Battery life for 13" and 15" Macbook Pro

[Scott G.]

13" tbMBP here: after installing 10.2.3 beta 2 today, battery life seems to have changed dramatically for me.
Before, I couldn't get an estimate above 4 hours while on 50% brightness, 2 tabs in safari no other tasks at all.
Now, however, I´m on 53% battery left, after 4:20h of light to medium usage. (brightness 50%, keyboard backlight low, constant browsing in safari with around 5 tabs, 25min youtube videos, 15 minutes Ableton live)
Remaining time estimate in activity monitor: 4:51 hours (has been 17 hours for a short time )

I'm not sure about the accuracy of these numbers, but I feel kind of relieved.

What processor did you go with?

 

[DB4AW]

13" tbMBP here: after installing 10.2.3 beta 2 today, battery life seems to have changed dramatically for me.
Before, I couldn't get an estimate above 4 hours while on 50% brightness, 2 tabs in safari no other tasks at all.
Now, however, I´m on 53% battery left, after 4:20h of light to medium usage. (brightness 50%, keyboard backlight low, constant browsing in safari with around 5 tabs, 25min youtube videos, 15 minutes Ableton live)
Remaining time estimate in activity monitor: 4:51 hours (has been 17 hours for a short time )

I'm not sure about the accuracy of these numbers, but I feel kind of relieved.

I hope this is true. It is confirming my suspicions that Apple needs to deliver software updates to probably fix the switchover handling occurring between integrated and discrete graphics. But I wish Apple would just admit that to reassure customers. Some buyers might be less willing to return their 2016 MBPs if they knew Apple was actively working on addressing remaining battery life issues via upcoming software updates. As far as I'm concerned, it is only the reported battery life issues that really plague the debut of the 2016 MBPs.
[doublepost=1482876464][/doublepost]This is interesting. It is an article explaining the dedicated chip inside a MBP that keeps track of the energy used by the battery:
MacBook Battery Time Remaining (Electronics) — Kaspars Dambis - kaspars.net
https://kaspars.net/blog/electronics/macbook-battery-remaining

 

[malikkamran]

For me Facebook is the real battery killer if I browse Facebook my battery gets reduced to 4 hours otherwise I get 10 hours watching YouTube or browsing macrumors is very good website for battery life

 

[itsamacthing]

Buddy of mine is getting 24hrs on his 13 inch...

Helpfull ...thanks

 

[mercedes27]

The problem is - web browsing is not the same as web browsing in different user.
Facebook and other pages like it - really drain a battery a lot. I've used only pages like this one - forums and easy web pages - and got 11 hours with 13"TB. If i use Facebook, constantly playing Youtube videos in hi def - 4-5 hours.
Basically Apple just tested the machine with easy web pages and they easily got 10 h.

What I like about this new MacBook - there is no need to take the adapter with me. I justhave short USB-C cable and use it with monitor at job and at home. Rarely need longer than 5hours of battery life. And reading books, or word-processing [plane trip] - 10h for sure. Watching movies almost 9h. I' m ok with that.

 

[Deniax]

Quite a lot "you are using it wrong" replies here.
Coming off a MBP 15" 350x from last year to a MBP 16" 460 , doing the exact same work (using Safari, iTunes, Hipchat) I would get 8 hours on my 2015 machine and I am getting 2.5 hours on my 2016 machine.
And yes, for work I am visiting mostly the same sites.

So there is definitely something wrong here. Before the 2015 model I had the mid 2014 MBP, which had the same battery longevity doing the same stuff as my 2015.

The 2016 model is just plain terrible, battery wise

 

[jk76]

Quite a lot "you are using it wrong" replies here.
Coming off a MBP 15" 350x from last year to a MBP 16" 460 , doing the exact same work (using Safari, iTunes, Hipchat) I would get 8 hours on my 2015 machine and I am getting 2.5 hours on my 2016 machine.
And yes, for work I am visiting mostly the same sites.

