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Battery life for 13" and 15" Macbook Pro
- Thread starter fokmik
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Regarding #3, Apple has recommended turning off wifi with previous reports of poor battery life. The problem is, I use my laptop for work and it has to be connected to wifi for email. I'm not streaming movies, etc, just doing regular typing and yet the battery lasts a little more than three hours. Another thing I notices is that the battery drains a lot when it's in sleep mode. My old MacBook Air's battery hardly drains at all when it's sleeping.
I got over six hours life on the Windows laptop I tested for a few days last month. Apple needs to step up to the plate on this issue.
Just returned my tbMBP 13". I have NEVER in over 15 years of owning and using Macs returned one. But between the really poor battery life and the constant freezes I just couldn't take it anymore. The machine was $3000, and it did not feel like a $3000 upgrade from my 2013 rMBP which has had ZERO issues since day one (possibly the best Mac I have ever owned actually).
Gonna give it until rev 2 to see what Apple does. There have been way too many problems, and it isn't worth the effort. I use mine for work purposes and it wasn't making the cut.
It's honestly very upsetting. I know the Mac isn't completely being dumped by Apple, but the lack of focus and clarity on the line is really sad. That Mark Gurman article sounds 100% accurate. Part of me returning this machine was to send a message to Apple.
If Apple dumps the Mac I will dump Apple. I love the iPhone and iPad, but its the Mac that keeps me with Apple. It's people like myself and many on here that sold our relatives and friends on Apple, and if they abandon us the rest of the company will slowly erode.
I will wait a year and see what happens. This feels like the iPhone 4 Antenna issue that magically had a new design and was fixed with the iPhone 4s without Apple saying it was ever a full blown problem.
Gonna give it until rev 2 to see what Apple does. There have been way too many problems, and it isn't worth the effort. I use mine for work purposes and it wasn't making the cut.
It's honestly very upsetting. I know the Mac isn't completely being dumped by Apple, but the lack of focus and clarity on the line is really sad. That Mark Gurman article sounds 100% accurate. Part of me returning this machine was to send a message to Apple.
If Apple dumps the Mac I will dump Apple. I love the iPhone and iPad, but its the Mac that keeps me with Apple. It's people like myself and many on here that sold our relatives and friends on Apple, and if they abandon us the rest of the company will slowly erode.
I will wait a year and see what happens. This feels like the iPhone 4 Antenna issue that magically had a new design and was fixed with the iPhone 4s without Apple saying it was ever a full blown problem.
Since last Thursday, I've had my new 2016 MBP 15". It really is a great looking and well engineered machine. I like that it is thinner and lighter than my 2014 MBP 15". The screen is superb. The speakers sound much better. I like the Touch Bar and I love the Touch ID. It saves much time typing in passwords. I'm good with the 4 USB-C TB ports. No big deal there. And this computer is fast and powerful enough for my needs which include programming. It is superior to my 2014 MBP so I would hate to return it. However, that brings me to the topic of battery life.
I created my own version of the CR battery test. They loaded 10 websites so I used Apple's Automator utility to create an automated app (named CR Battery Test) to do the same thing automatically until a fully charged battery died. I used Battery Logger to keep track of the time. Also, my screen was at 75%, screen saver disabled and mob WiFi was used to get the webpages via the Internet. My initial test lasted 3 hrs and 40 mins before the battery died. However, I realized the Automator app was loading webpages as quickly as a computer would but not as a human would. Thus, the Automator app was constantly taxing the CPU nonstop and that quickly led to battery drain.
For the next test, I revised the Automator app to rest 100 seconds before reloading the 10 webpages. The 100 seconds is my arbitrary assumption that an actual person (instead of a computer) might need 10 seconds per each of the 10 webpages in order to load and review each page before proceeding to load another webpage. Thus, my second test resulted in 7hrs and 2 mins. I'm going to do more tests to determine if the battery life results are consistent or can be improved. Hopefully, they will be.
Automator is a wonderful tool. I'm using it now to help me test out the battery life of my new 2016 MBP but it can be used to automate many things on a Mac. I didn't know how to use it prior to this testing. But it was easy enough to figure out since I was familiar with programming and Excel macros. Below are screenshots of the Automator app that I created. Please feel free to use and/or expand upon it for your own testing needs.
