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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

#171

Post by tinus_hn »

dperfect wrote: post #41

> 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…

Typically companies produce products that people want to buy. A vocal number of people on the internet keeps saying that everybody wants laptops with a bigger battery instead of thin laptops. Companies are producing thin laptops instead of big laptops with big batteries though, because that is what people are buying. So in reality, people do not want the bigger laptop with the big battery, they want the thin laptop.

If you want bigger laptops, go out and buy the biggest one you can find. If all these people that say they want it do that, you can be sure the market will be flooded with laptops with a big battery.

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#172

Post by tinus_hn »

Klover wrote: post #131
exergy wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>Something called the "Pro", and something that costs a pretty penny, shouldn't just cater to the ones out and about and only needing Excel. Do you know of that instant update feature in Excel? It automatically updates cells when you alter one, up to a certain performance point. My MacBook (non anything) stops doing so much faster than when I use a desktop. When I do process a line of heavier formulae I do have to al…

> Do you know of that instant update feature in Excel? It automatically updates cells when you alter one, up to a certain performance point. My MacBook (non anything) stops doing so much faster than when I use a desktop.

Sorry but that has to be one of the most ridiculous benchmarks I've seen in a long time.

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#173

Post by lukevers »

cthalupa wrote: post #13
patryn20 wrote: post #9

Based on my (admittedly unusual) workloads, the effective charge time of the 2016 is awful. I already only get 4-5 hours out of a 2014 MBP. I bought a 2016 and only managed 3 1/2 hours. Maybe they've improved that with some software fixes, but it's still a non starter. So I returned it. I know I'm not a typical user, but I get much better battery life (with lower productivity) out of my windows laptop. Which was not…

Are you controlling for the screen having a higher maximum brightness? I thought I was getting much worse battery life on my new MBP compared to my old one, but then I paid attention to screen brightness - when I level match the screens to the same level of brightness, I get the same battery life as my older one. I'm used to just jamming the screen to 100% brightness, so I've had to get used to keep it around 70% or…

Same here. It was weird at first, but now I almost always use ~70-80% screen brightness now. Going full brightness starts to hurt if you're in a dark room too.

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#174

Post by tqkxzugoaupvwqr »

JamesBaxter wrote: post #151
Alex3917 wrote: post #24

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...

Stockholm syndrome.

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#175

Post by ethagknight »

akvadrako wrote: post #155
wlesieutre wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious if anyone else had constant sleep/wake failures? I otherwise love the computer, but when I sleep it overnight it inevitably shuts down and has to restart in the morning. I'm sending in the crash report daily just in case they actually use them and maybe it'll get fixed. Not a huge deal since computers boot so fast and I always save things, but it's still annoying.

It could be due to a specific USB device. I had the issue once with what seemed to be a USB-C to USB-A adapter and a high power draw device. Many others have reported issues with external drives.

More anecdata because facts are sparse... My 15" late 2016 MBP will not properly wake from sleep when I use my Dell USB 3.0 dock. I need to test further but it may be more directly due to the monitor plugged into the dock.

EDIT: on the topic of the article, my battery life is great, the whole computer is great EXCEPT for having to keep activity monitor open to keep an eye on which GPU I'm using. the discrete GPU will burn through a whole charge in 3.5 hrs. Some apps will call for it without actually needing it, like reading a pdf in Adobe Acrobat. If I kill off any apps calling the dGPU, battery life is fine, albeit not exciting. I keep the full MS Office suite running, Google Earth Pro, a dozen or so tabs open. Frustrating but hoping it will be fixed on a software update.

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#176

Post by tqkxzugoaupvwqr »

40acres wrote: post #3

Amazing news for someone who's about to pull the trigger on the non-touch bar 2016 MBP. I considered many other options but couldn't find a company with similar build quality and reputation for high quality in the mobile workstation space. My only concern was the battery, it seems to perform at a high level.

Do not mistake power efficiency for long battery life. Power efficiency doesn’t mean all tasks use little power and you will always have a long battery life. Apple’s power efficiency shines in idle mode. When you put light but constant strain on the machine, e.g. with IDEs and compile-on-save, battery life goes down quickly, no matter how efficient.

Choose wisely. A MacBook Pro (Mid 2014) still has roughly the same performance as a 2016 model but is much, much cheaper. I recommend you pick a used 2014 or 2015 model in good condition. Saves you a lot of money (> $1000).

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#177

Post by losvedir »

Interesting, and nice to hear a little good news for once about the new MBP's, heh.

I actually am thinking about upgrading my old MBA, and have considered the non-touchbar MBP. At this point, though, I'm not sure if I should be waiting for Kaby Lake. Does anyone have stats on how much that should improve performance or battery life? It's likely the next revision of MBP, maybe later this year (?), will support the newer processors, right?

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#178

Post by cracoucax »

tinus_hn wrote: post #172
Klover wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Something called the "Pro", and something that costs a pretty penny, shouldn't just cater to the ones out and about and only needing Excel. Do you know of that instant update feature in Excel? It automatically updates cells when you alter one, up to a certain performance point. My MacBook (non anything) stops doing so much faster than when I use a desktop. When I do process a line of heavier formulae I do have to al…

> Do you know of that instant update feature in Excel? It automatically updates cells when you alter one, up to a certain performance point. My MacBook (non anything) stops doing so much faster than when I use a desktop. Sorry but that has to be one of the most ridiculous benchmarks I've seen in a long time.

It's not a benchmark, he's just saying that even excel users can have a need for powerful computers too

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#179

Post by [deleted] »

dperfect wrote: post #41

> 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…

[deleted]

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#180

Post by bluedino »

nxc18 wrote: post #68
djrogers wrote: post #64

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…

I see no reason why any of those people benefit from the slightly thinner form of the new mbp than they would benefit from better battery life. Everyone wants batteries that last longer. How often did you look at your last generation mbp and wish it was thinner?

>> How often did you look at your last generation mbp and wish it was thinner?

Never. Not once. I almost found it comical how thick the old MacBook Pro was to my Retina MacBook Pro. Then after using a new one for a while and going back to my once-thin rMBP 13", it feels as thick as the old generation.

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