I have a few questions concerning the 16” MBP

[khalitzy]

So I purchased one recently and noticed a few things:

1- When I shut it down, any keyboard key press turns it on.. even clicking the trackpad. Is this normal? Note that it is shut down not just put to sleep.

2- Heard that the trackpad doesn’t actually move and that it needs power to give you that haptic feedback, how does it click when the computer is shut down then? Read somewhere on apple's website that it won’t click when it’s shut down..


3- My battery seems to drain 4-6% overnight while in sleep mode (6-7 hours). Is this normal? It’s set up as new and I haven’t installed a lot on it and I have power nap turned off. It drains 15-20% over 24 hours while in sleep mode which would translate to 5-6 days max of standby battery life.. not the 30 days advertised.


Thanks in advance.

 

[Andropov]

So I purchased one recently and noticed a few things:

1- When I shut it down, any keyboard key press turns it on.. even clicking the trackpad. Is this normal? Note that it is shut down not just put to sleep.

2- Heard that the trackpad doesn’t actually move and that it needs power to give you that haptic feedback, how does it click when the computer is shut down then? Read somewhere on apple's website that it won’t click when it’s shut down..


3- My battery seems to drain 4-6% overnight while in sleep mode (6-7 hours). Is this normal? It’s set up as new and I haven’t installed a lot on it and I have power nap turned off. It drains 15-20% over 24 hours while in sleep mode which would translate to 5-6 days max of standby battery life.. not the 30 days advertised.


Thanks in advance.

1- No it's not.

2- Yes, the trackpad is fixed and clicks are actually electromagnets "hitting" the trackpad from inside the MacBook to simulate the feedback. If it's shut down it won't be able to, similar to how iPhones 6S, 7 and SE's home buttons didn't 'click' if they were turned off.

3- Yes, it's normal. In order to have a maximum of 64GB of RAM, Apple had to switch from LPDDR3 RAM (Low-Power DDR) to normal DDR4 RAM (around 2017, IIRC) since currently, Intel CPU's only allow for a maximum of 64GB of DDR4 or 32GB LPDDR4. Since the 30-day standby battery life relied heavily on LPDDR RAM using much less power when not used (i.e. during sleep) than DDR, I'd guess it's much harder to achieve 30-day battery life now. Probably requires having WiFi/Bluetooth turned off too.

 

[VineRider]

Regarding number 1. From Apples support site

Newer Mac notebooks also turn on when you do these things:

• Open the lid of your Mac, even if it's not connected to power.
• Connect your Mac to a power adapter while its lid is open.2

Additionally, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models introduced in 2018 or later turn on when you press any key on the keyboard or press the trackpad.

Shut down or restart your Mac

Shut down or restart your Mac at any time.

support.apple.com

 

[khalitzy]

Regarding number 1. From Apples support site

Newer Mac notebooks also turn on when you do these things:

• Open the lid of your Mac, even if it's not connected to power.
• Connect your Mac to a power adapter while its lid is open.2

Additionally, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models introduced in 2018 or later turn on when you press any key on the keyboard or press the trackpad.

Shut down or restart your Mac

Shut down or restart your Mac at any time.

support.apple.com

Thanks. Now number 2 and 3 are left for me to know ;D.
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1- No it's not.

2- Yes, the trackpad is fixed and clicks are actually electromagnets "hitting" the trackpad from inside the MacBook to simulate the feedback. If it's shut down it won't be able to, similar to how iPhones 6S, 7 and SE's home buttons didn't 'click' if they were turned off.

3- Yes, it's normal. In order to have a maximum of 64GB of RAM, Apple had to switch from LPDDR3 RAM (Low-Power DDR) to normal DDR4 RAM (around 2017, IIRC) since currently, Intel CPU's only allow for a maximum of 64GB of DDR4 or 32GB LPDDR4. Since the 30-day standby battery life relied heavily on LPDDR RAM using much less power when not used (i.e. during sleep) than DDR, I'd guess it's much harder to achieve 30-day battery life now. Probably requires having WiFi/Bluetooth turned off too.

From the reply below yours it seems that 1 and 2 are normal behaviors..? check it out. ಠ_ಠ

 

[Dovahkiing]

1- No it's not.

Yes it 100% is.

All TB MBPs turn on from any button press after shutdown.

 

[Howard2k]

2 - Correct-ish. It's haptic and when shutdown and powered off it will be like a dead fish. But as noted, this doesn't apply to the newer MBPros since they don't completely shut down in the same way that the older MBPros do; they still keep the keyboard and trackpad alive.

