On the 15" that will always be the case. When an external monitor is plugged in the dGPU kicks in no matter whats and will use about 7-9 watts extra when idle
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Battery life for 13" and 15" Macbook Pro
- Thread starter fokmik
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but in a 13.. I can't believe that with an external screen it doubles the power consumption on my case. even in the lower powered ports (the two from the right side) I think for me that is the real problem, the integrated graphics need optimization. with the monitor unplugged for 2 hours starting from 85% now I'm on 59% 5 hours left
with 5 safari tabs, mail, WhatsApp, iterm and Spotify.. and the screen at 90% brightness with a power consumption between 4 and 8. and with the monitor it was 11-14 with mbp brightness at 50%
Integrated Graphics also increase its consumption in RAM management and processor. Specially in i7.
It's better to get a USB-C display to work with.
Good for you. But note that this issue is NOT resolved for many people. When I receive my MBP, I will be on the lookout for it and checking specifically for that problem. It might be great otherwise but bad battery life is deal breaker for me. So if I should have a bad unit and the problem lingers for 14 days then that MBP is being packed up and sent back without hesitation.
I'm not paying Apple a lot of money for an MBP with issues from Day 1. I will neither stand for that nor jump through hoops. Others who have this lingering issue shouldn't either. I wonder if they know that Apple extended the return period for the holiday season until 1/8/16 if they received their 2016 MBPs between 11/10/16 and 12/25/16. So people should take advantage of the return period rather than let Apple take advantage of them.
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So now it's beginning to make me really mad....
Yesterday was good with light use from 9 am to 7 pm... today it is just rapidly declining ...
Installed beta 5 again ... and it's declining even faster
Used for only about an hour or 2 straight and it went down to 38 percent....
Does anyone know if 12-15 watts for just light browsing with safari is normal ?
Of course it makes sense that the battery won't last that long if you always have a drainage of that amount ...
Yesterday was good with light use from 9 am to 7 pm... today it is just rapidly declining ...
Installed beta 5 again ... and it's declining even faster
Used for only about an hour or 2 straight and it went down to 38 percent....
Does anyone know if 12-15 watts for just light browsing with safari is normal ?
Of course it makes sense that the battery won't last that long if you always have a drainage of that amount ...
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This is exactly my point. Certainly there are a couple people on the thread, like @tjleonard, that are getting consistently good battery life after a Sierra reinstall.
There are many more, like me, who've done these "fixes" and experienced a temporary improvement, but then seen that disappear over subsequent cycles.
I'm curious about the comment made on page 53 of the thread by someone that was told "off the record" by Apple Store staff that it's a hardware issue with a batch of these MBPs. If that's the case, it would explain why some people are seeing 9-10 hours of battery life, and others (like me) only 6-7 no matter what they do.
I see no reason not to wait until the final day of Apple's extended holiday return policy to see how this plays out. I don't feel any guilt over that; why should I? This is their problem, not mine. I've been a loyal Apple customer for 25 years. I've never even owned a PC or non-Apple smartphone.
I had made contact with a Senior Apple Advisor about 2 weeks ago, and she acknowledged that 6-6.5 hours of battery life is NOT acceptable or normal. I will try to get back in touch with her today and see what I can learn.
Not really as the notebook will never hit this time on battery, all Mac`s are the same, my 2015 rMB can indicate 14-16 hours, however it will be very lucky to 7 these days...
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When did you receive the MBP? It doesn't matter when you ordered, it matters when you received it:
100% correct, but be prepared to argue it: there is some inconsistency in Apple's systems. An item of mine that should be eligible to return until the 8th will not let me return online. You have to call up and explain.
I am seeing 8-9 hours as I sit in Dunkin Donuts surfing. Screen about 70%. Seems less than expected but not sure its worth returning it.
Just for reference: My MacBook Pro 13" from 2014 gets 14 Watts on light browsing. So 14 Watts is normal. Having bad batterylife on the new MacBook Pro at that wattage therefore is no issue of the power consumption levels but of the too small battery. I dont know why that is so hard to unterstand. 
Re-calibration and the other stuff resets the estimation calculation. You measured the new estimate immediately after the "calibration" and the power consumption at that time was extremely low (nothing running). Therefore you got a better estimation but no real batterylife gains. The average just got reset.
Re-calibration and the other stuff resets the estimation calculation. You measured the new estimate immediately after the "calibration" and the power consumption at that time was extremely low (nothing running). Therefore you got a better estimation but no real batterylife gains. The average just got reset.
I would make this point clear to Apple and request that you can retain your current Mac, they may agree, equally they may also want a holding fee, as in a second payment...
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Did that now , she requested a direct exchange with her superiors. let's see what they do.
Just for reference: My MacBook Pro 13" from 2014 gets 14 Watts on light browsing. So 14 Watts is normal. Having bad batterylife on the new MacBook Pro at that wattage therefore is no issue of the power consumption levels but of the too small battery. I dont know why that is so hard to unterstand.
Your MBP's battery is about 6200 mAh, mine is 4300 mAh, so of course it will run shorter with the same wattage.
If we assume that your MBP can squeeze out 10 hours of battery life , mine should perform for 7 hours. Which would totally be enough for me . But today I just had 3-4 hours.
So there definitely is a problem imho... I just don't know if its hardware or software.
I'm also exchanging mine, but the battey problems aren't the main concern right now for me. Yesterday afternoon my internet connection over WiFi dropped and the adapter turned off. Ever since that moment, I have been unable to turn on the wifi interface
Long story short, I bought another mbp temporarily and will return it once they send me a replacement BTO mbp. Spent about 3 hours in the Apple Store yesterday while I should've been at a conference.
I mean I literally got just over ten hours of battery yesterday on wifi so I can definitely see the other user getting 14 hours on airplane mode.
Your new MBP should run with less watts due to better CPU & screen both having big influence on overall power use. One of the reasons why Apple went with a smaller battery
That's what should have been ... I think there are just 2 scenarios:
1. Apple deliberately put a smaller battery inside because of design purposes and sacrificed longevity
2. It's a bug and no one at Apple knows whats going on.
I hope for the latter
This battery issue is a little complex; I don't doubt the notebook`s wont make Apple`s claimed runtimes, however circumstances will need to match Apple`s exactly. I seriously doubt that there is a mass hardware issue, more that Apple plans to further optimise Sierra to reduce power drain. Reducing battery capacity by 34% & 25% is big numbers and a lot to recoup, bigger issue is that many will still resent the depreciation in battery capacity even if Apple get the runtime up with SW optimisation.
There is also a lot of conflicting reporting 3 hours all the way to 10 hours which clouds matters. Much will depend on the usage Skylake CPU`s are more efficient, however more so at rest, one you start using the CPU you now have a smaller pool of energy to dip into. This is why we are seeing very differing runtimes being reported, which is the same as many of us have observed with the Retina MacBook, as once the CPU starts "Boosting" frequency it`s draws a lot more power.
Apple was clearly more conservative with it`s battery runtime estimations with previously models of the MBP, not so much in 2016 methinks. It`s also worth considering that Apple has a longterm game plan and no doubt plans to reduce the hardware drain in the next couple of years as Intel`s hardware advances.
My own summary is that this typical for a Gen 1 MBP, I think it`s safe to state that the battery life has been compromised to some extents as it`s now been commented on by numerous professional reviewers who for the most part are unbiased. Reality is Apple will continue to optimise Sierra, and hardware will be updated on Gen 2 in 2017/2018.
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