Battery life for 13" and 15" Macbook Pro

[Brookzy]

Coming from a late 2013 rMBP 13" I had the two right next to each other and while the new 15" TBrMBP did have a drastically brighter screen, with both of the machines set to 50% screen brightness I could read smaller text on my old machine slightly better than the new one.

Do you think this is due to the new color gamut and increased contrast ratio? I think the screen looks amazing but doing basic things with lower brightness (below 50%) is almost impossible for my eyes.

Are you having difficulty reading the text on your 15" because of the lower brightness? If you make both screens equally bright to your eyes, does the text become equally easy to read?

Otherwise, the scaling may be different (and smaller) on your 15" compared with your older 13". You can change this in System Preferences.

Make sure you're also comparing apples with apples (if you'd pardon the pun!) - open the same website on both machines for example.

 

[TiT38]

[QUOTE="JBut remember that there's other software conflicts besides backups/migration assistantV[/QUOTE]

@JohnnyGo : thank you, I'll take care of that

 

[Prothis]

Are you having difficulty reading the text on your 15" because of the lower brightness? If you make both screens equally bright to your eyes, does the text become equally easy to read?

Otherwise, the scaling may be different (and smaller) on your 15" compared with your older 13". You can change this in System Preferences.

Make sure you're also comparing apples with apples (if you'd pardon the pun!) - open the same website on both machines for example.

Right, definitely different scaling. At 50% seems the old screens were brighter, but at 100% the new one is clearly brighter. Seems the range is not equal. I notice there is less blue light on the new ones, this could contribute to a less vivid whites at lower brightness and therefore harder to read text. (not a professional photographer or screen expert if that makes no sense). Both the screens are the same size text (I pushed the older 13" to a high resolution for more real estate so they look almost equal sitting next to each other.

The point was- its strange to me that with the big beautiful screen, Its usability for me seems diminished below 50% brightness. Which is unfortunate that its probably the biggest factor in battery life.

 

[mahcus36]

Turn your screen brightness down a tad. On full brightness I am getting on average 6 hours. With brightness between 50% and 75% I am getting over 10 hours battery (13" w/TB)

this makes me happy

 

[badlydrawnboy]

Turn your screen brightness down a tad. On full brightness I am getting on average 6 hours. With brightness between 50% and 75% I am getting over 10 hours battery (13" w/TB)

This makes me think it's a software issue. I've been at more like 30-40% brightness and I've never gotten more than 8.5 hours even after the Sierra reinstall.
[doublepost=1480896743][/doublepost]Check out this screenshot from Battery Health 2:

I've been on battery for 2:25 and it shows 3:50 remaining. Just over 6 hours.

I'm back to what I was getting before the Sierra reinstall. Brightness has been at 40-60%. All I've been doing today is web browsing, watching a movie, and occasional email.

I'm using Chrome for web browsing, but that's no excuse. I use Chrome with my 2013 MBA and it still gets over 10 hours of battery life, and got closer to 12-13 when it was new.

Also, I used Safari exclusively for the first week that I had this computer, and I still only got 6-6.5 hours.

At this point I'd have to return this if Apple doesn't issue a fix. I can definitely live with 8-8.5, but not 6-6.5. That's a significant difference.

 

[PyBeck]

After some further observation, i'm still guessing for a software / UEFI? bug, which causes the 960 to not properly turn off after it's been used. Even if i'm on the integrated, the 460 is taking 5 - 10 watts and thus pushing me in the 15 - 20 Watt region, which kills the battery.

NVRAM reset worked for like half an hour until i fired up a VMware Fusion box for a couple of minutes, the 460 is sucking power since then even when Activity Monitor reports the internal is being used. (Side note: The VM and Fusion are no longer running).

Did a SMC reset a couple of days back due to audio issues, so i guess that can be ruled out as well.

That's why i'm thinking, that the 960 is off until the system has to switch to it for the first time and then can't shut it down again.

