Apple’s newest flagship MacBook Pro laptop is getting the thumbs down from Consumer Reports due to battery life issues. While there’s some debate as to whether Consumer Reports matters to anyone anymore, there’s no doubt the publication still holds weight with some. Consumer Reports found that the MacBook Pro battery was wildly inconsistent, ranging from 4 hours to 19 hours and everything in between. Battery problems have been a hot topic surrounding the new machines, almost as soon as people started getting them.
While the battery life of the new Apple laptops has been the biggest problem, there have been other issues users are complaining about. Among them, graphics rendering and external hard drives crashing the system. All of these problems aren’t good news for Apple and as usual, the company doesn’t have much to say to the press. After their investigation, Consumer Reports contacted Apple about it and all they had to say was. “Any customer who has a question about their Mac or its operation should contact Apple Care.”
We tested three MacBook Pros: a 13-inch model with Apple’s new Touch Bar, which sits above the keyboard; a 13-inch model without the Touch Bar; and a 15-inch model. (All 15-inch MacBook Pros come with the Touch Bar.) All three machines were bought at retail, just like all products rated by Consumer Reports, from sports coupes to countertops. We do this to ensure that the models we test are identical to the ones a consumer would purchase.
The MacBook Pro battery life results were highly inconsistent from one trial to the next.
For instance, 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 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.
I just received my MacBook Pro yesterday afternoon and initial usage didn’t return what I would have liked to see out of a battery on a near $4000USD machine. While I still need to use it more to gauge just how good/bad the battery is, the first use (fully charged) gave me just over 4 hours of use. There is a definite problem here and one Apple needs to clear up quickly. Their unwillingness to interface with the press (ourselves included) doesn’t help their case either.
With so many other great Windows 10 alternatives on the market now, Apple may just find their user base shrinking. What do you think of the MacBook Pro woes? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
[button link=”http://www.consumerreports.org/laptops/macbook-pros-fail-to-earn-consumer-reports-recommendation/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: CR[/button]Last Updated on January 23, 2017.
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