Facing Criticism, Apple Axes Battery Estimate from MacBook Pro

After some users said they were getting less-than-expected battery life on Apple's new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, the company will be removing its "time remaining" battery life estimate from macOS. According to a report from 9to5Mac, an internal investigation revealed no hardware problems, and it's simply the estimate that's incorrect.

"Apple investigated the battery life complaints extensively over the last couple of weeks and came to the conclusion that batteries in the new MacBook Pros are behaving as expected," 9to5Mac's Jordan Kahn wrote about the internal review.

Apple's website suggests that the laptop gets up to 10 hours of battery life (and still says that of this writing), though that's under very specific conditions that the company hasn't disclosed. 

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According to the report, Apple believes the estimates didn't work well with the latest low-power CPUs and the iCloud syncing features in the latest version of macOS Sierra. In particular, it had trouble predicting battery life as the processor switches between performance and low-power mode and as iCloud syncs all of a user's data in the background. 

The update should come to Macs today. Apple hasn't said whether it is reworking the battery estimate feature or if it's gone for good.

On the Laptop Mag Battery Test, which involves browsing the web continuously over Wi-Fi, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar lasted 8 hours and 48 minutes, the 15-inch Touch Bar model endured for 10:32, and the 13-inch model sans Touch Bar lasted 9:50.

via 9to5Mac

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