Apple not finding any material battery problems in MacBook Pro, prunes time indicator in 10.12.2
The latest macOS 10.12.2 Sierra update has eradicated the inaccurate "time remaining" battery indicator as part of its investigation about the 2016 MacBook Pro battery life situation, leaving users with just the far more accurate percent charge figure, as reported directly by the battery and the charging circuitry.
As a result of the change in Tuesday's macOS Sierra 10.12.2 update, the battery reporting now mirrors that of iOS, with the user not being given a real-time estimate. AppleInsider has learned that the removal is in part because of the complaints of short battery life with the MacBook Pro -- but not as a way to hide the problem.
The "time remaining" was an estimate based on user patterns how long the battery would continue to provide a charge to the user, one that becomes more accurate with use. A large amount of attention has been drawn in recent days to short battery life in the 2016 MacBook Pro refresh, which may be attributable to users reporting this figure, and not actual life in some cases.
"It takes like a month of use for the battery life indicator in macOS, or Windows for that matter, to give a good time," a source within Apple told us. "The percent measure that the user sees is gleaned from the battery circuitry examining battery output, plus capacity, and reporting to the OS what's left. Totally accurate, and way better with the new processor."
The same source told us that so far, Apple isn't seeing a wide-spread material or software problem, causing excess drain on the batteries in the new MacBook Pro line, but the work isn't yet done.
"We look at all the reports that come through the Genius Bar and AppleCare," we were told by Apple. "If you think you've got a problem, make an appointment or call and tell us."
As a result of the change in Tuesday's macOS Sierra 10.12.2 update, the battery reporting now mirrors that of iOS, with the user not being given a real-time estimate. AppleInsider has learned that the removal is in part because of the complaints of short battery life with the MacBook Pro -- but not as a way to hide the problem.
The "time remaining" was an estimate based on user patterns how long the battery would continue to provide a charge to the user, one that becomes more accurate with use. A large amount of attention has been drawn in recent days to short battery life in the 2016 MacBook Pro refresh, which may be attributable to users reporting this figure, and not actual life in some cases.
"It takes like a month of use for the battery life indicator in macOS, or Windows for that matter, to give a good time," a source within Apple told us. "The percent measure that the user sees is gleaned from the battery circuitry examining battery output, plus capacity, and reporting to the OS what's left. Totally accurate, and way better with the new processor."
The same source told us that so far, Apple isn't seeing a wide-spread material or software problem, causing excess drain on the batteries in the new MacBook Pro line, but the work isn't yet done.
"We look at all the reports that come through the Genius Bar and AppleCare," we were told by Apple. "If you think you've got a problem, make an appointment or call and tell us."
But the feature can be re-implemented, with developers' help
The feature can be re-implemented with select third-party apps, such as the free CoconutBattery, or Bjango's iStatMenus ($18).
Comments
What I do know about the new macbookpro.
Reports of: wifi dropping out when USB connects
trackpad issues
graphics issues
battery issues
usb port speed issues
touchbar issues
not to mention all the other previos features missing or not updated.
16GB ram limit
CPU not the latest.
right, so I'm going to wait for the AMD version of the MacBook Pro.
The new MBPs have smaller batteries than the last ones (76Wh vs 99.5Wh = 25% smaller for 15" and 49Wh vs 75Wh = 35% smaller for 13") so it would be expected to last a shorter time if both machines draw the same power. There's a test here where the 2015 model lasted 21% longer with Youtube playback:
http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/12/02/watch-apples-2016-macbook-pro-with-touch-bar-vs-2015-macbook-pro
When they tested 4K rendering, the new one lasted 40% longer. The new hardware has better performance-per-watt and the chips sometimes have improved media support for modern video formats.
The percentage estimate is fine for seeing how much battery is left but it's harder to see the depletion rate. The activity monitor has a battery graph so people can see some kind of depletion rate but it would be better to have another graph that reset at full charge and ignored periods on charge and a couple of numbers on the bottom axis:
This depletion graph could be extrapolated using the entire activity period from when it was fully charged ignoring minor large fluctuations to give a more reliable estimate. If the user suddenly starts doing something intensive, the graph would show a steeper drop. This way, it's clearer to see where the estimate is coming from and also which activities have been causing the biggest battery drain. The graph can have 5 minute segments and remember the 5 heaviest causes per segment (apps, display, peripherals) so when the mouse goes over it, the user can see what caused the drain.
Even having an indicator like memory pressure or the CPU bar would help as it can indicate when activities are causing heavy battery drain. If someone sees an indicator that is red showing that what they are doing at the time is draining their battery, they can click it to see if it's the display being too bright, a browser in the background or some process that has hung up and they can deal with it. If they keep the indicator in the green most of the time, the battery should be ok and if they get any unexpected low battery life, the graph mentioned above would let them see what happened.
The middle part of the battery indicator could perhaps just turn a shade of red or grey of the battery is being drained quickly and would be normal otherwise.
While apple is sure to crank out ridiculous profits in the short term, they are really pulling out all stops to get rid of their pro user base.
While the time estimate is just a nice to have and its still available in the activity monitor, removing it at this point in time just seems like an admission that they fucked up and are sweeping under the rug on one of the many flaws of this new overpriced machine.
Pretty sure the main problems here are that lots of users now have a dGPU as they're more prevalent in these models and aren't used to active switching between the two, which makes a HUGE difference, and I'm guessing Intel's chip optimizations also fluctuate in power usage a lot between lower level use and turbo boosts.
That, and there's speculation a lot of these users are reporting their battery times while their systems are still getting optimized, i.e. Spotlight is running, libraries are syncing for the first time, Disk Optimization settings are uploading their Documents/Desktop folders, etc.
If nothing else, this forces users to actually measure real world battery times as oppose to glancing at the system's way-off estimates and muddying the issue.
Something in Sierra appears to be causing the discreet graphics chip to engage far more frequently and for entirely unnecessary reasons. Neither Text Edit or Quicken should ever even remotely require the discreet GPU...and the didn't need it in previous OSes.
But yeah, TextEdit should NOT be triggering the dGPU... most "simpler" apps shouldn't be, ever.
I plan to get a maxed out 15" in a few months. I assumed that opting for the 2.9Ghz and Radeon 460 meant I'd be cutting into battery life.