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PhoneI

macrumors 68000
Mar 7, 2008
1,629
619
So I only been using my new Touchbar MacBook since late yesterday, but I will say this........The Touchbar is worth it just for TouchID alone. Once you have it, you wonder how you ever lived without.
 

Hyloba

macrumors 6502
Sep 30, 2014
395
234
So I only been using my new Touchbar MacBook since late yesterday, but I will say this........The Touchbar is worth it just for TouchID alone. Once you have it, you wonder how you ever lived without.
I don't know if I can justify 300 euro for touchID. I don't have it now and you can't miss what you never had.
 
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kattskrall

macrumors regular
Apr 8, 2012
182
235
Ask yourself: Do I like emojis?

If you do, pick the touch bar version.

On a serious note, i would always max stuff out, if you are going to keep the thing for a while, just max it out bruh.
 

Ma2k5

macrumors 68030
Dec 21, 2012
2,566
2,540
London
I prefer non-touch because:

- Speaker locations on the non-touch. Sound primarily driven from speaker grills, while on touch bar, it is coming through the air vents.
- I think the touch-bar will require another year before it gets all its bugs fixed and actually becomes a useful tool.
- Battery life greatly better, due to larger battery, less power hungry CPU and no touch-bar.
- I think the QC will be better on non-touch due to more issues having been resolved, I am thinking it has been in production a lot longer than the touch-bar versions. So, less likely to encounter build quality issues (this isn't fact, just my own personal view).
- The difference in performance between the 15w and 28w is likely to not be visible in your work flow, simply because for the 15w to throttle, both the CPU and GPU have to be taxed quite a bit and most things you do won't be doing that. Anything that your non-touch bar can't handle, there is a very good likelihood the 28w can't hack it either and that you'll actually need a quad core processor
- The SSD is not soldered on, unlike the touch bar models. Not so important in terms of upgrades, but sometimes if just the SSD fails, you can just replace SSD rather than everything on the laptop. Or similarly, it is removable if something else is damaged and you want to keep the SSD data as is and continue to just plug it in a replacement MacBook.

The only thing really benefiting the touch-bar is that would be useful for me (I don't see the slightly faster CPU/GPU as that useful):
- More value for money if you really need 16gb/512gb variant, but maybe it is better to just take the hit on the non-touch for all the pro's above
- TouchID, wish the non-touch bar had this a lone but oh well.
 

ballyhoos

macrumors member
Sep 10, 2008
49
22
I'd watch this video first and take note of the bench mark specs...


... and then compare the geek bench results from the i7 CPU upgrade on the base model.
http://imgur.com/a/Lql7v

The base model offers better speakers, battery life, and CPU performance based on the i7 upgrade and the GPU difference wouldn't really be noticeable, even with the slower RAM clock over the standard TB version. So I think the upgraded i7 base model may actually be a better buy based on this for the very same money if you weren't interested in the TB itself?

Based on results from a geek bench test on the upgraded i7 CPU in the Non-TB with 16gb, it showed a better performing machine on paper compared to the TB version (same cost).
 
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LGIR627

macrumors member
Sep 9, 2016
84
25
I'm also trying to decide between the TB/non-TB. I lean towards the non-TB. I have ZERO interest/want in the touch bar. My only concerns are the differences in 1) GPU and 2) RAM speed. Touchbar, battery life, and # of ports are of no concern.
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,682
43,740
I'd go for the Touch bar based model, if you're going to spend a lot of money on the new laptop, you might as well enjoy the new features.
 
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