One of the biggest complaints about the new MacBook Pro has been the inconsistent battery life. Apple claims to have fixed one of the bugs affecting battery life on the MacBook Pro. But it's clearly "a" bug, and not "the" bug. Unfortunately.

At the end of 2016, Consumer Reports caused controversy and consternation amongst the Apple faithful by deciding not to recommend the new MacBook Pro. Consumer Reports loved several aspects of the new MacBook Pro, but couldn't abide the inconsistent battery life.

During testing of the new MacBook Pro, Consumer Reports found that the battery life varied massively. The 13-inch model with Touch Bar lasted between 3.75 hours and 16 hours. While the 13-inch model without Touch Bar lasted between 4.5 hours and 19.5 hours.

Apple Slams Consumer Reports Testing

At the time, Apple didn't really address this issue, merely suggesting that, "Any customer who has a question about their Mac or its operation should contact AppleCare". However, Apple did investigate the issue, and has now reported its findings back to Consumer Reports.

In a new statement, Apple claims:

"We learned that when testing battery life on Mac notebooks, Consumer Reports uses a hidden Safari setting for developing websites which turns off the browser cache. This is not a setting used by customers and does not reflect real-world usage. Their use of this developer setting also triggered an obscure and intermittent bug reloading icons which created inconsistent results in their lab."

Apple has asked Consumer Reports to retest the new MacBook Pro "using normal user settings". The company also claims to have fixed the bug it blames for the inconsistencies. The fix will be rolled out to all MacBook Pro owners within the next few weeks.

MacBook Pro Battery Life Still Sucks

While Apple should be applauded for identifying and then fixing this particular issue, it clearly doesn't mean the battery life of the new MacBook Pro is now perfect. Consumer Reports is currently retesting the MacBook Pro (with and without the Touch Bar), and the results will be interesting.

However, they won't tell the full story, as Consumer Reports was far from alone in making these complaints. Other reviewers, plus numerous users on Apple's own message boards, experienced similar issues. And we very much doubt this software bug in Safari's developer mode is responsible for all of these problems.

Do you own a new MacBook Pro? Have you found the battery life to be consistent? Or have you experienced similar swings between stellar and shocking? What do you think is ultimately to blame for the variable battery life? Please let us know in the comments below!