Consumer Reports on Thursday announced the new MacBook Pro would be the first ever MacBook not to receive its much-coveted recommended rating. The publication said the laptops inconsistent battery life was too large an issue to discount from their decision.
Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller announced late last week that the company is now working with the consumer ratings organization to better understand the tests and their results. He tweeted:
Working with CR to understand their battery tests. Results do not match our extensive lab tests or field data.
Consumer Reports’ testing results varied wildly, so Apple is in their rights to try to gather as much information from the publication about their testing procedures.
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.
Schiller noted CR’s results do not match Apple’s lab of field data. Apple performs extensive in-house testing to estimate the approximate battery life, which it publicizes. The testing is performed in-house, and out in the field, and also includes data from devices used “out in the wild.”
A number of tech publications have tested the new MacBook Pro models since their release. While most report battery life results under that of Apple’s reported stats, none to our knowledge have reported such widely varied numbers as Consumer Reports did.
(Via 9to5Mac)
