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100% correct, running 4gb of ram on my 2011 MBA and it never maxes out as primarily a Web Surfing and You Tube Machine.

You could buy an iPad, & save the other $1,000 if your only desires are: light web surfing.
If you sport for a MacBook Pro, you likely (at some point) will perform a task that the computer was built for.
As the saying goes: iPads are consumption devices, while MacBook Pros are creation devices.
There is certainly a point where adding more RAM gives diminished returns... I know of someone who has 64gb on their Windows machine, to do some simple editing of YouTube videos- in my opinion, that is ridiculous overkill.
However, the point of diminishing returns does NOT lay at the 4gb or 8gb level.
 
Ok here are first battery tests results:

"Battery Life: Superb Endurance
Apple rates the 54.5 watt-hour battery in the 13-inch MacBook Pro for 10 hours of web surfing time, but we saw more impressive results. On the Laptop Mag web surfing test, in which we set the screen at 100 nits of brightness and surf the web over Wi-Fi, the MacBook Pro lasted an awesome 12 hours and 21 minutes. That beats the last 2015 MacBook Pro we reviewed, which lasted 12:04.

This MacBook Pro's runtime obliterates the ultraportable average of 7:58, and it beats both the HP Spectre x360 (10:06) and Yoga 910 (10:36) by about 2 hours. However, the Dell XPS 13 lasted for an even longer 13:49."

http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/macbook-pro-13-inch

Oh wow this is a game changer, if the touch bar versions really only last 10 hours so 2+ hours difference is huge
[doublepost=1477931236][/doublepost]here is some in-depth compression between the RMB and the no touch MBP

 
I am thinking of getting the non-touch-bar 13", and I am trying to justify upgrade to "2.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz" from the base 2.0GHz CPU... Opinions?

Edit: Forgot to mention, I already have the 2015 13" Macbook Pro (2015) 2.9GHz 8GB 512GB - what will I see in CPU performance - drop or increase?
 
You could buy an iPad, & save the other $1,000 if your only desires are: light web surfing.
If you sport for a MacBook Pro, you likely (at some point) will perform a task that the computer was built for.
As the saying goes: iPads are consumption devices, while MacBook Pros are creation devices.

Ah ha, so people are only allowed to buy a MacBook Pro if they intend to use it as creation devices? Because this is what they are built for?

Is it allowed to buy an iMac if you plan to use it for consumption? Or is this also a creation device?
 
Oh, I have one more question for you @Tycho24. Does posting on macrumors.com count as creation or consumption? That’s all I ever plan to do with my new device.

If you let it count as creation and I am allowed to buy a MacBook, how much memory do you recommend?
 
I am thinking of getting the non-touch-bar 13", and I am trying to justify upgrade to "2.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz" from the base 2.0GHz CPU... Opinions?

Edit: Forgot to mention, I already have the 2015 13" Macbook Pro (2015) 2.9GHz 8GB 512GB - what will I see in CPU performance - drop or increase?
If I were you I'd go for 256 of storage (ssd is exchangable), 16 gig ram and of course the higher clocked cpu should be a boost. But keep in mind ram are clocked at 1866 for this model
 
I am thinking of getting the non-touch-bar 13", and I am trying to justify upgrade to "2.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz" from the base 2.0GHz CPU... Opinions?

Edit: Forgot to mention, I already have the 2015 13" Macbook Pro (2015) 2.9GHz 8GB 512GB - what will I see in CPU performance - drop or increase?
The non touch bar 13" upgraded to the i7 is almost a pointless device. It's as expensive as the Touch Bar 13", but has a weaker CPU and GPU, slower RAM, worse cooling and no Touch Bar (positive for some, negative for others). So at that point you might as well get the Touch Bar model.
 
Just bought the 13 TB 16/1to for 2900€ :s

Couldn't decide between both still think the non TB would fit perfectly but price is close and i was not 300€ short on this so...

Reading about the 12+ hours battery life hurts
 
Just bought the 13 TB 16/1to for 2900€ :s

Couldn't decide between both still think the non TB would fit perfectly but price is close and i was not 300€ short on this so...