So there is definitely something wrong here. Before the 2015 model I had the mid 2014 MBP, which had the same battery longevity doing the same stuff as my 2015.

The 2016 model is just plain terrible, battery wise

It's hard to believe this regression wouldn't be primarily a software (specifically, macOS and drivers) problem, unless you actually have a defective battery on your MBP.

Energy efficiency of busy CPU is roughly the same as previous generation while battery capacity is only 25% or so down; when idle, it has probably improved. GPU TDP hasn't gone down, but compute energy efficiency has improved considerably, so same workload should be more efficient. Display is in general more efficient by 30%, according to Apple, and it's hard to believe other components would have gotten worse or that Touch Bar would consume significant amount of power.

I believe these wildly varying battery drain numbers are a result of immature operating system software. I hope these issues are fixed soon - but at the same time I must say I actually have observed considerable *improvement* coming from 2012 rMBP with a fresh battery...

 

[iasix]

It's hard to believe this regression wouldn't be primarily a software (specifically, macOS and drivers) problem, unless you actually have a defective battery on your MBP.

Energy efficiency of busy CPU is roughly the same as previous generation while battery capacity is only 25% or so down; when idle, it has probably improved. GPU TDP hasn't gone down, but compute energy efficiency has improved considerably, so same workload should be more efficient. Display is in general more efficient by 30%, according to Apple, and it's hard to believe other components would have gotten worse or that Touch Bar would consume significant amount of power.

I believe these wildly varying battery drain numbers are a result of immature operating system software. I hope these issues are fixed soon - but at the same time I must say I actually have observed considerable *improvement* coming from 2012 rMBP with a fresh battery...

I get this, I do.

But I'm just sincerely confused with what to do with this MacBook now.
I had a nTB, switched it for a TB. nTB I got 10+ hours (even 14 one time!!) and with the TB I get around 4.5 hours.
Same usage.

The battery on the TB is about 10% smaller compared to the nTB, so it shouldn't be 50% less - which is what I'm getting now.

I love the TB. I love the new keyboard. I think this is an a-ma-zing machine. I just can't deal with the 5 hours.
Should I return it and get the nTB again? Should I wait for a software update?
I have until January 15 to decide and then my return timeframe is up.

Right now I'm at 2 hours 38 minutes of use after a full charge (logging it) with safari, music, microsoft word, e-mail open. I have 57% left.

 

[Roller]

I get this, I do.

But I'm just sincerely confused with what to do with this MacBook now.
I had a nTB, switched it for a TB. nTB I got 10+ hours (even 14 one time!!) and with the TB I get around 4.5 hours.
Same usage.

The battery on the TB is about 10% smaller compared to the nTB, so it shouldn't be 50% less - which is what I'm getting now.

I love the TB. I love the new keyboard. I think this is an a-ma-zing machine. I just can't deal with the 5 hours.
Should I return it and get the nTB again? Should I wait for a software update?
I have until January 15 to decide and then my return timeframe is up.

Right now I'm at 2 hours 38 minutes of use after a full charge (logging it) with safari, music, microsoft word, e-mail open. I have 57% left.

I'm getting 9-10 hours doing much the same as you on my 13" TB. But, as many of us have discovered, "much the same" is very relative. For example, the web sites one visits in Safari can have a major impact on power draw and hence battery life. Still, that doesn't explain the results that Consumer Reports got, since they reportedly ran the exact same web-based tests repeatedly. Plus, they say that no other computers have been so inconsistent.

That leads me to believe that there's something else at fault that can be helped with a software update. The issue for those of us facing return deadlines (mine is January 8) is that Apple may not release anything for weeks or months.

As I said in another post, I suspect that the next update to the MBP will feature a higher capacity battery (presumably the one that was supposed to ship in the 2016 version) and Kaby Lake, which is more efficient. This could happen as soon as June or July, but that's just my opinion.

You have three options:

1. Keep the computer and hope that Apple provides a software update that improves battery life/consistency.
2. Return the computer now and wait for the 2017 MBP.
3. Return the computer now and wait to see if Apple provides the software update in #1.