I created my own version of the CR battery test. They loaded 10 websites so I used Apple's Automator utility to create an automated app (named CR Battery Test) to do the same thing automatically until a fully charged battery died. I used Battery Logger to keep track of the time. Also, my screen was at 75%, screen saver disabled and mob WiFi was used to get the webpages via the Internet. My initial test lasted 3 hrs and 40 mins before the battery died. However, I realized the Automator app was loading webpages as quickly as a computer would but not as a human would. Thus, the Automator app was constantly taxing the CPU nonstop and that quickly led to battery drain.
For the next test, I revised the Automator app to rest 100 seconds before reloading the 10 webpages. The 100 seconds is my arbitrary assumption that an actual person (instead of a computer) might need 10 seconds per each of the 10 webpages in order to load and review each page before proceeding to load another webpage. Thus, my second test resulted in 7hrs and 2 mins. I'm going to do more tests to determine if the battery life results are consistent or can be improved. Hopefully, they will be.
Automator is a wonderful tool. I'm using it now to help me test out the battery life of my new 2016 MBP but it can be used to automate many things on a Mac. I didn't know how to use it prior to this testing. But it was easy enough to figure out since I was familiar with programming and Excel macros. Below are screenshots of the Automator app that I created. Please feel free to use and/or expand upon it for your own testing needs.
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Did your test fool the system into believing a keystroke was periodically hit? IMHO these automated tests are now unsuitable as in the real world a user would be using the keyboard and therefore the OLED touch bar would be constantly on (and possibly the backlit keyboard).
Again, I was trying to simulate the CR test of loading the 10 webpages. The test that they used made no mention of periodically pressing the keyboard or Touch Bar. But I don't think either would have significantly affected the battery life testing I did. However, I suppose I could do something to periodically keep the keyboard and Touch Bar automatically lit up as well.
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I suspect that some people may have gotten duds (an MBP with actually defective batteries). You might have gotten one. Apple's MacOs and software fixes wouldn't correct a dud. Apple won't admit there were a good percentage of duds inadvertently shipped because it makes them look bad. But since they think they caught that issue early enough, they ask customers to contact Customer Support directly. This is so they can quietly check the MBP snd simply replace the dud with another unit. Hey it happens.
So if you got stuck with a dud then contact Apple and ask them to give you a replacement otherwise you will return it. Alternatively, you can simply return it for a refund and reorder a new one.
Btw, my battery life is not great but decent. I can live with the 7 to 8 hours that I'm getting. Besides, I plan to use it at home most of the time plugged into AC power. In fact, plugged into the LG Ultrafine 27" monitor.
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It's updated, everything's updated. I even cleaned my daemon folder so no unnecessary processes are running.
How do I find out if I have a dud? Can I run some sort of diagnostics?
I bought this as BestBuy. I'm assuming I can't go to Apple to change it, can I?
I'd really prefer not to change it btw. These MacBooks are driving me nuts.
My first nTB was defective, kept freezing. Exchanged it for another one. Then after using it for 2 weeks, I realized I regretted not getting the TB one so I swapped it. Moral of the story: I'm kinda done with the re-installing all the time haha.
How can I find out if I have a dud?
I got mine on Thursday. It already had the latest Apple MacOS on it. I didn't need to reinstall or do any of this nonsense that I've read. While plugged in, I simply used Migration Assistant to move over my old settings, software and data from my older 2014 MBP. Then I let any iCloud copying, indexing, initial Time Machine backup, etc. complete overnight. After that, I was good to go.
Doesn't Best Buy have a return policy? If not then try contacting Apple. With all that is recently going on with Apple's reported battery issues, if you report your issue to Apple now then they would check and evaluate it for you. If they determine it to be problematic then they will probably give you a replacement model that doesn't continue to exhibit the inconsistent or bad battery behavior you're currently getting. But hopefully any replacement they might give you does not turn out to be problematic as well.
