MacBook Pros Battery Life Problems Cost Lack of Recommendation from Consumer Reports

By Precious Gem de Peralta
13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
Consumer Reports has not given the new MacBook Pros a "recommended" rating. Based on the evaluation done by the non-profit organization, the latest Apple laptops suffered on its "highly" inconsistent battery life based on the three consecutive they conducted. salchuiwt via Flickr

The review of Consumer Reports on Apple’s new MacBook Pros has just been released. Unfortunately, the battery woe of the latest Apple laptops has cost the lack of a recommendation from the non-profit organization. The Consumer Reports is not the only that has taken noticed of the MacBook Pros’ battery problem. In fact, a lot of users have also expressed the same thing.

According to the Business Insider, this is actually the first time for an Apple device to not receive a “recommended” rating from the Consumer Reports. Based on their evaluation, the new MacBook Pro laptops have done well when it comes to performance and display quality. However, the lab tests also revealed the inconsistency of the device’s battery life. The Consumer Reports used the 13-inch model without the Touch Bar, the 13-inch model with a Touch Bar and the 15-inch model. They were all purchased from a retail store.

They did three consecutive tests that involved downloading a series of 10 web pages sequentially and setting the laptop’ screen to remain on. It turned out that the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar lasted for 16 hours in the first trial, 12.75 hours in the second and only 3.75 hours in the third. As for the 13-inch model without the Touch Bar, it worked for as much as 19.5 hours and at least 4.5 hours in the next trial. The battery life for the 15-inch model was within 8 to 18.5 hours.

Apparently, the Consumer Reports had already informed Apple of the test results. However, the tech company declined to comment. They only said in an emailed statement “Any customer who has a question about their Mac or its operation should contact AppleCare.”

It should be noted that Apple has recently rolled out a MacOS 10.12.2 Sierra software update. Those who are using the new MacBook Pros will no longer find the “time remaining” battery indicator. Instead, the new battery life status will display a percentage of the remaining battery life, according to 9to5Mac. Apple mentioned that this change will lead to a more accurate prediction of how long your battery will last. The Apple Insider reported that this might have been driven by complaints of the new MacBook Pro’s short battery life. The company previously pointed out that the problem is not with the hardware.

The battery life is one of a few issues on the new MacBook Pro. Such review on Apple’s latest laptops might be the reason why more people are switching to other devices such as Microsoft's Surface Book. In fact, Microsoft said that the success of their Surface models was somewhat caused by the “disappointment of the new MacBook Pro”. Microsoft boasted on its website that November became their best month for Surface sales. The tech giant also has a trade-in program for MacBook.

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