Battery life for 13" and 15" Macbook Pro

[thesaint024]

I wonder what they did in the update to make the battery life better.

Here is what Ars Technica wrote:

"Anecdotal reports since the 10.12.2 update hit have suggested that the update could improve battery life, but I don’t think this is the case—Apple told us repeatedly and emphatically that it had taken no specific steps to improve MacBook Pro battery life in this update. According to Apple’s data, the company said the batteries appeared to be performing as intended.


So it seems to me that the only solution they did was remove the time remaining. So was it indeed a placebo effect? Because if true, I think we are a bunch of sheep here.

Reading the Ars article makes me more convinced that they just put a smaller battery that is why it is not getting to the number of hours they promised. Perhaps the quicker boost and idling on the new processors makes the laptop more efficient, but if you are doing anything that will hit the fan constantly, it will fare worse than the older MBPs. Which means for "Pros", sustained use that will push the processor will result to less battery life than its predecessors.

I think for everyone's sanity, we should just use the laptop and just do not worry about battery life. When the battery icon turns red, then just plug it in. After all these new MBPs have quicker charging. So overall you will feel that you have more battery life.

Ideally if you use your MBP all in the morning, then charge your laptop during your lunch time, you will have more than enough juice to last you till you sleep. Still not quite the all-day battery life but good enough. Then in a couple of years better power banks will be available for these since they are USB-C.

Even though Apple may have not wrote specific code to improve battery life, simply cutting off unnecessary high draw processes WILL improve battery life. I've been tinkering around with mine since I've had it, and I agree that things like fresh installs, OS re-installs, and adblockers can make a huge difference in battery life. That is not exactly coding anything for enhanced battery life, only making the system run more efficiently by not having unnecessary processes running. If Apple gets up to 10 hours on their tests, I imagine it's not a test machine that is bogged down by lots of older programs or processes carried over from data migration. I can't definitively prove this, I'm only going by those who have improved battery life. It's actually easy to see with the watts rating in real time. On my 13", using 4-6 watts will get me my 10 hours. When I do certain activities, I can see my watts spike. I can comfortably use my MBP knowing how long it's going to last.

There is almost too much backlash these days with accusations of isheep, etc. Real usage testing is hard to dispute. I can get 10 hours whenever I want. When I get less, I know exactly why based on the watts of whatever new variable I'm throwing in the equation. But it seems that I am an isheep because I can actually verify battery life in my normal workflow. People need to just take this for what it is, a variable battery life machine where YMMV.
[doublepost=1481907905][/doublepost]

I think the point is that even if you recreate the test environment Apple used, it's still not possible to achieve 10 hours. 9to5 tested with even more conservative settings and didn't reach 10 hours. I'm confused as to why so many people apologize for Apple - it's strange and bizarre.

Apologize? My usage is real. I don't stream continuous video. I don't replicate exactly what they used. I can get 10 hours. I'm not making a fanboy argument. This is in line with my expectations. I've been using PC laptops for most of my adult life, in addition to a couple Macs. PC battery life is always very overstated. Relative to them, Apple's estimates are actually closer to their claims. Maybe everyone else is used to Apple blowing estimates out of the water. I have expectations in line with all laptops I've used. These claims are relatively close. What I don't understand is all of the negativity. What have I missed being on the outskirts of the Mac world the last few years. What is wrong with all you people? Go get laid or something.

 

[Woodcrest64]

Even though Apple may have not wrote specific code to improve battery life, simply cutting off unnecessary high draw processes WILL improve battery life. I've been tinkering around with mine since I've had it, and I agree that things like fresh installs, OS re-installs, and adblockers can make a huge difference in battery life. That is not exactly coding anything for enhanced battery life, only making the system run more efficiently by not having unnecessary processes running. If Apple gets up to 10 hours on their tests, I imagine it's not a test machine that is bogged down by lots of older programs or processes carried over from data migration. I can't definitively prove this, I'm only going by those who have improved battery life. It's actually easy to see with the watts rating in real time. On my 13", using 4-6 watts will get me my 10 hours. When I do certain activities, I can see my watts spike. I can comfortably use my MBP knowing how long it's going to last.