 

[lobo1978]

Helpfull ...thanks

It was sarcasm I was referring to previous post >>> (#1880)

 

[Roller]

I hope this is true. It is confirming my suspicions that Apple needs to deliver software updates to probably fix the switchover handling occurring between integrated and discrete graphics. But I wish Apple would just admit that to reassure customers. Some buyers might be less willing to return their 2016 MBPs if they knew Apple was actively working on addressing remaining battery life issues via upcoming software updates. As far as I'm concerned, it is only the reported battery life issues that really plague the debut of the 2016 MBPs.
[doublepost=1482876464][/doublepost]This is interesting. It is an article explaining the dedicated cup inside a MBZp that keep track of the energy used by the battery:
MacBook Battery Time Remaining (Electronics) — Kaspars Dambis - kaspars.net
https://kaspars.net/blog/electronics/macbook-battery-remaining

I agree with your comment about reassurance from Apple, though I'd be pleasantly surprised if any were forthcoming.

Thanks also for the blog link. That got me to thinking about Apple's claim of a 30 day standby time, which they define as the mode that kicks in after more than 3 hours of sleep, for both the 13" and 15" models. They say that "the standby test measures battery life by allowing a system, connected to a wireless network and signed in to an iCloud account, to enter standby mode with Safari and Mail applications launched and all system settings left at default." Presumably this means that Power Nap is enabled, since not much should happen if it isn't.

30 days is a long time. It equates to an average loss of 3.3% per day, which is less than some users are reporting. And why does Apple specify that Safari is launched? It doesn't even appear in the list of Power Nap activities shown in this document, so neither it nor other apps should be responsible for any power draw during sleep.

So, either Apple's 30 day estimate is much too optimistic or something else is going on related to battery usage.

 

[JohnnyGo]

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.

Time machine will kill your battery. You should only turn it on while plugged in never on battery.

 

[mercedes27]

Time machine will kill your battery. You should only turn it on while plugged in never on battery.

+1

 

[sziehr]

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.
View attachment 679933 View attachment 679934

We think alike. I did the very same test. I some how managed to crash safari with a memory leak. That killed my script in its tracks.

 

[marcel500]

It was sarcasm I was referring to previous post >>> (#1880)

Where is the sarcasm ? You could have quoted your own ridiculous comment in which you stated you get 16:20 min out of your MBP<a href="https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-life-on-my-13-mbpr-tb.2021586/#post-24066530">10.12.2 fixed battery life on my 13" MBPr TB</a>

Stop spamming and start adding value to the discussion.

 

[DB4AW]

I agree with your comment about reassurance from Apple, though I'd be pleasantly surprised if any were forthcoming.

Thanks also for the blog link. That got me to thinking about Apple's claim of a 30 day standby time, which they define as the mode that kicks in after more than 3 hours of sleep, for both the 13" and 15" models. They say that "the standby test measures battery life by allowing a system, connected to a wireless network and signed in to an iCloud account, to enter standby mode with Safari and Mail applications launched and all system settings left at default." Presumably this means that Power Nap is enabled, since not much should happen if it isn't.

30 days is a long time. It equates to an average loss of 3.3% per day, which is less than some users are reporting. And why does Apple specify that Safari is launched? It doesn't even appear in the list of Power Nap activities shown in this document, so neither it nor other apps should be responsible for any power draw during sleep.

So, either Apple's 30 day estimate is much too optimistic or something else is going on related to battery usage.

You're welcome. Power Nap and Time Machine should be always disabled while on batteries. Those two will drain batteries silently in the background without one knowing it. And Apple's standby test is a measure of how long standby can be maintained on the MBP before apps and data in computer memory are lost. So the MBP needs to be wirelessly connected to an iCloud account with two widely used MBP apps (Safari and mail) running before the MBP is placed in standby mode.
[doublepost=1482991107][/doublepost]

We think alike. I did the very same test. I some how managed to crash safari with a memory leak. That killed my script in its tracks.

