MacBook Pro 15" - 2015 vs 2016

[MrGuder]

I don't have the luxury of playing around with my laptop during the day so when I got home tonight I did some more comparing between my 2015 15" and my 2016 15"

Opened both from standby and still showing 100% so all night long last night and all day long today laptops were in standby and not used and never lost any %. I'm pretty impressed with that. When I bought the blu ray for Star Wars The Force Awakens it came with a digital code that allowed me to watch the movie using iTunes. So tonight I opened iTunes on both machines and started them at the same time, still both at 100% and let the movie play for about 35 mins. The sound on the 2016 just blows the 2015 model out the window. The dialog is so much louder and clearer on the 2016. I did notice some of the colors such as tones in the skin and even the sand surface color had slightly difference colors and the red color on Finn's jacket (was Poe's) even looked deeper red on the 2016 vs the 2015. The differences were not huge but I could tell side by side. I think there must be some kind of coating or anti glare on the 2016 that is possibly enhancing the appeal of the screen as well because the movie just looked better on the 2016.

So while the movie was playing I had the cursor at the top so it would show me what the battery icon was showing during the 35 mins and I was surprised that the battery icon was dropping at the same exact rate. When I stopped the movie the battery icon on the menu bar was showing 88% on both models. I exited iTunes and maximized activity monitor (both were minimized on each model during the movie) and activity monitor was showing the same "remaining charge" 88% However here is the weird thing, the 2015 was showing "time remaining" 5 hrs 02 mins and the 2016 was showing 9 hrs 24 mins. This didn't make sense to me because I figured the difference between the 2 would be closer to 1 hr or at the most 2 but it was 4 hrs. So while the battery % was the same for both models, it appears the 2016 was running the same movie at a cooler rate for the battery. I also checked activity monitor and the 2016 showed No for the dGPU so it was not using the dGPU for this. I felt underneath the laptops too after I stopped the movie and the 2016 felt slightly cooler than the 2015. But why was it showing that much difference in time remaining?

 

[choreo]

It is amazing how so many people are choosing the 2015 model instead of 2016 despite the new one being so much faster in so many tasks, there must be something wrong

I was all set to buy a loaded 2016 TB and was watching threads in this forum for a few weeks after its introduction to place an order. Price for either the 2015 or 2016 was too high (coming from my 2011 17" MacBook Pro which I loved for it's screen size and ports), but was not part of my final decision.

I liked everything in the specs for the 2016 except the deletion of the lighted Apple logo and the USB-C only ports, but those were "livable".

My final decision was based on ALL THE PROBLEMS people were experiencing with the initial roll-out of the new model. Repeated complaints with almost every new feature causing multiple RETURNS. I have never returned an Apple product in over 25 years! They just seemed to be having too many wide-spread problems initially and for me (living over 300 miles from the nearest Apple Store). To me, all the benchmark speed gains would be erased if I had to fool with returns and downtime and in the end what would I be paying extra for... a crap shoot.

So I went with the 2015 15" in December - so far rock-solid and no downtime (yet).

I am sure as time goes on Apple will get all the kinks out, but I was not willing to wait any longer. By the time I buy my next MacBook they will probably have USB-D with a whole new host of adapters!

 

[Sanpete]

But why was it showing that much difference in time remaining?

Check in About This Mac>System Report>Power to see how much charge each battery is holding.

It may matter how long you took to check the time remaining. The longer you waited after viewing the video, the more likely the time was calculated with the post-video power use. If you wait a while and check again you may see different figures.

On the better looking screen, if you had both at 100%, the 2016 was a lot brighter than the 2015. The 2016 also has more extreme saturated color that can show up in video, which is typically in the P3 color space the 2016 uses.

 

[MrGuder]

Check in About This Mac>System Report>Power to see how much charge each battery is holding.

It may matter how long you took to check the time remaining. The longer you waited after viewing the video, the more likely the time was calculated with the post-video power use. If you wait a while and check again you may see different figures.

On the better looking screen, if you had both at 100%, the 2016 was a lot brighter than the 2015. The 2016 also has more extreme saturated color that can show up in video, which is typically in the P3 color space the 2016 uses.

I took those readings from activity monitor right after I stopped the movie.

So I went to About This Mac>System Report>Power

Full charge capacity 6860 for 2016

Full charge capacity 8818 for the 2015

Is that what your referring to?

 

[Sanpete]

So I went to About This Mac>System Report>Power

Full charge capacity 6860 for 2016

Full charge capacity 8818 for the 2015

Is that what your referring to?