3 - Yes that seems normal. You cannot do a flat extrapolation though. Your MBPro has three mores - awake, sleep, standby. When you close the lid for the night the MBPro goes into sleep mode for a while, and then it will at some point (depending on your system configuration) go into standby mode, which uses even less power. So for a portion of the 6-7 hours you were referring to, it was sleeping and using more power, and then standby would kick in, and it would use less. If you left this for 24 hours you would not be sleep cycling again, you would stay in standby mode. Same if you left it for 30 days. Would you get 30 days? Not sure, but certainly a 6 hour cycle cannot be linearly extrapolated for 210 hours.

 

[khalitzy]

2 - Correct-ish. It's haptic and when shutdown and powered off it will be like a dead fish. But as noted, this doesn't apply to the newer MBPros since they don't completely shut down in the same way that the older MBPros do; they still keep the keyboard and trackpad alive.

3 - Yes that seems normal. You cannot do a flat extrapolation though. Your MBPro has three mores - awake, sleep, standby. When you close the lid for the night the MBPro goes into sleep mode for a while, and then it will at some point (depending on your system configuration) go into standby mode, which uses even less power. So for a portion of the 6-7 hours you were referring to, it was sleeping and using more power, and then standby would kick in, and it would use less. If you left this for 24 hours you would not be sleep cycling again, you would stay in standby mode. Same if you left it for 30 days. Would you get 30 days? Not sure, but certainly a 6 hour cycle cannot be linearly extrapolated for 210 hours.

Thanks for making this thorough and clear, massively appreciate your effort into explaining this to me.

On a side note: you suggested in a previous comment to turn wifi and bluetooth off. Doesn’t sleep mode already technically turn them off? I have power nap disabled and wake for wifi access also disabled in the battery saver settings.
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Yes it 100% is.

All TB MBPs turn on from any button press after shutdown.

What does TB mean here? sorry couldn’t help my curiosity!

 

[VineRider]

What does TB mean here? sorry couldn’t help my curiosity!

Touch bar

 

[Howard2k]

Thanks for making this thorough and clear, massively appreciate your effort into explaining this to me.

On a side note: you suggested in a previous comment to turn wifi and bluetooth off. Doesn’t sleep mode already technically turn them off? I have power nap disabled and wake for wifi access also disabled in the battery saver settings.
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What does TB mean here? sorry couldn’t help my curiosity!

TB = Touchbar. Today all the MBPros have the Touch Bar, but in recent history Apple has maintained a 13" without the Touch Bar (referred to as 13" nTB (non-TB) or 13" Esc (since it had an escape key)).


Re: wifi/BT. It depends how badly you need the battery the next morning. I leave them enabled because wifi and BT help with location services. If your MacBook Pro disappears during the night and you have wifi/BT enabled then Find My Mac still works. And I should really have mentioned that in my post above too, your MBPro will still wake up as needed to update location information, even on the 4th (for example) night of standby.

I had a lot of issues with my overnight sleeping at one point; I was losing 25% overnight. I had to spend an unfortunate amount of time getting it all resolved (which was done via PMSet).

 

[khalitzy]

TB = Touchbar. Today all the MBPros have the Touch Bar, but in recent history Apple has maintained a 13" without the Touch Bar (referred to as 13" nTB (non-TB) or 13" Esc (since it had an escape key)).


Re: wifi/BT. It depends how badly you need the battery the next morning. I leave them enabled because wifi and BT help with location services. If your MacBook Pro disappears during the night and you have wifi/BT enabled then Find My Mac still works. And I should really have mentioned that in my post above too, your MBPro will still wake up as needed to update location information, even on the 4th (for example) night of standby.

I had a lot of issues with my overnight sleeping at one point; I was losing 25% overnight. I had to spend an unfortunate amount of time getting it all resolved (which was done via PMSet).

Okay so it wakes up to update the location and whatnot even if I have the power nap option disabled! wow didn’t know that. Thanks.

 

[Howard2k]

Okay so it wakes up to update the location and whatnot even if I have the power nap option disabled! wow didn’t know that. Thanks.

Yep, certainly does. You can disable that behaviour too, but to me that's not worth the battery savings. If my MBPro ends up in someone else's hands I want it to be able to tell me (and the police) where it is. This also allows me to remotely lock/wipe it etc.

 

[khalitzy]

Yep, certainly does. You can disable that behaviour too, but to me that's not worth the battery savings. If my MBPro ends up in someone else's hands I want it to be able to tell me (and the police) where it is. This also allows me to remotely lock/wipe it etc.

Indeed. I purchased it for its portability so yeah I’d want to have it recovered if stolen too. Thanks a lot!