I'm surprised you encountered a memory leak. What type of script were you running? Using an Automator script, I was able to run the same CR Battery Test 4 separate times on both my 2016 and 2014 MBPs. I got consistent results each time. So, like Apple, I'm not sure what Consumer Reports is talking about. But the best part is that my 2016 out performed my 2014 during each and every test. So you know which MBP I'm keeping and which one I'm selling. But I'm going to conduct an iTunes movie playback on both of them just to see how that goes.

 

[imac2go]

After 10 hours 49minutes I lost 5% (it was in standby mode) can anyone share the same experience ?
im not sure if that is normal or a bit too much

tmbp 15' 2.6/256SSD/460

 

[badlydrawnboy]

After 10 hours 49minutes I lost 5% (it was in standby mode) can anyone share the same experience ?
im not sure if that is normal or a bit too much

tmbp 15' 2.6/256SSD/460

Given that Apple rates standby time at 30 days, that would be 3.33% per 24 hours. So 5% in 10 hours exceeds what they rate it for.

 

[Thanos812007]

My battery with light usage email safari spotify mostly. about 7-8 hours.
My only problem is that the touch id is a little bit loose. Also if i press it multiple times or hit it it stops recognise the fingerprint and i have to go to settings to make it work again... But i dont have a reference video to see how loose are the others from the forum.. I am afraid to exchange with all these problems...

Currently 3.50 hours with 62% remaining. By the way most pages with a lot of images are battery hog

 

[lobo1978]

Where is the sarcasm ? You could have quoted your own ridiculous comment in which you stated you get 16:20 min out of your MBP

To clarify: I was referring to TIME (of a DAY) - not battery life of MBPr

Read my comments on battery life - I am trying to commit, not spam (most of the time). I'm mocking trolls though.

---
I'm still on 10.12.2 and battery life is very good for me. 9-10 hrs easily with regular work.

With VM (Win 7 x64) in full swing: 5-6 hrs (connected to the external HD screen) + lots of power hungry apps running (QGIS, Excel - huge files, huge pdfs, dropbox syncing 50-60 MB every 5 minutes, BT, WIFI, Fantastical2 syncing etc.). Pretty good result IMHO.

 

[sziehr]

You're welcome. Power Nap and Time Machine should be always disabled while on batteries. Those two will drain batteries silently in the background without one knowing it. And Apple's standby test is a measure of how long standby can be maintained on the MBP before apps and data in computer memory are lost. So the MBP needs to be wirelessly connected to an iCloud account with two widely used MBP apps (Safari and mail) running before the MBP is placed in standby mode.
[doublepost=1482991107][/doublepost]
I'm surprised you encountered a memory leak. What type of script were you running? Using an Automator script, I was able to run the same CR Battery Test 4 separate times on both my 2016 and 2014 MBPs. I got consistent results each time. So, like Apple, I'm not sure what Consumer Reports is talking about. But the best part is that my 2016 out performed my 2014 during each and every test. So you know which MBP I'm keeping and which one I'm selling. But I'm going to conduct an iTunes movie playback on both of them just to see how that goes.

I was using a very simple click macro from automator. This to be replicated human interaction as best as I could muster with out doing it my self.

Safari cratered it. The app was using over 20 gigs of data. There was 11 gigs of ram and 9 gigs of paged out calls for it. The OS finally gave up. I now know what it looks like when MacOS goes that it I have had it with this process and just throws it hands up. The memory pressure was red lined. The machine was a crawl. That much I/O is power intensive. I was still on track to get about 5.5 hours of usage had the machine kept going.

 

[badlydrawnboy]

Hi everyone,

I've had the 13" TB since mid-November. Tried all of the updates/fixes and my battery life has ranged from 6.5-7.5 hours on average.

I decided to buy a nTB version to compare. I've now gone through two cycles (after indexing finished) and have gotten 8 hours on each.

