Macbook 2016 or macbook pro 2015 or wait?

[manmit]

Team - NEED YOUR ADVICE.

My workflow: email, browsing, advanced excel for number crunching and programming, MS Office, and browsing. Usually, I have excel, slack, airmail, 2 safari windows, (3-4 tabs), powerpoint, calendar, and preview open at any given point of time.

I work from home for own business and frequently travel. I am currently using rMBP 15inch (2015) - great for desktop but cannot carry out in house or for travel and battery life is not great (get 7 hours). I need 256gb hard drive space and 8gb ram - am fine with one port as most of stuff is in cloud. I am struggling between following options:

Sell my rMBP 15 inch and ...
1. Just get a macbook 2016 m7 and connect with external monitor (m7 seems sufficient for my needs)
2. Get macbook pro 2015 13 inch as it is indeed less expensive than macbook when I chose refurbished model. Indeed, 15-inch MBP is also now cheaper than macbook.
3. Wait for 2016 release of macbook pro but that seems to be in year end.

Alternatively, keep rMBP 15inch and also buy macbook m7 (very expensive endeavor) but love to hear if anyone has invested in such workflow.

 

[jmoore5196]

Well, I depend on Adobe CC for my living, and I have a 2014 15" MBP. For some months, I used the MBP docked to my TBD as my desktop machine, so it served a dual purpose.

I did try a 13" MBP thinking I'd not miss the extra size or weight of the 15". What I found was that I could not live without the processing power of the quad-core i7. The dual-core in the 13" would choke on heavy Audition projects and InDesign files. The resulting lag was - for me, at least - intolerable. So I went back to the 15".

I bought my wife a base MB for Christmas, then ordered a 1.3GHz MB for myself because I liked the form factor. I love the display and can live with the screen, but hot-swapping the port is not for me and I resented having to carry dongles.

If you can handle the single port on the MB, I'd probably go that route. I am struggling between just giving in and buying an m7 MB or waiting for the nebulous release of the 'new' MBP this Fall. Unfortunately, I have a three-month trip beginning at the end of July, and I cannot see taking only a MB. So I'll press my 15" into service and live with the size and weight. At least the display has more real estate and I know the processor is very capable. At times, the discrete graphics is helpful as well.

To answer your question: Eliminate option 2 and choose between 1 and 3. I imagine the MB connected to an external display would be sufficient for almost everything you do.

 

[dilinger]

Well, I depend on Adobe CC for my living, and I have a 2014 15" MBP. For some months, I used the MBP docked to my TBD as my desktop machine, so it served a dual purpose.

I did try a 13" MBP thinking I'd not miss the extra size or weight of the 15". What I found was that I could not live without the processing power of the quad-core i7. The dual-core in the 13" would choke on heavy Audition projects and InDesign files. The resulting lag was - for me, at least - intolerable. So I went back to the 15".

I bought my wife a base MB for Christmas, then ordered a 1.3GHz MB for myself because I liked the form factor. I love the display and can live with the screen, but hot-swapping the port is not for me and I resented having to carry dongles.

If you can handle the single port on the MB, I'd probably go that route. I am struggling between just giving in and buying an m7 MB or waiting for the nebulous release of the 'new' MBP this Fall. Unfortunately, I have a three-month trip beginning at the end of July, and I cannot see taking only a MB. So I'll press my 15" into service and live with the size and weight. At least the display has more real estate and I know the processor is very capable. At times, the discrete graphics is helpful as well.

To answer your question: Eliminate option 2 and choose between 1 and 3. I imagine the MB connected to an external display would be sufficient for almost everything you do.

Hi read your reply.
Nice argument, but i haven't understood if you bought or plan to buy the MB m7 for yourself.
You said you ordered the m7, but later you said you don't know if you should give in and buy he m7.

Also curious, how come the m7 is sufficient for you, when you mentioned that the MBP 13" DUAL CORE was not sufficient for your needs.

 

[deeddawg]

I think the first and most important question you need to answer is whether you must act now or if you can wait a half year. If you really can't wait, then option 3 is a non-starter and you can eliminate it.

I also suggest you consider carefully your reason for choosing the m7 over the m5 or m3. Be sure that your workload is sufficiently cpu-bound to justify the added cost.

Be aware of the external monitor limitations of the rMB; there are a couple threads on the topic of 4K displays and the rMB. I've not yet needed an external monitor with my rMB so I've no direct experience.

At the end of the day, the only true way to know if an rMB will work for you is to try one out. Apple does provide a generous return policy in the US, I don't know about Canada but would think they'd be similar. Be sure to check of course.

 

[c0ppo]

I am a programmer (corona sdk, xcode mostly). I bought rMB12 to try it out, and after 2 weeks sold my rMBP15 fully loaded on ebay. This little thing can do all I ask of it, but it is so portable that I just couldn't justify keeping my mbp15 around.

