Battery Life on MacBook Pro 16.

[matram]

My 'problem' is that I finish at work. Close my MB16 and go home.
Next day I open it up, battery is at 86%. So where is this 14% gone?

This is complicated, but RAM will need to be refreshed even when the MBP is suspended. With low-power RAM LP-DDR3 this cost about 3% per night, so Apple guaranteed one month before the battery was empty on older computers.

But Intel did not support more than 16 GB of LP-DDR3 so when people started complaining about this limit Apple had to switch to normal DDR4 which draws more power when the computer is suspended. I have no data on this powe consumption, anyone knows?

On top of that the MBP will regularily wake up to check mail and more, so it is actually running with the lid closed. You can disable ”power nap” and also check what is waking the computer.

 

[Hjupter Cerrud]

Hi, my refurbished MBP 16 came with 86% then after updating to 10.15.5 it when up 96-98% which is ok but since I'm running Unity all day while I'm working my battery doesn't last much some times I get 4~ hours with turbo boost disabled without that is around 1.5 - 2 hours I'm trying to find ways to save as much battery as I can so I was wondering if the current resolution I'm using consumes more battery than the default one, I'm currently using the biggest one does that affect battery too?

 

[Alex W.]

yes that is normal. New Macs tend to do a lot of background tasks that drain the battery faster. give it a week and you'll see an increase in battery life!

what exactly takes a week to optimize ?

 

[otozuz]

I get 2.5 hours 😒 with these apps open :

• Sketch (graphic design app)
• Mail
• Slack
• Music
• Whatsapp

 

[kaans]

I just got mine, the unit died before I could set it up, PTSD cause, lol, anyway, turned out to be a depleted battery, I hope it ends up being ok, but while it's setting up, stumbled onto this thread

Edit: It seems the unit was from 2019-12-09 - 6 cycles from the start - I'd have hoped for a newer one, but it's ok, coconut battery says 92% of design health :/ - I hope that's not accurate, my 2017 with swollen battery seems to be at 93.5% - but at this point, it's life I guess - I'll add to the data here if anything is abnormal

 

[kaans]

The capacity on mine normalised, but I think it just drains 10% in ~10 hours when it's just sleeping, Power Nap / Wake etc. are all off

Other than that, it's regular subpar battery time still, 1% lost every minute doing nothing, with an external monitor that is

 

[ModernHandsUp]

Battery Life issue on MacBook Pro 16 finally solved (>11hours)
i9 2.4GHz 8core | 64GB DDR4 | 5500M 8GB | 4TB

I purchased my MBP 16 on 19.02.2020, received it on 21.02.2020 and then the testing began.
After a performance analysis with Cinebench from Maxon I was pretty excited about my new machine. This impression disappeared after my first battery testing which ended with around 2 h 14 min. One of the main reasons I bought the new Macbook was the announced long battery life. After nearly going crazy searching the web for any solution I ended up on this forum here, because many were describing the same issues. So I spent the next days reading ALL posts on this forum entry and continue doing live tests. With live test I mean: battery fully charged, being unplugged from the power supply, having several tabs on the internet browser open (always around 15), running soundcloud constantly (just muting while using youtube), brightness level on 50%, unchecked all options in Energy Saver Settings (except Automatic graphics switching). I neither trusted the built in Activity Monitor alone nor any other 3rd party app. So I documented everything by using the actual time in combination with the data from Activity Monitor.

Meanwhile I was aware of a couple things:

• give your Macbook Pro some extra time for indexing of Spotlight
• try to avoid Chrome, because there is something going on in the background which drains a lot battery
• turn on Automatic graphics switching (Energy Saver Settings), otherwise the discrete graphic card is permanently on

I remembered several people in here and on other forums were talking about PRAM and SMC reset, when facing this battery issue. Because I am just a user and not a IT specialist, I was not sure if this is going to harm the hardware. So after several days (because of the indexing) I called the local Apple Experts. After my description about my fast battery drain, they were a bit stumped, because they haven't met this problem yet with the new MBP16. They advised me to do the PRAM reset 3 times in a row (just to be sure) and the SMC reset once and they assured me that the resets will not harm the MacBook and its hardware at all:

• 3 x PRAM
  

  Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

  If one or more settings stored in NVRAM don't work as expected on an Intel-based Mac, resetting NVRAM might help.

