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Consumer Reports Stands By Its Verdict, Won't Recommend Apple's MacBook Pro (mashable.com)

Posted by msmash on from the nope,-no-sir dept.

Consumer Reports took many by surprise last week -- certainly Apple -- when it said it doesn't recommend the company's new MacBook Pro models. The American magazine, which has garnered credibility over 80 years of its existence, said battery life on Apple's new laptops was all over the place -- hitting 19 hours in a test, but less than four hours in another. Last week, Apple's VP of Marketing, Phil Schiller insisted that Consumer Reports' findings didn't match the company's field data, and that Apple was working with Consumer Reports to understand its review. Now Consumer Reports has responded: The nonprofit organization is standing by its initial verdict in which it did not give the MacBook Pro (2016) its "recommended" rating. The organization has now said it doesn't think re-running the tests will change anything. "In this case, we don't believe re-running the tests are warranted for several reasons. First, as we point out in our original article, experiencing very high battery life on MacBooks is not unusual for us -- in fact we had a model in our comparative tests that got 19 hours," it said. "Second, we confirmed our brightness with three different meters, so we feel confident in our findings using this equipment. Finally, we monitor our tests very closely. There is an entry logged every minute, so we know from these entries that the app worked correctly," it added.

3 of 268 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Apple wouldn't give us money by hey! · · Score: 5, Informative

    CR does not accept vendor payments, nor does it accept advertising.

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  2. Re: Apple wouldn't give us money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Arstechnica's test shows similar results to Consumer Reports. Stop parroting Apple's head PR guy.

    Under a very basic web browsing test, which the author admits that "this test is probably actually too light", the Mac book pro got good battery life.

    https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/charts.010.png

    But under a heavier test using webgl, the Mac book pro got 2hrs 13m

    https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/charts.011.png

  3. Re: Apple wouldn't give us money by hey! · · Score: 5, Informative

    Look in a copy of CR magazine. Notice what's missing? Advertisements. Same with the website.

    Also Consumer's Union is a non-profit which publishes its financial statements. The income statement is particularly simple in that operating revenue comes from the following sources: subscriptions, newsstand sales, tax-deductable grants, and interest.

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