Battery life for 13" and 15" Macbook Pro

[thesaint024]

About the same thing, actually. The shorter times are when I have it at work - I still have twitter updating all the time - one thing different is I use the 'spy' page on macrumors to keep updating all the posts. That I would expect would use more battery since Safari would be working harder. At work I keep the display brighter as well, so just that could account for the difference.

One of my 6-7 hour sessions was installing homebrew, building apache and installing that and php, rebuilding a local website I have. The homebrew builds I would expect would keep this a bit busy. I also had Duet installed but not used, but I uninstalled it when I heard it might be causing some of my crashes.

That seems in line with less time, when the processor was busy for longer periods of time. I wasn't looking at the activity monitor though, and didn't have the battery watcher installed so I couldn't track power changes.

Right now I'm at 3 hours on battery, with 82% remaining. But only light usage, Safari and twitter watching. No video or photo activity. It says 14 hours remaining but we know how accurate that is - not.

I got it Tues Nov 15.

Right now I'm going to start a Handbrake DVD rip - usually I do that plugged in but I'm curious to see what it does.

I think that all sounds about right. I don't know the exact power consumption of your particular applications, but brighter screen, more than just browsing, loading website builds, etc. 9 hours on web and dimmer screen, hour or two at work scenario. Amiright? I saw your Handbrake experiment, and the results are expected. Even though the fans didn't go on, I KNOW that takes a lot of energy/CPU. I run it on my PC and it goes nuts for resources. If I understand what it's doing, it's literally running constant calculations while ripping.
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I dont see how a reinstall will help really. I just got this on Friday. But maybe i'll try it as a last resort.

I spoke with Apple and they made me reset my keychain and reset the SMC, it helped a little, but not much. Gonna have to follow up with them.

I will let @tjleonard evangelize this. Doesn't make sense on a clean install, makes much more sense in a data migration situation. But it worked for many in both cases. When you think about it, the OS can start running any odd number of processes in reaction to apps opening up, especially when it was running on a prior machine/OS. Reinstalling the OS resets all of those things in theory. Strangely, all the apps and passwords and files remain. No need to believe me or others, this is just the internet after all. BTW, we ALL just got these machines. It's not like we've fully cluttered them up already.

 

[RobinInOR]

Good to know. I should have looked at the battery app while it was running so I could see how much energy it used. Oh well, next time. I just had to reboot so my stats from now on might be whacked (all of a sudden I had a stuck key - { was repeating ad nauseum). A restart didn't fix it - I had to completely shut down and restart from there. Bizarre, panicky there for a sec Some definite software quirks to be addressed, and Im sure that will fix a bunch of these battery anomalies. Never know what processes are running under the hood.

 

[titleistman18]

@tjleonard if I do a reinstall of Sierra, do I lose my data/apps/etc.? How do I do it properly as you did?

 

[Dukat]

Interesting, I am at 3 hours of usage (light internet some youtube etc.) myself and my % is 83 with 11 hours 52 minutes left. I am on an i5 13 inch.

Thanks for answering my questions reason I ask is because I was on the fence about the i7 upgrade. Money is not the issue, I just wanted to max out the machine so I can get more years out of it. The stories of battery life made me order an i5 since I thought maybe the i7 was the culprit. You've proven otherwise.

I had a 13" i7, when watching videos, large iCloud photo download it got extremely hot. Returned it for an i5 which barely gets warm no matter what I do. I assumed the i7 just ran much hotter but perhaps some laptops are bugged, whether hardware or software. Current i5 (8gb) is running excellent. I'm at 9 hours and change and total 68 hours on battery. Extensive app installation, re-ran indexing, initiated maintenance scripts several times, hours of web surfing without plugging in once. Looks like my 3rd 2016 is a good one. First one went back due to display flickering like it was possessed, 2nd was the i7 that ran like a portable space heater.

 

[ubercool]

That is quite possible mathematically. 76 wh battery divided by 14 hours means you need to run at 5.x watts to achieve it. With light use it's quite possible. Hard to avoid the occasional heavy load, but who are we to say what he's running. 5.x watts is normal light browsing range.