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I thought that nTB had better battery life compared to TB, no? I was actually considering returning my 15" TB for 13 nTB due to piss poor battery life I am getting on 15"
At first I thought it was, and it defiantly is better than the TB because you have less stuff draining the battery, but the battery problems seem to be pretty much a build thing.. I think the people with the nTB are getting about 5 to 7 hours, and that seems to be what you can get, but 10 hours is impossible and with the nTB, and the TB seems even less time. If I'm getting 5 hours max with a nTB, I can't image what the TB people are getting... I think the batteries are the same in nTB and TB, just less stuff to drain them on the nTb. I also have a feeling Apple knows its a problem and won't acknowledge it publicly. They are beautiful machines.. just beautiful.. but I feel like I'm getting burned by Apple, and thats not a good thing for such and luxurious item that advertises 10 hours of battery life.. 10 hours!!
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I am getting 4 hours just browsing the web at 70% brightness. Oh sorry I meant you said 2016.
on 2015 I used to get solid 10 hours
Also I do know that 16bg of RAM and different builds drain the battery differently. I think apple has a pretty Trim build they use to show how great the battery is. Maybe a 13" i5 with 8gb of Ram and 128gb ssd. Who knows, but my battery life is pretty bad with i5 16GB RAM and 512ssd.
I have the 15 inch with touch bar. A few days ago I used to easily get 9-10 hours of productivity usage. Now, the power usage (according to Battery Health 2) is close to 10 Watts at all times and my battery life is absolutely terrible. Now Im sitting awn 5-6 hours of productivity usage.
I have tried rebooting the device, I've done a fresh reinstall of Mac OS, I've also done an SMC reset with no noticeable increases in battery life.
I have not downloaded many apps so its kind of odd to see the battery performance drop so severely. I have a few more days to return the device, so if I cannot solve the issue, I will return it.
IF anyone does have any suggestions to improve the battery life please do let me know.
I have tried rebooting the device, I've done a fresh reinstall of Mac OS, I've also done an SMC reset with no noticeable increases in battery life.
I have not downloaded many apps so its kind of odd to see the battery performance drop so severely. I have a few more days to return the device, so if I cannot solve the issue, I will return it.
IF anyone does have any suggestions to improve the battery life please do let me know.
I don't want this to seem like I'm questioning your estimates, but I have to ask - are you sure you got 9-10 hours and then 5-6 hours for the same kind of usage? Or is that just your impression without measurements?
If there really is an objective change, did you try a clean reinstall of macOS, or just choosing the reinstall option? In other words, did you erase (format) the drive?
I would try to do a full, clean install from the USB flash drive, with a full wipe of the disk. Then see if you're having the same issues. I don't know if that will help, but a regular reinstall might have kept whatever was the cause of the issue.
nTB has a bigger battery. I get around 10 hours with light stuff (safari). Probably like 6 if using Chrome etc.
your lucky, I have a clean install, only using Safari.. I have never gotten 10 hours. Whats your build? do you only have 8gb of Ram?
Use Apple's Activity Monitor to see what apps may have been using much energy over the last 8 or more hrs. There may have been something going at some periods that expended much energy. Tools like Battery Health 2 and Coconut Battery will show you the watts currently in use but that is after the offending app(s) may have drained much of your battery already.
For example, I needed to disable Power Nap and Time Machine when I'm on battery because they were both happily using it up. Be careful of any utility that you think is harmlessly running in the background. Like they say, you need to watch the quiet ones. Even downloads and Bluetooth music playing can drain valuable battery life.
Also, before just returning the MBP, go to Apple and let them take a look. If you don't like what they say then you can return it right then and there.
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So B&H have the base model nTB for $1350...had Best Buy price match this morning and I figured I would try it out. Completely different specs than my tbMPB maxed out model, but I decided to go a stop gap route on this machine until I can see what Apple does about the battery issues.
The machine was just set up this morning, and already I can tell the battery life is significantly better. Definitely missing Touch ID more than I thought I would and also missing the Touch Bar as well.
But I think this machine is overall a step up from my 2013 rMBP (I know its more like a rMBA), so I might hang onto it for a year and then sell it if Apple gets this act together. We shall see.
The machine was just set up this morning, and already I can tell the battery life is significantly better. Definitely missing Touch ID more than I thought I would and also missing the Touch Bar as well.
But I think this machine is overall a step up from my 2013 rMBP (I know its more like a rMBA), so I might hang onto it for a year and then sell it if Apple gets this act together. We shall see.
