Safari Bug Determined to Be the Culprit Behind Lackluster Battery Life in MacBook Pro Consumer Reports Testing
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Apple recently announced that a Safari bug was the cause of inconsistent battery life in consumer testing. The announcement comes several weeks after Consumer Reports decided not to recommend Apple’s new MacBook Pro lineup. That Dec. 22 report made waves because it was the first time that a MacBook Pro series failed to receive a recommendation from the nonprofit product review organization, according to The Verge.
After that report was made, Apple stated that it was working with Consumer Reports to pin down the cause of the battery life issue — noting that their result was “inconsistent with extensive A B tests or field data.” Cupertino then asked the nonprofit to send over diagnostic data from tests, according to the Consumerist.
Since working with the review publication, Apple has reportedly learned that Consumer Reports was using a “hidden Safari setting” which triggered an “obscure and intermittent bug reloading icons.” The result of the glitch was inconsistent battery life. Consumer Reports said that, with “normal user settings” enabled, it achieved the expected battery life consistently, MacRumors reported.
“This is the best Pro notebook we’ve ever made, we respect Consumer Reports and we’re glad they decided to revisit their findings on the MacBook Pro,” Apple wrote in a statement.
In response, Apple has issued a software fix for the Safari bug in the latest beta version of macOS Sierra, which was seeded to both developers and public beta testers this week.
In their statement, Consumer Reports also acknowledged the fact that many users experienced battery life inconsistent with expected estimates over the last few months. The nonprofit organization said it will complete its retesting of the MacBook Pro and issue a report with the new results and findings.
The 2016 MacBook Pro lineup has an advertised battery life of up to 10 hours on a single charge. That estimate can be affected by several factors, such as screen brightness levels and use of energy-intensive applications.