 

[0388279]

I'm also keeping Coconut battery running in my menubar with a wattage meter. I find wattage is the biggest factor in the rate of battery drain. As long as my wattage is kept under 10W then I can get nearly an hour out of every 10% battery. If my wattage suddenly shoots up, I find that putting my computer to sleep for a few seconds (I have 'sleep' as a shortcut on my Touchbar) then waking it back up will make my wattage go right back to normal.

I have noticed similar behavior. Today I was using my new 2016 15" MBP (2.9 GHZ, 1 TB, 460) with low energy draw (less than 10 watts) for a couple of hours. Then when I opened several additional applications the rate of energy consumption went up to 25 watts. I then shut down most of these applications with the exception of Safari and Mail and the rate of energy consumption eventually went down to 16.5 watts--took along time. But it never went down any further.

I think it is interesting that I can run with Safari and Mail at less than 10 watts, but if I add apps and the energy draw gets 25 watts from additional applications, then if I shutdown these applications and go back to just Safari and Mail the rate of energy consumption never goes back to less than 10 watts until I place the machine in sleep.

It's almost like that either the machine can not cool itself properly so the fans stay running fast and it has high energy draw or some thermal runaway issue.

Should we really have to sleep the machine to improve battery life?

Cheers,

Donald Barar

 

[dof250]

Just found something... When i reboot my machine the idle usage is at around 10-15watts on full brightness. Then when I connect my USB-C hub with HDMI monitor it switches to de Radeon Pro and usage goes up to around 36 watts, but when i then disconnect the USB-C hub and let it go back to idle it stays at around 30watts and never goes back down to 10-15. It seems like the Radeon Pro stays activated or something! Could you guys try this out?

It seems like when de dGPU is activated or the machine has been "stressed" it never goes back down...

(Running latest Sierra beta here)

 

[Northrock]

13" TB lasting 3.5h > removed all contents from the following directories > reboot > now lasting 7.5-8.5h.

~/Library/Caches/*
~/Library/LaunchAgents/*

Only the usual suspects installed Skype, Chrome, Spotify, Evernote, Xcode, etc.

 

[konnyaku]

13" TB lasting 3.5h > removed all contents from the following directories > reboot > now lasting 7.5-8.5h.

~/Library/Caches/*
~/Library/LaunchAgents/*

Only the usual suspects installed Skype, Chrome, Spotify, Evernote, Xcode, etc.

Do you mind explaining why you did this? Sorry if I missed earlier in the thread.

 

[Northrock]

Do you mind explaining why you did this? Sorry if I missed earlier in the thread.

Clearing these folders is a troubleshooting step used by Apple Specialists.

Open Finder > Go > press <shift> to expose LIBRARY > delete the contents of Caches/* and LaunchAgents/* directories > reboot.

How I got there ...

When the system was new it lasted 5.5h, I followed the normal steps to improve it, but nothing really made a difference (issue #1), two weeks in the behaviour changed - dropping to 3.5h all of a sudden (issue #2), so I invested a few hours trying to figure it out.

I noticed process 'WindowServer' was keeping two cores busy, I isolated the underlying cause to be process 'DFRHUD'. I created a second user account on the machine and the 'WindowServer' issue didn't follow. The issue appeared to be specific to the primary user's account.

After the delete and reboot it was instantly obvious the 'WindowServer' issue was resolved (issue #2 fixed). Thinking that was an isolated issue I expected it to return to 5.5h ... but unexpectedly it's actually been working far 'better than it was new', for about two days now (seemingly issue #1 improved a lot too).

My experience is probably an edge case, but it made a huge difference here and it's quick to try.

I'm still expecting other updates from Apple et al to get it to 10h as advertised.

 

[mfarben]

Hey Folks,
after being absolutely blown away by everything in and outside my new 13'' MBP TB for a few days, now I'm extremely underwhelmed by the battery performance.
I only get about 4-6 hours with light use (Safari+ little Spotify, nothing else!)
This is absolutely unacceptable for a 2800€ machine.
I've got a 13'' , i7, 512gb, 16 gb.

I tried reinstalling Sierra and resetting VRAM and SMC , which first seemed to improve things, but today everything is back at sh***y normal. I think the reset just "un-calibrated" the battery measurement - which resulted in higher displayed running-times.

