Latest macOS Sierra beta suggests lowering screen brightness to increase battery life

Apple is eager for MacBook Pro users to squeeze the best possible battery life out of their machines, so it's understandable that the company was taken aback by Consumer Reports' original, and disappointing battery life results.

With macOS, Apple helps users to be proactive in boosting battery performance by warning when a particular app is using a lot of power -- if it is not entirely necessary, users will hopefully feel compelled to kill it. In the latest beta version of macOS Sierra, screen brightness is also taken into account, and users are advised that lowering this setting will save power.

As noted by MacRumors, the fourth beta of macOS Sierra 10.12.3 includes a new entry in the battery menu which kicks in when the display is set to above 75 percent brightness. At this level, macOS starts to consider the display as being power-hungry and lists it as something that is "Using Significant Energy".

Provided with this information, many people would fail to do anything about it -- the idea of having to manually fiddle with settings can just seem like too much effort. But Apple is trying to make life easier. If you click on the Display Brightness warning, the brightness level will be automatically reduced to 75 percent, eking out the battery for a little longer.

While currently only available in the beta version of macOS Sierra 10.12.3, it's a feature that is likely to make its way out to the masses when the final build is complete.

Image credit: MacRumors