When in office I dock it to 34 ultrawide monitor, so I have as much space as I want to

 

[KPOM]

Are you using Excel for Mac or Excel for Windows (in Boot Camp or a virtual machine)? Remember Excel for Mac is single core and 32-bit, so the m7 or even the m5 should be able to handle most tasks, but really large and complex files might throttle somewhat since it will be trying to maximize the single core Turbo Boost.

I think most of what you describe would work pretty well. My suggestion is to try it out and see what happens.

 

[manmit]

Are you using Excel for Mac or Excel for Windows (in Boot Camp or a virtual machine)? Remember Excel for Mac is single core and 32-bit, so the m7 or even the m5 should be able to handle most tasks, but really large and complex files might throttle somewhat since it will be trying to maximize the single core Turbo Boost.

I think most of what you describe would work pretty well. My suggestion is to try it out and see what happens.

Using Excel for mac

 

[jmoore5196]

I am struggling between just giving in and buying an m7 MB or waiting for the nebulous release of the 'new' MBP this Fall. Unfortunately, I have a three-month trip beginning at the end of July, and I cannot see taking only a MB. So I'll press my 15" into service and live with the size and weight.

I never said I ordered the m7. I did have a refurb 1.3 from the previous generation that I returned within the 14-day period.

Hi read your reply.
Nice argument, but i haven't understood if you bought or plan to buy the MB m7 for yourself.
You said you ordered the m7, but later you said you don't know if you should give in and buy he m7.

Also curious, how come the m7 is sufficient for you, when you mentioned that the MBP 13" DUAL CORE was not sufficient for your needs.

I have no idea whether the m7 would be 'sufficient' for what I do or not. I have no doubt it will struggle a bit with multichannel Audition projects or complex InDesign layouts. The only real appeal the M7 has at the moment is lessening my load. The 15" MBP gets a bit heavy over time. That's why I bought the 13" MBP; it certainly disappointed. For all I know, the m7 may do the same.

 

[DontGetTheCheese]

That's why I bought the 13" MBP; it certainly disappointed. For all I know, the m7 may do the same.

The m7 is about the same as a 2.5Ghz 13" according to GeekBench and it's about 10% slower than the top end 13" so if that's your baseline, it would be too slow.

 

[jmoore5196]

I love Geekbench as much as anyone, but the scores only tell part of the story. Particularly with respect to how well a machine performs with higher-end multimedia creation apps, there are other factors at play.

I'm not saying you're not right; you probably are. The processing hit I took with the 13" MBP was too much to justify dropping only a pound of weight. With the m7, on the other hand, the lack of weight or footprint shifts the balance appreciably.

At present, I'm still hanging onto my 11" MBA. I can't convince myself it would be worthwhile to pull the trigger on an m7, despite the lure of the gorgeous display.

 

[Dennison]

Team - NEED YOUR ADVICE.

My workflow: email, browsing, advanced excel for number crunching and programming, MS Office, and browsing. Usually, I have excel, slack, airmail, 2 safari windows, (3-4 tabs), powerpoint, calendar, and preview open at any given point of time.

I work from home for own business and frequently travel. I am currently using rMBP 15inch (2015) - great for desktop but cannot carry out in house or for travel and battery life is not great (get 7 hours). I need 256gb hard drive space and 8gb ram - am fine with one port as most of stuff is in cloud.

This workflow only requires the power of a 12" MacBook, so I am quite surprised you have dealt with the weight and size of the 15" MacBook Pro for your needs and travels.

I recommend selling the MacBook Pro and getting an 12" m5 MacBook. That should be sufficient. I have a workflow that demands more performance than yours (I use Final Cut Pro to make simple edits to 4K videos), and I get by just fine with that exact model I've specified.

I recommend this, only if you are fine with the lack of ports, which you have said so. Plus, the keyboard might take some getting used to. However, the 10hr battery life and storage should be to your liking.

Happy work and travels!

 

[funtoosh]

I had MBP 17" Late 2011 with Core I7 and 8GB RAM, but it was too heavy to carry around so i recently bought 2016 MBP with 512 GB SSD and CoreM5, but it's much faster then my MBP with I7, the main reason is the SSD Drive

I mainly use it for Handling more then 200K emails in my inbox, i'm using the inbuilt mail client, 10-15 SSH Sessions in Secure CRT, about 8-10 Tabs in Google Chrome, Terminal open for traceroute, whois etc..., sometimes even RDP sessions, skype, OneNote, OneDrive and it works flawlessly for me.

I work from home, have a small home office, i'm using Late 2015 imac 27 2TB Fusion as desktop and MB 2016 as laptop whenever i travel or move around in my house I use MB and iMac when i'm on my desk and i really don't find any difference in performance of imac or MB and none of them ever slows down or freeze for me

So basically i will say go for MB 2016 it works great

 

[DontGetTheCheese]

I love Geekbench as much as anyone, but the scores only tell part of the story. Particularly with respect to how well a machine performs with higher-end multimedia creation apps, there are other factors at play.

Well, yeah, the 13" is better in most ways in terms of performance vs the 12" so I was agreeing with your point.

I think the 12" gets a bad rap, as it's probably fine for a lot of people and at it's top-end not that far away from the bottom end 13".