You won't believe it but I get more than 24 hours of battery life by turning off the display all together and closing the lid!

 

[tjleonard]

@tjleonard if I do a reinstall of Sierra, do I lose my data/apps/etc.? How do I do it properly as you did?

Just do not format or repartition your drive and it'll be fine. I'd recommend doing a time machine backup just in case, but as long as you do not repartition or format the drive, you will not lose anything.
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I think that all sounds about right. I don't know the exact power consumption of your particular applications, but brighter screen, more than just browsing, loading website builds, etc. 9 hours on web and dimmer screen, hour or two at work scenario. Amiright? I saw your Handbrake experiment, and the results are expected. Even though the fans didn't go on, I KNOW that takes a lot of energy/CPU. I run it on my PC and it goes nuts for resources. If I understand what it's doing, it's literally running constant calculations while ripping.
[doublepost=1480297939][/doublepost]
I will let @tjleonard evangelize this. Doesn't make sense on a clean install, makes much more sense in a data migration situation. But it worked for many in both cases. When you think about it, the OS can start running any odd number of processes in reaction to apps opening up, especially when it was running on a prior machine/OS. Reinstalling the OS resets all of those things in theory. Strangely, all the apps and passwords and files remain. No need to believe me or others, this is just the internet after all. BTW, we ALL just got these machines. It's not like we've fully cluttered them up already.

@SRTM i did it as a last resort and have to say, it was fantastic and I hate I didn't reinstall before. It didn't make any sense to me, but I can just speak for how my battery life was 4-5 hours and now is easily double...and all I did was a reinstall and not a format...I would encourage you to do it before you worry to much about it.

 

[xspin]

It looks like its flicking between Chrome, chrome helper, activity monitor and WindowServer. Chrome sometimes hits 20%.
I just tried a SMC reset, and will see if that helps.

Edit: 3:45 after a smc reset. Yea something is wrong, im gonna chat with Apple.

Let me know what they say. I'm in a similar boat to you, getting about 4-5 hours but still unacceptable.

 

[SRTM]

Just do not format or repartition your drive and it'll be fine. I'd recommend doing a time machine backup just in case, but as long as you do not repartition or format the drive, you will not lose anything.
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@SRTM i did it as a last resort and have to say, it was fantastic and I hate I didn't reinstall before. It didn't make any sense to me, but I can just speak for how my battery life was 4-5 hours and now is easily double...and all I did was a reinstall and not a format...I would encourage you to do it before you worry to much about it.

I did a fresh install when I first got it though. Did you migrate all your data?
I'll try the reinstall soon and report back! thx

 

[tjleonard]

I did a fresh install when I first got it though. Did you migrate all your data?
I'll try the reinstall soon and report back! thx

I did migrate my data but hear people having success that did it fresh.

I'm thinking the install / image that Apple put on the machine has a flaw in it. Reinstalling downloads the files again, and therefore it's a little more fresh .

Report back once you finish so we all know and can try to use the info to help everyone else.

 

[happyslayer]

I was running the latest Dev Build of Sierra and had done a Time Machine restore of my apps and data after the out-of-box setup. It was that way for 5 days. Yesterday, I went ahead and backed up using what I call the "hard way" by manually dragging my files and some apps to a USB drive. I then did a recovery boot (command-R) and used Disk Utility to Erase the drive and then did a fresh install. I then spent a few hours reinstalling my apps and copying my data back. Thankfully I have Dropbox and use iCloud, so a lot of the data just needed to resynch.

