There have been some users complaining about the battery life of the new MacBook Pros. Some are saying that they are getting way below what Apple is advertising, and the “time remaining” battery indicator doesn’t seem to be doing it any favors either as it seems to change rather drastically.
However the good news is that Apple seems to have “fixed it” in the latest macOS update. In macOS 10.12.2, Apple has removed the “time remaining” feature in the battery indicator. This means that all users have left to indicate battery life is the percentage, which means that you can no longer rely on that feature to get a gauge on battery life.
Speaking to The Loop, Apple explains the reason behind the removal of the feature. The report reads, “Apple said the percentage is accurate, but because of the dynamic ways we use the computer, the time remaining indicator couldn’t accurately keep up with what users were doing. Everything we do on the MacBook affects battery life in different ways and not having an accurate indicator is confusing.”
It is a fair assessment and just like Apple said, we all use our laptops in different ways so it would be almost impossible for everyone to get consistent battery life. Hopefully Apple will bring this feature back in the future, but for now if you were to update to macOS 10.12.2, don’t expect to see it there.