Apple has issued a “fix” for battery life complaints from users of its new MacBook Pro and other Mac computers.
The latest MacOS update, 10.12.2, has tackled the issue of frequently inaccurate battery life estimates by removing the feature. The change means users will no longer be provided with any estimate of how long their Apple laptop battery will last, except the percentage left, and therefore be unaware when it underperforms.
The update which “improved the stability, compatibility and performance” of Mac computers and is “recommended for users”.
R.I.P. Remaining Time after latest #macOSSierra #update! pic.twitter.com/jVggWx2aBP
— Sina Golesorkhi (@SinaGolesorkhi) December 14, 2016
Battery life estimates have always been notoriously unreliable. Some point to the power consumption variability of modern processors, which have the ability to ramp their performance up and down in response to the task at hand and therefore alter their power requirements, as the biggest issue in attempting to calculate the remaining time left.
Some of Apple’s laptops also include two graphics cards – one energy efficient integrated GPU and one discreet, more powerful one. When the graphics demands of an app currently running breach a threshold, the power-hungry graphics card fires up, which has a significant impact on battery life.
But many users are unhappy with the removal of the feature.
1/ Mac time remaining indicator: as a realtime countdown, useless. Nothing can reliably predict the energy that'll be used in the future.
— Ryan Block (@ryan) December 14, 2016
2/ Mac time remaining indicator: as a frequently updated factor that fluctuates and alludes to major changes in power draw, MEGA USEFUL.
— Ryan Block (@ryan) December 14, 2016
3/ "Power dropped four hours since I checked it an hour ago? Better close some apps!"
— Ryan Block (@ryan) December 14, 2016
Microsoft’s Windows 10 continues to give estimates of battery life under similar conditions with the same types of processor and graphics card configurations. Apple’s battery meter is now limited to percentage remaining only.