I even consider returning it and getting the nTB Model.... which would absolutely feel wrong :/
Do you guys really think it's a software Problem?

edit: While writing this - battery dropped from 28 to 24 %.... and safari is always shown as an app with significant battery drain in the battery status bar

 

[Sohappy]

Hey Folks,
after being absolutely blown away by everything in and outside my new 13'' MBP TB for a few days, now I'm extremely underwhelmed by the battery performance.
I only get about 4-6 hours with light use (Safari+ little Spotify, nothing else!)
This is absolutely unacceptable for a 2800€ machine.
I've got a 13'' , i7, 512gb, 16 gb.

I tried reinstalling Sierra and resetting VRAM and SMC , which first seemed to improve things, but today everything is back at sh***y normal. I think the reset just "un-calibrated" the battery measurement - which resulted in higher displayed running-times.

I even consider returning it and getting the nTB Model.... which would absolutely feel wrong :/
Do you guys really think it's a software Problem?

edit: While writing this - battery dropped from 28 to 24 %.... and safari is always shown as an app with significant battery drain in the battery status bar

Did you check your activity monitor ?

Have you anything involving a cloud such as creative cloud or google drive ?

 

[mfarben]

Did you check your activity monitor ?

Have you anything involving a cloud such as creative cloud or google drive ?

I deactivated the Creative Cloud app , and Google Drive is active but has not been syncing.

Been trying out chrome , but idk if it's better or worse...

On my 2010 MBP I never had to worry about anything consuming too much power...

 

[Sohappy]

I deactivated the Creative Cloud app , and Google Drive is active but has not been syncing.

Been trying out chrome , but idk if it's better or worse...

On my 2010 MBP I never had to worry about anything consuming too much power...

What about the CPU tab ?

 

[badlydrawnboy]

13" TB lasting 3.5h > removed all contents from the following directories > reboot > now lasting 7.5-8.5h.

~/Library/Caches/*
~/Library/LaunchAgents/*

Only the usual suspects installed Skype, Chrome, Spotify, Evernote, Xcode, etc.

Has anyone else tried this?

Northrock, please report back in a couple of days and let us know if the improvement has persisted. I'm wary of doing it because I've tried all of the "solutions" in this thread, and while some of them have appeared to work (SMC reset), and others actually did work for a while (Sierra reinstall), none of them has actually solved the problem.

 

[mfarben]

Has anyone else tried this?

Northrock, please report back in a couple of days and let us know if the improvement has persisted. I'm wary of doing it because I've tried all of the "solutions" in this thread, and while some of them have appeared to work (SMC reset), and others actually did work for a while (Sierra reinstall), none of them has actually solved the problem.

I tried it, didn't work.

@Sohappy:

Here is it... nothing too special I think.

 

[dof250]

I found the issue with my 15". The Radeon Pro GPU stays activated even when the OS says its using the internal GPU. See screenshot. After disconnecting my HDMI monitor activity monitor says its using the integrated graphics again, but in iStat menu's you can clearly see the Radeon GPU still drawing almost 10watts.

 

[mfarben]

I found the issue with my 15". The Radeon Pro GPU stays activated even when the OS says its using the internal GPU. See screenshot. After disconnecting my HDMI monitor activity monitor says its using the integrated graphics again, but in iStat menu's you can clearly see the Radeon GPU still drawing almost 10watts.

Problem is... the 13 '' can't be explained that way...

 

[vinsalducci]

Like most here, I have been a little fixated on my battery life for my 13" tbMBP. Watching the % left, checking time left incessantly, monitoring iStat Mini every 10 minutes.

It's no way to live, people!

Spent my Sunday on the couch, watching EPL Soccer and then NFL games. Now, I unplugged my MBP at 6am yesterday morning. I was on and off my laptop all day, as is normal use for just about all of us.

With periodic sleeps and wakes, I was pleased to find that at 8PM last night, when I plugged it back in to the wall, I still had about 15% battery left. 14 hours of stop-and-go, sleep and wake use. A couple of Safari tabs, Twitter, iMessage, email and calendar.

I'm not sure I can really expect more than that. That's more than fine for battery life for my use.

