In A First For Apple, Consumer Reports Won’t Recommend The New MacBook Pro Series

In a first for Apple, an American organisation Consumer Reports says it won’t recommend the new MacBook Pros to consumers. It’s all about battery life though as the report says

We tested three MacBook Pros: a 13-inch model with Apple’s new Touch Bar, which sits above the keyboard; a 13-inch model without the Touch Bar; and a 15-inch model. (All 15-inch MacBook Pros come with the Touch Bar.) All three machines were bought at retail, just like all products rated by Consumer Reports, from sports coupes to countertops. We do this to ensure that the models we test are identical to the ones a consumer would purchase.

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. 

Now this organisation has rated over 140 laptop models over the years and have constantly recommended Apple’s MacBook models but they are not just that into this one. You can improve battery life though by using the current version of Google Chrome browser instead of Apple’s Safari according to the report. But we don’t just laptops for internet access.

This report doesn’t particularly say the new MacBook Pros are not effecient overall, but with respect to battery life which should be a major factor when buying a laptop, they just don’t think Apple’s new laptops are there yet.