Battery life for 13" and 15" Macbook Pro

[marc55]

I really wanted the 13" TB, but I have read so many posts indicating anywhere between 3-5 hours of battery life, that I ended up ordering the NTB 13" yesterday.

That said, this guy indicates he's getting over 9 hours on his, so I'm wondering how many others are getting that kind of battery life out of the 13: TB MBP?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/real-mbp-review.2019699/

Thank you

 

[malikkamran]

I am getting 10 hours from 15 touch bar mbp

 

[JohnnyGo]

I really wanted the 13" TB, but I have read so many posts indicating anywhere between 3-5 hours of battery life, that I ended up ordering the NTB 13" yesterday.

That said, this guy indicates he's getting over 9 hours on his, so I'm wondering how many others are getting that kind of battery life out of the 13: TB MBP?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/real-mbp-review.2019699/

Thank you

Marc: you are right to be worried and it's difficult to follow all the talk over the last week or so.

My take on it is simple: different people are getting different results because of their individual software setup/configuration. Who knows what works or not with these new MBPs + Sierra ? It certainly feels like Apple is to blame for not testing enough. But I'm sure whatever it is will get fixed over the next few weeks.

I will do a clean re-install and only transfer my files. I will run down the battery twice from full. And then I will report back what kind of battery I am getting.

The nonTB version is getting very good reviews in terms of battery life and performance. I went with the touchbar because I am planning to keep this baby for a long time and I fully expect developers (some already are) to take full advantage of this new input.

 

[Merlin_the_mog]

I'm sure that people's battery life woes are happening for all kinds of reasons, but I managed to get to the bottom of my own particular problem and I thought I'd post this in case it helps anyone else out.
I was getting poor battery life on my 15" 2016 and the general battery usage seemed to be all over the place with high wattage being shown by coconut battery (12-15W just browsing). I spent some time diagnosing the issue, and I could see that sometimes the secd process was using quite a bit of CPU when my MacBook was otherwise idle.

This thread helped me out:
https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/54gpmo/process_secd_always_at_95100_cpu_usage_sierra/

I checked, and even though I'd enabled iCloud when I first setup my MacBook, I found that in iCloud settings, Keychain wasn't selected. I enabled Keychain, and now the secd process no longer has a high CPU usage, and I'm getting much improved and more consistent battery life with the same usage and setting (Coconut battery now showing 5-9W).

Probably a different issue to most people on here, but having made this change, I'm now happy with the battery life I'm seeing, so I hope this helps someone.

 

[jackoatmon]

My question is: is the battery life worse or is the monitoring messed up?

I haven't run my battery down yet so I have no idea, but as soon as I unplug it the "charge remaining" estimate reads like 3 hours with no programs running and screen at 75%. There's no way that's right (I hope!)

And, it will go down to like 80% remaining in just 1/2 hour, but then when I plug it back in it's back at 100% in like 4-5 minutes, even though it guessed "38 minutes till fully charged"

 

[marc55]

Marc: you are right to be worried and it's difficult to follow all the talk over the last week or so.

My take on it is simple: different people are getting different results because of their individual software setup/configuration. Who knows what works or not with these new MBPs + Sierra ? It certainly feels like Apple is to blame for not testing enough. But I'm sure whatever it is will get fixed over the next few weeks.

I will do a clean re-install and only transfer my files. I will run down the battery twice from full. And then I will report back what kind of battery I am getting.

The nonTB version is getting very good reviews in terms of battery life and performance. I went with the touchbar because I am planning to keep this baby for a long time and I fully expect developers (some already are) to take full advantage of this new input.

Good insight.

I just cancelled my order for the 13" NTB, and will wait a few weeks or so to see how this all flushes out.

Even though Apple claims 10 hours, I could live with 8-9, but I'm not going to dump my hard earned $$ into something that only gets 6 hours.

If I don't see these numbers climb for the 13" TB, I'll just reorder the 13" NTB.

I can't remember this much discussion over battery life on previous releases; the numbers are all over the place!

 

[mfarben]

So another try with a full load.
Just browsing and it's showing 8,5h , which would be okay for me. About 60% Brightness.

