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Retina MacBook Q&A
Published May 12, 2015
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What is the "real-world" battery life of the "Early 2015" 12-Inch and Retina Display MacBook? Is it really as long as Apple claims? How does it compare to the MacBook Air and Retina Display MacBook Pro models?
Please note that the "Early 2015" Retina MacBook has been discontinued. However, this Q&A is up-to-date and can be quite useful for anyone considering one of these models on the used market.
In the corporate press release for the "Early 2015" Retina Display MacBook models -- the MacBook "Core M" 1.1 12-Inch, "Core M" 1.2 12-Inch, and "Core M" 1.3 12-Inch -- Apple boasts that the notebooks provide "all-day battery life" not once, but twice.
Photo Credit: Apple, Inc. (Retina Display MacBook Line)
Official Battery Life Estimates & Battery Specs
More precisely, Apple states that these models provide "up to 9 hours of wireless web browsing and up to 10 hours of iTunes movie playback" courtesy of a new "terraced" 39.7 watt-hour lithium polymer battery design that "is layered in individual sheets that are precisely contoured" to fit in the MacBook housing.
For the 11-Inch and 13-Inch "Early 2015" MacBook Air models, Apple estimates 9-10 hours and 12 hours of battery life, respectively, and 10-12 hours of battery life for the 13-Inch "Early 2015" Retina Display MacBook Pro models.
It also is worth noting that the Retina Display MacBook battery is glued to the housing and segmented, which makes end-user replacement particularly unlikely. The 13-Inch Retina MacBook Pro models also have glued batteries, but the "Early 2015" MacBook Air models do not.
Official Battery Life Testing Criteria
Apple notes that preproduction versions of standard models were used and details the testing methodology accordingly:
The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The HD movie playback test measures battery life by playing back HD 720p content with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The standby test measures battery life by allowing a system, connected to a wireless network and signed into an iCloud account, to enter standby mode with Safari and Mail applications launched and all system settings left at default.
For many years now, Apple's battery life estimates have been reasonable, but third-party test results still can be useful.
Third-Party Battery Life Test Results
Independent tests use a number of different methods and can provide a proper evaluation of battery life in the "real world" as a result.
In its own Wi-Fi usage tests, ArsTechnica reported better numbers than Apple's official results:
Apple promises "up to nine hours" of wireless Web usage, and our Wi-Fi Web browsing test suggests that this number should be attainable in light usage--we got around 11 hours with the screen brightness set to 200 nits. That's still several hours short of what the 13-inch Air and Pro, but it’s far and away better than the Core M-based PCs we've seen so far.
Engadget tested iTunes video playback, likely with higher quality video files than Apple's official tests, and battery life fell short:
I never did quite make it to the "10 hours of video" mark. The closest I got was nine hours and five minutes, which required lowering the brightness to four of 16 bars. What's interesting, though, is that Apple actually tests the battery with the brightness set at 12 out of 16 bars, or 75 percent, according to a footnote on its website. With the brightness set to 65 percent (similar to how I test Windows PCs), I got seven hours and 47 minutes of continuous iTunes video playback. While the battery life isn't as long as Apple said it would be, it's at least in line with what we've seen from some bigger, heavier 13-inch systems. When you think of it that way, nearly eight hours of video playback on an 12-inch system ain't bad.
In the most detailed tests, the always meticulous AnandTech hit the Retina Display MacBook with light and heavy workload tests and discovered:
In practice what we find is that by our testing methodologies the MacBook falls about an hour short [of Apple's estimate], clocking in at 8 hours and 5 minutes. The difference in battery life most likely comes down to differences in how we test; Apple bases their estimates on 75% display brightness, whereas we test at 200 nits, which in the case of the MacBook is around 85% brightness. If we turned our brightness down to 75% I suspect our results would come very close to Apple's, at the cost of dropping below 200 nits of brightness.
Even by our own testing standards, the MacBook's battery life is enough to get the laptop through an entire work day (8 hours) – if only just – so while we can't hit 9 hours at our preferred brightness Apple isn't in too poor of a position for such a small laptop. In practice what this means is that the MacBook does just a bit worse than the 11" MacBook Air, essentially falling behind by 40 minutes of runtime. However given the fact that the MacBook is also physically smaller than the 11" Air, this is not an unexpected tradeoff.
Given that so much of the Retina Display MacBook's battery usage is tied to driving the pretty, high-resolution display rather than its relatively slow processor, it perhaps shouldn't be too surprising that the notebook looks comparatively better in heavy workloads compared to the MacBook Air, but it is interesting nevertheless. Of course, the Retina Display MacBook is significantly slower than the MacBook Air performing these heavy workloads, too.
Battery Life Summary
Ultimately, based on the real-world tests above, Apple's estimated battery life for the "Early 2015" Retina Display MacBook models is reasonable although runtime varies considerably depending on the tasks performed.
It was only a few years ago that nine or so hours of battery life from a notebook would have been incredible, and the Retina Display MacBook very well may meet your needs accordingly. However, if battery life (and price) is more important to you than screen quality, the MacBook Air is a better choice. Likewise, if battery life and screen quality (as well as performance) are more important, but physical size is less so, the Retina Display MacBook Pro may be a better option.
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