I thought I heard the fan at one point but it was the whirring of an external hard drive i had connected to it!Also im yet to hear the fan
Also, the speakers are excellent! The sound is very "full" and clear.
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The No Touch Bar 13 Macbook Version
- Thread starter Abaganov
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Also, the speakers are excellent! The sound is very "full" and clear.
I'm suspecting not, since the touch bar has got to cost a couple hundred (at retail), so Apple will want to keep a cost-effective model. Plus, the addition of a second TB3 controller chip adds to the cost as well, and the MacBook Air also had a single controller.
The unibody aluminum MacBook (of which I was an owner) was differentiated from the 13" MacBook Pro by, what, one single FireWire port.
Though after all this time, I've learned not to second guess what Apple might do. Like Trump, they can be "unpredictable!"
Agree about the speakers, they are great for a small laptop. The more i use this thing the more happy i did not switch to a Windows Laptop. Build quality is superb. Just need to get past the high price and lack of ports. However the laptop is for light usage for me, if you want a real Pro machine i fear even the higher spec models just wont cut it with the crap dedicated GPU and lack of ports.
I went into Best Buy today to test one of these beauties out and omg I love it so much. The space gray is gorgeous, the screen is super sharp, it's as light as my MacBook Air, and I instantly loved the keyboard. I'm probably going to go back tomorrow and buy one to replace my 2012 MacBook Air.
I wonder if the non-touchbar machine got the same board as the "wrong" side of the touchbar version. Most likely.
Pretty much my exact situation, picked up one yesterday in Space Grey to replace my 2011 MBA. Love it!!
Once you actually see the 2 machines side by side i think you will want to go for the 2016 model, it really does look great. Makes the 2015 look ancient in comparison. However if you really need the legacy ports then the choice is made for you.
That is what Ive been hearing. I hear the screen is top notch, plus i get a faster ssd and better graphics (not doing any gaming, I got a desktop for that). This is more for portability. I was looking at other Windows options but I prefer to just go to my local Apple store if I need it.
Its funny because when the new model was announced i was pissed off that Apple had to make it thinner rather then give more battery life or ports ect, but once i saw the thing in person it kind of made sense for my light usage patterns. For someone that is using this machine to make a living i can see why people are pissed off, after all this is suppose to be a "PRO" machine and the legacy ports should have remained, no doubt.
Thanks everybody for all the info and opinions, now that I've had mine for a day here's my take:
2016 non-touch-bar 13" MacBook Pro observations:
-- USB-C power connection requires quite a lot of force to unplug, not like the magsafe at all
-- Keyboard is great. Big keycaps, clicky feedback, fast. After a day I like it better than the 2015 MBP 15" keyboard. If you type vigorously it's louder than the traditional MBP keys, but I haven't decided yet whether I mind it.
-- WiFi is improved. I went to the far corners of the house and 802.11ac was consistently 10-20% faster than the 2015 MBP, 802.11g was virtually the same.
-- speakers are great. Just think of very good small speakers (bass is obviously rolled off). Clearly lower distortion at similar volumes than the 2015 MBP, with more detail on complex sounds like drums and acoustic guitar.
-- mirror finish 'apple' on lid looks really cool in person, it creates a crystal clear reflection.
-- TDP/Turbo/Throttling: For this test I did an x264 encode with Handbrake. This instantly pegs the CPU at 100% and the turbo speed is a constant 2.9GHz, with a steady power draw around 16W. After 5 minutes the fan comes on slightly and the temperature plateaus at 90C (not audible at normal living room sound levels) but there is no throttling, the CPU speed never changes. After 30 minutes the case bottom is warm, not hot. I don't have a perfect combined CPU and GPU test. Some webgl demos that peg the GPU plateau the power draw at 24W, but the fan is still not on high.
In comparison, the 2015 MBP fan goes high almost instantly, and there is lots of yo-yo throttling throughout the compression job (which still runs much faster of course). But this is the lesson: Hotter CPUs throttle, lower-power ones don't.
-- Battery life: After an overnight charge and 15 minutes of web browsing, charge is still 100% and time remaining is 11:56
-- SSD: It does bench out faster than the 2015 MBP but I think that's mainly an improvement in large reads and writes. For more varied I/O patterns like installing an app it's about the same.
-- Screen: The color saturation and contrast improvements are quite noticeable, but the contrast benefits stay with you longer. Some movies played with VLC did not look good, skin tones etc are too colorful, but maybe that's just VLC. The ability to crank the brightness up that high is nice when there's a window at your back, and the anti-reflective coating is impressive.
-- Trackpad: I like the larger size. It's also fun that they calibrated the trackpad click amplitude to match the click impact of the keys, it feels just the same.
