Macbook Pro 15 - Only 2 hours battery life!

[roosevelt]

Hi,

 

I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014), and for a while I have been noticing my battery life is significantly lower than advertised. Here are some of the things I usually do on battery:

 

1. Write articles, books, blog posts, etc.

2. Surf the internet, etc.

3. May be watch movies or something.

 

When I run Google Chrome browser, it takes up a lot of power. So, I switch to Safari when I

[Argi]

Do you see anything chewing up the CPU in Activity Monitor that would explain it?

[Joni_78]

How long should it last? I've been thinking of buying one but i've been wondering how long does MBP 15 battery last when display is on 100% brightness.

[+devHead Subscriber²]

You're surprised? 

[123456789A]

If you have the brightness up, this is pretty normal McBook battery life.

 

Mine was the same way. I know they advertise really generous battery life but those are in optimal conditions with the screen brightness turned down.

[roosevelt]

Thanks for your feedback all. Little bit of Googling pointed me to 'Calibrating the better in a portable Mac'. I did everything the article said yesterday, and to my surprise, my MacBook now says it has 5:30 hours remaining!! I gained 3.5 hours of battery life just doing this. Not sure what calibrating really does but it did boost it up significantly. Apparently, the article says that we should calibrate the battery right after purchase and every two weeks. The remaining battery life is increasing as I'm writing this reply . Hopefully it will hit 8 hrs

[adrynalyne]

Thanks for your feedback all. Little bit of Googling pointed me to 'Calibrating the better in a portable Mac'. I did everything the article said yesterday, and to my surprise, my MacBook now says it has 5:30 hours remaining!! I gained 3.5 hours of battery life just doing this. Not sure what calibrating really does but it did boost it up significantly. Apparently, the article says that we should calibrate the battery right after purchase and every two weeks. The remaining battery life is increasing as I'm writing this reply . Hopefully it will hit 8 hrs

It might have said that, but what was the real world performance?

[roosevelt]

It might have said that, but what was the real world performance?

 

So far it's going great! Before calibrating the battery, it would deplete very quickly. The charge remaining now says 7.5 hours! All I'm doing is basic surfing, checking mails and some writing. Let's see if it stays up to 7 hours as it calculated. And the brightness is set to 2 ticks above the mid-point, I guess somewhere around 70%.

[adrynalyne]

So far it's going great! Before calibrating the battery, it would deplete very quickly. The charge remaining now says 7.5 hours! All I'm doing is basic surfing, checking mails and some writing. Let's see if it stays up to 7 hours as it calculated. And the brightness is set to 2 ticks above the mid-point, I guess somewhere aound 70%.

Yes, keep us updated.

 

I am curious.

[#Michael]

Two hour battery life is completely unacceptable and is not what a macbook pro is known for.  I have a mid-2013 rMBP and mine routinely gets 6 on a full charge.

 

I have time machine, crashplan, teamviewer, sophos a/v, onedrive, 1password mini, wifi, and bluetooth all running in the menu bar.  Not to mention any programs being used.

 

If you are only getting 2 hours then you have a much bigger issue going on.

[ATLien_0]

Chrome is one of the biggest power hogs for some reason on a mac, thats part of it. 

Do you have graphics switching mode turned on so it switches to the on board video on battery? 

 

My 2011 MBP ranges from 4.5 hours of battery to 2hrs depending on what I'm doing and still on the original battery 

[BajiRav]

Avoid using chrome, if it's anything like Windows - it will just kill battery.

[Joni_78]

How long does 2015 MBP battery last if you use it on full brightness? For example when writing and listening musoc from Spotify.

[iGandalf]

Depends on what app you're using to write with. I usually have my display nearly up all the way and just browsing with Safari I get at least 6 but then again I usually have a bunch of other stuff opened. Brightness is not going to be your friend if youre wanting long battery life

 

https://support.apple.com/kb/SP719?locale=en_US

Battery and Power4

• Up to 9 hours wireless web
• Up to 9 hours iTunes movie playback
• Testing conducted by Apple in April 2015 using preproduction 2.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7–based 15-inch MacBook Pro systems with 256GB of flash storage and 16GB of RAM. Testing conducted by Apple in February 2015 using preproduction 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 13-inch MacBook Pro units (wireless web test and HD movie playback test) and preproduction 2.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 13-inch MacBook Pro units (standby test). The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The HD movie playback test measures battery life by playing back HD 1080p content with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The standby test measures battery life by allowing a system, connected to a wireless network and signed in to an iCloud account, to enter standby mode with Safari and Mail applications launched and all system settings left at default. Battery life varies by use and configuration. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information.