  support.apple.com
• 1 x SMC
  

  Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

  The SMC is responsible for managing power on your Mac. Resetting it can resolve certain uncommon issues related to power or thermal management.

  support.apple.com

Now I started to see some improvement and the next 4 tests results were around :

• 100% until 6% in 5h 46min
• 100% until 5% in 5h 40min

Hmmm...I was kind of happy, but I was planning to use this machine for visiting my customers and doing presentations for them. I made the calculations: 8 hours would be awesome and would carry me safely through out a busy working day on the road. So I was getting ready to visit the local Apple Store and made a list of some MBP16 users which are getting these expecting long battery life: macrumor posts #92, #94, #99, #150, #151, #192, #195, #211, #230, #236

I want to do one final testing, because I just was reading that Safari is better optimized for Macbooks than all other browsers. I was switching to Brave, because Chrome already gave me a lot of pain while working on Windows. So I copied all URL's form the Brave tabs into Safari (18 tabs) and closed the Brave browser. Now started my final live testing as described at the beginning of my post. What happened now made my day:

• 100% until 5% in 11h 44min (27min Remaining Time)

Finally now I know, this is truly not a defective unit and Apple kept their promise - I am very pleased.

I have never ever made a post on any forum before, I just took what I needed and then left. But when I am seeing how many users are confronted with the same issue regarding battery life of MBP16 and not one post contains all solution approaches in one, I thought I give it a try and share my experience which finally solved my battery life issue:

• PRAM reset (3 times in a row)
  

  Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

  If one or more settings stored in NVRAM don't work as expected on an Intel-based Mac, resetting NVRAM might help.

  support.apple.com
• SMC reset (just once)
  

  Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

  The SMC is responsible for managing power on your Mac. Resetting it can resolve certain uncommon issues related to power or thermal management.

  support.apple.com
• only use Safari (internet browser)

Thank you to all users of this forum, who are constantly helping others.

I wish you a great day.

at which brightness are you getting 11 hours of battery?

 

[matram]

at which brightness are you getting 11 hours of battery?

Here is a link to an old post of mine Battery life on 13 and 15" MBP vs brightness where I measure battery life as a function of brightness, maybe it can provide some insight. As you see up to moderate brightness there is little effect on battery life.

 

[kaans]

I too am getting a satisfactory amount of battery time after the break-in, didn't calculate it, but I guess it's ~8 hours of mixed bed usage which is mostly watching Youtube/Netflix - The % drop is definitely not homogenous, after my initial hour, I usually see ~95% - which is just amazing, but after 2-3 hours, you see ~70%

After spending too much time on this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/16-macbook-pro-ghosting-smearing.2212842/ - I started using Safari too, because for some reason, if you pay tooo much attention, Chrome's video playback seems a bit fishy as well - Safari on the other hand doesn't trigger anything

But honestly, with regular usage, I didn't notice that much difference with Chrome/Safari, I use Safari only for watching stuff, and Chrome for browsing

When you don't connect an external screen, the battery life is decent, but with an external screen, it's half the battery life at best

I only hope to avoid the internal gpu failures that plagues the 16" macbook's, otherwise it seems like a liveable machine

 

[ModernHandsUp]

Yeah I suppose, cause I used only safari

did you solve the problem?

 

[Corncab44]

I'm really disappointed with the battery life on my 16 inch. Yes, safari makes it last longer, but it shouldn't die after 2.5 hours of firefox use. Ridiculous for a $3,000 computer. I went into the Apple Store and they ran one of their proprietary diagnostic tests. Battery appears to be working fine but coconut battery shows the health at 95% after just 15 cycles or so. I love the computer otherwise, but I hate that I hate that I have to use Safari and nothing else to get anything close to half of what Apple advertises for this model.

 

[kaans]

Coming from the mindset of this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/16-is-hot-noisy-with-an-external-monitor.2211747/page-97

Sadly the low battery times, high watt usage etc. are all because of the horrid AMD GPU's, or more specifically, the horrid way Apple drives them, probably to pave way for "cooler/better" ARM Macbook's they are going to release

If you see such low battery times, check the Activity Monitor > Energy tab, it's because something is engaging the dGPU, Pixelmator for example trigger is, even if nothing is open, it just at least halves the battery life if you have the app open :/

So I know it's not a solution, but finding which tab triggers the dGPU, keeping it closed, might solve the problem, and I guess if you don't have an external screen, you could just force the internal GPU to be used with SwitchResX? (I honestly have no idea how, as I avoid 3rd party modificators)

So this band-aid approach could get you the 10 hours, but it doesn't change the fact that the dGPU is guzzling power for no reason, same with the trigger happy Turbo, and we don't have an ECO mode for some reason

Edit: It seems to be gfxCardStatus: https://gfx.io/

 

[Corncab44]

I'd actually disengaged the dGPU in the terminal for use while on battery, though I may try that app instead to be sure it really is turning it off. I didn't find the difference to be massive. I don't really ever need the dGPU unless I'm plugged in, so happy to have it off.