There is almost too much backlash these days with accusations of isheep, etc. Real usage testing is hard to dispute. I can get 10 hours whenever I want. When I get less, I know exactly why based on the watts of whatever new variable I'm throwing in the equation. But it seems that I am an isheep because I can actually verify battery life in my normal workflow. People need to just take this for what it is, a variable battery life machine where YMMV.
[doublepost=1481907905][/doublepost]
Apologize? My usage is real. I don't stream continuous video. I don't replicate exactly what they used. I can get 10 hours. I'm not making a fanboy argument. This is in line with my expectations. I've been using PC laptops for most of my adult life, in addition to a couple Macs. PC battery life is always very overstated. Relative to them, Apple's estimates are actually closer to their claims. Maybe everyone else is used to Apple blowing estimates out of the water. I have expectations in line with all laptops I've used. These claims are relatively close. What I don't understand is all of the negativity. What have I missed being on the outskirts of the Mac world the last few years. What is wrong with all you people? Go get laid or something.

The 13" touch bar MacBook Pro didn't lose as much of the physical battery as did the 15" model compared to the previous generation.

So getting 10 hours on the 13" is highly more likely compared to the 15". The 15" lost approximately 20% of the battery size which is quite a bit and even with all the power saving features in these new machines the majority of users with the 15" model can't achieve the 10 hour holy grail.

My point is for Apple to advertise the 13" with up to 10 hours and the 15" model between 7-8 hours. Like I've said in previous post it will get better with each new release of this design with newer power efficient parts in the future.

 

[Saturn1217]

Hey! I quite like the sound of this app, but there aren't any reviews on the App Store. Is the dev trustworthy?

I guess I don't worry too much about trustworthiness when apps are coming from the App Store. Apple has those apps locked down pretty well. I can say that I am the type of person who monitors individual processes (via activity monitor etc.) and I've never seen this app misbehaving in the 3 years I've used it.

 

[thesaint024]

The 13" touch bar MacBook Pro didn't lose as much of the physical battery as did the 15" model compared to the previous generation.

So getting 10 hours on the 13" is highly more likely compared to the 15". The 15" lost approximately 20% of the battery size which is quite a bit and even with all the power saving features in these new machines the majority of users with the 15" model can't achieve the 10 hour holy grail.

My point is for Apple to advertise the 13" with up to 10 hours and the 15" model between 7-8 hours. Like I've said in previous post it will get better with each new release of this design with newer power efficient parts in the future.

I cannot disagree with you. Unlike some people, I don't comment too much on the 15" because I don't have one and haven't put it through it's paces. I've only read specific cases on the forum. There are some vocal 15" owners that stand by the battery life, but again, not my place to comment. The 15" does have the added complication of the power hungry dgpu. If that thing turns on for things like browsing or MS Word, that's a needed software fix.

 

[RobinInOR]

I guess I don't worry too much about trustworthiness when apps are coming from the App Store. Apple has those apps locked down pretty well. I can say that I am the type of person who monitors individual processes (via activity monitor etc.) and I've never seen this app misbehaving in the 3 years I've used it.

I took your recommendation and bought the app - I like it! Doesn't have all the info that's on coconut or battery health (I have those two), but now I have something that counts for me that auto stops and starts. Only think I'd like is a resizable window. Hmm, guess maybe I'll add a review

 

[bizack]

Even though Apple may have not wrote specific code to improve battery life, simply cutting off unnecessary high draw processes WILL improve battery life. I've been tinkering around with mine since I've had it, and I agree that things like fresh installs, OS re-installs, and adblockers can make a huge difference in battery life. That is not exactly coding anything for enhanced battery life, only making the system run more efficiently by not having unnecessary processes running. If Apple gets up to 10 hours on their tests, I imagine it's not a test machine that is bogged down by lots of older programs or processes carried over from data migration. I can't definitively prove this, I'm only going by those who have improved battery life. It's actually easy to see with the watts rating in real time. On my 13", using 4-6 watts will get me my 10 hours. When I do certain activities, I can see my watts spike. I can comfortably use my MBP knowing how long it's going to last.

