no returns in my country
[doublepost=1479408445][/doublepost]

Just to clarify .. almost three hours but on full load. Fans on high, GPU going the whole time. I thought it was decent. Was hoping for four hours. If I can't get close to 10 just doing work/emails, I'll be disappointed then.

Please report back your battery life for normal load if possible... thanks!

 

[skids929]

So.... can the 15 inch reach at least 8 hours of battery life for light use (web browsing/editing files)? Just need to be sure before I place an order because there's no returns in my country
[doublepost=1479408445][/doublepost]
Please report back your battery life for normal load if possible... thanks!

I already reported it for you..It's about 8, which is NOT 10. Not saying 8 is awful, but it's not 10 like Apple says it is.

 

[kokhoong0624]

I already reported it for you..It's about 8, which is NOT 10. Not saying 8 is awful, but it's not 10 like Apple says it is.

Thanks! 8 is enough... for me I suppose. Im just worried because I've seen people commenting "4-6" in the forums.

 

[skids929]

Thanks! 8 is enough... for me I suppose. Im just worried because I've seen people commenting "4-6" in the forums.

Yeah maybe using more programs with those times. I am hoping the battery just needs a few drains and it will add something to it, nothing monumental but maybe an hour or 30 minutes or so. we'll see. I can tell you what I am doing is nothing more than what apple says will give you 10 hours. so screw apple for over rating their battery by 20 percent!

 

[badlydrawnboy]

I am using Battery Health 2 to track. On current charge, I've been on battery for 3:53, and both Apple and Battery Health 2's prediction is 3:05 remaining.

On my first charge I got about 6.5 hours, it looks like this one is on track for 7 hours. That's a slight improvement (if it actually happens; so far the estimates have fluctuated a lot which is normal early in a battery's cycle).

I have a 13".

If the 15" consistently gets 8 hours, I'd consider returning this and going with that instead. 8 hours is just enough for a cross-country flight, including using it before the flight in the waiting lounge. I am often able to plug in and charge either in the lounge or on the flight, but it still happens that I can't, so I want the 8 hours.

 

[skids929]

I am using Battery Health 2 to track. On current charge, I've been on battery for 3:53, and both Apple and Battery Health 2's prediction is 3:05 remaining.

On my first charge I got about 6.5 hours, it looks like this one is on track for 7 hours. That's a slight improvement (if it actually happens; so far the estimates have fluctuated a lot which is normal early in a battery's cycle).

I have a 13".

If the 15" consistently gets 8 hours, I'd consider returning this and going with that instead. 8 hours is just enough for a cross-country flight, including using it before the flight in the waiting lounge. I am often able to plug in and charge either in the lounge or on the flight, but it still happens that I can't, so I want the 8 hours.

I'd suggest the 15 then, it's pretty sweet outside of this issue. But maybe give that 13 more time since it may be trending up. 15 of course is less portable, pretty heavy. But was long as you have a sleeve I think it would be ok, it's so damn thin which makes it nice.

 

[bizack]

Checked out all three units (15'" TB, 13" TB, 13" Esc) at the Union Square store today. Off the record, one Apple Store employee said that if majority of users are reporting less than advertised battery life, there would likely be a class action lawsuit. They said a possible software/firmware update would address the issue. But this is obviously not coming from Apple Corporate.

Anecdotally, I unplugged all three computers and waited for computed remaining battery life.
Results:
15" TB - 10 hours
13" TB - 6.5 hours
13" Esc - 9.5 hours

I did this test twice, and then got:
15" TB - 3.5 hours
13" TB - 9.5 hours
13" Esc - 6 hours

Seems like the battery/power management on these are currently wonky.

I really hope they resolve this - the 13" TB really hits the sweet spot.

 

[mattopotamus]

Checked out all three units (15'" TB, 13" TB, 13" Esc) at the Union Square store today. Off the record, one Apple Store employee said that if majority of users are reporting less than advertised battery life, there would likely be a class action lawsuit. They said a possible software/firmware update would address the issue. But this is obviously not coming from Apple Corporate.

Anecdotally, I unplugged all three computers and waited for computed remaining battery life.
Results:
15" TB - 10 hours
13" TB - 6.5 hours
13" Esc - 9.5 hours

I did this test twice, and then got:
15" TB - 3.5 hours
13" TB - 9.5 hours
13" Esc - 6 hours

Seems like the battery/power management on these are currently wonky.

I really hope they resolve this - the 13" TB really hits the sweet spot.

you do realize that is a terrible way to test battery. You cannot just unplug a laptop and go with the projection when you are not actually using it. I have seen over 15 hours in the projection. Based on what actual users are getting it seems like this:

15" - 6.5 - 8 hours - although some have said close to 10. It makes sense since this is the only model with a dGPU.
13" TB - 6-7 (at best)
13" No TB - 9-11.5 hours