I'm once again on the fence about trading in my TB version for a non-TB. I actually have both in my possession now and have been using the non-TB one all day and it's just so nice not to have to worry about battery life. I do feel like the non-TB model is the better overall machine as the 54.5Wh battery is a better match for the 15W CPU than the 49.2 Wh battery is for the 28W CPU. That's the main reason for the dramatic decrease in battery life in the TB version IMO - just too little battery for that level of CPU.
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Battery life for 13" and 15" Macbook Pro
- Thread starter fokmik
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Touchbar is so gimmick. I wish there was a 15" without TB
"Better deal" is debatable. Some would argue none of the MBP's are "good" deals. As far as getting value, on paper, the tb version is the better value looking at specs you get for $300. But battery life is priceless for some, and some may put no value on the difference in the CPU's and graphics. Personally, I put disproportionately higher value on the touchbar/TouchID's ability to get me locked and unlocked quickly. I know, stupid.
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This just took care of half the posts on this thread. Well done Apple.Problem solved. Apple removed time remaining information in the latest 10.12.2 beta. No more complains for that.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tfbw0953emjucfg/Screenshot 2016-11-29 23.20.20.png?dl=0
If you actually need 10 hours of battery life because you are mobile, getting the base is understandable. If don't need to be mobile on a regular basis and don't have to have the 10 hour battery life all the time, what would be the point of getting the base, if don't actually need that part of the battery equation? Saying one can get 10 hours of battery and never needing / using it makes the point rather moot, in my opinion.
If you are plugged in most of the time and think you would make regular use of the Touch ID feature, along with the two extra ports, there really isn't much reason to say no to the purchase (performance and battery wise).
I wish the 13" non-touch had an option with ports on both sides and slight faster memory. And Touch ID. And maybe sliders for volume and brightness. And a kind of touch interface for editing photos. But we don't need a touchbar to get a new tab (control T) or suggest a word. Like a hybrid. 
Apple has clearly IGNORED your individual wishes of a tb/non-tb hybrid, and therefore we need to start preaching about the inevitable downfall of Apple due to their arrogant, self-serving design.I wish the 13" non-touch had an option with ports on both sides and slight faster memory. And Touch ID. And maybe sliders for volume and brightness. And a kind of touch interface for editing photos. But we don't need a touchbar to get a new tab (control T) or suggest a word. Like a hybrid.
When I connect a monitor to my 2012 15" MBP, it automatically switches to the dGPU and uses much much more battery. It is impossible to use an external monitor without activating the dGPU, because only the dGPU is connected to the video ports.
Perhaps the same thing is happening on the 2012 15" MBPs.
Open Activity Monitor -> Energy Tab
Check at the bottom if the High Performance GPU is being used. If it is, sort the list of apps by the "Requires high perf GPU" column.
If none of them are "Yes", it is probably the monitor. Disconnect the monitor and check if it switches back to integrated.
Other than that sort the list by "Avg Energy Impact" and see what is using the most battery on your particular mac (This list is reset every 8h or after a reboot).
So I've discovered that using safari with about 5 tabs open in safari with mail/google drive/calendar running at 75% brightness I get - - -
Base Model 15" I7
-sits around 7 watts with ~800 mAh = 7-10 hours battery life.
What REALLY kills the battery for me with the 15" is the GPU being turned on.
Both activity monitor and Istat menu's has indicators for telling you if you're actively using GPU vs integrated intel and when GPU is turned on i lose 2-3 hour battery life easily. The Activity Monitor lists what apps or which tabs are requiring the GPU and hopefully these aren't important to you.
If anybody has a fix to default a certain program to using only integrated vs GPU this would make my life a lot easier but seems after 5 minutes of googling, its all up to the load that the programs present to the CPU.
Just to note that random things can activate the GPU such as alfred from the App Store (go to their website for a better newer version), Alfred itself doesnt activate the GPU, but opening the alfred settings/preference panel will turn on the GPU.
To see on activity monitor if you're using the GPU click the energy tab at top and then look under 'Graphics Card:' in between the two graphs, 'High Perf.' = GPU is on vs 'Integrated'.
Base Model 15" I7
-sits around 7 watts with ~800 mAh = 7-10 hours battery life.
What REALLY kills the battery for me with the 15" is the GPU being turned on.
Both activity monitor and Istat menu's has indicators for telling you if you're actively using GPU vs integrated intel and when GPU is turned on i lose 2-3 hour battery life easily. The Activity Monitor lists what apps or which tabs are requiring the GPU and hopefully these aren't important to you.
If anybody has a fix to default a certain program to using only integrated vs GPU this would make my life a lot easier but seems after 5 minutes of googling, its all up to the load that the programs present to the CPU.
Just to note that random things can activate the GPU such as alfred from the App Store (go to their website for a better newer version), Alfred itself doesnt activate the GPU, but opening the alfred settings/preference panel will turn on the GPU.
To see on activity monitor if you're using the GPU click the energy tab at top and then look under 'Graphics Card:' in between the two graphs, 'High Perf.' = GPU is on vs 'Integrated'.