There is almost too much backlash these days with accusations of isheep, etc. Real usage testing is hard to dispute. I can get 10 hours whenever I want. When I get less, I know exactly why based on the watts of whatever new variable I'm throwing in the equation. But it seems that I am an isheep because I can actually verify battery life in my normal workflow. People need to just take this for what it is, a variable battery life machine where YMMV.
[doublepost=1481907905][/doublepost]
Apologize? My usage is real. I don't stream continuous video. I don't replicate exactly what they used. I can get 10 hours. I'm not making a fanboy argument. This is in line with my expectations. I've been using PC laptops for most of my adult life, in addition to a couple Macs. PC battery life is always very overstated. Relative to them, Apple's estimates are actually closer to their claims. Maybe everyone else is used to Apple blowing estimates out of the water. I have expectations in line with all laptops I've used. These claims are relatively close. What I don't understand is all of the negativity. What have I missed being on the outskirts of the Mac world the last few years. What is wrong with all you people? Go get laid or something.

No.

 

[thesaint024]

No.

Can I write you off as a troll now? With that thorough and rational argument. Get over your misdirected negativity and find some happiness in your life.

 

[Leaf.]

Fallowing the update my battery life has improved but I'm ngl it's still pretty lame. Mines still only getting about 5 hours with you tube running music videos - and general web browsing

Has anyone noticed the with new beta Sierra 10.12.3 any improvements?

 

[poorcody]

So getting 10 hours on the 13" is highly more likely compared to the 15". The 15" lost approximately 20% of the battery size which is quite a bit and even with all the power saving features in these new machines the majority of users with the 15" model can't achieve the 10 hour holy grail.

My point is for Apple to advertise the 13" with up to 10 hours and the 15" model between 7-8 hours. Like I've said in previous post it will get better with each new release of this design with newer power efficient parts in the future.

There is no way to know what the majority of users are getting.

I've had my 15" for a few weeks now. Under heavy load of running Parallels with Visual Studio and such, I can get 7-8 hours typically. When I am doing writing with Scrivener, I regularly get over 12 hours. Your mileage is really going to vary with your usage.

Should Apple be saying 10 hours? It seems like a fair average based on my experience. But maybe they should say 7-12? Or 6-11? I think the single number average used to be more reasonable because there was less variability, but maybe that is not good enough anymore, if the CPU has evolved into the largest battery drain.

 

[bizack]

Can I write you off as a troll now? With that thorough and rational argument. Get over your misdirected negativity and find some happiness in your life.

Edit - deleted.

 

[Woodcrest64]

There is no way to know what the majority of users are getting.

I've had my 15" for a few weeks now. Under heavy load of running Parallels with Visual Studio and such, I can get 7-8 hours typically. When I am doing writing with Scrivener, I regularly get over 12 hours. Your mileage is really going to vary with your usage.

Should Apple be saying 10 hours? It seems like a fair average based on my experience. But maybe they should say 7-12? Or 6-11? I think the single number average used to be more reasonable because there was less variability, but maybe that is not good enough anymore, if the CPU has evolved into the largest battery drain.

What are you using to log your actual usage?

 

[poorcody]

What are you using to log your actual usage?

I use a menu bar timer -- a custom app I wrote to track time spent of various projects. It automatically turns off when I haven't done any user interaction for more than two minutes, so it tracks real usage time very well.

 

[Woodcrest64]

There is no way to know what the majority of users are getting.

I've had my 15" for a few weeks now. Under heavy load of running Parallels with Visual Studio and such, I can get 7-8 hours typically. When I am doing writing with Scrivener, I regularly get over 12 hours. Your mileage is really going to vary with your usage.

Should Apple be saying 10 hours? It seems like a fair average based on my experience. But maybe they should say 7-12? Or 6-11? I think the single number average used to be more reasonable because there was less variability, but maybe that is not good enough anymore, if the CPU has evolved into the largest battery drain.