So far I have doubled my battery time at least. The previous 5 battery cycles, I averaged 4.75 hours (using Battery Logger and Coconut Battery.) This is only my first cycle since the reinstall and I am at 5:41 (per Battery Logger) with about 35% battery left--Apple battery app says 3:25 remaining. I realize that isn't all that accurate depending on the apps I run in the next 3 hours but... this is still way way way better than it was. Previously it would already have died. Also, Coconut Battery has shown that is uses substantially less power--usually below 5 watts when before it never really dropped below 6.8 watts and spent a lot of time closer to 10 watts. Even when I had turned off the wifi and BT antennas and lowered brightness to a single tic, it showed 7.1 watts for over 5 minutes. Something was definitely running hidden that came in with the Time Machine restore, I think. The fresh install did the trick--at least so far. I'll report back in a couple days after I've had more time to test and verify.

 

[tjleonard]

I was running the latest Dev Build of Sierra. I went ahead and backed up using what I call the "hard way" by manually dragging my files and some apps to a USB drive. I then did a recovery boot (command-R) and used Disk Utility to Erase the drive and then did a fresh install. I then spent a few hours reinstalling my apps and copying my data back. Thankfully I have Dropbox and use iCloud, so a lot of the data just needed to resynch. So far I have doubled my battery at least. The previous 5 battery cycles, I averaged 4.75 hours (using Battery Logger and Coconut Battery.) This is only my first cycle since the reinstall and I am at 5:41 (per Battery Logger) with about 35% battery left--Apple battery app says 3:25 remaining. I realize that isn't all that accurate depending on the apps I run in the next 3 hours but... this is still way way way better than it was. Previously it would already have died. Also, Coconut Battery has shown that is uses substantially less power--usually below 5 watts when before it never really dropped below 6.8 watts and spent a lot of time closer to 10 watts. Even when I had turned off the wifi and BT antennas and lowered brightness to a single tic, it showed 7.1 watts for over 5 minutes. Something was definitely running hidden that came in with the Time Machine restore, I think. The fresh install, did the trick at least so far. I'll report back in a couple days after I've had more time to test and verify.

That's what I keep hearing and from my experience. Per battery meter, the energy usage was significantly less for me after the reinstall as well.

I'm actually perfectly satisfied with the laptop now. If only I could find a thin, decently fitted sleeve to order for it. I've tried about 3 different kinds and 1 was just too big, the other 2 were just a little too small.

 

[Blackvibes]

I am seeing people having the screen at 30-50% of brightness levels. Well, okay when I'm at night in my room and everything is dark, that's no issue. But when I'm at the office, and the room is lit, as is should, the minimum operating brightness is 80%. So how are you guys working with such a low brightness..?

And besides that, for what I'm not sure of and hoping people could confirm or not: should you reinstall Sierra with a fresh install, even if you didn't restore a time machine backup? When I got my new Macbook 2016 15" I simply dragged my files from my old macbook to this one using a Thunderbolt cable. So the whole OS is still almost factory-new. Yet, I'm only getting around 4 hours of battery life, whereas Safari always is the biggest energy user.

 

[tjleonard]

I am seeing people having the screen at 30-50% of brightness levels. Well, okay when I'm at night in my room and everything is dark, that's no issue. But when I'm at the office, and the room is lit, as is should, the minimum operating brightness is 80%. So how are you guys working with such a low brightness..?

And besides that, for what I'm not sure of and hoping people could confirm or not: should you reinstall Sierra with a fresh install, even if you didn't restore a time machine backup? When I got my new Macbook 2016 15" I simply dragged my files from my old macbook to this one using a Thunderbolt cable. So the whole OS is still almost factory-new. Yet, I'm only getting around 4 hours of battery life, whereas Safari always is the biggest energy user.

Yes, reinstall Sierra.

 

[Dukat]

That's what I keep hearing and from my experience. Per battery meter, the energy usage was significantly less for me after the reinstall as well.

I'm actually perfectly satisfied with the laptop now. If only I could find a thin, decently fitted sleeve to order for it. I've tried about 3 different kinds and 1 was just too big, the other 2 were just a little too small.

I use Waterfield sleeves for all my Macbooks and iPads. Pricey but very high quality, never been disappointed.
- https://www.sfbags.com/collections/macbook-cases/products/macbook-sleevecase
- https://www.sfbags.com/collections/macbook-cases/products/maxwell-macbook-sleeve

 

[CookieFlow]

I guess I am going to do the Sierra reinstall....