Yes, that shows both batteries are normal. I also had in mind to check how much charge was remaining, so you could see if the time remaining estimate matched, but maybe you had already plugged them back in. The charge remaining gives a more accurate measure.

 

[im_ashley]

I don't have the luxury of playing around with my laptop during the day so when I got home tonight I did some more comparing between my 2015 15" and my 2016 15"

Opened both from standby and still showing 100% so all night long last night and all day long today laptops were in standby and not used and never lost any %. I'm pretty impressed with that. When I bought the blu ray for Star Wars The Force Awakens it came with a digital code that allowed me to watch the movie using iTunes. So tonight I opened iTunes on both machines and started them at the same time, still both at 100% and let the movie play for about 35 mins. The sound on the 2016 just blows the 2015 model out the window. The dialog is so much louder and clearer on the 2016. I did notice some of the colors such as tones in the skin and even the sand surface color had slightly difference colors and the red color on Finn's jacket (was Poe's) even looked deeper red on the 2016 vs the 2015. The differences were not huge but I could tell side by side. I think there must be some kind of coating or anti glare on the 2016 that is possibly enhancing the appeal of the screen as well because the movie just looked better on the 2016.

So while the movie was playing I had the cursor at the top so it would show me what the battery icon was showing during the 35 mins and I was surprised that the battery icon was dropping at the same exact rate. When I stopped the movie the battery icon on the menu bar was showing 88% on both models. I exited iTunes and maximized activity monitor (both were minimized on each model during the movie) and activity monitor was showing the same "remaining charge" 88% However here is the weird thing, the 2015 was showing "time remaining" 5 hrs 02 mins and the 2016 was showing 9 hrs 24 mins. This didn't make sense to me because I figured the difference between the 2 would be closer to 1 hr or at the most 2 but it was 4 hrs. So while the battery % was the same for both models, it appears the 2016 was running the same movie at a cooler rate for the battery. I also checked activity monitor and the 2016 showed No for the dGPU so it was not using the dGPU for this. I felt underneath the laptops too after I stopped the movie and the 2016 felt slightly cooler than the 2015. But why was it showing that much difference in time remaining?

Thank you so much for the comparison. As far as I know even in 2015 15" the battery percentage is inaccurate. I've seen it jumping from 86% to 88% after sleep and sometimes a 1% increase during working also sudden decrease under lite load, low brightness. Which means the software is estimating and balancing the percentage with the current load and various other factors. So obviously the efficient 2016 hardware is supposed to show a different time remaining even with a small battery. But despite that I can assure you the battery will burn though if you put both 2015 & 2016 under something more intensive like a rendering test and that both will yield similar battery life. The best solution to this is to use Coconut Battery which gives exact percentage.
[doublepost=1486601403][/doublepost]

So I went with the 2015 15" in December - so far rock-solid and no downtime (yet).

I am sure as time goes on Apple will get all the kinks out, but I was not willing to wait any longer. By the time I buy my next MacBook they will probably have USB-D with a whole new host of adapters!

Refurbished?

 

[MrGuder]

I have a question hope someone knows. I have both the 2015 2.5 and the 2016 2.6 both 15" when I click to play a video on you tube the 2015 will always play the 720p res video even when 1080 is available where as the 2016 model always plays the 1080p video. Last night I was comparing how each played a 1080p video and every time I had to click the settings button for the 2015 and change it manually to 1080.

I also was not signed into google so no settings were applied through Google for you tube.

 

[rutrack]

I have a question hope someone knows. I have both the 2015 2.5 and the 2016 2.6 both 15" when I click to play a video on you tube the 2015 will always play the 720p res video even when 1080 is available where as the 2016 model always plays the 1080p video. Last night I was comparing how each played a 1080p video and every time I had to click the settings button for the 2015 and change it manually to 1080.

I also was not signed into google so no settings were applied through Google for you tube.

Defaults to 1080 for me on 2015, it auto selects resolution based on your connection speed, see here:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/91449?hl=en
But it should remember your default choice, make sure you allow cookies

 

[MrGuder]

Defaults to 1080 for me on 2015, it auto selects resolution based on your connection speed, see here:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/91449?hl=en
But it should remember your default choice, make sure you allow cookies

Ok that's weird because both are using 5g network and both were set to accept cookies but each time the 2015 I'd always have to change. I'll test it again tonight must be some kind of setting.

 

[MrGuder]

I just wanted to update that it was my user error....I just compared again my 2015 and 2016 once I selected 1080p video it did remember because I then went to another 1080p video from you tube and both the 2015 and 2016 both played the same 1080p video, so both are working perfectly.

