Consumer Reports is now recommending MacBook Pros after retesting the laptops

[midian182]

Back in December, Apple’s new line of laptops became the first MacBooks to miss out on a “Recommended” rating from Consumer Reports. Almost one month later, the publication has now reversed its decision after working with Apple to address the inconsistent battery issue.

While Consumer Reports praised the machines’ displays and performance, it stated that recommending them was impossible due to the erratic results of the battery tests. Apple said the MacBooks should average around 10 hours normal usage, but the non-profit found their life varied from just 3.5 hours up to 19.5 hours.

Apple argued that an unknown factor must be the cause of the findings, and 9to5Mac also questioned the validity of the results. But Consumer Reports said it was standing by its decision and wouldn’t be running the tests again.

“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,” said Maria Rerecich, Consumer Reports’ director of electronic testing.

But the organization went back on its statement after Apple discovered it had been using a hidden Safari setting for developing websites that turns off the browser cache. This in turn triggered “an obscure and intermittent bug” that caused icons to reload and led to inconsistent battery life results.

 The iPhone maker says it has fixed the problem in the recently released macOS Sierra 10.12.3 beta. 

Consumer Reports agreed to retest the laptops. On average, it found that the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar gave 15.75 hours of battery life, the 13-inch MacBook Pro without Touch Bar gave 18.75 hours, and the 15-inch MacBook Pro came in at 17.25 hours. As such, the site has now awarded them its Recommended rating.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/67770-after-retesting-laptops-consumer-reports-now-recommending-macbook.html

 

[Bigtruckseries]

Anybody who wanted one and could afford one already has one.

It's like if Consumer Reports suddenly "recommended" a Bugatti Chiron...

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

"Consumer Reports is now recommending the MacBook Pros after retesting the laptops"...
And after being threatened to be struck from Apples lucrative payroll.

 

[stewi0001]

Wait... Apple had a bug!? ;P

 

[Bigtruckseries]

"Consumer Reports is now recommending the MacBook Pros after retesting the laptops"...
And after being threatened to be struck from Apples lucrative payroll.

Apple devices are a take it-or leave it, love it - or hate it affair.

Their biggest complaint thus far was the lack of 32GB of RAM which cascaded into criticism of battery life.

thing is, nothing else does what a MacBook Pro does and nothing else runs the software a MacBook Pro runs. It's the best at what it does because there's nothing else that can do it.

The same goes for iPhone and the same goes for iPad.

Developers serious about Hardware should develop their own firmware and software.

That's why Apple stays on top.

That's why Nintendo is still around.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Well, politics aside, this is actually a case where the "little guy" won.... There was an actual bug that was borking battery life! Despite Apple claiming it was "an obscure and intermittent bug", it was affecting more than just Consumer Reports - there are forums online with various angry users posting about their "crappy batteries" and their frustrations with Apple refusing to acknowledge it was a problem.

Well, while Apple might not have fully admitted they were in the wrong, at least they have fixed the bug - or at least, it looks like they have... will be interesting to see if all of the complaining posters stop complaining after getting the new Sierra update...

 

[Nobina]

"Consumer Reports is now recommending the MacBook Pros after retesting the laptops"...
And after being threatened to be struck from Apples lucrative payroll.

Their biggest complaint thus far was the lack of 32GB of RAM which cascaded into criticism of battery life.

That was your biggest criticism. People and Mac users in general don't need 32GB of RAM hence they don't complain about it.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Apple devices are a take it-or leave it, love it - or hate it affair.

Their biggest complaint thus far was the lack of 32GB of RAM which cascaded into criticism of battery life.

thing is, nothing else does what a MacBook Pro does and nothing else runs the software a MacBook Pro runs. It's the best at what it does because there's nothing else that can do it.

The same goes for iPhone and the same goes for iPad.

Developers serious about Hardware should develop their own firmware and software.

That's why Apple stays on top.

That's why Nintendo is still around.

Actually, that's only partly true... other companies are slowly making inroads on what "only Apple can do" and Apple is being forced to actually improve their products... The prime example is the iPad, which has now lost considerable market share to MS' Surface Pro... Apple has fired back with the iPad Pro (which they had initially scoffed at, saying that anything larger than their initial screen size would be unwieldy and foolish) which, as yet, has not retaken the market segment back that MS has usurped.

As for laptops, you might have noticed that the ultrabooks coming out from various companies that look very suspiciously like Macbooks (that new Acer Techspot reviewed a few weeks ago being a prime example) have been taking a fairly substantial market segment away from Apple as well.

Apple used to mean higher build quality, more optimized hardware/software and better looking - and more expensive....

Now it basically means different software - people can argue the merits of iOS vs Android and MacOS vs Windows - and more expensive.

