MacBook Pro 13″ Review: The Best Computer You Shouldn’t Buy

Samuel Gibbs:

Lack of ports is something you can get used to. Lack of battery life is not.

Apple claims that the 13in MacBook Pro will last for 10 hours under its testing conditions. I didn’t get anywhere close to that figure. Barely using it for more than emailing and browsing with a few tabs open in Chrome, the brightness set at about 75%, Evernote and Twitter open and Double Shot preventing it from sleeping, I managed just over six hours on battery. Swapping Chrome out for Safari increased battery life for some sites, but I noticed others really chewed through battery, meaning it came out about even.

A good working day with about 10 tabs open in Chrome, as well as Typora for text, Wire for chat, Mac Mail for email, Twitter and Pixelmator open intermittently for image editing when required, I got just over five hours. I’m not sure that could be counted as really pushing the machine either.

That’s actually quite amazing. I have Safari with only seven tabs open full screen, Tweetbot running, and… that’s it. My machine is currently drawing 10 Watts and I will reach 0% in about 5 hours. I have been using the Mac for exactly 35 minutes now.

Perhaps all-day battery life shouldn’t be a thing we expect, but previous Apple computers could do just that and more.

I got 12 hours of battery life on my 2013 MacBook Air 11″ without any issues. I downgraded to a still reasonable 8-9 hours when I got my 2014 MacBook Pro 13″ (I needed the bigger screen — I’m not getting any younger). I will not accept anything less than 8 hours — definitely not an average of 5 hours that I am currently getting — and truthfully, I expected to easily get more than 10 when using it lightly.

I really hope it’s an issue which can be solved easily. If not, then Apple does not currently offer a single Mac I want to buy.

MacBook 12″ — too small, not enough power, it would suffice if it had the CPU from the low-end MacBook Pro Escape and a P3 13″ display (basically an Air 13 with a P3 Retina Display);

MacBook 13″ Escape — sounds quite good, but I want the 4 ThunderBolt ports from the Touch Bar model and the faster CPU for Lightroom; longer battery life is a requirement;

MacBook Pro 13″ Touch Bar Edition — I would gladly take one without the Touch Bar (haven’t found a good reason to use it yet); longer battery life is a requirement;

MacBook Pro 13″ (2015) — no P3 display for photography work;

MacBook Pro 15″ — too big;

Mac Pro — outdated;

iMac — still seeing reports of dust getting behind the screen, which makes it a no-buy for me until this issue is resolved;

Mac Mini — outdated;