Definitely better than the TB, but not as big of a difference as I expected. If I really only get 0.5-1 hour more of battery life with the nTB, I think I'll stick with the TB version. I'd be willing to give up an hour of batter in return for TouchID + 1Password.

If the difference were more like 2 hours, I'd probably go with the nTB. But it's not seeming like that's the case.

One thing worth pointing out: on both the nTB and TB, I am still seeing a significant battery drain during sleep that doesn't seem right. For example, today I put the nTB to sleep with 22% and came back three hours later and it was down to 15%. My guess is that if I just used either machine straight through without putting it to sleep, I'd get another hour of battery life.

 

[sziehr]

Hi everyone,

I've had the 13" TB since mid-November. Tried all of the updates/fixes and my battery life has ranged from 6.5-7.5 hours on average.

I decided to buy a nTB version to compare. I've now gone through two cycles (after indexing finished) and have gotten 8 hours on each.

Definitely better than the TB, but not as big of a difference as I expected. If I really only get 0.5-1 hour more of battery life with the nTB, I think I'll stick with the TB version. I'd be willing to give up an hour of batter in return for TouchID + 1Password.

If the difference were more like 2 hours, I'd probably go with the nTB. But it's not seeming like that's the case.

One thing worth pointing out: on both the nTB and TB, I am still seeing a significant battery drain during sleep that doesn't seem right. For example, today I put the nTB to sleep with 22% and came back three hours later and it was down to 15%. My guess is that if I just used either machine straight through without putting it to sleep, I'd get another hour of battery life.

So strange thing. I threw beta 10.12.3 beta 2 and suddenly this Mac will idle down around the 4 watt range. The race to go down in watts is vastly faster. So I am wondering if they are working on the battery issue under the cover of bug fixes.

I would not say this is scientific research. I just noticed that during my last use of the machine prior to the update I was sticking around 11 watts for longer while surfing than now. I again do not know what that means.

So something is moving at Apple HQ or I am just getting the placebo effect

 

[DB4AW]

So strange thing. I threw beta 10.12.3 beta 2 and suddenly this Mac will idle down around the 4 watt range. The race to go down in watts is vastly faster. So I am wondering if they are working on the battery issue under the cover of bug fixes.

I would not say this is scientific research. I just noticed that during my last use of the machine prior to the update I was sticking around 11 watts for longer while surfing than now. I again do not know what that means.

So something is moving at Apple HQ or I am just getting the placebo effect

The bulk of the remaining reported battery problems do NOT appear to be hardware related. But mainly issues that can be resolved by upcoming MacOS and/or software updates which Apple is quietly going about doing.

So existing 2016 MBP owners can opt to do either of the below:

1. Keep 2016 MBP snd trust that Apple will address remaining battery issues via upcoming software updates.

2. Return 2016 MBP and wait for Apple to correct the issues before buying the 2016 MBP again.

3. Return 2016 MBP and patiently wait for Apple to release the 2017 MBP which will be a modest update to the 2016 MBP.

4. Return 2016 MBP and choose a notebook from a vendor other than Apple.

Make a choice that best suits your needs.

 

[sziehr]

The bulk of the remaining reported battery problems do NOT appear to be hardware related. But mainly issues that can be resolved by upcoming MacOS and/or software updates which Apple is quietly going about doing.

So existing 2016 MBP owners can opt to do either of the below:

1. Keep 2016 MBP snd trust that Apple will address remaining battery issues via upcoming software updates.

2. Return 2016 MBP and wait for Apple to correct the issues before buying the 2016 MBP again.

3. Return 2016 MBP and patiently wait for Apple to release the 2017 MBP which will be a modest update to the 2016 MBP.

4. Return 2016 MBP and choose a notebook from a vendor other than Apple.

Make a choice that best suits your needs.

Man choice 4 is looking like the choice we should all make /s

I want 1 to be right

I am considering just lowering my financial exposure to the model line by going to a smaller unit which cost less and the loss I will incur from this debacle is lower