So far, I am absolutely loving it. I'm coming from a mid-2012 13" MBA w/ 8GB memory, 256gb storage, i7 2.0GHz processor to a 16GB, 256gb storage, i7 3.3GHz so almost everything is better in every aspect. The build quality is superb, I'm really liking the keyboard (there is some adjustment but honestly its not so bad. I think I prefer this one), the touch bar is okay... I can see why some people think its a waste of space. I've been having fun with it haha. Everything is flying on this machine (did a clean install of everything). The screen is amazing lol (I guess coming from a MBA screen anything else would be amazing). The speakers are definitely awesome. As you can see, I am satisfied with my purchase...
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Initial Review of MBP 13" w/ TB
- Thread starter Smoovejayy
- Start date
-
- Tags
- macbook pro review touchbar
- Sort by reaction score
I'm interested to hear how it compares to your MBA as I'm planning on upgrading from a 2013 MBA (not sure if I'll go with a 13 or 15). I went with a maxed out air over a pro at the time largely due to battery life and weight reasons and haven't regretted it. I love the fact that I can keep a lot of work/productivity apps open and it almost never heats up or has the fans kick on. Once you've had some time to put it through its paces, I'd love to know how the new pro compare on the following:
- Heat and fan noise
- Battery life
- Size difference
- What resolution are you using?
- Heat and fan noise
- Battery life
- Size difference
- What resolution are you using?
Thanks for the review. I'm upgrading from the same machine just like yours, but mine only has a i5.
I will be using VMs either today or tomorrow so I will definitely let you know to see how the heat and fan noise are (my MBA's CPU usage would go > 100% with one VM open which would make the fans run). So far I have not heard the fans but the machine does get a little warm occasionally. Battery life has been about eight hours. I haven't let the battery deplete so this will vary. Size difference is noticeable once you really start using this. The thick, grey bezels are such a thing of the past lol. The screen clarity is just amazing coming from a MBA screen. Right now I am using the P3 gamut resolution and I didn't notice much of a difference from the resolution the computer came with. I can give you an update in about a week or so
I'm running a windows 10 VM, and a centos VM. Battery life sucks, about 5 hours with virtualbox running, without VB, it's about 6 hours, regardless of if you're pushing the laptop hard, or just browsing.
no heat, no fan noise. These fans don't even have the ability to make anything annoying. You hear it for a bit, but once it cools down it does a good job of regulating itself, so that's nice.
It's smaller than the air, i'd say by about 20%. I just put my 13 inch TB on top of my 2015 MBA, and it's noticeably smaller, and thinner.
Hope that helps!
I can attest to that. I'm currently laying in bed with this and the size difference is similar to night and day from a MacBook Air. Everything just seems more compact in this laptop. You will appreciate the size difference and will look at your Air as a relic haha.
Shame they couldn't fit the tapered design into the 13" MBP. I feel like that makes the Air feel much thinner.
Personally I wish they made it more boxy. I hate that they put the weird oval belly under it. But yeah, it makes my macbook air look kind of like a relic, even more so when i turn on 4k in youtube
If you're only getting 6 hours after doing Spotlight indexing and the usual "new Mac" stuff, then this is very disappointing.... However 5 hours with VirtualBox & 2 VMs is not too bad!
That's kind of the problem, the times should be much higher WITHOUT vm's running. I just browsed, purchase a few things on amazon, watched some videos on Hulu, and a couple youtube videos, got about 5.5 hours
Then... I fired up two vm's, got about 5 hours,
Then, I compiled lots of Xcode projects, and used some emulators for my apps, and got about 5.5 hours. it's like, no matter what I do on it, hard or soft, I'm getting 6 hours.
it's strange. I am finding the " remaining times to be a little more accurate though. so that's a good sign. Right now I'm at 98% and it's saying 5.45 hours, which is more than I've managed to get yet. So.. we'll see how that plays out.