Consumer Reports stands by its MacBook Pro battery results, refuses to run tests again

midian182

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Last week’s decision by Consumer Reports not to award Apple’s new MacBook Pros a “recommended” rating brought some controversy. But the organization says it is standing by the results of its battery tests and won’t be running them again.

Apple’s latest laptops became the first ever MacBook Pros to miss out on Consumer Reports’ coveted rating, after it found their battery life to be wildly inconsistent. The nonprofit discovered that the runtimes of all three machines varied by more than 10 hours in three consecutive tests.

The13-inch model with the Touch Bar ran for 16 hours in the first trial, 12.75 hours in the second, and just 3.75 hours in the third. The 13-inch model without the Touch Bar worked for 19.5 hours in one trial but only 4.5 hours in the next. And the numbers for the 15-inch laptop ranged from 18.5 down to 8 hours.

It’s those higher figures, which are almost double what Apple says the laptops are capable of, that have caused 9to5Mac to question the validity of the tests. The publication emailed Consumer Reports’ director of electronic testing, Maria Rerecich, suggesting the experiment should be repeated, but she believes such an action is unnecessary.

“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,” she replied.

“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,” Rerecich added.

The tests also prompted Apple’s VP of Marketing, Phil Schiller, to make a statement. He said the Cupertino company was working with Consumer Reports to find an explanation for the results, which apparently do not match Apple's own extensive lab and field testing.

A large number of MacBook Pro owners say the new machines’ poor battery life is a major problem. A 9to5Mac reader poll found the largest group were reporting the laptops lasting five hours or less before running out of juice.

Earlier this month, Apple removed the ‘time remaining’ battery life estimate in the newest version of MacOS Sierra in response to the complaints.

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Who cares?

Either you can afford it or you can't.

The reality is that very few people will ever read a review of a Mac Book.

First of all, it's exclusive in that there aren't huge lines for it simply due to the ridiculously high costs.

The only one that will be talked about is the one with the touch bar and the vast majority of potential buyers will stay exactly where they are till they can pony up the $1700 - $2800...
 
Who cares?

Either you can afford it or you can't.

The reality is that very few people will ever read a review of a Mac Book.

First of all, it's exclusive in that there aren't huge lines for it simply due to the ridiculously high costs.

The only one that will be talked about is the one with the touch bar and the vast majority of potential buyers will stay exactly where they are till they can pony up the $1700 - $2800...

whaaa? this is some next level stuff here.
 
And this is why you always go PC :)

Smartphones are one thing - I'll admit Apple is pretty awesome there - but in the realm of laptops and desktops, there are just far too many quality (and crappy) offerings to limit yourself to Apple's stuff...

And when you upgrade in a couple of years or so, being limited to Mac only really sucks...
 
Sounds like a flawed test to get that wide of variables. I stand with apple on this one, they should run the test(s) again with DIFFERENT test samples.
 
Sounds like a flawed test to get that wide of variables. I stand with apple on this one, they should run the test(s) again with DIFFERENT test samples.

No... the PRODUCT is flawed, not the test... the results mirror what customers are complaining about - namely, that the battery on the MacBook is erratic - sometimes giving a few hours only, sometimes giving lots...

Why would they say that? You plug the device in and charge it. You can not do it wrong. Are you personally able to do it differently? How?

Apparently sarcasm is beyond you... this is a reference to Apple always blaming the customer and not their own flawed product (look up the iPhone screen issues if you want the background).... and yes, I can totally see Apple blaming people for "charging it wrong" :)
 
I'm surprised Apple just didn't say "you're charging it wrong"
No, they'll probably say, "you're holding the charger wrong". This way, they would maintain "spin direction". You know, just like the water in a toilet always spins the same direction, and most of their, "it's the owners fault somehow" responses to criticism are fit for the crapper.

Who cares?

Either you can afford it or you can't.

The reality is that very few people will ever read a review of a Mac Book.

First of all, it's exclusive in that there aren't huge lines for it simply due to the ridiculously high costs.

The only one that will be talked about is the one with the touch bar and the vast majority of potential buyers will stay exactly where they are till they can pony up the $1700 - $2800...
Well, usually flagship products are exactly that, cost prohibitive high end merchandise, used to give validity to all of the lower priced products. It's roughly analogous to Chevrolet building Corvettes, so those who purchase their low end products can feel the sport car's legacy, in their crap sedans.

But then, I'm too poor and too hard to bullsh!t to ever buy a piece of Apple gear anyway, so what would I know?

Still in all, if their top end product doesn't do what it's supposed to, why should people have any faith in the truth of their claims about their mass market items?
 
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