Consumer Reports has finally issued a recommendation for the new MacBook Pro, ending an exchange between the publication and Apple regarding the battery life performance of the laptops.
The issuance of the recommendation for the 2016 MacBook Pro was made by Consumer Reports after the retesting that Apple requested for the computers.
New MacBook Pro Was First MacBook To Not Get Consumer Reports Recommendation
In late December 2016, Consumer Reports deprived the new MacBook Pro of its recommendation due to problems that the publication encountered during the testing of the battery life of the laptops.
In one instance, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar reached 16 hours of battery life in the first test, but only 12.75 hours in the second test and a dismal 3.75 hours in the third test.
That was the first time that Consumer Reports did not hand out a recommendation for one of Apple's MacBook laptops.
Apple was not pleased with the failed recommendation, as the recommendation of Consumer Reports has a lot of weight on the purchasing decisions of customers. The company started working with the publication to better understand the results of its battery tests on the 2016 MacBook Pro.
Apple Really Wants That Recommendation On The 2016 MacBook Pro
Apple worked with Consumer Reports over the holidays to determine the reasons behind the inconsistent battery life results in the publication's testing.
According to Apple, Consumer Reports utilizes a flawed testing method to gauge the battery life of the MacBook Pro, and that the method actually triggered an intermittent bug in Apple's Safari browser.
Apple revealed that Consumer Reports utilized a hidden developer setting on Safari that turns off the browser cache, which Apple claims is not indicative of real-world usage. With caching turned off through the hidden setting, a bug in Safari was triggered that contributed to the inconsistent results.
Consumer Reports said earlier in the week that it will be retesting the new MacBook Pro without using the flawed method and with the Safari bug fix applied, and that it will be reporting its findings once the requested retesting is completed.
New MacBook Pro Finally Recommended By Consumer Reports
Consumer Reports has now changed its mind on the 2016 MacBook Pro. In an updated statement, the publication said that with the updated software for the new MacBook Pro, the laptops performed well in terms of battery life, with one model reaching 18.75 hours on a single charge.
Taking into account the new measurement for battery life, the overall scores of the new MacBook Pro have risen into the range that warrants a Consumer Reports recommendation.
Apple went through all that trouble to gain a recommendation from Consumer Reports, but the company and the MacBook Pro brand were likely already negatively affected by the initial findings of the publication. According to Mikako Kitagawa, an analyst for Gartner, the reputation of the product has already been damaged.
In addition, many owners of the new MacBook Pro are still reporting battery issues with the laptop despite the fixes that Apple has rolled out, with one user reporting the charge of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar dropping to only 10 percent after only three hours of usage.
