The crux of this question is about what people here would think is the better buy between i5 and i7 chips.
I'm typing this on a 13" MacBookPro Retina with Touchbar. I am a fan of the new build and of the screens. I don't think I've ever liked a machine as much. This is a work machine, though, used for periodic testing, so it's not mine, personally.
The only thing I couldn't care less about is the Touchbar. I can see it has its uses. Things that worried me -- like whether I'd have the escape key or the proper function keys when in a Linux or Windows session are not problems either. I just am not impressed enough to think it's a thing I'd pay a penny more for by itself.
My main use on my own would be through Chrome, in Atom and Textwrangler, and then tossing code into tiny VMs. For my personal use, I need nothing more demanding than Libre Office and GIMP. For all that, any MacBookEtc would work.
The wife is a musician, and we have some equipment set up. But if I were to invest in another computer, I'd consider something which we'd use Garageband/Audacity, as well as possibly Logic. So when it comes to music and the spec needs, it's beyond my expertise.
We are doing fairly modest things with recording. We're talking about demos. We have a Scarlett pre-amp which she uses. For putting together an actual album that will be properly recorded and mastered, I reckoned we'd have a real studio do that, rather than set the whole thing up ourselves.
As a theory — and this is in theory, not necessarily counting discounts or what things may cost months from now — if I were to buy a MacBookPro, I'm looking at either the 13" touchbar or non-touchbar.
Let's say in theory I would configure both with a minimum of 16GB of RAM and 256 GB of space.
For a $1999 price in USD, I can configure a touchbarless MBP with a 2.5 GHz dual-core i7.
For a the same price, I can configure the touchbar MBP with a 3.1 Ghz dual-core i5.
Considering the price is the same, what is the advantage of one over the other? A slightly faster i5, or a slightly slower i7?
I'm typing this on a 13" MacBookPro Retina with Touchbar. I am a fan of the new build and of the screens. I don't think I've ever liked a machine as much. This is a work machine, though, used for periodic testing, so it's not mine, personally.
The only thing I couldn't care less about is the Touchbar. I can see it has its uses. Things that worried me -- like whether I'd have the escape key or the proper function keys when in a Linux or Windows session are not problems either. I just am not impressed enough to think it's a thing I'd pay a penny more for by itself.
My main use on my own would be through Chrome, in Atom and Textwrangler, and then tossing code into tiny VMs. For my personal use, I need nothing more demanding than Libre Office and GIMP. For all that, any MacBookEtc would work.
The wife is a musician, and we have some equipment set up. But if I were to invest in another computer, I'd consider something which we'd use Garageband/Audacity, as well as possibly Logic. So when it comes to music and the spec needs, it's beyond my expertise.
We are doing fairly modest things with recording. We're talking about demos. We have a Scarlett pre-amp which she uses. For putting together an actual album that will be properly recorded and mastered, I reckoned we'd have a real studio do that, rather than set the whole thing up ourselves.
As a theory — and this is in theory, not necessarily counting discounts or what things may cost months from now — if I were to buy a MacBookPro, I'm looking at either the 13" touchbar or non-touchbar.
Let's say in theory I would configure both with a minimum of 16GB of RAM and 256 GB of space.
For a $1999 price in USD, I can configure a touchbarless MBP with a 2.5 GHz dual-core i7.
For a the same price, I can configure the touchbar MBP with a 3.1 Ghz dual-core i5.
Considering the price is the same, what is the advantage of one over the other? A slightly faster i5, or a slightly slower i7?