Clean install without migration, Sierra fresh install, Rest NVRAM&SMC - 13'' i7 16 512

Let's see how it goes... it really seems now to be a software thing.

 

[arjunchawda]

Ok, so..

I've been watching this thread from the beginning. As have I also been reading a lot on this forum about the new MacBook pro's since announcement. I think it's time for me to chip in now! As I have some useful info for you.

I have one of the 15" touchbar models. 2.9GHz, 16GB, 1TB, 460 PRO.

I've had it since the the 26th November. I first restored a time machine backup from my previous MacBook Pro on to this.

Bad idea. Lots of software broken, glitches, etc.

So, I then reinstalled Sierra clean.

Much better. However, still quoted 3 hours battery life after a clean install. Horrible battery life..

Opened a support case this morning, without any useful help. Considering even returning!

Came across that suggestion a few posts back, to delete files from the Library/Cache + Library/LaunchAgents folders.

Immediately, my battery life estimate jumped up to to 7 hours. (89% battery)

Restarted my machine, it jumped up to 10hour 52mins (89% battery)

Very relieved to see this is a software bug. Screen brightness at full. Light usage.

 

[jackoatmon]

Came across that suggestion a few posts back, to delete files from the Library/Cache + Library/LaunchAgents folders.

Sorry, what's the suggestion? Delete all the files in those folders?

 

[malikkamran]

Ok, so..

I've been watching this thread from the beginning. As have I also been reading a lot on this forum about the new MacBook pro's since announcement. I think it's time for me to chip in now! As I have some useful info for you.

I have one of the 15" touchbar models. 2.9GHz, 16GB, 1TB, 460 PRO.

I've had it since the the 26th November. I first restored a time machine backup from my previous MacBook Pro on to this.

Bad idea. Lots of software broken, glitches, etc.

So, I then reinstalled Sierra clean.

Much better. However, still quoted 3 hours battery life after a clean install. Horrible battery life..

Opened a support case this morning, without any useful help. Considering even returning!

Came across that suggestion a few posts back, to delete files from the Library/Cache + Library/LaunchAgents folders.

Immediately, my battery life estimate jumped up to to 7 hours. (89% battery)

Restarted my machine, it jumped up to 10hour 52mins (89% battery)

Very relieved to see this is a software bug. Screen brightness at full. Light usage.

I deleted these files still showing 3 hours remaining

 

[Epicberry]

I'm getting 8-9 hours. Full safari browsing, multiple tabs, youtube, itunes and spotify streaming over bluetooth. Emails and messing around with the system.

I think the first few days I definitely had less battery life but i'm seeing an improvement now. Hopefully it gets even better with apple updates. My coconut battery says 5-6W usage last night. I don't have any services turned off, and I have everything on auto brightness.

I really wanted the 13" TB, but I have read so many posts indicating anywhere between 3-5 hours of battery life, that I ended up ordering the NTB 13" yesterday.

That said, this guy indicates he's getting over 9 hours on his, so I'm wondering how many others are getting that kind of battery life out of the 13: TB MBP?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/real-mbp-review.2019699/

Thank you

 

[thesaint024]

I deleted these files still showing 3 hours remaining

Getting confused by your posts now. Are you good now with the battery? Or still having issues? I was about to congratulate you for your last post, then I saw this one.

 

[Nar1117]

I am also seeing better battery estimates after about a week with the machine (15"/2.7/1TB/460). Coconut tells me between 4-10W average, and a big eye-opener for me was switching off of using Chrome and giving safari a shot. Chrome is a HUGE battery hog.

Also, saw a weird problem this morning when the system was reporting constant use of the 460 GFX card even with only one or two apps open (safari and maybe Spotify). Closed the lid, let it sleep for a minute, woke it up, still using the 460. Closed all the apps, waited, still using it. It wouldn't shut the 460 off and revert back to the integrated until I restarted and now it's back to integrated. On the plus side, I'm on track for easily 8 hours of use (down to 46% with an estimated 3:45 left) - light use, mostly safari with a few tabs, Spotify, Pages, activity monitor, brightness at ~75%.

 

[marc55]

I'm getting 8-9 hours. Full safari browsing, multiple tabs, youtube, itunes and spotify streaming over bluetooth. Emails and messing around with the system.

