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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

#71

Post by qeternity »

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?

These people are lugging their laptop around all day, from meeting to meeting, or airport to airport. If you can keep battery life constant at ca. 10 hours, which covers an extended work day, then beyond that most people would prefer to have lighter/slimmer/cooler (less hot) devices than one that runs for 20 hours.

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#72

Post by jordache »

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…

Three fingers drag is buggy on the new trackpad.

Control strip is buggy, especially when using external monitors. The software is not able to adequately deal with external monitors being connected and disconnected throughout the day.

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#73

Post by michaelbuckbee »

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…

I can only imagine there has been some study of how long between charges people go on average/median. I imagine most people aren't going all day without any chance to charge (the world seems to have gotten more charger friendly) and there are probably lots of weirdos like me who work from home and never take their MBPs anywhere.

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#74

Post by [deleted] »

nsxwolf wrote: post #51
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…

I recently carried an older 13 inch MacBook Pro around to a bunch of meetings in the city. I could not believe how heavy it started to feel after about a mile of total walking. I welcome powerful laptops that are as light as possible. Where are people working that they need a full day of untethered charge? I've never been to a client that didn't provide me with a power outlet. 4 or 5 hours of real world use for a dev…

[deleted]

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#75

Post by qeternity »

scarface74 wrote: post #70
M_Grey wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then, irony of ironies, people put their ultra-thin devices in cases to protect them, carry multiple batteries for them, or external charging bricks, and my favorite... the oversized extended battery. Throws hands up in air

I can't speak for laptops but I can speak for the utility of having a thin phone and a battery pack that makes it thicker and heavier than it would be if Apple just included a bigger battery: I've only used my battery pack four or five times in the year and a half I've had my 6s. Most of the time I'm not far away from a plug - either at home, in my car, at work, etc. But when I travel, a slightly bigger battery would…

Or just have an external battery pack that powers any of your USB devices. As you say, this represents maybe 5% of my usage. Most of the time I don't worry about battery, but sure enjoy having a slim phone.

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#76

Post by bbgm »

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?

Often enough. I've stopped traveling with my MBP in favor of a 12" iPad pro. Likewise, on a day full of meetings, my MBP stays at my desk connected to a giant monitor and I walk around with the iPad Pro. I am not alone from what I have observed.

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#77

Post by philliphaydon »

retreatguru wrote: post #48
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…

Precisely this. If the 2016 MacBook Pro I bought had been a tad thicker I would not have noticed. But I returned because of the dismal battery life under moderate load. Much worse than the previous generation. Did they even test this machine in the wild?

The few people I know who upgraded from their 2012/2015 model to 2016 have complained about battery being worse :/

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#78

Post by memco »

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…

> Why not go for some truly earth-shattering battery life on one of these laptops?

Interesting to note that there are reports that there was a failed battery design that would have given these latest models even more battery[0]. However, I think your suggestion is more reasonable. If there's less space being used for components, fill it with more battery. Then they could possibly have offered the 32GB of ram they couldn't offer due to battery concerns[1].

[0]https://www.macrumors.com/2016/12/20/larger-battery-gold-col...

[1]https://www.macrumors.com/2016/11/21/phil-schiller-32gb-ram-...

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#79

Post by camdenlock »

When I bring my 2016 MBP into the office, it runs out of battery near the end of the day, and I have to plug it in for those final 2 or 3 hours. Very satisfied.

My colleague with a new Surface Book has been shaking his fist at me, wishing he hadn't listened to the FUD and left the Applesphere. Apparently he gets frustratingly bad battery life on his SB. (To be fair, though, the SB's display ejection hardware is just plain cool...)

We're programmers, BTW, writing server-side software mainly using Go, running several ancillary services locally on our dev machines using Docker to ease the development process. I'm thoroughly pleased with my 2016 MBP's battery life considering these workloads.

Re: New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining

#80

Post by var_chris »

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.
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