Apple's new line of MacBooks has been getting dissed left and right by tech columnists and power users, mostly because it's an iterative upgrade and, as I wrote before, has become increasingly redundant. That's not even to mention the absurd idea that the MacBooks need a dongle just to charge the iPhone.
And now, even longtime supporter Consumer Reports has turned its back on Apple's latest line of laptops. In a report published on Thursday, the non-profit, widely-respected laptop-testing publication says it can't recommend the new line of MacBooks to consumers -- the first time in the publication's history it didn't endorse a new MacBook.
Consumer Report tested all three models of the Apple laptops: the 13-inch MacBook Pro without the Touch Bar and the 13- and 15-inch Pros with the Touch Bar. In all three cases, the team found the battery life to be "highly inconsistent."
The inconsistency is so bad, according to Consumer Report, that one model of the laptop got 12.5 hours of battery life during one go and then 3.5 hours another go.
Apple's senior vice president of marketing Phil Schiller (the same dude who said Apple's decision to remove the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 took "courage.") has already responded on Twitter, saying the company will work with Consumer Report to figure out what the problem is.
Working with CR to understand their battery tests. Results do not match our extensive lab tests or field data. https://t.co/IWtfsmBwpO
— Philip Schiller (@pschiller) December 24, 2016
Even if the battery problems is fixed -- or if Consumer Report's testings were inaccurate -- it doesn't change that most techies think these new MacBook Pros suck. People don't like losing the Magsafe, and the specs bump is minimal and behind other laptops. The new MacBooks are also more expensive and least compatible than ever, and most damning of all: the MacBook line's vision directly contradicts the vision of Apple's mobile line -- one side (iPhones) is telling you headphone jacks and USB-C are lame; the other side (MacBooks) are doubling down on both.