I think the first few days I definitely had less battery life but i'm seeing an improvement now. Hopefully it gets even better with apple updates. My coconut battery says 5-6W usage last night. I don't have any services turned off, and I have everything on auto brightness.

What model do you have?

 

[Epicberry]

What model do you have?

13 TB 8/256 gb.

 

[joejoejoe]

13 TB

50% with 2.25 hours left on charge

I'm running Chrome (only have gmail, calendar, a gdoc, and this forum open), messages and slack.

This is absurd.

 

[Nar1117]

13 TB

50% with 2.25 hours left on charge

I'm running Chrome (only have gmail, calendar, a gdoc, and this forum open), messages and slack.

This is absurd.

You should really try switching to Safari for a day, just to see. For me, Chrome was a huge suck and my battery performance is 50-60% better without using chrome.

 

[Toadsfather]

I am returning my 13 TB I waited so long for (ordered 27 Oct, delivered Nov 22). The battery life is just not acceptable. Today, I used it from 76% at 08:30 to 0% (ran out on me on train home) at 16:37. I ran through the system logs, I had 9 sessions of use lasting on average 34 minutes. Total time to deplete 76% was 5.11hrs.

That wouldn't be so bad if I was absolutely hammering it. But I was surfing, a few emails, and Citrix Receiver to work. No development, no movie making, no photo editing, and I was constantly checking energy impact of the apps I was using.

UPS is collecting it on Wednesday. At a price of £2500 to be honest, I feel I've been mugged. It's just not good enough for the price.

 

[coolbreeze]

After my 3rd charge on my base MBP (13") I'm at 92% with 8:24 remaining.

Using Chrome. I'm starting to think the hysteria is from people encoding huge 4k videos on battery and wondering why it lasts like 2 hrs. I don't know what they expect would happen in that scenario.

All good here, YMMV.

 

[Marshall73]

Getting between 7 and 8 hours now on my 2016 15" TB. The following is what I run on an average day.

Mail and Outlook 2016
Splashtop business for remote support
Skype for Business
VMware windows 10 maybe 45 mins to an hour of use for remote support.
Safari (with ad blocker, no flash)
Photoshop (not much, maybe 30 mins
Messages
On 5ghz wifi the whole time, brightness at 50% ish(may vary as it's set to auto adjust)

With the same workload I would get 4.5 to 6 hours on my 2012 non retina 15"

 

[Nik]

After my 3rd charge on my base MBP (13") I'm at 92% with 8:24 remaining.

Using Chrome. I'm starting to think the hysteria is from people encoding huge 4k videos on battery and wondering why it lasts like 2 hrs. I don't know what they expect would happen in that scenario.

All good here, YMMV.

Then you just dont know what the problem is.

 

[PyBeck]

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

sorry, yes, fixed it above and no idea how i came to 960

 

[coolbreeze]

Then you just dont know what the problem is.

Oh I get it. I was part of the initial hysteria. Things have actually improved after I installed Chrome.

10 hours is marketing. As long as I can use it 5-7 hrs between charges, I'm good. That's what's happening here. Forgive me if I've missed something.

 

[bizack]

So after getting tired of hearing 'you must be using Chrome' or 'you must be exporting 4k videos' or 'you must be using an external display' I thought I share a screenshot of my battery life. This is my expected life at idle, after letting it sit long enough to calculate a reasonable estimate (which falls in line with what I've been seeing with actual usage). There's simply no way this computer can get 'up to' or 'close to' 10 hours of battery life. Also, my display is set at 75% and has been powered on all day. 13" MBP TB 16GB/512GB/Core i7

 

[liyonphoto]

So after getting tired of hearing 'you must be using Chrome' or 'you must be exporting 4k videos' or 'you must be using an external display' I thought I share a screenshot of my battery life. This is my expected life at idle, after letting it sit long enough to calculate a reasonable estimate (which falls in line with what I've been seeing with actual usage). There's simply no way this computer can get 'up to' or 'close to' 10 hours of battery life. Also, my display is set at 75% and has been powered on all day. 13" MBP TB 16GB/512GB/Core i7

Can we rely on the Energy Impact Data? That would be good news for me if we can...
13" MBP TB 16GB/256GB