Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Battery life for 13" and 15" Macbook Pro

Sanpete said:
That is promising!

The reviews are at these links:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/11/the-2016-13-and-15-inch-touch-bar-macbook-pros-reviewed/
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/0...the-2015-15-inch-retina-macbook-pro-reviewed/
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Pro-15-Late-2016-2-6-GHz-i7-Notebook-Review.185254.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Pro-Retina-15-Mid-2015-Review.144402.0.html

Given what you say, and my ignorance of how much power some of the programs you mention use, it seems to me you may be getting normal battery life. The only way to know for sure would be to try the same things on another machine known to get normal battery life. I know Safari is optimized for Macs, but Chrome isn't, and is known to become a battery hog quickly under various conditions. The others programs I don't know about. The Activity Monitor should give some indication of how much energy they use in its energy section

A big factor is how bright the screen is. How many notches up do you set it?
Click to expand...

Thank you for the links. Sorry I am just responding, been offline for most of the weekend. I have not counted notches but we are definitely in the 75% range for brightness.

After my wife used her machine most of the last 2 nights, I feel confident Apple has fixed the battery issue with these new beta releases. So, if anyone is reading this that was like me, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Joining the beta program and getting release 3 and then 4 of 10.12.3 was well worth the minimal effort.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sanpete
Fluxvol said:
I have not counted notches but we are definitely in the 75% range for brightness.
Click to expand...

If you want the best battery life you may want to go down to around 50%. I measured battery lifetime as a result of brightness playing SD video in iTunes and got the following results.
8 clicks - 12,4 h - 50%
10 clicks - 11,9 h
12 clicks - 10,5 h - 75%
14 clicks - 8,7 h
16 clicks - 6,5 h - 100%

There was very little effect of going below 50% (8 clicks) but for very bright screens battery life degrades quickly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mahcus36, JohnnyGo, IngerMan and 3 others
matram said:
If you want the best battery life you may want to go down to around 50%. I measured battery lifetime as a result of brightness playing SD video in iTunes and got the following results.
8 clicks - 12,4 h - 50%
10 clicks - 11,9 h
12 clicks - 10,5 h - 75%
14 clicks - 8,7 h
16 clicks - 6,5 h - 100%

There was very little effect of going below 50% (8 clicks) but for very bright screens battery life degrades quickly.
Click to expand...

Yep, you are exactly right. That's what I noticed too and I think a lot of the variance in user-submitted "real life usage" numbers we see on this thread is due to differences in the # of brightness clicks.

I for one much prefer a brighter screen (14 to 16 clicks). Yet going from 12 to 16 clicks makes someone go from "my MBP can last 10+ hours" to "my MBP can't Leven last 7 hours".
 
matram said:
If you want the best battery life you may want to go down to around 50%. I measured battery lifetime as a result of brightness playing SD video in iTunes and got the following results.
8 clicks - 12,4 h - 50%
10 clicks - 11,9 h
12 clicks - 10,5 h - 75%
14 clicks - 8,7 h
16 clicks - 6,5 h - 100%

There was very little effect of going below 50% (8 clicks) but for very bright screens battery life degrades quickly.
Click to expand...
Yep, yep. I often forget about the brightness when helping others troubleshoot. This is one of the biggest drivers of battery life. Good find that the brightness is not linear in terms of battery draw. It is a lot more severe at the higher levels.
 
Can anyone else with 13'' nTB comment on battery drain while sleeping? I'm getting 5-6% overnight even after disabling enhanced notifications. No wakes overnight. Just draining for some reason. I updated to 10.12.3 beta 4 and still same thing
 
  • Like
Reactions: ibizarocks and mahcus36
The link tells ya disabling notifcations in the GUI doesn't do much, but maybe I'm reading it wrong
 
matram said:
If you want the best battery life you may want to go down to around 50%. I measured battery lifetime as a result of brightness playing SD video in iTunes and got the following results.
8 clicks - 12,4 h - 50%
10 clicks - 11,9 h
12 clicks - 10,5 h - 75%
14 clicks - 8,7 h
16 clicks - 6,5 h - 100%

There was very little effect of going below 50% (8 clicks) but for very bright screens battery life degrades quickly.
Click to expand...
Nice. Thanks!
 
I'm pretty happy I traded in the TB 13" for nTB 13". This is approx the battery life I'm getting when I just have a couple tabs open in Safari and 3-4 clicks of brightness in bed at night. When I use 3-4 apps at the same time and have 60-70% brightness I easily get the advertised 10 hours, usually an hour or two more as well! This is such a great laptop! Definitely the best and most "thought through" release in 2016. Nothing to complain about :)

edit - By the way, as you can see on the screenshot there, my current max is a bit lower now than "original max". only had the mac less than 2 weeks, is that strange or normal? also note that health is 98%. others who have similar experience regarding health/reduced current max etc? Would be good to know if that's "normal" or if it's something that shouldn't be like that.
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2017-01-20 at 05.07.11.png
    Screen Shot 2017-01-20 at 05.07.11.png
    2.5 MB · Views: 311
Last edited:
my battery life has slowly gotten worse than when I bought it.

been safari browsing for the past 45 minutes or so, and I'm dropped 11%...brightness around 60-65%
 
You might be suffering from a bug that stands fixed in the latest 10.12.3 beta 4. So, if you're in a hurry, get on the beta wagon or wait till they release it for the masses.
 