This is really much harder than I thought (deciding which to keep the 2015 2.5 15" or the 2016 2.6 15") I like both for different reason. It's driving me crazy but if I send the 2015 back it has to be this weekend. I really thought I was going to be able to see the difference between the internal GPU but I can't tell any difference, they both seem to be performing the same, even though they claim the 2015 is slightly faster. I'm not seeing it.

 

[Sanpete]

I really thought I was going to be able to see the difference between the internal GPU but I can't tell any difference, they both seem to be performing the same, even though they claim the 2015 is slightly faster. I'm not seeing it.

One place people think it might matter is in scrolling lag. Have you seen the discussions about that and tried the things they talk about? Maybe it will show a difference. Though some people with the 2016 don't have any lag. And it would surprise me if it was a hardware issue anyway, as scrolling isn't that demanding. (I haven't cared enough myself to try the things people are saying have lag.)

Edit: I see you just posted about this.

 

[rutrack]

This is really much harder than I thought (deciding which to keep the 2015 2.5 15" or the 2016 2.6 15") I like both for different reason. It's driving me crazy but if I send the 2015 back it has to be this weekend. I really thought I was going to be able to see the difference between the internal GPU but I can't tell any difference, they both seem to be performing the same, even though they claim the 2015 is slightly faster. I'm not seeing it.

There isn't any difference in performance for most people and if you do need to push it so hard that you start seeing the difference, you'll know it. If you really can't make up your mind about what to keep, go with the flow Those who choose the 2015 know exactly why they want it despite some fanboys claiming different on this forum, so if you don't have a reason to go 2015, just choose a newer laptop.

 

[ZapNZs]

I just wanted to update that it was my user error....I just compared again my 2015 and 2016 once I selected 1080p video it did remember because I then went to another 1080p video from you tube and both the 2015 and 2016 both played the same 1080p video, so both are working perfectly.

This is really much harder than I thought (deciding which to keep the 2015 2.5 15" or the 2016 2.6 15") I like both for different reason. It's driving me crazy but if I send the 2015 back it has to be this weekend. I really thought I was going to be able to see the difference between the internal GPU but I can't tell any difference, they both seem to be performing the same, even though they claim the 2015 is slightly faster. I'm not seeing it.

You could always download that magic 8 ball app and ask "should I keep this one?"
(it worked well for my thesis...)

 

[MrGuder]

So tonight is the last night I get to spend with both the 2015 and 2016 and I did another test, maybe this is not the most ideal test but it's all I have to work with. So I wanted to transfer some of my music in my iTunes library from my main home system (Mac mini) and put it on both laptops. I used a 32GB 2.0 USB Flash Drive called a Patriot Xtreme Performance Xporter Rage XT Rage it's suppose to offer up to 27 MB/s read and 25 MB/s write transfer speeds.

I used an Aukey USB C adapter and then plugged in the Rage XT and copied and pasted all items from the flash drive into my iTunes Music folder on the SSD. I started the stopwatch on my iPhone to record how long it was going to take for the transfer. I did the same for the 2015 although I didn't need any adapter so the Rage XT went right into the USB port. The size of the music on the Rage XT flash drive that I transferred is 21.88 GB

2016 2.6 512 took 11 mins 18 seconds
2015 2.5 512 took 9 mins 54 seconds

I'm figuring that some of the loss in time for the 2016 was due to the Aukey adapter? I really thought the times were going to be reversed.

 

[Sanpete]

I'm figuring that some of the loss in time for the 2016 was due to the Aukey adapter?

Hard to say. Their USB-C-USB 3.0 adapter should easily handle much higher speeds than that, but I suppose it could slow things down a little too compared to no adapter.

 

[MrGuder]

Hard to say. Their USB-C-USB 3.0 adapter should easily handle much higher speeds than that, but I suppose it could slow things down a little too compared to no adapter.

Yeah but I'm also using a 2.0 flash so even with the Aukey adapter I'm not going to get 3.0 speeds on the 2016. I mean the difference is not that much but I still thought the 2016 was going to be like 8 mins or something much lower than the 2015 reading.

 

[MrGuder]

So I charged each one overnight and this morning at 100% I ran some more tests comparing each doing the same tasks opening the same videos and browsing the same exact way completely mirroring each other then went to activity monitor and the 2016 is running cooler and giving me about 1.5 hours more than the 2015. The 2015 has a bigger battery but from my testing the 2016 is performing the same tasks but at a cooler rate per coconut battery. The battery discharge rate is much lower on the 2016 than the 2015.