Here are my numbers for the keyboard at 50% and the screen at 12 ticks (the same settings as Apple claims 10 hours) from Coconut. During these tests I was running 0 Apps in the background, no iMessage, nothing.

Netflix HD ~9 watts (12%/hour)
Twitch Source ~14 watts
Youtube 1080p ~10 watts (~13/14% hour)
Safari light browsing ~10 watts
Safari twitter scrolling ~14-15 watts
Chrome light browsing ~11 watts
Chrome twitter scrolling ~16-17 watts

Next day battery was at 30%
VLC 1080p movie playback ~13-14 watts (~20%/hour)

So yeah in the current situation I am getting about half of what Apple claims in the same conditions.
I also lost about 7-8% over night.

I am just extremely disappointed, I switched in August 2014 for a Asus Zenbook after 8 years of Macbooks, and it was horrible for many reasons, including the ****** 4-5 hours of battery.
I was so happy to be done with this crap and being able to not bring a charger with me at University anymore, but that doesn't seem to be the case with this 2016 MBP.

Hopefully the reinstall will do something...

 

[SRTM]

That's what I keep hearing and from my experience. Per battery meter, the energy usage was significantly less for me after the reinstall as well.

I'm actually perfectly satisfied with the laptop now. If only I could find a thin, decently fitted sleeve to order for it. I've tried about 3 different kinds and 1 was just too big, the other 2 were just a little too small.

After a reinstall i'm getting about 4 hours. so its helped a bit (+30min)
I'm going to contact Apple tonight and see if theres anything else I can do.

 

[thesaint024]

I guess I am going to do the Sierra reinstall....

Here are my numbers for the keyboard at 50% and the screen at 12 ticks (the same settings as Apple claims 10 hours) from Coconut. During these tests I was running 0 Apps in the background, no iMessage, nothing.

Netflix HD ~9 watts (12%/hour)
Twitch Source ~14 watts
Youtube 1080p ~10 watts (~13/14% hour)
Safari light browsing ~10 watts
Safari twitter scrolling ~14-15 watts
Chrome light browsing ~11 watts
Chrome twitter scrolling ~16-17 watts

Next day battery was at 30%
VLC 1080p movie playback ~13-14 watts (~20%/hour)

So yeah in the current situation I am getting about half of what Apple claims in the same conditions.
I also lost about 7-8% over night.

I am just extremely disappointed, I switched in August 2014 for a Asus Zenbook after 8 years of Macbooks, and it was horrible for many reasons, including the ****** 4-5 hours of battery.
I was so happy to be done with this crap and being able to not bring a charger with me at University anymore, but that doesn't seem to be the case with this 2016 MBP.

Hopefully the reinstall will do something...

OMG. Those watts are awful. Yeah, something wrong in there. My money is on reinstall fixing your battery situation. Keep us posted. My youtube is close (not good), but everything else I use half the watts.
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After a reinstall i'm getting about 4 hours. so its helped a bit (+30min)
I'm going to contact Apple tonight and see if theres anything else I can do.

Just to make sure this is out of the way, you are quoting times for actual rundown tests right? Not just estimated times? If those are rundowns, something is really wrong. If those are estimates, you need to calibrate a couple of times with a rundown or two and monitor the battery.

 

[SRTM]

I haven't tried running the battery down to 0 yet, so I will try that first.

 

[thesaint024]

I haven't tried running the battery down to 0 yet, so I will try that first.

I didn't mean actually down to zero but close to it at least. I've run down to about 10% but I usually stay above 30 on all my rundowns. Those times you are quoting sound suspiciously like those bad time estimates. That's why I asked. They are truly meaningless until you have a decent feel for your battery life and consumption. Brand new computers quoting times without ever running down do not really have a feel for what those numbers mean. If you haven't run down yet, you'll see that you'll get much better numbers than the estimates. It's just not mathematically possible to have 4 hour range battery life unless you are running at 15 or so watts the ENTIRE time. That doesn't constitute light usage, but heavy CPU tasks ALL the time.

