After Apple's software patch, Consumer Reports now recommends the new MacBook Pro

In a shocking series of tests just before Christmas, Consumer Reports put the new MacBook Pro through its paces and came to the conclusion that battery life was so poor and so variable that it was the first MacBook Pro it could not recommend.

Apple was rather taken aback by the result and, after further investigation, blamed a hidden setting activated by Consumer Reports. This in itself exposed a bug in Safari. With this patched, the tests were re-run and the MacBook Pro is now the proud recipient of Consumer Reports' coveted 'recommended' award.

Having applied the patch supplied by Apple, Consumer Reports found that "the three MacBook Pros in our labs all performed well, with one model running 18.75 hours on a charge". Apple had been quick to point out that part of the problem was that Consumer Reports had enabled a setting that would not be changed by the average user -- it is the Safari bug that this exposed which is the real focus of attention here.

Writing about the re-tests in a blog post, Consumer Reports says:

The process we followed with Apple is the same process we follow with any manufacturer when we discover a significant problem. We shared our test results with the company so it could better understand our findings and deliver a fix to consumers. Since Apple made a fix, we retested the laptops.

Now that we’ve factored in the new battery-life measurements, the laptops’ overall scores have risen, and all three machines now fall well within the recommended range in Consumer Reports ratings.

It goes on to point out that the patch is available to everyone, albeit in beta form at the moment. It can be downloaded from the Apple Beta Software Program, but will roll out to everyone very soon anyway.

As for the results themselves:

The three MacBook Pros in our labs include two 13-inch models, one with Apple’s new Touch Bar and one without the Touch Bar; and a 15-inch model. (All 15-inch MacBook Pros come with the Touch Bar.) The new average battery-life results are, in order, 15.75 hours, 18.75 hours, and 17.25 hours. We bought the three computers at retail, as we do with other products rated by Consumer Reports, to ensure that we are testing the same models a consumer would buy.