YES, I noticed that too! LOL. Took my 15" to another site today for a meeting. Was only supposed to be a 2 hour meeting. No need to worry about battery, right? Got there with 100% charge. Running Cisco AnyConnect VPN, Outlook 2016 and Skype for Business for a portion of the online meeting (about 70 minutes). Screen brightness at 65%, backlight key = 0. When I left 2 hours later I was at 22% remaining! When I had the 13" "escape edition" base model, I was at a conference with it, using it this way all day. Maybe 6-7 hours of actual use. Got back to hotel and was still over 40% left on battery.Problem solved. Apple removed time remaining information in the latest 10.12.2 beta. No more complains for that.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tfbw0953emjucfg/Screenshot 2016-11-29 23.20.20.png?dl=0
I went to the 15" for better processing power for my off work things, but this battery isn't going to be usable for what I need it to do to make money. Sure, I Could carry the charger, but there isn't always an outlet nearby. I took my Anker 20,100 USB C battery pack just in case. Of course, it can't really charge the 15" when it's in use...but it could the 12 & 13"...so that was worthless. Have to carry a brick with the 15" if you are on battery for about 3 hours max for light use. What the?
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have you tested this exact workload iwth other laptops? seems like it's hitting dgpu for some reason
When you say reinstall, do you mean just going to Mac App Store and "downloading and install" Sierra from there? That's all?
Yes. I originally was pretty adamant about 10 hours of battery life, maybe in part because that's what I got with my 2013 MBA (in fact I got 12 hours out of the box, but it's more like 9.5-10 now). But then I realized that it's extremely rare that I go more than 8 hours these days without being able to plug in, so 8.5 hours would be fine.
I love using TouchID to login and with 1Password. I am willing to trade 1.5 hours of battery life for that (as long as we're talking about a move from 10 to 8.5, rather than 7.5 to 6).
The TB? Eh. I just don't see myself using it beyond adjusting volume and brightness, which is probably a bit faster than with the Fn keys. Almost anything you can do with the TB, aside from scrubbing in videos and audio, can be done faster with keyboard shortcuts.
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Yes, it's that simple. Not even a clean install, just installing over your current one. You won't lose any data.
OK I've actually done it, and after that resetted PRAM and SMC, switched off iCloud keychain. And it says 20 hours remaining Stayed at that for quite a while, and then stayed at 100 percent for longer than I can remember too. Then it eventually finally went down to 99 percent after some browsing, but still stays 20 hours remaining haha. I think the PRAM/SMC resets have kind of just kept that "time remaining" counter stuck at a one figure now until I perhaps do a reboot or something?
Update: After a bit more usage down to approx 92-93 percent (at which point it said 17 hours remaining..) I decided to reboot. 4 hours 20 minutes left, 90 percent battery remaining. What a mess all of this is
Stayed at that for quite a while, and then stayed at 100 percent for longer than I can remember too. Then it eventually finally went down to 99 percent after some browsing, but still stays 20 hours remaining haha. I think the PRAM/SMC resets have kind of just kept that "time remaining" counter stuck at a one figure now until I perhaps do a reboot or something?Update: After a bit more usage down to approx 92-93 percent (at which point it said 17 hours remaining..) I decided to reboot. 4 hours 20 minutes left, 90 percent battery remaining. What a mess all of this is
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OK I've actually done it, and after that resetted PRAM and SMC, switched off iCloud keychain. And it says 20 hours remaining
Update: After a bit more usage down to approx 92-93 percent (at which point it said 17 hours remaining..) I decided to reboot. 4 hours 20 minutes left, 90 percent battery remaining. What a mess all of this is
What's wrong with iCloud Keychain?
Yes, same stuff on the 12" 2015 m5 MacBook gets about 8-9 hours. I did check the dGPU, it wasn't on for anything running. That was my first thought.
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Better yet, do what I do with EVERY version of the OS (El Cap, Sierra, etc.). Download it. DO NOT install it. Create a bootable USB drive for the installer. Then install from there and you can use it whenever you need to. Want to revert to an old OS? Go for it. Need to install it on another Mac? No problem
Makes life easier. I have them going back to Mavericks.Yep thats it! When I plug my monitor in, it switches the graphics card to High Perf.
Mystery solved! I'll just keep the power plugged in whenever im using an external monitor.
Thanks!!
Awesome!
So many people here want a mac with dGPU, but I hate that mine has one. All it has caused me was headache in the 4 years I've had it.
I am sure this issue is not present on the 2016 ones, but when the dGPU is on, fans kick in super quickly with barely any load. Which means my mac sounds like vacuum every time I am connected to an external screen (most of the time!)...
On top of that chrome and other apps oftentimes switch to dGPU for no good reason and drain the battery. In the past you could prevent it with a menu bar app, but it doesn't work on Sierra anymore.
It is really disappointing there are no 15" without dGPU and I would highly recommend everyone to "downgrade" to 13" for that exact reason.
I can see the need for that with a 4/5k monitor, but that seems odd if it's 1080 or 2560.
Well the 2016 fans dont get too loud with the monitor or running chrome. Only when im gaming or doing heavy photoshop does it kick in fairly loud. Yea Chrome is a bit of a bitch and drains the battery alot.
I still see the option to turn off automated graphics switching? Havent tried it yet though...
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True. Mines a 1080 and it kicks in. Weird.
Turning off the automatic graphics switching is an option in the energy saver tab of system preferences BUT doing this will only turn off the option to switch to the integrated card and will leave the laptop to utilizing the GPU at all times killing your battery.
Problem solved. Apple removed time remaining information in the latest 10.12.2 beta. No more complains for that.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tfbw0953emjucfg/Screenshot 2016-11-29 23.20.20.png?dl=0
If it's a matter of the OS not reporting or calculating remaining battery time incorrectly, Apple could have removed the time indicator while they work on a fix. But I would assume that sites that complained about battery life actually ran the computer until the battery ran out rather than relying on the indicator.