2016 macbook pro 15" with touch bar poor battery life

It's a known issue. MacBook Pro 15" 2016 has average to poor battery life.

I was getting 3.5–4.5 hours on mine with moderate workload.

Finally just gave up and returned it to Apple, because of performance, battery life and annoying touch bar.

Hey, I had a similar problem with my MBP 13 touch bar and I had a 3hrs of battery to run even when it was fully charged but after a few search and readings about the MBP I found a way of correcting it and is simple.

All you need to do is to perform the SMC on the MBP.

1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Unplug the MagSafe or USB-C power adapter from your computer.
3. Using the built-in keyboard, press Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the keyboard, then press the power button at the same time. Hold these keys and the power button for 10 seconds.
4. Release all keys, then press the power button again to turn on your Mac.

I did exactly this and I'm having 11hrs 13mins at 100% charge. I hope this works for u also.

Owula Nii...the way that you're describing the process of resetting the System Management Controller the computer would be disconnected from an external power source the entire time (which is different than how LidoShuffling has described it here). For whatever reason the 'power connected' way hasn't worked for me. I’m not sure why but unfortunately it looks like I'll be returning my MBP.

I imagine that most of you have by now seen that for the first time in the history of Apple's MacBook line Consumer Reports is declining to give it a 'Recommended' rating because of the battery issue.

http://www.consumerreports.org/laptops/macbook-pros-fail-to-earn-consumer-report s-recommendation/

This problem is so odd. I have the 13" MacBook Pro with touch bar, but it isn't browsing that kills the battery. In fact, I get great battery life simply browsing the web or using Microsoft office applications. However, when I do anything graphically intensive, like gaming, battery life drops from 100% to the low battery warning in 1-2 hours. It's quite dreadful. Apparently after talking with Apple, this appears to be a software issue that they hope to patch up with a future update. Cause for concern though as many of us may be outside of the return policy January 8th.

But what he is talking about is different from what I'm recommending. Well I tried it and indeed it worked for me u can try it and u will be surprise.

First a clean install of 10.12.1 would fix it, said the Apple Helpdesk. Then we had to wait for 10.12.2. Now people have to hope for yet another software fix? It's obvious: they haven't got a clue. Not only Consumer Reports find this machine mediocre because of the battery problems, also Apple authorities like Bloomberg and Mosberg. This is the new Apple, I'm afraid. Ditching the Lucida Grande as a system font a few years ago, but not having the new font ready. Releasing the Apple TV4 but not having an app to go with it. Ditching the headphone jack on the iPhone 7 but needing another three months to release the wireless earbuds. Releasing a MacBook Pro but not being able to deliver it with the battery that is needed to power a machine like this. They're missing internal deadlines constantly and don't fix it, but instead release half baked or compromised products. As I said here before: as a consumer I'm very disappointed, as a stock owner I'm deeply worried.

Let me join the fray and say that I'm having the same problem with my new 15" MacBook Pro. I'm lucky if I get 4 hours of battery. This has to be a software or firmware issue, or a conflict with something migrated over from my early 2010 15" MacBook Pro.

I, too, will contact Apple Support and see if they can offer any help, but I'm not hopeful. Those guys work from scripts and knowledge bases and aren't in the same league with Genius Bar employees.

Clearly a disappointment for those of us who counted on extended battery life as an expected feature of this new MacBook Pro. But unlike many others in this post, I'm very happy with my new computer. I love the new features and find it very speedy and efficient. I, like many others, just need to solve this battery issue.

Read this for more info, and possibly a reason to bring it in for repair if they won't accept it for refund/repair: 2016 MacBook Pro Denied Recommendation From Consumer Reports Due to Battery Life Inconsistencies

For me, battery life has been reasonable. I did have to pay attention to some legacy applications that unnecessarily forced the dGPU into use for a pure text application. I used gfxCardStatus to monitor which graphics system was in use. Examples for me were Keyboard Maestro and SuperDuper!. The former is fixed in a later release; the latter is still an issue. Fortunately SD is used only when connected to the charger. The other thing I noticed is that some web sites cause the dGPU to be turned on. Others then turn it off. I suspect a lot of the variability here is due to Safari's underlying webcontent code.

So a short term solution may be to use a monitoring program like gfxCardStatus to identify any running services that may be unintentionally and unnecessarily causing the dGPU to be engaged. dGPU seems to drain the battery considerably faster than iGPU.

Of course, this can not be the issue for configurations that use iGPU's only.

John, I too have gfxCardStatus 2.3, but I notice it won't let me switch to Integrated Only. I can only choose Discrete Only or Dynamic Switching. You are probably right about the GPU contributing to this issue, but Apple didn't say that the battery life would be 10 hours if you used basic stuff and much less if you use the Discrete graphics processor.

Also, there's a huge difference between 4 hours of battery life and the claimed 10 hours.

Good insight on your part. I'll keep experimenting as well and hope to hear from Apple with a fix. My hunch is there is a legacy driver or piece of software that's causing this problem, e.g., SMC Firmware Update that came over with Migration Assistant but was intended for my old early-2010 MacBook Pro. I'm probably wrong about this particular piece of software, but you get the idea.

That is acknowledged as a bug in the current version for the Open-Source gfxcardstatus, and the developer has confessed he does not have time to fix it right now.

There is a fork off the main build by steveschow available that seems to fix that problem. He provides a finished .app for direct download -- you do not have to compile anything.

https://github.com/steveschow/gfxCardStatus/releases

.

Thanks, Grant. Just downloaded it and have limited the GPU to integrated only. Let's see if that makes any difference.

I have the exact same issue - only really just got around to properly testing everything so have also gone beyond the 14 days. Lucky if I get 4 hours & god help me if I use anything remotely hungry like the music software I actually bought it for.

Does anyone know where we stand in terms of receiving a full refund? I spent an absolute fortune on this thing & am getting the same battery as my old 2012 model it replaced.

Brand new MacBook Pro 2016 15", 2.9, 460 Radeon, 1 TB.

Tests with discrete graphics.

Playing Dirt 3:

1 hour and 10 minutes.

Too complicated?

"for" loop on Matlab that counts numbers from 1 to 1E9 (SINGLE core, the discrete graphics is the default choice when you use Matlab):

1 hour and 10 minutes.

With Intel graphics I get the already mentioned and poor 5 hours of simple continuous browsing (no videos).

(How the **** do people get 10 hours or more?!?!?! Seriously.....I barely interacted with the machine and still got those numbers.....)

No Dropbox, No "photos" synchronisation, no indexing, etc.

I'm desperate....I really need a new computer NOW....I can't go back to windows.....I really really can't.........

Bennett76...

I'm under the impression that with Apple's holiday extended return period in effect we have until the 8th for returns.