Consumer Reports has responded to our comment piece on its surprising battery test results for the 2016 MacBook Pro, stating that it stands by its findings.
I observed that the high-end numbers seemed hard to believe, hitting almost double the battery-life claimed by Apple, and I wondered whether some flaw in the test regimen had led to erroneous results. I emailed the organization suggesting that it might like to repeat the tests, but Consumer Reports’ director of electronics testing Maria Rerecich has replied saying that she sees no need to do so …
Apple, too, was surprised by the results, Phil Schiller saying that they do not match the company’s extensive lab tests nor field data. Rerecich confirmed to me that the organization is working with Apple to try to find an explanation for the highly unusual results.
In this case, we don’t believe re-running the tests are warranted for several reasons. First, as we point out in our original article, experiencing very high battery life on MacBooks is not unusual for us – in fact we had a model in our comparative tests that got 19 hours. Second, we confirmed our brightness with three different meters, so we feel confident in our findings using this equipment. Finally, we monitor our tests very closely. There is an entry logged every minute, so we know from these entries that the app worked correctly.
Our own video rundown, which exactly replicated Apple’s own test conditions, achieved 8 hours 10 minutes and 46 seconds. In light, real-life use, I’ve been experiencing around 7 hours. Our reader poll found that the largest group of readers was reporting five hours or less.
We are working collaboratively to understand the lower battery life findings and will report back to our readers if and when there is an update.
While Apple won’t be concerned about the high-end claims, it will be worried about the fact that, for the first time ever, an influential consumer organization is not recommending the MacBook Pro.
