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New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

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Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#181
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at least for professionals? Professional whats? Executives, salespeople, real estate agents, pediatricians, beer distributors - all of these people are professionals, and all of them can and do benefit from smaller and lighter computing power. Clearly your idea of a professional is someone who is chained to a desk writing code or processing complex 3D graphics. No question those are professional uses as well, but t…

Please explain to me how complicated and demanding is the workflow of these "salespeople, real estate agents, pediatricians and beer distributors (!)" that you talk about? What exactly is stopping them from getting the smaller 12" MacBook? Or the infinite other ultrabooks available now? Something called the "Pro", and something that costs a pretty penny, shouldn't just cater to the ones out and about and only needing…

> What exactly is stopping them from getting the smaller 12" MacBook?

Screen size. I'd personally love a 15" fanless MacBook.

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#182

I ordered the 2016 MBP w/touchbar and had it completely die within 2 weeks. Just came back from lunch and it wouldn't power on. I don't think this has been as widespread of an issue as low battery performance. It was a bummer because I have been using macs for quite a while and really like to develop on them but now I am having doubts on getting another one. Would probably prefer a MacPro if they ever updated them.

[deleted]

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#183

> Reducing mA (power draw) rather than increasing mAh (power storage) is the most effective way to increase battery life, which would go a long way to explain manufacturers’ obsession with thinness (which, in electrical terms often directly translates efficiency (i.e., smallness)) in their devices rather than just giving us something that endures. I think it goes the other way; the manufacturers' obsession with thinn…

I do care about that extra 1mm, when it comes to a latptop. I think most people who buy a laptop to use it on the go care about that. To be entirely fair I care more about the weight reduction than the 1mm.

For instance the new MacBook Pro 13" is my first MacBook Pro, simply because it's the first that is thin/light enough for me to carry around. Before that I had a MacBook Air from 2011. The MacBook Pro is vastly more powerful, but to write code it doesn't help much. It's not like SublimeText was slow on the MacBook Air. It's however night and days when it comes to browsing the web...

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#184

> Reducing mA (power draw) rather than increasing mAh (power storage) is the most effective way to increase battery life, which would go a long way to explain manufacturers’ obsession with thinness (which, in electrical terms often directly translates efficiency (i.e., smallness)) in their devices rather than just giving us something that endures. I think it goes the other way; the manufacturers' obsession with thinn…

I actually do appreciate a thinner, lighter machine, but with phones and laptops they're at the point where I'd happily take a few extra mm in order to get something more rugged with significantly better battery life.

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#185

I love the new 2016 MBP, and after using it think most of the purported issues are BS. That said, there is one very real issue that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere: because of how thin they are, many of the minor issues that could previously be fixed in the Apple Store now require sending it out. I had an intermittently working key on my keyboard and took it in for something I assumed would take half an hour to fix…

You can't say you love the new MBP and that you recommend that anyone that buys one has a backup computer in the same comment...

The need for a backup computer is related to Apple's service, which is (currently) bad. I'm not defending that, but it's different than the product itself.

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they'll release a 15" version of the 12" soon enough. The point still stands: if Apple is the only ones making Macs, they need to cater to those who would prefer workstations or gaming rigs as the highest end "Pro" market. If it needs a separate graphics card, it's not for Excel...

Let's be brutally realistic. They don't "need" to... We just really want them to.

Time will tell that.

They made their brand exactly by caring about the people they are throwing away now. It's not obvious if their brand will sustain itself without those people.

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mac laptops these days are built with backlights strong enough to compete with daylight. In typical working conditions, 100% is way overkill. For max long term comfort, your display should be no brighter than the ambient light levels. Otherwise--if the display is way brighter--your pupils will have to contract when you look at the screen, and dilate when you look away. Your pupils are controlled by muscles and like a…

In a dark room I find the minimum brightness much too bright. Weird feature to wish for, but I think they need to crank the minimum brightness down by at least 25%.

You can hold option-shift while adjusting the brightness (or volume) to get quarter increments. However it looks like it doesn't have any effect below the 1st level for brightness.

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does slow charge, i use my external Anker Powercore Plus battery pack with it, while its not able to charge it while running because the MBP draws more Power than the Anker Battery can output it EXTENDS its battery lifetime very noticeably.

While that'd work, I'd advise against it as I feel like that'd needlessly heat the battery and reduce its life.

No, when providing supplemental power the battery current is lower and therefore has less heating. This will extend the life of the battery.

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#190
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a dark room I find the minimum brightness much too bright. Weird feature to wish for, but I think they need to crank the minimum brightness down by at least 25%.

You can hold option-shift while adjusting the brightness (or volume) to get quarter increments. However it looks like it doesn't have any effect below the 1st level for brightness.

If you open System Preferences, it has a handy little brightness slider. Just Option- opens the right pane.
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