You should have something like this from battery logger to indicate your actual usage. I don't think your 15" 2016 MacBook Pro will get you 10 hours of usage according to what Apple describes as their test method. If you do, please prove me wrong.

 

[poorcody]

You should have something like this from battery logger to indicate your actual usage. I don't think your 15" 2016 MacBook Pro will get you 10 hours of usage according to what Apple describes as their test method. If you do, please prove me wrong.

I do get that much time, I have experienced it multiple times. I run Coconut Battery and see my wattage routinely 5-8 watts, which on a ~75WHr battery, is consistent with my times.

I have no need to prove it to you. I am just offering my experience to the "data pool."

 

[b_scott]

so here's Apple's fix!

macOS Sierra 10.12.2 Removes 'Time Remaining' Battery Life Indicator

It was like this in the beta. Bugged the crap out of me.

 

[wmk]

I've been working with my late-2016 15-inch MBP for a week now; initial estimated battery life wasn't too long, as I expected, but once I migrated the data from my previous machine and it has been indexed by the search engine, after few cycles battery lifetime increased to 8 hours on average.

Today, for example, I woke up the laptop at 11 AM with the battery loaded at 100%; I kept it unplugged for the entire day, and plugged it back at 9 PM, at 1%.

-- there were only 2-3 short naps (display timeout set to 30 min.),
-- display brightness at 88% (2 bars left),
-- volume level 25%,
-- auto keyboard brightness, keyboard backlight timeout 1 min.,
-- announce alerts with high quality voice,
-- Wi-Fi on all the time,
-- VPN client online all the time,
-- chat client with awareness service for 6 hours, exchanging the data with the server constantly,
-- resource consuming Lotus Notes Client exchanging the data with the server frequently for 6 hours,
-- Mail running all the time with 4 accounts configured and auto sync on,
-- Terminal used few times and running all the time in the background,
-- Safari used frequently afternoon, 3-5 tabs, web browsing, some video, etc.

 

[BondFancy]

I am getting on my brand new MacBook Pro that I just opened today with MacOS 10.12.2 around 10 hours with brightness at 50%. No complaints at all here. However, I do have that minor manufacturing scratch under my right speaker. Fortunately, that has been my only issue thus far which I can put up with.

 

[scott_donald]

well i got mine finally on after owning it fro almost 4 weeks... 15 inch i set it up and played around on mains power for most of the day setting up all my wires to plug into it(HDDs, hubs) i unplugged the mains at midnight and left the computer asleep then and just lifted the screen 10 hours later and still at 100 percent battery...

After reading here for the last few weeks, when i got the computer i opened the screen held the power button and rebooted off the USB drive and reinstalled from scratch after a full reformat Sierra.2 and so far so good... typing this on chrome... 1 percent down in 20 minutes with chrome using significant battery at 75% brightness(expected from reading here)....

 

[HansDiag]

thinking about the recent car manufacturers tricks: Do you think we will see software throttling the cpu in real life usage and recognize benchmarking software to trigger max performance in tests? Basically VW the other way around.

 

[leman]

You should have something like this from battery logger to indicate your actual usage. I don't think your 15" 2016 MacBook Pro will get you 10 hours of usage according to what Apple describes as their test method. If you do, please prove me wrong.

Please refer to independent benchmarks performed by respectable sites such as arstechnica and notebook check, which all show that the 15" gets well above 10 hours on light usage tests.

 

[ascender]

Had some work to do tonight, mainly in Pages, Numbers, some MS Office, also had Mail running, iTunes playing music and some web browsing, the odd Youtube video (work avoidance). Three hours in and the battery is at 83% after being fully charged.

This is a 15" TB model with brightness at about 60% and 10.12.2.

 

[badlydrawnboy]

What confuses me is that there seems to be significant variation amongst users that are doing similar tasks and using similar apps. For example, @ascender just posted that he is still at 83% after 3 hours of using word processing/productivity apps, web browsing, and iTunes. At that rate, he would get 17 hours of battery life on a single charge. It's difficult for me to understand how that is even possible given the specs of this machine.