I'm coming from Windows for many years and was expecting the power management to be more elegant.

 

[Corncab44]

wait so the 2016 mbp only gets 3-5 hours not 10?

Yes. I can maybe eek out 5-6 if I do nothing but have a single window of safari open at 40% brightness, with the dGPU manually set off. It's crap.

 

[JohnnyGo]

I never understood why people complain about battery life while plugged in to an external monitor.

The monitor needs external power hence there’s an AC outlet nearby. Why not plug in your MacBook as well ???

Battery life for me matters because I travel for work and in long meetings when setting up a long AC cord maybe possible but not desirable. In these instances I am always using my laptop screen. At most I’m driving an AirPlay presentation.

 

[kaans]

Another uneducated know-all arrived, hurray - just plug it in, problem solved

Battery life might not matter when you are stationary, but the main issue is power usage, it always matters

The actual issue here is, unnecessary power usage, waste, unnecessary wear on all components, low battery life, and so on

 

[Grohowiak]

XCode, safari (separate instances on separate desktops. 1 running video the other for browsing), pages, occasional Photoshop and I get about 7-9h on brightness at about 65% depending on how much I compile.
I bought refurbished model that shows manufacturing date as of end of March but battery manufacturing date states end of April.

 

[Corncab44]

Also tried a new i9 model and it only has slightly better life (currently deciding if I return one or both)

XCode, safari (separate instances on separate desktops. 1 running video the other for browsing), pages, occasional Photoshop and I get about 7-9h on brightness at about 65% depending on how much I compile.
I bought refurbished model that shows manufacturing date as of end of March but battery manufacturing date states end of April.

That's pretty wild. I picked up a refurbished model with a production date of January (health is already at 96% after 24 cycles) -- that one lasts no more than 4 hours generally in the use example you're giving. What is the manufacturer of your battery?

 

[Grohowiak]

Also tried a new i9 model and it only has slightly better life (currently deciding if I return one or both)


That's pretty wild. I picked up a refurbished model with a production date of January (health is already at 96% after 24 cycles) -- that one lasts no more than 4 hours generally in the use example you're giving. What is the manufacturer of your battery?

DSY according to coconutBattery.

 

[HoratioPerdu]

So am I right that this problem really hasn't been addressed?

Which is so strange, because I don't see it crop up in any of the official reviews of the laptop. Normally reviewers are "all over" false battery claims.

I'm on month 2 of my MBP 16 and I get 4-5 hours max per charge. Extremely disappointing.

 

[Pro85]

Hi all friends.
I have a basic macbook pro 16 2019 i9.
He is 3 months old.
Now I have the 94% greeting battery and 110 charging cycles.
it's normal?
Incredible how the battery decreases with
Google Chrome / YouTube

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

After 110 cycles it seems pretty normal.

 

[tivoboy]

Hi all friends.
I have a basic macbook pro 16 2019 i9.
He is 3 months old.
Now I have the 94% greeting battery and 110 charging cycles.
it's normal?
Incredible how the battery decreases with
Google Chrome / YouTube

You could try the drain it all the way down and then let it fully charge overnight. Historically, that process about once every year helped me keep my 2012 and 2015 running battery optimal. I’m not sure if the newer OS’s have better battery mgmt. To compensate for this, but if done infrequently this can be beneficial without doing any harm.

 

[nph]

I had a MBP 2017 15 inch standard version that never gave me more than 5 hours. I gave it to my son who ostly use it close to an outlet. I cant wait for Apple to produce MBP's with Axx processors that hopefully will give me a true 10h battery time at least!

 

[jbachandouris]

This thread is helping me hold off my planned upgrade.

My early 2015 rMBP 13" still gets more than 4-5 hours battery life. Granted, it's a 13 not a 16, but I never claimed it could last 10 hours yet that's what Apple is claiming here.