Apple working with Consumer Reports on MacBook Pro battery findings, says Phil Schiller

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  • Reply 21 of 147
    appexappex Posts: 687member
    Great, Apple. You must pay more attention to Mac development, releasing new models of each Mac category every single year, as you do with iOS gadgets. Do not forget to update the Apple Thunderbolt Display.
    Rayz2016elijahglkruppavon b7pulseimagespscooter63brucemcchia
  • Reply 22 of 147
    This is what happens when you assign your best Mac and OSX engineers over to iPhone and iOS.

    Apple are now a phone company that make computers. Get used to it.

    Rayz2016voodoorumacplusplusprismaticslkruppanantksundarampulseimagespscooter63roundaboutnowbrucemc
  • Reply 23 of 147
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    Soli said:
    Rayz2016 said:

    metrix said:
    My guess is they ran one test using Safari and the others using Chrome. Chrome seems act like an application with a memory leak. Just my 2 cents.
    It really makes no sense since Apple has dominated battery life in laptops for years and I mean years. 
    The tests they reported on were all run on Safari. They actually got more consistent results with Chrome.
    That info screams a SW bug, not an issue with the new MBP HW.
    Yeah, pretty much. But CR is testing the machine as a package, so it's not really down to them to say whether the problem is software or hardware. As far as they're concerned, the problem is the laptop. Again, I find it quite hard to get too excited about tests that are so far removed from what people do in real life, but if it gives Apple some meaningful data then I think that's a good thing.
    hungoverredgeminipapscooter63palomine
  • Reply 24 of 147
    For balance I should point out that I don't have a problem with battery life on the new MacBook Pro, lives up to Apple's estimate. Just in case anyone thought this was a widespread issue and that every single new MBP is affected, as some people do.
    redgeminipacalipscooter63ration albrucemcwatto_cobra
  • Reply 25 of 147
    Damage control!
    Damage control? Did you actually read their report? They got wildly different battery results and on the high end much higher than anyone else has gotten. How could they publish a report with such variation?
    Yes, I did. The fact that Phil is reacting so quickly to just about every slam against the new MBP's means there is really something wrong with the batteries and no one is believing Apple's explanation of removing a certain battery display feature will magically fix the problem.
    No not at all. If a headline right before Christmas is Consumer Reports does not recommend the new MBP it would be irresponsible for Apple not to respond. Since CR's findings had such wide variation why didn't they contact Apple with their findings before publishing. It's one thing if they consistently got poor battery life. But in some cases they got 19 hours and in others less than 4. No one else who has reviewed these laptops got close to 19 hours. Clearly there is a problem with the machines they had for testing or their testing methods to get such wide variation.
    redgeminipaanantksundaramration alStrangeDaysroundaboutnow
  • Reply 26 of 147
    Rayz2016 said:

    metrix said:
    My guess is they ran one test using Safari and the others using Chrome. Chrome seems act like an application with a memory leak. Just my 2 cents.
    It really makes no sense since Apple has dominated battery life in laptops for years and I mean years. 
    The tests they reported on were all run on Safari. They actually got more consistent results with Chrome.
    Red flag right there. When has anyone gotten better results with Chrome vs. Safari. I've seen on Twitter others who own one of these reporting the exact opposite finding.
    redgeminipaanantksundaramration al
  • Reply 27 of 147

    When I first read the report, I have decided not to buy one of these new macs. I trust CR's reports. I remember their report on bending iPhone 6 Plus. After that report all the phone manufacturers made their phones even more stronger.

    My first touchscreen smart phone was purchased in 2004, it had a 3.5" screen.

    It, and all of my subsequent phones have lived in my rear trouser pocket during the day. None has ever bent. My current handset has a 5.7" screen.

    The CR test was questioned by the firm that supplied the 3 point bending machine- they recommended a 4 point bending rig- CR ignored their advice.


    magman1979chia
  • Reply 28 of 147
    bocaboy2591bocaboy2591 Posts: 1unconfirmed, member
    I have this problem with my new 15" 2016 MacBook Pro. I'm lucky if I get 4-4:30 while running on battery. I use Chrome, not Safari, so "switching" isn't going to solve my problem. I love my new computer, but I expected to get close to or better than the 10 hours that was claimed by Apple. Battery life is a big part of owning a portable computer. If the claim in 10 hours, then that's what it should be able to deliver. Lastly, check out the Discussions forums over this issue. There are hundreds of posts with users having this problem. Consumer Reports was right to withhold their approval until this issue is resolved.
    hungover
  • Reply 29 of 147
    I have a 13" touchbar.

    It's a great laptop, the industrial design is on point. Touch bar has potential. USB-C is the future.

    Yet...