tc47 said:
I'm pretty happy I traded in the TB 13" for nTB 13". This is approx the battery life I'm getting when I just have a couple tabs open in Safari and 3-4 clicks of brightness in bed at night. When I use 3-4 apps at the same time and have 60-70% brightness I easily get the advertised 10 hours, usually an hour or two more as well! This is such a great laptop! Definitely the best and most "thought through" release in 2016. Nothing to complain about :)

edit - By the way, as you can see on the screenshot there, my current max is a bit lower now than "original max". only had the mac less than 2 weeks, is that strange or normal? also note that health is 98%. others who have similar experience regarding health/reduced current max etc? Would be good to know if that's "normal" or if it's something that shouldn't be like that.
Click to expand...
Similar story here regarding battery health, bit lower actually, been fluctuating between 95 and 97 after like 18 cycles.
 
mahcus36 said:
my battery life has slowly gotten worse than when I bought it.

been safari browsing for the past 45 minutes or so, and I'm dropped 11%...brightness around 60-65%
Click to expand...
Noticing something similar but maybe just an impression. Battery life on 10.2.2 now seems to hover around 8-9h and not longer reaches 10h.
 
After a few weeks with a 13" TB model, the battery life is pretty much as it has been on the other models I've had the luck to use since launch. I'm typically getting 8hours+ whilst still ending up with somewhere between 15-25% of battery left. The reason I say 8 hours is that on an average day working from home, that's the time I've been choosing to be away from a power source.

The day is spent with a dozen or so Safari tabs, Mail, Tweetdesk, a Citrix session, iTunes streaming to headphones and some Pages & Numbers use. Screen brightness is set to auto.
 
  • Like
Reactions: macintoshmac
Mixolyd said:
Like I said, i disabled enhanced notifications (which is what that link you sent is about). i'm not getting any wakes overnight anymore but still having some battery drain which is odd
Click to expand...

I get upwards of 10-20% some nights, no matter what I do. Its disappointing. I love this laptop, but the sleep battery drain was one of my pet peeves on windows; which shortly before I sold my XPS 15 reduced to only 2-3% a night (which is great).
 
ascender said:
After a few weeks with a 13" TB model, the battery life is pretty much as it has been on the other models I've had the luck to use since launch. I'm typically getting 8hours+ whilst still ending up with somewhere between 15-25% of battery left. The reason I say 8 hours is that on an average day working from home, that's the time I've been choosing to be away from a power source.

The day is spent with a dozen or so Safari tabs, Mail, Tweetdesk, a Citrix session, iTunes streaming to headphones and some Pages & Numbers use. Screen brightness is set to auto.
Click to expand...

Refreshing level-headedness.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ascender and Thanos812007
After 42 cycles my battery is now on 98 procent with 80 mAh drop. Will warranty cover batteries when they drop a certain percentage over the first 1 or 2 years?

Edit: Found the answer on apple's site:
Your battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 1000 complete charge cycles.


If my battery continues to drain at this rate it will degrade 42 percent in 1000 cycles 0r
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: teerexx52
stephenvis said:
After 42 cycles my battery is now on 98 procent with 80 mAh drop. Will warranty cover batteries when they drop a certain percentage over the first 1 or 2 years?

Edit: Found the answer on apple's site:
Your battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 1000 complete charge cycles.


If my battery continues to drain at this rate it will degrade 42 percent in 1000 cycles 0r
Click to expand...

It shouldn't....

Are you using coconut battery? Whatever you are using, there is a percent error in the report. My readings can vary form day to day. You may also see, initially, a 5% drop of or so; but then it will slow down. Don't fret over it a this point. Just treat it well.

Mine was down to 96% a few days ago, then it was 102%, and now it it at 98.8%. I wouldn't worry about it for now, just enjoy the machine....
 
  • Like
Reactions: xmonkey
BlueGoldAce said:
It shouldn't....

Are you using coconut battery? Whatever you are using, there is a percent error in the report. My readings can vary form day to day. You may also see, initially, a 5% drop of or so; but then it will slow down. Don't fret over it a this point. Just treat it well.

Mine was down to 96% a few days ago, then it was 102%, and now it it at 98.8%. I wouldn't worry about it for now, just enjoy the machine....
Click to expand...

I am! Thanks for the explanation, you're giving me some well-needed peace of mind :)
 
I just updated to 10.12.3 final. 15" TB with 460.

In my first time test run, battery results are better than before. Wattages do not seem to spike as easily as on earlier builds of Sierra, and stay pleasingly low, around or below 10W on light usage (music, web browsing, word processing, keeping an iPhone charged via USB) at around 70% brightness.

I also use gfxCardStatus to force integrated gfx only.

With this, 8-10 hours on "normal use" should definitely be possible.
 
konnyaku said:
I just updated to 10.12.3 final. 15" TB with 460.

In my first time test run, battery results are better than before. Wattages do not seem to spike as easily as on earlier builds of Sierra, and stay pleasingly low, around or below 10W on light usage (music, web browsing, word processing, keeping an iPhone charged via USB) at around 70% brightness.

I also use gfxCardStatus to force integrated gfx only.

With this, 8-10 hours on "normal use" should definitely be possible.
Click to expand...

i can confirm this. After the update, im getting around 10-12 hours of browsing/hearing music
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back