Reading about the 12+ hours battery life hurts

you can still cancel ;)
 
Using this for the first time at work today ... trying to stretch it's legs. Running dual monitors (built in screen + external Dell 1080p screen using the Apple USB-C AV media adapter) with a Win10 VM, using Visual Studio, xCode, OneNote, Excel, Outlook, Mail.app, TweetBot, Safari+3 tabs, Pixelmator, and Chrome all while listening / watching a video podcast in the background. Memory pressure is high but still "green".

I'm pretty impressed, no slow downs or lags even when trying to run multiple intensive operations at once (i.e. compiling/building a large project in VS and xCode at the same time.) Using the 2016 rMB in a similar fashion also worked surprisingly well (m5 version), but there was noticeable but manageable UI lag here and there.

Will continue kicking the tires and report back.
 
Using this for the first time at work today ... trying to stretch it's legs. Running dual monitors (built in screen + external Dell 1080p screen using the Apple USB-C AV media adapter) with a Win10 VM, using Visual Studio, xCode, OneNote, Excel, Outlook, Mail.app, TweetBot, Safari+3 tabs, Pixelmator, and Chrome all while listening / watching a video podcast in the background. Memory pressure is high but still "green".

I'm pretty impressed, no slow downs or lags even when trying to run multiple intensive operations at once (i.e. compiling/building a large project in VS and xCode at the same time.) Using the 2016 rMB in a similar fashion also worked surprisingly well (m5 version), but there was noticeable but manageable UI lag here and there.

Will continue kicking the tires and report back.
Can you share what configuration you got? Sorry if I missed your post.
 
Wow, this is really impressive for the base model, I thought you must have 16GB RAM.

8GB of RAM is / has been fine for me over the last couple of years, probably due to enhancements in macOS (Win10 as well). Better memory optimization, scheduling, memory compression technology, more memory efficient apps (or compilers creating those apps), etc. I would imagine swapping performance is increased exponentially as well with these super-fast SSDs.

The only thing I can't do with 8GB is run multiple VMs (I could, but would have to dial down allocated memory on the VMs). I only have / plan on having one VM, so this is not an issue. Even with photo editing and some mild video editing, 8GB seems to be fine for me. I have a work-issued 2015 15" rMBP with 16GB should I ever need it. I've had this big boy since summer of last year though and have never had to use it in lieu of my 8GB machines due to a lack of memory situation.
 
8GB of RAM is / has been fine for me over the last couple of years, probably due to enhancements in macOS (Win10 as well). Better memory optimization, scheduling, memory compression technology, more memory efficient apps (or compilers creating those apps), etc. I would imagine swapping performance is increased exponentially as well with these super-fast SSDs.

The only thing I can't do with 8GB is run multiple VMs (I could, but would have to dial down allocated memory on the VMs). I only have / plan on having one VM, so this is not an issue. Even with photo editing and some mild video editing, 8GB seems to be fine for me. I have a work-issued 2015 15" rMBP with 16GB should I ever need it. I've had this big boy since summer of last year though and have never had to use it in lieu of my 8GB machines due to a lack of memory situation.
Thanks for sharing! I have similar experience... Ever since I moved to Mac in the beginning of this year, I was amazed how much more I can do with "just" 8GB RAM with my Mac mini (was my test bed). I am a developer (Oracle, Oracle ADF, JDeveloper, WebLogic) and needed at least 16GB in Windows to run JDeveloper, compile and run integrated or standalone WebLogic (JVM). For my larger projects though, 8GB was borderline, so I got 16GB for my iMac. I have never experienced memory pressure on the iMac with 16GB, while on Windows I was swapping with same amount of RAM.
 
Oh, I have one more question for you @Tycho24. Does posting on macrumors.com count as creation or consumption? That’s all I ever plan to do with my new device.

If you let it count as creation and I am allowed to buy a MacBook, how much memory do you recommend?

If you have the money to buy a MacBook Pro, just for MacRumors posting...
1st- congratulations!
2nd- 4gb may work for you, however... PLEASE don't recommend to others, when asked: "what options are most appropriate for my PRO level machine?", that they mimic you- as you are in a minority: those that want to throw money away to buy a Pro machine for Facebook ONLY, or whatever- yet are (oddly) too cheap to get the best & smartest update... that can never be rethought. RAM. Which is soldered in- so you get one chance to make the right decision.
Thanks.
 
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