 

[titleistman18]

Just reinstalled Sierra. Went from 3h47m on a full charge before... will try to take it down to 0% and see how long I get from there. Currently showing 6h39m on 100% though... which is nearly double the most I've ever seen it say.

 

[xraydoc]

Just for these reasons above, I always set up laptops "the hard way" by manually reinstalling everything from scratch on to a clean install of the OS.

My desktops, on the other hand, are using restored Time Machine backups going back to from whenever TM was first released - maybe even going back to the G5 days, lol.

 

[hArrisburger]

How do you get the specific wattage for each app on Coconut? I have it downloaded, but can't seem to get that info.

I guess I am going to do the Sierra reinstall....

Here are my numbers for the keyboard at 50% and the screen at 12 ticks (the same settings as Apple claims 10 hours) from Coconut. During these tests I was running 0 Apps in the background, no iMessage, nothing.

Netflix HD ~9 watts (12%/hour)
Twitch Source ~14 watts
Youtube 1080p ~10 watts (~13/14% hour)
Safari light browsing ~10 watts
Safari twitter scrolling ~14-15 watts
Chrome light browsing ~11 watts
Chrome twitter scrolling ~16-17 watts

Next day battery was at 30%
VLC 1080p movie playback ~13-14 watts (~20%/hour)

So yeah in the current situation I am getting about half of what Apple claims in the same conditions.
I also lost about 7-8% over night.

I am just extremely disappointed, I switched in August 2014 for a Asus Zenbook after 8 years of Macbooks, and it was horrible for many reasons, including the ****** 4-5 hours of battery.
I was so happy to be done with this crap and being able to not bring a charger with me at University anymore, but that doesn't seem to be the case with this 2016 MBP.

Hopefully the reinstall will do something...

What app are you using to detect the wattage? Just activ

 

[mahcus36]

Yes, reinstall Sierra.

i'm new to Macs, this will be my first one when it ships in a few days. Is there a guide somewhere on how to reinstall macOS sierra?

edit: and, is there a difference between "reinstall" and "clean install"?

 

[thesaint024]

How do you get the specific wattage for each app on Coconut? I have it downloaded, but can't seem to get that info.

What app are you using to detect the wattage? Just activ

Just using Coconut. I look at watts usage as I open up or use apps. I keep it visible so I can see spikes. To check relative battery usage of all apps, I look at Activity Monitor under energy. Apple uses some mysterious algorithm to show power usage, but I don't use the numbers themselves, just relative difference between the apps.
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i'm new to Macs, this will be my first one when it ships in a few days. Is there a guide somewhere on how to reinstall macOS sierra?

edit: and, is there a difference between "reinstall" and "clean install"?

I didn't do a reinstall since I did a clean install (did not use data migration to bring old mac into new). Reinstall works either way. tjleonard explains it earlier in this thread. Supposedly just a command-R when rebooting, then follow options to reinstall. Sorry I don't have more detail, just speaking from memory of past threads.

 

[bizack]

I'm getting between 8-9 hours on my 13" MBP TB. My config is 16GB/512GB SSD/Core i7. I didn't do any SMC resets or reinstall Sierra because, well, I doubt any of those have anything to do with poor battery life (I did setup my computer as new and did my migration through iCloud and manually transferring data files over and reinstalling apps). I'm not doing anything weird like 'killing' Siri or turning off keyboard backlighting, etc. Just using the computer as usual. The battery estimate usually reports 9.5 hours after unplugging. It drops to 6.5-7 hours pretty quickly but then hovers there for a few hours. I don't think 10 hours is possible without doing strange and unusual tweaks, but 8-9 hours is pretty good for me. It did let all the indexing and syncing finish before using the computer unplugged. The only app that consistently shows significant power usage is Safari (Slack shows up every now and then). Mainly using my computer for some light coding, design work in Omnigraffle, Sketch and Pixelmator.