So, no more staring at iStat Mini or Battery Logger and figuring out XX% means XX time left. I did download Coconut to check wattage use every now and again, but that's more to check to see if there is a hidden energy hog that spiked use.

I've even turned off % on the battery icon! Check me out! LOL

 

[badlydrawnboy]

Like most here, I have been a little fixated on my battery life for my 13" tbMBP. Watching the % left, checking time left incessantly, monitoring iStat Mini every 10 minutes.

It's no way to live, people!

Spent my Sunday on the couch, watching EPL Soccer and then NFL games. Now, I unplugged my MBP at 6am yesterday morning. I was on and off my laptop all day, as is normal use for just about all of us.

With periodic sleeps and wakes, I was pleased to find that at 8PM last night, when I plugged it back in to the wall, I still had about 15% battery left. 14 hours of stop-and-go, sleep and wake use. A couple of Safari tabs, Twitter, iMessage, email and calendar.

I'm not sure I can really expect more than that. That's more than fine for battery life for my use.

So, no more staring at iStat Mini or Battery Logger and figuring out XX% means XX time left. I did download Coconut to check wattage use every now and again, but that's more to check to see if there is a hidden energy hog that spiked use.

I've even turned off % on the battery icon! Check me out! LOL

This is fine for normal use when you're at home and can charge if necessary.

I travel a fair amount and what I need is a battery that can last for a cross-country flight, including the time I spend in the airport prior to the flight. So that's about 8 hours of use.

These days I can usually plug in at the airport if necessary, and often even on the flight, but there are those times when I can't.

 

[vinsalducci]

This is fine for normal use when you're at home and can charge if necessary.

I travel a fair amount and what I need is a battery that can last for a cross-country flight, including the time I spend in the airport prior to the flight. So that's about 8 hours of use.

These days I can usually plug in at the airport if necessary, and often even on the flight, but there are those times when I can't.

I travel for work a ton. 125k miles a year. Honestly, my old 12" rMB was fine for that. I was worried when I went from 2012 13" MBAir to a 2015 rMB. Never ran out of battery on a flight. Now, to be fair, I didn't use the MacBook for Gogo wifi, but I did a bunch of Keynote and Numbers work. I could do some fairly heavy lifting and still make it to our corporate offices in Irvine CA from Boston with a bunch of battery left.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[^_^]

After some further observation, i'm still guessing for a software / UEFI? bug, which causes the 960 to not properly turn off after it's been used. Even if i'm on the integrated, the 960 is taking 5 - 10 watts and thus pushing me in the 15 - 20 Watt region, which kills the battery.

NVRAM reset worked for like half an hour until i fired up a VMware Fusion box for a couple of minutes, the 960 is sucking power since then even when Activity Monitor reports the internal is being used. (Side note: The VM and Fusion are no longer running).

Did a SMC reset a couple of days back due to audio issues, so i guess that can be ruled out as well.

That's why i'm thinking, that the 960 is off until the system has to switch to it for the first time and then can't shut it down again.

Whenever you say "960", do you mean "460"? ._.

 

[b_scott]

This is fine for normal use when you're at home and can charge if necessary.

I travel a fair amount and what I need is a battery that can last for a cross-country flight, including the time I spend in the airport prior to the flight. So that's about 8 hours of use.

These days I can usually plug in at the airport if necessary, and often even on the flight, but there are those times when I can't.

Not that you SHOULD need this, but you may want to think about grabbing one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01G6SHOBC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I did, and it should add another whole charge to your MBP.

 

[thesaint024]

Like most here, I have been a little fixated on my battery life for my 13" tbMBP. Watching the % left, checking time left incessantly, monitoring iStat Mini every 10 minutes.

It's no way to live, people!

I'm there with you. I'm about to stop the monitoring as well. This is more than adequate for my needs and close enough to Apple claims. I am going to keep Coconut on my menu bar to keep an eye on any sudden spikes that need addressing. The dang quietness of the MBP makes this necessary. When my old MBP started sucking power, I could hear it. This one never makes a sound and will require me to look at watts out of the corner of my eye.