Apple's sneaky Macbook battery trick

An attendee touches the Touch Bar on the new MacBook Pro laptop computer inside the new Apple store Saint Germain. Photo / Getty

Apple has come up with a very sneaky update in a bid to stifle complaints about the battery life of its latest MacBook Pro, much to the chagrin of some users.

A number of Apple fans have complained about the seemingly poor performance of the battery, so the tech giant appears to have come up with a solution, sort of.

In the latest update to the MacBook's operating system, Apple has removed the time remaining estimate for the battery. Until now users could click on the battery icon and see an estimate for how much longer the battery would last.

According to Apple it did so because the remaining time calculation was inaccurate, but as far as the internet is concerned, it was purely to disguise how quickly that number declines.

Apple said the percentage of remaining battery display is accurate but because of the innumerable way we use the device, the time remaining indicator was not an accurate measurement, The Loop reported.

Apple promotes the laptop as boasting 10 hours of battery life per charge but a number of customers beg to differ. Countless reviews of the new device said it failed to reach that ceiling.

The change came with the newest version of macOS Sierra - 10.12.2 - out this week.

As one Twitter user pointed out, there are still other ways you can find the figure such as going into the Activity Monitor app in the Utilities folder which allows you see how apps and other processes are affecting your computer.

There are also useful software add-ons like iStat Menu 5 and Battery Health 2 which provide comprehensive data visualisations about your MacBook's performance.

So if you're still desperate to know how many hours left until your laptop dies, there are workarounds.

But nonetheless, many Apple customers clearly didn't appreciate the move.