This topic made me go for the m5 instead of the m7.
TL; DR: the sound is awesome, the weight justifies the price, but it’s slightly slower than my late 2012 rMBP, the display isn’t that great, it already rebooted itself two times during sleep.
Long version.
The good:
Weight:
It does matter a lot. I think twice before I put the late 2012 13" rMBP into my briefcase. At the end I usually don’t. It’s not that I can’t carry it. I just don’t like to carry it.
My rMBP was the main reason why I switched from briefcase to backpack. And it’s still not comfortable. Summer makes it worse.
Should I buy laptop today, I would choose either the 15" or the Macbook. I wouldn’t buy the 13". Why? The big difference isn’t between the annoying and the more annoying. It’s between the annoying and the not annoying. When I carry something it either disturbs me or not. It doesn’t matter how much.
I read somewhere that the most productive notebook is the one you have with yourself. If you make your living off sitting front of a computer, this alone justifies buying the Macbook. But wait.
Sound:
The speakers are astonishing. Not only considering the size of the Macbook but in every way. And there is more. While the iPhone and the iPad are okay to listen to music, every Mac I have ever used had terrible sound cards. They all had serious hiss. It’s a high frequency noise that you hear with sensitive earphones. They also had harsh highs. I have tried several MBPs, retina iMacs, Mac minis. I couldn’t bear any of them for more than 5 minutes.
The Macbook also has some hiss, but it’s on a level I can endure. Even more, I can enjoy the music.
Ergonomy:
My rMBP has a bit sharper than usual edges. This doesn’t matter during typing. It matters when I am reading. Put my right hand on the touchpad to scroll. My palm is on the front edge of the rMBP. Usually, I don’t notice it. What I notice in the evening is that my fingers feel strange. Not good-strange.
The Macbook doesn’t have this issue. The edges are rounded. The machine is so thin I can’t really push my palm to its edge anyway. Not that I want to do it. But it happens with the rMBP every day.
The controversial
Keyboard:
I use a mechanical keyboard (Das Keyboard) with my iMac which is quite the opposite of Apple keyboards in general. I used to type on Apple wireless until my hands asked me to not do so.
I am not saying I couldn’t live with the Macbook’s keyboard. It’s not comfortable but fast. I think I could get used to it.
USB-C:
It doesn’t matter. When I feel like plugging many cables into a single machine, I know that my iMac is always ready for more fun.
The bad
Screen:
The Macbook’s screen lacks the contrast. Sometimes I find it uneasy to read on it. I have never had this experience with iPad Air 2, iPhone 6S Plus, rMBP or riMac.
I’m aware that about 80% of the people are color blind. Not in medical terms. Just in the terms of those who can actually see the colors. It’s not only that there is a photo of a white and gold dress that 57% swears to be blue and black. It’s also the different types of the cones in the human eyes. A biological fact.
However, color blind can buy Samsung, Asus, Sony, Acer, HP and so. They can even Eizo to look like color blind professionals. I used to think that so many brands must be enough. I might have been wrong. The day Apple gives up on us is also the day you can forget the word "white".
Uncalibrated Apple devices don’t have perfect colors. Putting them next to one another shocked me a bit. I expected less differences. And I know why I did. I expected them to present almost identical colors because without putting them next to one another, none of them seems to be off.
However, the Macbook’s screen is completely off even if it’s the sole object in time and space. It’s paper-yellow. I don’t think this one is a faulty unit. The color shift reminds me to the Samsung and Asus ultrabooks, 5 years ago. They were the machines that made me buy my first Apple laptop.
I’m scared what if this is intentional. I read many reviews telling how good the Macbook display is "because it is more saturated than the Macbook air’s". Display quality equals saturation. The time left for the human race might be even darker than I expected.
Performance:
I measured the Macbook by something I do from day to day. Which is Ruby on Rails application development. A huge amount of development time is spent on testing the application. In case you don’t know what TDD is, imagine a robot that clicks on everything a human could and should click. The robot does this for you to make sure everything works fine on your website.
The Macbook with the m5 CPU performs slightly slower than the late 2012 13" retina Macbook Pro (default config). Yes, slower. The difference is about 5-10%. It didn’t matter how long the test ran. When I run one test it’s like 16 seconds vs 17 seconds. The whole suite is about 24 minutes vs 26 minutes, in favor of the 4 years old rMBP.
These tests use more or less everything in the computer. A single test already uses several cores as it runs multiple processes: the application, the database server and Firefox. Running Ruby, compiling CSS and JS use the CPU. The database uses IO and memory bandwidth. Firefox uses everything. Even the GPU is used as the site has CSS3 animations. Note that not all of the cores are used on 100%. When Firefox is running, it’s usually the only process that use 100% CPU. There are also tests which don’t require any browser. During these tests it’s Ruby that uses 80-100% CPU.
My late 2014, i7 retina iMac runs these tests about 100% faster. They take about 50% less time. The iMac benefits from running the tests parallel, it can go down to 7 minutes or so, however, that’s not the normal daily usage.
Hoping that the 2016 Macbook will perform like a 2015 or 2014 rMBP might end in disappointment. My use case might be different than yours but I bet it’s still closer to it than the artificial benchmarks. If I tested running some sample Ruby code that would have been artificial too. I tested what I exactly do when I work.
Stability:
The Macbook already restarted itself at least two times. There was a core dump too. I install the same things on my OS X computers. I expect them to reboot only when I ask. What’s interesting that the Macbook rebooted / crashed when the lid was closed and it was supposed to be sleeping. At least once the reboot didn’t happen right after I put the Macbook into sleep but a few hours later. I had no issues when I was actually using it. But I don’t work on an unstable computer. It’s not worth the risks.
The question is whether I should replace it or ask for a refund. Let’s suppose that the replacement would solve the stability issue.
The point is that some of my work can be done outside. It’s less efficient but refreshing. I feel I spend too much time at home anyway. But I carry the rMBP only when I go away for days. I don’t see why this would change. All my life I preferred having more comfort over having less. It worked out well so I will keep it this way.
The Macbook is so light I would always carry it. I did it for a week. It was fun. I could work more this way, or I could work the same amount with more fun. Getting fresh air, traveling around, whatever.
On the other hand, its only benefit compared to my 2012 rMBP is its weight. The rMBP is slightly faster (for my work), the screen is way better in every aspect. I have dedicated devices to listen to music. I kinda like that the rMBP reboots only on mutual agreement. No wonder we already have a history.
The charger and the battery for the rMBP should be replaced if I somehow change my mind about carrying it. So the question boils down to whether it is worth about 1400 CHF to carry 0.7kg less. (1455 USD, 1.5 pounds).
In case you work for yourself, and you often feel you should have brought your computer with yourself but you didn’t, or you think you should go out more often but not for doing meaningless things, the answer might be yes.
If your work doesn’t depend on the CPU, let’s say you write articles or you run a business, the Macbook might be your best buy.
If you are picky about colors and contract, if your work requires CPU, if you understand how much your productivity suffers when you are waiting for the computer, you probably want to consider skipping it at least until we see the 2016 rMBP upgrades.
Bottom line: no, it’s not as fast as these charts say.
