Consumer Reports, one of the most important publications performing testing on laptops, said in an article posted on Twitter that Apple's new MacBook Pro has problems with inconsistent battery life. Consequently, Apple's latest Macbook is the first from the Cupertino company not to receive a favorable rating from the magazine Consumer Reports.
Apple: Consumer Reports does not recommend the Macbook Pro 2016
In the post, Consumer Reports explains that while the new models are significantly improved in terms of performance and display quality, the battery autonomy problems are too big of a problem to ignore.
Hence the decision not to recommend the new MacBook Pro. The non-profit organization tested three MacBook Pros: the 13-inch model without Touch Bar, and the models 13-inch and 15-inch with the Touch Bar. The final consideration of the magazine was that “MacBook Pro battery life results were highly inconsistent from one trial to the next.” Consumer Reports tests require the use of an internet connection. Moreover, the tests aren't based on benchmarking software. In fact, battery life is measured using a real-world test by opening and surfing many times 10 webpages on Safari. The publication said that even the last software updates didn't resolve the problem.
The test results and the difference between Safari and Chrome
Consumer Reports explained that the results were really incongruent. In fact, the model with Touch Bar goes from a test with a battery life of 16 hour to 3.75 hours in another, while the non-Touch Bar model ranged from 19.5 hours to just 4.5 hours. The 15-inch model reached 18.5 hours of life, but only 8 hours in another test.
Once that was completed (the test with Safari), Consumer Reports tested the laptop using Chrome and battery life was consistently high in all tests. The protocol, however, allowed the organization to only use the first-party browser in the final decision. However, many people raised questions about the quality of the testing, but the magazine said it does not think re-doing the tests will change the results.