So I've decided to return the 2015. I firmly believe as a whole the 2016 is a better value. I do feel this 2016 will only get better with additional software updates.

 

[Sanpete]

So I charged each one overnight and this morning at 100% I ran some more tests comparing each doing the same tasks opening the same videos and browsing the same exact way completely mirroring each other then went to activity monitor and the 2016 is running cooler and giving me about 1.5 hours more than the 2015. The 2015 has a bigger battery but from my testing the 2016 is performing the same tasks but at a cooler rate per coconut battery. The battery discharge rate is much lower on the 2016 than the 2015.

So I've decided to return the 2015. I firmly believe as a whole the 2016 is a better value. I do feel this 2016 will only get better with additional software updates.

Your results match the ones I've seen in reviews where similar comparisons were made. Value involves a lot of subjective things, but despite the price difference the new machines do offer better value for those who care enough about the improvements.

 

[ChinkyBob]

The difference with Thunderbolt 3 ports is that it really doesn't matter a damn if anyone supports them. It'll be great when they do S they're ridiculously fast. But as they are also USB-C they are compatible with the industry standard connection format.

It's all very well wanting USB-A, heck I wouldn't have complained either. But kitting out a system designed to last users for a good many years with the technology that will be commonplace during that time. Rather than concentrating on the format that's about to be replaced makes sense. Wouldn't we all be bitching and moaning in two years time that our MacBooks were incompatible with the new peripherals being released if Apple hadn't made the change.

I for one am absolutely delighted with what Apple have done for the new MacBook. I weighed my pros and cons and tried all sorts of possible alternatives for months before making the informed decision to spend an obscene amount of money on a new MacBook and I don't regret that decision at all.

To be fair Apple could have put 2 Thunderbolt/usb C ports on the older Macbook Pro and everybody would have been happy.

 

[TrueBlou]

To be fair Apple could have put 2 Thunderbolt/usb C ports on the older Macbook Pro and everybody would have been happy.

Oh if only that were true, unfortunately happy and Apple don't seem to mix too well these days. Some people will complain no matter what

 

[jseq]

Sorry to recover the topic but Macbook pro 2015 and 2016 have the same price on B&H for base model.
Considering the same price is 2016 a better choice?

Thanks in advance

 

[Naimfan]

Sorry to recover the topic but Macbook pro 2015 and 2016 have the same price on B&H for base model.
Considering the same price is 2016 a better choice?

Thanks in advance

No.

 

[jerryk]

Sorry to recover the topic but Macbook pro 2015 and 2016 have the same price on B&H for base model.
Considering the same price is 2016 a better choice?

Thanks in advance

With specific models are you comparing? Non-TB 2016 vs 2015 ??? Memory size, ssd, etc.

 

[jseq]

Macbook Pro 2016

• 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 Quad-Core
• 16GB of 2133 MHz RAM | 256GB PCIe SSD
• 15.4" 2880 x 1800 Retina Display
• AMD Radeon Pro 450 GPU (2GB GDDR5)
• 802.11ac Wi-Fi | Bluetooth 4.2
• Touch Bar | Touch ID Sensor
• 4 x Thunderbolt 3 (USB Type-C) Ports

Macbook Pro 2015

• 2 GHz Intel Core i7 (Crystalwell)
• 16GB of Onboard 1600 MHz DDR3L RAM
• 256GB PCIe-Based Flash Storage
• Integrated Intel Iris Pro Graphics
• 15.4" LED-Backlit IPS Retina Display
• 2880 x 1800 Native Resolution
• 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0
• Thunderbolt 2, USB 3.0, HDMI

Both 1799$

 

[doitdada]

Macbook Pro 2016

• 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 Quad-Core
• 16GB of 2133 MHz RAM | 256GB PCIe SSD
• 15.4" 2880 x 1800 Retina Display
• AMD Radeon Pro 450 GPU (2GB GDDR5)
• 802.11ac Wi-Fi | Bluetooth 4.2
• Touch Bar | Touch ID Sensor
• 4 x Thunderbolt 3 (USB Type-C) Ports

Macbook Pro 2015

• 2 GHz Intel Core i7 (Crystalwell)
• 16GB of Onboard 1600 MHz DDR3L RAM
• 256GB PCIe-Based Flash Storage
• Integrated Intel Iris Pro Graphics
• 15.4" LED-Backlit IPS Retina Display
• 2880 x 1800 Native Resolution
• 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0
• Thunderbolt 2, USB 3.0, HDMI

Both 1799$

2016.