Hello everyone!
I'll try to keep it short. Due to my current situation and budget, I can purchase one of the following laptops:
Option A
13-inch MacBook Pro 2015 (the silver one without Touch Bar and without USB-C ports)
Intel Core i5 2,9 GHz, Turbo Boost to 3,3 GHz
16 GB RAM 1866 MHz
256 GB SSD
Option B
13-inch MacBook Pro 2016 (the one with Touch Bar and 4 USB-C ports)
Intel Core i5 2,9 GHz, Turbo Boost to 3,3 GHz
8 GB RAM 2133 MHz
256 GB SSD
Waiting for the next model is not an option as I need to make the purchase within 30 days (due to various circumstances).
My work
My daily work involves providing customer support and some basic QA for a multi-platform app. This means I sometimes need to compile the app from Xcode, launch iOS simulator, launch Android Studio to compile the Android app and run a simulator there as well as run Windows in VirtualBox where I'll launch Visual Studio and compile our app there too. Note that 90% of the time I would not be testing all 3 platforms at the same time so it's not a requirement that the laptop can handle it (but it'd be nice if I wouldn't kill it if I tested Android and Windows app at the same time for example).
The application I'd be compiling is not very resource-hungry. I'm fine with USB-C ports and using a dongle for other stuff - I'm not plugging in that many cables anyway.
My non-work
Apart from working, I do some basic web-development, basic image editing in Pixelmator, smash some keys into Scrivener and watch movies on Netflix or from network drive.
I'm not a big gamer but maybe I'd install Diablo III, WoW or Civ V to play for a bit. Gaming is not priority though.
Question: which option to choose? Given my work requirements is the extra RAM worth going one generation back?
The VM is my major concern in regards to RAM. My Virtual Machine usage will be relatively light (only 1 VM running) but it'd be nice if I could launch the VM use it a bit then minimise and keep in background instead of completely shutting it down when I don't need it at the time.
I'll try to keep it short. Due to my current situation and budget, I can purchase one of the following laptops:
Option A
13-inch MacBook Pro 2015 (the silver one without Touch Bar and without USB-C ports)
Intel Core i5 2,9 GHz, Turbo Boost to 3,3 GHz
16 GB RAM 1866 MHz
256 GB SSD
Option B
13-inch MacBook Pro 2016 (the one with Touch Bar and 4 USB-C ports)
Intel Core i5 2,9 GHz, Turbo Boost to 3,3 GHz
8 GB RAM 2133 MHz
256 GB SSD
Waiting for the next model is not an option as I need to make the purchase within 30 days (due to various circumstances).
My work
My daily work involves providing customer support and some basic QA for a multi-platform app. This means I sometimes need to compile the app from Xcode, launch iOS simulator, launch Android Studio to compile the Android app and run a simulator there as well as run Windows in VirtualBox where I'll launch Visual Studio and compile our app there too. Note that 90% of the time I would not be testing all 3 platforms at the same time so it's not a requirement that the laptop can handle it (but it'd be nice if I wouldn't kill it if I tested Android and Windows app at the same time for example).
The application I'd be compiling is not very resource-hungry. I'm fine with USB-C ports and using a dongle for other stuff - I'm not plugging in that many cables anyway.
My non-work
Apart from working, I do some basic web-development, basic image editing in Pixelmator, smash some keys into Scrivener and watch movies on Netflix or from network drive.
I'm not a big gamer but maybe I'd install Diablo III, WoW or Civ V to play for a bit. Gaming is not priority though.
Question: which option to choose? Given my work requirements is the extra RAM worth going one generation back?
The VM is my major concern in regards to RAM. My Virtual Machine usage will be relatively light (only 1 VM running) but it'd be nice if I could launch the VM use it a bit then minimise and keep in background instead of completely shutting it down when I don't need it at the time.
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