Consumer Reports just unloaded a mighty smackdown on the new MacBook Pro lineup, citing “highly inconsistent” battery life as the reason the latest Apple laptops failed to earn a coveted recommendation.
It’s the first time the well-regarded reviews organization flunked an Apple laptop. And the test results should give serious pause to anybody who is considering buying a new MacBook Pro.
“Battery life is an important attribute for a laptop, and it it represents a significant portion of our overall score,” wrote Jerry Beilinson in a post explaining the surprisingly bad results. “After factoring together our complete test results, Consumer Reports finds that all three MacBook Pro laptops fail to meet our standards for recommended models.”
This is a big deal. We’ve heard previous rumblings of MacBook Pro owners complaining about battery life, but Consumer Reports’ in-depth testing gives substance to the random reports bubbling up in online message boards.
Consumer Reports test results for MacBook Pro batteries
Consumer Reports put all MacBook Pro models through their paces repeatedly, using a standard testing scenario used for all laptops. The results ranged from remarkable to horrible.
“In a series of three consecutive tests, the 13-inch model with the Touch Bar ran for 16 hours in the first trial, 12.75 hours in the second, and just 3.75 hours in the third,” the publication said. “The 13-inch model without the Touch Bar worked for 19.5 hours in one trial but only 4.5 hours in the next. And the numbers for the 15-inch laptop ranged from 18.5 down to 8 hours.”
The testers set the computers’ display brightness to 100 nits. They tried at least two versions of macOS Sierra — including macOS 10.12.2, which took the unusual step of eliminating the “Time Remaining” indicator for MacBooks due to, ahem, inaccuracy. Consumer Reports ran the MacBook Pros through a thorough in-house testing regime used for hundreds of other laptops each year.
Since battery life remains a crucial barometer for the usefulness of a laptop, the new MacBook Pros’ wildly inconsistent performance could be a bigger negative than the laptops hefty price tags or their less-than-stellar specs.
There’s one ray of hope in Consumer Reports’ findings, though: When the lab geeks reran the battery tests using Google’s Chrome browser rather than Safari, the battery life results were “consistently high.”
That’s a total reversal of the usual scenario, in which Chrome turns out to be a consistent battery killer.
As Consumer Reports notes, that could point to a software problem rather than a hardware deficiency. If that’s the case, Apple should be able to sort out this problem. Let’s hope engineers are working overtime in Cupertino right now.
Are you experiencing MacBook Pro battery problems?
If you’re using one of the new MacBook Pros, are you experiencing wildly variable battery life or other problems? Let us know in the comments below.
Lewis Wallace is the managing editor of Cult of Mac and author of our weekly newsletter, The Weekender.
He’s a San Francisco-based writer and editor specializing in technology and culture. He loves his iPhone, hates Siri, and appreciates any hardware that combines form and function.
Prior to Cult of Mac, he juggled words and ideas as culture editor at Wired.com, homepage editor at TechTV, news product manager at NBCi, copy editor at PC World, reporter at The (Hayward) Daily Review and editor in chief of EveryBody’s News in Cincinnati.
He earned a bachelor of general studies degree with a journalism certificate from the University of Cincinnati. While in school, he worked as the entertainment editor of The News Record and as editor in chief of Clifton Magazine.
He’s also a bass player, who’s recorded and performed around the United States with Those Darn Accordions, The Electric Boogie Dawgz and The Mad Maggies. When not writing, editing or laying down bass lines, he plays darts and serves on the board of the San Francisco Darts League.
10 responses to “Consumer Reports slams new MacBook Pros’ terrible battery life”
so far everything has been consistent and getting 10 hours every time. no issues to be honest (13″ with touchbar 8GB -256GB). zero issues. time machine backups flawless. using apple time capsule. display is half way through. mostly browsing or watching videos.
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I never get 10 hours, I would say more like 6 and that is without video…
I’m getting between 5 and 7. Far less annoying than the daily freezes and crashes though. Reminds me of Windows ME. Way to go apple.
16GB, 2TB, 15″, Pro 460
3 – 4 hours battery and random crashes, I think I must have a hardware fault.
I hate making negative posts, especially about something I’ve just bought, but I feel like I made a mistake buying the new MBPro.
I had started to feel frustrated with Apple at the time it took to get a new model to market, part of me was nagging me to switch back to Windows10 (BASH + GUI / Adobe) is the main reason I use OSX; I saw the release and convinced myself that sticking with Apple was the way forward.
Right now though, I think I should have made the leap back to Windows.
Hi Danielle, I’ve the same configurations, but not fully tested yet. I’ll use with Adobe. I have hope, and for now I’m trusting that the problems will be solved.
After consistently getting around 4 hours I decided to return my 15″ MBP with TouchBar after a couple of weeks of use, the poor battery life was just too problematic for me to be stuck with such a computer for the next few years. My usage during this period was not high-performance related, I was basically using the iWork apps, Apple Mail, and Safari. I do use iCloud Drive heavily, though, and I’m storing about 500GB in the cloud.
I generally don’t take Consumer Reports all that seriously, and I don’t like to bash my favorite company, but Apple definitely has a serious problem here with its new MacBook Pros. Until they acknowledge or solve this (hopefully software-based) problem, I’ve been telling all my friends to stay away from the new MBPs.
Sadly the battery life on my new MacBook Pro 15″ is disappointing. I haven’t had time to be systematic about figuring out which apps are draining the fastest but I’m definitely getting less time that my good ol’ 2013 MacBook Pro. It died of an unfortunate and massive coffee spill.
With Safari open to about 16 tabs, Mail, Photoshop and Bridge open but not actively being used I get 4.5 hrs. 100% to 6% in less than five hours. It’s disheartening to begin an email with 24% battery life and end it two minutes later with 21%. Apple is replacing mine b/c of other issues but if the battery situation is the same as this machine I’ll give it back to them. I bought ~10, I got ~4.5. No bueno.
I’m really trying hard to like my new MacBook Pro (13” Touchbar, 500 GB – 8 GB) but it makes it really difficult. I don’t want to start with the ports, but battery life sucks. 5-6 hrs only with regular browsing. Frustrating and disappointing.