The IT Nerd

I am in the midst of starting to write my year end review, and one story simply will not die. The Apple MacBook Pro. The latest issue is the fact that Consumer Reports for the very first time will not recommend the MacBook Pro because of it’s dodgy battery:

The MacBook Pro battery life results were highly inconsistent from one trial to the next.

For instance, in a series of three consecutive tests, the 13-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. 

Those were just a few of the results; we tested battery life on these laptops repeatedly.

Typically, a laptop’s battery life may vary from one trial to another by less than 5 percent. To arrive at our final battery life score we average those measurements together.

However, with the widely disparate figures we found in the MacBook Pro tests, an average wouldn’t reflect anything a consumer would be likely to experience in the real world. For that reason, we are reporting the lowest battery life results, and using those numbers in calculating our final scores. It’s the only time frame we can confidently advise a consumer to rely on if he or she is planning use the product without access to an electrical outlet.

Well that adds to everything else that seems to be questionable at best with the flagship notebook from Apple. And it adds fuel to the fire in terms of why Apple altered how battery life is displayed in macOS Sierra. Now when Consumer Reports called Apple on this, this is what Apple said:

Apple declined to comment on our test results until they better understand the issue, but emailed this statement: “Any customer who has a question about their Mac or its operation should contact AppleCare.”

That’s pretty dismissive. I guess someone at One Infinite loop pointed that out because Apple SVP Phil Schiller a day later Tweeted this:

https://twitter.com/pschiller/status/812461342728695808

Here’s the thing. Consumer Reports does nothing but evaluate products all day and every day. And they’ve been doing this for decades. So if consumers are going to choose between believing Apple or Consumers Reports on this issue, they will believe the latter. Thus Apple needs to take the advice that I offered here:

Could this be an “AntennaGate” like coverup in progress? I don’t know for sure. Only certain people at 1 Infinite Loop know for sure. I do know this. The optics of this really suck for Apple. In my humble opinion, they would be better off addressing this issue straight up rather than appearing to cover it up.

Now they have no choice. So how about it Apple? Will you robustly and completely address this issue with your new MacBook Pro?

This entry was posted on December 27, 2016 at 2:10 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.