My typical open apps are Safari, sometimes Chrome, Polymail, Fantastical 2, Slack, Messages, 2Do, and Dropbox. I don't consider this heavy use, but in the one month that I've had this computer—and through Sierra reinstall, SMC resets, etc.—I've never gotten anywhere near that battery life.

This morning I did a completely fresh install of 10.2.2 final. I wanted to see if that would resolve the issue I was having where the battery would drain by 3-4% per hour of sleep. It did seem to solve that problem, and it may have also improved battery life during use. I've been on battery for 1:24 and I'm down to 86%, which would suggest 10 hours on this charge. However, I haven't had Chrome open at all and my usage has been lighter than normal.

Also, when I reinstalled Sierra earlier in my troubleshooting process that improved my battery for a few cycles, but then it went back to 6-6.5 hours. So it's too soon for me to celebrate this apparent increase, though I'm hopeful.

 

[Roller]

What confuses me is that there seems to be significant variation amongst users that are doing similar tasks and using similar apps. For example, @ascender just posted that he is still at 83% after 3 hours of using word processing/productivity apps, web browsing, and iTunes. At that rate, he would get 17 hours of battery life on a single charge. It's difficult for me to understand how that is even possible given the specs of this machine.

My typical open apps are Safari, sometimes Chrome, Polymail, Fantastical 2, Slack, Messages, 2Do, and Dropbox. I don't consider this heavy use, but in the one month that I've had this computer—and through Sierra reinstall, SMC resets, etc.—I've never gotten anywhere near that battery life.

This morning I did a completely fresh install of 10.2.2 final. I wanted to see if that would resolve the issue I was having where the battery would drain by 3-4% per hour of sleep. It did seem to solve that problem, and it may have also improved battery life during use. I've been on battery for 1:24 and I'm down to 86%, which would suggest 10 hours on this charge. However, I haven't had Chrome open at all and my usage has been lighter than normal.

Also, when I reinstalled Sierra earlier in my troubleshooting process that improved my battery for a few cycles, but then it went back to 6-6.5 hours. So it's too soon for me to celebrate this apparent increase, though I'm hopeful.

I don't think that it's that surprising. I suspect that very slight differences in software and usage can have a significant impact on battery life and that this is more prevalent than it used to be. Power draw can change minute by minute, which is why the 17 hour estimate you highlighted is meaningless. Some computers also may have hardware defects that lessen battery life compared to others, but they're probably in the minority.

The bottom line is that we should all just use our laptops to do whatever we have to do, see if we get enough hours out of a charge, and return or exchange the computer if not. Personally, I've decided that my 13" MBP will do the job because it lasts 9-10 hours doing my usually work. Sure, I'd like more stored energy as a cushion when I have to run apps like Skype that seem to use a lot of power, but it is what it is.

I hope this works out for you.

 

[badlydrawnboy]

I don't think that it's that surprising. I suspect that very slight differences in software and usage can have a significant impact on battery life and that this is more prevalent than it used to be. Power draw can change minute by minute, which is why the 17 hour estimate you highlighted is meaningless. Some computers also may have hardware defects that lessen battery life compared to others, but they're probably in the minority.

The bottom line is that we should all just use our laptops to do whatever we have to do, see if we get enough hours out of a charge, and return or exchange the computer if not. Personally, I've decided that my 13" MBP will do the job because it lasts 9-10 hours doing my usually work. Sure, I'd like more stored energy as a cushion when I have to run apps like Skype that seem to use a lot of power, but it is what it is.

I hope this works out for you.

Thanks. If I can get 8 hours I'll be happy. I'm willing to trade 1.5 hours of battery life (13" non TB) for the convenience of TouchID with 1Password.

 

[konnyaku]

I think the big issue is why the wattages spike on certain tasks (and why the wattages don't seem to come down after spikes). Certain sites (e.g. Google Maps, or even Youtube, or even some normal looking web pages with Flash ads) seem to double, sometimes triple the wattages -- and then the wattages stay high. I often have to put my computer to sleep then wake it back up in order to 'reset' the power usage to a low level.