With battery life performance on Apple’s new MacBooks now an issue on everybody’s radar, Apple’s latest macOS Beta introduces a new feature designed to help users better preserve battery life.
While the current incarnation of the macOS menu bar already alerts users as to which apps happen to be draining the battery, the latest iteration of macOS beta now includes a “Display Brightness” string under the “Using Significant Energy” heading.
Originally spotted by MacRumors, users have found that if they click on “Display Brightness”, the brightness on the display will automatically go down to 75%.
If this at all sounds familiar, it’s because Apple has a similar feature in iOS called Low Power mode. Originally introduced in iOS 9, Low Power mode will lower an iOS device’s brightness when battery life drops below 20%.
Though Apple’s MacBooks are designed to deliver best in class battery life at 10 hours, Apple’s recently revamped MacBook Pro line was recently involved in a mini-controversy after Consumer Reports found that battery life on Apple’s premier notebook line varied wildly. As a quick example, one test found that battery life on Apple’s non-TouchBar MacBook Pro fluctuated between 4.5 hours and 19 hours.
Consequently, Apple’s new MacBook Pros marked the first time that Apple’s flagship notebook did not receive a “buy” recommendation from the publication. Over the past few days, however, Apple managed to identify the problem and has since issued a software fix that alleviates the issue. In turn, Apple’s new MacBook Pro line up has since received a “buy” recommendation from CR.
Incidentally, Apple still hasn’t added the “time remaining” option back to the menu bar after removing it last month amid a slew of complaints from users regarding wildly inconsistent estimates.