 

[manmit]

This workflow only requires the power of a 12" MacBook, so I am quite surprised you have dealt with the weight and size of the 15" MacBook Pro for your needs and travels.

I recommend selling the MacBook Pro and getting an 12" m5 MacBook. That should be sufficient. I have a workflow that demands more performance than yours (I use Final Cut Pro to make simple edits to 4K videos), and I get by just fine with that exact model I've specified.

I recommend this, only if you are fine with the lack of ports, which you have said so. Plus, the keyboard might take some getting used to. However, the 10hr battery life and storage should be to your liking.

Happy work and travels!

Thank you but I am just worried if I would miss the screen real estate. I can try macbook for typically it takes a month for me to really see if it is right purchase. That's why I was leaning to macbook pro 13 inch as it will be lighter and not significant reduction on screen estate. Would welcome your thoughts.

 

[Crsnpalmer]

Team - NEED YOUR ADVICE.

My workflow: email, browsing, advanced excel for number crunching and programming, MS Office, and browsing. Usually, I have excel, slack, airmail, 2 safari windows, (3-4 tabs), powerpoint, calendar, and preview open at any given point of time.

I work from home for own business and frequently travel. I am currently using rMBP 15inch (2015) - great for desktop but cannot carry out in house or for travel and battery life is not great (get 7 hours). I need 256gb hard drive space and 8gb ram - am fine with one port as most of stuff is in cloud. I am struggling between following options:

Sell my rMBP 15 inch and ...
1. Just get a macbook 2016 m7 and connect with external monitor (m7 seems sufficient for my needs)
2. Get macbook pro 2015 13 inch as it is indeed less expensive than macbook when I chose refurbished model. Indeed, 15-inch MBP is also now cheaper than macbook.
3. Wait for 2016 release of macbook pro but that seems to be in year end.

Alternatively, keep rMBP 15inch and also buy macbook m7 (very expensive endeavor) but love to hear if anyone has invested in such workflow.

 

[Dennison]

Thank you but I am just worried if I would miss the screen real estate. I can try macbook for typically it takes a month for me to really see if it is right purchase. That's why I was leaning to macbook pro 13 inch as it will be lighter and not significant reduction on screen estate. Would welcome your thoughts.

El Capitan solves some of these problems. I use fullscreen apps and split view a lot. You can also customize the scaling of the display, depending on how much space you want. I use default scaling however and find myself satisfied.

One thing I must say is screen real-estate is not a good enough of a trade-off when considering the heft and size of the 13" MacBook Pro. It's not a good reason to opt for something you will want to travel with a lot.

 

[DontGetTheCheese]

One thing I must say is screen real-estate is not a good enough of a trade-off when considering the heft and size of the 13" MacBook Pro. It's not a good reason to opt for something you will want to travel with a lot.

I'm typing this on a 13.3" rMBP rather than a rMB mostly because of the screen size. Every time I tried the 12" I found myself hunching over, even when I bumped the font size. And multiple windows would tighten up that real-estate really fast, especially if I was working with three at the same time, which I do.

Yes, it's a fantastic form factor, but it's not like the 13" is a bowling ball. It's a very portable laptop as well.

 

[funtoosh]

I'm typing this on a 13.3" rMBP rather than a rMB mostly because of the screen size. Every time I tried the 12" I found myself hunching over, even when I bumped the font size. And multiple windows would tighten up that real-estate really fast, especially if I was working with three at the same time, which I do.

Yes, it's a fantastic form factor, but it's not like the 13" is a bowling ball. It's a very portable laptop as well.

I think it all depends upon personal choice and also what are you doing on the laptop

I own a hosting company and i always have multiple SSH Sessions, Skype, Mail, few chrome tabs, etc... I'm comfortable on 12" MB, though bigger screen does have some advantages but even 12" MB works fine, i've just decreased the font size a bit in resolution and i'm now able to work comfortably on it. I even have a 27" iMac so it's not that i'm not used to bigger screens, but even smaller screen works fine for me.

Again it all depends upon what you are doing and personal preference

 

[deeddawg]

Again it all depends upon what you are doing and personal preference

... and the user's eyesight. Physically smaller fonts and such aren't going to work for everyone, though so far the rMB is working well for my eyes.

 

[mariotr87]

I've been wanting a new laptop since April or so, but decided to wait until WWDC, just in case. As soon as I realised there wasn't going to be a new MBP until later in the year I pulled the trigger on an m7 and I couldn't be happier.

It is true that you can't do any sort of number crunching at a reasonable speed due to its low sustained performance (video conversion, CAD simulation, etc) but most of the workloads are inherently bursty and the m7 is extremely good at those (web browsing, coding, office/productivity and whatnot), so I'm willing to sacrifice the former in favour of a lighter, smaller, more portable, fanless and sleeker design.

If it suits your needs or you have a desktop you can offload the more expensive tasks to when needed, I'd highly recommend getting one of these. If you are a student (which I don't know if it's the case), you can also get a pair of beats headphones for free.