    It feels only minutely faster than my 2012 mbp. 4 years later, super expensive laptop, and it kinda just runs the same.

    The battery life is awful. Normally new laptops, the battery life feels incredible. No, this runs like an old laptop.


    What is going on??? Who is to blame? Intel? Apple? Every year our phones get faster and faster and faster... yet a four year upgrade on a mbp is barely noticeable, yet now far  more expensive. With all the complaints about dongles and gimmick touch bar and blah blah blah -- the most important thing, performance and battery is what actually sucks about these laptops. One thing is for certain, Moore's law is dead.
    hungoverpentaemacpluspluscaliadamc
  • Reply 30 of 147
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Controlled tests in labs often don’t match real world results when real people are suing the product. The unwashed masses will find the flaws almost immediately even if only by accident.
    edited December 2016 anantksundaramadamcmagman1979
  • Reply 31 of 147
    inteliboy said:
    I have a 13" touchbar.

    It's a great laptop, the industrial design is on point. Touch bar has potential. USB-C is the future.

    Yet...

    It feels only minutely faster than my 2012 mbp. 4 years later, super expensive laptop, and it kinda just runs the same.

    The battery life is awful. Normally new laptops, the battery life feels incredible. No, this runs like an old laptop.


    What is going on??? Who is to blame? Intel? Apple? Every year our phones get faster and faster and faster... yet a four year upgrade on a mbp is barely noticeable, yet now far  more expensive. With all the complaints about dongles and gimmick touch bar and blah blah blah -- the most important thing, performance and battery is what actually sucks about these laptops. One thing is for certain, Moore's law is dead.
    "It feels only minutely faster than my 2012 mbp."- Fair call but should any new laptop "feel" significantly faster than any other 4 year old laptop with an i5/7 and with equivalent RAM and SSD? 

    "The battery life is awful. " Inexcusable unless you value X amount of hours over a chassis that is a few mm thinner. In general, i would hope that my new laptop has a better battery life without weighing more or taking up more space. 


  • Reply 32 of 147
    DKPDKP Posts: 1unconfirmed, member
    fix

    I had about 3 hours battery life on 13-in MBP with touch bar. Draining battery all the way twice improved to about 5. I then did a total clean reinstall of MacOS Sierra and now regularly get 7-9 hours with normal use- web browsing, emails and other work like word processing. 
    redgeminipacalimacplusplusadamcroundaboutnowpalominechia
  • Reply 33 of 147
    Working with Consumers Report? That is a magazine. More like trying to bribe them. Work with the people who spent  money on the laptops. Give them some idea of how long it should take to fix the problem. Communicate with the consumer. I hope it will be very soon.
    calimacpluspluspulseimagesRayz2016adamcroundaboutnowbrucemcpalomine
  • Reply 34 of 147
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    Quite obvious to any debugger, based on the fact that the problem only happens when a particular software program (Safari) is running, is the fact that this is NOT a hardware issue.   True, they might paper over the issue by doubling battery size or some such work around.  But, it is not a hardware issue.

    But, is it (actually) even a software issue?

    Loading a web page injects a lot more variables than most any other test - because first, it must obtain that page from the web.   Most performance tests do not obtain input data from outside of the system being tested for obvious reasons.   Yet, while CR could have been using a saved web page, I suspect that they didn't.   So, could it simply be an issue of how the browser reacts when it tries to complete a page that is not completely available?  

    CR should have probably tested this issue out on other, older laptops running both Chrome and Safari -- rather than simply building click bait by trashing the newest MBP.
    calipscooter63ration aladamcwatto_cobra
  • Reply 35 of 147
    KBChicagoKBChicago Posts: 21unconfirmed, member
    So far, I've ranged 5-11 hours.  Admittedly, the 5 hour session included the machine redoing the preview thumbnails for several thousand photos.  So far I'm loving my 15".  I do miss the "estimated time remaining" after the recent OS update.  I wonder if they'll add it back after they've addressed this issue.  It does feel a little CYA to remove a feature that's been there for nearly the entire existence of Apple laptops.  I'll be curious to see if my results are an anomaly or more the norm.  
    caliredgeminipaanantksundaram
  • Reply 36 of 147
    How long before Phil reigns in Jonny Ive and forces Apple to build a computer that doesn't put form over function?  The MacBook Pro is a disgrace and executives in hardware, software, PR, and marketing should be fired for it.
    calipulseimagesRayz2016pscooter63adamcroundaboutnowbrucemcchia
  • Reply 37 of 147

    I have been using MacbookPro with DVD drive for 3 years now and it's battery works still better than the new macs according to this report of course. I was really amazed with 12" Macbook but it wasn't fast enough for me, even the newer version of it is not what I am looking for. I was really excited when I learned that Apple was going to release new macs. Touchbar, new design as 12" Macbook has and new usb standard ports. I was expecting new contour design batteries in this new machines but it didn't happen.

