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HotEars

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 20, 2016
3
5
Hello everyone, I recently purchased a 2015 1.2Ghz MacBook and I was wondering what's the better OS? I know that Sierra is pretty much identical to El Capitan but which one would you choose for the MacBook? Does one or the other have lesser battery consumption? Does one perform better? My MacBook had El Capitan preloaded and I was wondering should I stay or should I go?
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,463
16,160
California
I had a 2014 rMBP and had El Capitan then updated to Sierra. As far as performance and battery life and usability, I noticed zero difference between the two. If Sierra has features you think you would like, I would just go with that.
 

elf69

macrumors 68020
Jun 2, 2016
2,333
489
Cornwall UK
on a 2009 macbook performance is about same but I had an SSD and 8GB ram.

however sierra gave me much better battery life over El Capitan, gained upto 2 hours depending on use.
I turned off sierra but for me best bit was finder now keeps folders on top of other files just like windows explorer.

This is something I missed swapping from windows to osx.
 

objektør

macrumors 6502
Nov 25, 2014
273
24
At home
I have a 2015 base rMB.
Had an issue with El Capitan not recognizing my USB 3.0 drives. Had to reboot more and more often.
Sierra solved this. Otherwise I do not notice any difference in performance or battery life.
I normally upgrade my Mac a few weeks after a new release (when there are no issues with the new OS) with a clean install.
My idea is that it can't hurt then to be up to date security wise.
 

lclev

macrumors 6502a
Jul 29, 2013
551
393
Ohio
The only issues I have had with Sierra has been with the changes in security and working on a Windows network. When I upgraded my MP at work I discovered I had to now deal with okaying passwords to connect to share drives even though keychain had the password and all I had to do was hit enter. Then permission on shared drives has been a problem. Sometimes I can't move files from my MP to the share drive but I can access the MP and it's files from another computer and move it that way. Makes no sense to me.

I also had to update the drivers for the Canon copier and now some apps will not print correctly.

Everything worked perfect in El Capitan but I am a glutton for punishment so I keep trying to figure out workarounds and fixes with Sierra.
 
Last edited:

thadoggfather

macrumors P6
Oct 1, 2007
16,108
17,030
i prefer el cap to 10.12.1 at least, haven't tried 10.12.2,

sierra works but

better battery on el cap, and a bit smoother imo

base 2015 12"
 
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