The only exception to this is the iPhone - that still has better build quality, optimization and looks (subjectively at least). But as Apple basically only releases 1 a year, all it will take is one dud or "fail" (see Samsung's Note explosion fiasco - which could happen to anyone!) to knock that off of its lofty pedestal.

 

[Bigtruckseries]

Apple devices are a take it-or leave it, love it - or hate it affair.

Their biggest complaint thus far was the lack of 32GB of RAM which cascaded into criticism of battery life.

thing is, nothing else does what a MacBook Pro does and nothing else runs the software a MacBook Pro runs. It's the best at what it does because there's nothing else that can do it.

The same goes for iPhone and the same goes for iPad.

Developers serious about Hardware should develop their own firmware and software.

That's why Apple stays on top.

That's why Nintendo is still around.

Actually, that's only partly true... other companies are slowly making inroads on what "only Apple can do" and Apple is being forced to actually improve their products... The prime example is the iPad, which has now lost considerable market share to MS' Surface Pro... Apple has fired back with the iPad Pro (which they had initially scoffed at, saying that anything larger than their initial screen size would be unwieldy and foolish) which, as yet, has not retaken the market segment back that MS has usurped.

As for laptops, you might have noticed that the ultrabooks coming out from various companies that look very suspiciously like Macbooks (that new Acer Techspot reviewed a few weeks ago being a prime example) have been taking a fairly substantial market segment away from Apple as well.

Apple used to mean higher build quality, more optimized hardware/software and better looking - and more expensive....

Now it basically means different software - people can argue the merits of iOS vs Android and MacOS vs Windows - and more expensive.

The only exception to this is the iPhone - that still has better build quality, optimization and looks (subjectively at least). But as Apple basically only releases 1 a year, all it will take is one dud or "fail" (see Samsung's Note explosion fiasco - which could happen to anyone!) to knock that off of its lofty pedestal.

SHOW ME the other company that can run iMovie.

...or apple's other proprietary apps.

I stay with Apple because of iMovie specifically.

I'd love to see how well iMovie runs on my Core i7, 32GB RAM, TitanX12GB 3 monitor rig...but it's never going to happen because Apple refuses to let me run iMovie on "whatever I want".

and once again - that's why people stay with apple.

Show me the Android or Windows mobile video editor that even does half of what iMovie iOS can do.


No - my statement was 100% true.

And that's just what it is.

 

[Squid Surprise]

SHOW ME the other company that can run iMovie.

...or apple's other proprietary apps.

I stay with Apple because of iMovie specifically.

I'd love to see how well iMovie runs on my Core i7, 32GB RAM, TitanX12GB 3 monitor rig...but it's never going to happen because Apple refuses to let me run iMovie on "whatever I want".

and once again - that's why people stay with apple.

Show me the Android or Windows mobile video editor that even does half of what iMovie iOS can do.


No - my statement was 100% true.

And that's just what it is.

Lol... are you kidding?

iMovie is no better than the various movie-making suites available for PC... those on MacOS obviously prefer iMovie and their other Mac programs.... but that is user preference only, and gets eroded every day that people see what is offered on the PC market.

Windows MovieMaker, much as it pains me to admit, is actually quite robust nowadays (and it's free with Windows), and Adobe's Suite is obviously far superior... but costs a ton...

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Apple devices are a take it-or leave it, love it - or hate it affair.

Their biggest complaint thus far was the lack of 32GB of RAM which cascaded into criticism of battery life.

thing is, nothing else does what a MacBook Pro does and nothing else runs the software a MacBook Pro runs. It's the best at what it does because there's nothing else that can do it.

The same goes for iPhone and the same goes for iPad.

Developers serious about Hardware should develop their own firmware and software.

That's why Apple stays on top.

That's why Nintendo is still around.

And just when you get used to it, it's gone. Absolutely nothing stays on top forever and absolutely nothing lasts forever.

 

[Invizibleyez]

"Consumer Reports is now recommending the MacBook Pros after retesting the laptops"...
And after being threatened to be struck from Apples lucrative payroll.

Apple devices are a take it-or leave it, love it - or hate it affair.

Their biggest complaint thus far was the lack of 32GB of RAM which cascaded into criticism of battery life.

thing is, nothing else does what a MacBook Pro does and nothing else runs the software a MacBook Pro runs. It's the best at what it does because there's nothing else that can do it.

The same goes for iPhone and the same goes for iPad.

Developers serious about Hardware should develop their own firmware and software.

That's why Apple stays on top.

That's why Nintendo is still around.

What is Apple on top of?

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

What is Apple on top of?

 

[commanderasus]

If you have to rely on Consumer Reports for information to buy anything your already in trouble.