The somewhat bizarre saga between Apple and Consumer Reports regarding battery life on Apple’s new MacBook Pro models has seemingly come to an end. Following a software fix that Apple rolled out via its Beta Software Program, Consumer Reports re-tested Apple’s lineup of MacBook Pro models and discovered that previous battery life issues were no longer present.
“With the updated software,” CR writes, “the three MacBook Pros in our labs all performed well, with one model running 18.75 hours on a charge. We tested each model multiple times using the new software, following the same protocol we apply to hundreds of laptops every year.”
Consequently, Consumer Reports has now bestowed Apple’s refreshed MacBook Pro line with a “Buy” recommendation.
As to how the whole saga got started in the first place, Consumer Reports‘ initial testing found that battery life on Apple’s new MacBook Pro models varied wildly. On the non-Touch Bar model, for example, testers found that battery life fluctuated between 4.5 hours on the low-end and 19.5 hours on the high-end.
After looking into the matter, Apple discovered that Consumer Reports conducted its testing with a hidden Safari setting (meant only for developers) turned on. According to Apple, the setting is not “used by customers and does not reflect real-world usage.” Apple also discovered that the use of this developer setting “triggered an obscure and intermittent bug reloading icons which created inconsistent results in their lab.”