    But I don't understand this new pricing policy. I think 12" Macbook should be same price as Macbook Air and new Macbook Pro 13" with touchbar should be same price as previous Macbook Pro 13" with retina display.

    Let me get this right... You're saying a MacBook Pro with a 5,400 RPM hard drive, and possibly only 4GB of 1600MHz DDR3 of RAM, is faster than a new 12" MacBook with 8GB of 1866MHz LPDDR3 RAM and PCIe-based flash storage? I call BS. I "upgraded" from a 2010 15" MacBook Pro Core i5, 8GB and a Seagate 1TB Hybrid drive to a 2016 MacBook Core m3 1.1GHz processor, and it's lightning fast for general use in comparison to my former MacBook Pro. Apps open nearly instantly, webpages load nearly instantly and boot up is counted in seconds.  

    Pricing: I bought a 13" MacBook Air first. I'll say this: I was disappointed. The screen quality, keyboard and trackpad all felt cheap when compared to my 6-year-old MacBook Pro. For $1,200, I was expecting a little more. As soon as Best Buy ran a sale on the 12" MacBook for $1,149, I made the exchange that day. The performance is nearly the same, thanks to the better RAM and faster PCIe storage. The overall quality difference alone makes the 12" more valuable, not to mention the extremely better Retina display.

    As for the 2016 13" MacBook Pro: non-Touch Bar is priced the same as the 2015 model. The 2015 started with 128GB, with 256 being an upgrade. Since the 2016 starts at 256, it's priced the same as the upgraded 2015. As for Touch Bar models, if you want the latest features, you're going to pay for it. Considering what upgrades come with the Touch Bar models versus the non-Touch Bar models, the pricing isn't horrible. 

    Price them like the 13" Retina MacBook Pro? Ok... here goes: in 2012, the 13" MacBook Pro Retina started at $1,699 with 8GB of RAM and 128GB SSD. The price has fallen over the years, just as it will with the new Touch Bar models. 
    http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook-pro-core-i5-2.5-13-late-2012-retina-display-specs.html

    The 2016 Touch Bar 13" starts at $1,799 with 8GB and 256GB for $100 more than the original Retina did 4 years ago, with Touch Bar, TouchID, much improved graphics, 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports and better display accuracy. Again, I see these prices falling a little over time. 

    So many are complaining about the pricing of these new models, but they all fail to remember Apple's pricing on completely new models when they are released. The 2012 Retina 15" started at $2,199 with 8GB of RAM. 
    http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook-pro-core-i7-2.3-15-mid-2012-retina-display-specs.html
    pscooter63ration alStrangeDaysroundaboutnowbrucemcmagman1979chiawatto_cobra
  • Reply 38 of 147
    I have this problem with my new 15" 2016 MacBook Pro. I'm lucky if I get 4-4:30 while running on battery. I use Chrome, not Safari, so "switching" isn't going to solve my problem. I love my new computer, but I expected to get close to or better than the 10 hours that was claimed by Apple. Battery life is a big part of owning a portable computer. If the claim in 10 hours, then that's what it should be able to deliver. Lastly, check out the Discussions forums over this issue. There are hundreds of posts with users having this problem. Consumer Reports was right to withhold their approval until this issue is resolved.
    Chrome is known as a memory hog. Check at least its extensions, they may inject extra Javascript code. Also find an ad blocker like Ghostery to disable some ads and trackers. Trackers inject a lot of Javascript code. There is a utility called gfxCardStatus, it monitors which GPU is in use. Install it to check if there is a background process that continuously uses the AMD Radeon GPU. Also enable Automatic Graphics Switching in Energy Saver Preference pane. Open Activity Monitor, click on Energy tab, click the column heading Energy Impact to sort by that and check the processes that use the most energy. Keep the Brightness around 75% as specified in Apple battery tests. Use the Touch Bar to dim keyboard lights. If you cannot fine tune your battery usage using these techniques then the nuclear option is a clean installation of macOS Sierra.
    kamiltonRayz2016pscooter63palominebestkeptsecretwatto_cobra
  • Reply 39 of 147
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    They were probably running flash video in the background. 

    Still, let's get to the bottom of this issue. 
    pulseimages
  • Reply 40 of 147
    Damage control!
    Damage control? Did you actually read their report? They got wildly different battery results and on the high end much higher than anyone else has gotten. How could they publish a report with such variation?
    Obviously it wasn't about concern for the consumer but concern for making a big splash headline. Clicks.
    anantksundarampulseimagesRayz2016palomine
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