-- UI: for a normal arrangement of 5 Safari windows/15 tabs, 3 PDFs in preview, and a Logic Pro X window filling the screen underneath I saw no hesitation in scrolling or mission control transitions.
-- Generally, it's a great machine if you're looking for ergonomics, durability, and not a great deal of multitasking since it's not a quad-core (Geekbench approx. 3500/7000). Try to find that combination of screen, keyboard, speakers, and battery life anywhere else!
2016 non-touch-bar 13" MacBook Pro observations:
-- USB-C power connection requires quite a lot of force to unplug, not like the magsafe at all
-- Keyboard is great. Big keycaps, clicky feedback, fast. After a day I like it better than the 2015 MBP 15" keyboard. If you type vigorously it's louder than the traditional MBP keys, but I haven't decided yet whether I mind it.
-- WiFi is improved. I went to the far corners of the house and 802.11ac was consistently 10-20% faster than the 2015 MBP, 802.11g was virtually the same.
-- speakers are great. Just think of very good small speakers (bass is obviously rolled off). Clearly lower distortion at similar volumes than the 2015 MBP, with more detail on complex sounds like drums and acoustic guitar.
-- mirror finish 'apple' on lid looks really cool in person, it creates a crystal clear reflection.
-- TDP/Turbo/Throttling: For this test I did an x264 encode with Handbrake. This instantly pegs the CPU at 100% and the turbo speed is a constant 2.9GHz, with a steady power draw around 16W. After 5 minutes the fan comes on slightly and the temperature plateaus at 90C (not audible at normal living room sound levels) but there is no throttling, the CPU speed never changes. After 30 minutes the case bottom is warm, not hot. I don't have a perfect combined CPU and GPU test. Some webgl demos that peg the GPU plateau the power draw at 24W, but the fan is still not on high.
In comparison, the 2015 MBP fan goes high almost instantly, and there is lots of yo-yo throttling throughout the compression job (which still runs much faster of course). But this is the lesson: Hotter CPUs throttle, lower-power ones don't.
-- Battery life: After an overnight charge and 15 minutes of web browsing, charge is still 100% and time remaining is 11:56
-- SSD: It does bench out faster than the 2015 MBP but I think that's mainly an improvement in large reads and writes. For more varied I/O patterns like installing an app it's about the same.
-- Screen: The color saturation and contrast improvements are quite noticeable, but the contrast benefits stay with you longer. Some movies played with VLC did not look good, skin tones etc are too colorful, but maybe that's just VLC. The ability to crank the brightness up that high is nice when there's a window at your back, and the anti-reflective coating is impressive.
-- Trackpad: I like the larger size. It's also fun that they calibrated the trackpad click amplitude to match the click impact of the keys, it feels just the same.
-- UI: for a normal arrangement of 5 Safari windows/15 tabs, 3 PDFs in preview, and a Logic Pro X window filling the screen underneath I saw no hesitation in scrolling or mission control transitions.
-- Generally, it's a great machine if you're looking for ergonomics, durability, and not a great deal of multitasking since it's not a quad-core (Geekbench approx. 3500/7000). Try to find that combination of screen, keyboard, speakers, and battery life anywhere else!
I can't quite quantify it but it does seem that little bit smoother compared to my base 2015 rMB. Unfortunately I don't watch videos on this (I have an iPad Pro as a consumption device) though I can say that I haven't actually heard the fan kick in yet. The base does feel slightly warmer than the rMB though I would put it down to a more powerful processor.
You don't actually need to look down after a while. Just like you don't when typing.
Anyway, for me, TouchID alone is worth $200.
I have and I've added 16 GB ram on it as well. Will get it in the next few days after my vacation to test it out
Honestly the biggest appeal of the touch bar is actually freeing some valuable screen space. Being able to work on a fullscreen document with the commands on top of the keyboard is nice.
Same thing for Final Cut, or anything that you wish to do fullscreen.
However, it's nice to have, but I just can't see it as a game changer.
Especially since some of the things they showed, the immense trackpad actually do pretty well. All that precise side scrolling is already very very good with a good UI and the trackpad.
The other thing like word suggestions, the only reason I use it sometimes on the iPhone is because well it's its a tiny touch screen keyboard. The less I type the better it is. But on a regular full size keyboard It's just not a real issue.
Even TouchID. It's cool, but still it clearly solve a huge problem on the phone where you constantly lock/unlock your phone all day long. A computer you usually unlock it for an longer period of time.
So it's just not worth the price you pay for it imo.
Extra configuration use cpu 2.4 ghz i7 up to 3.4 ghz. (6660U)
I could not find any testing on this processor. But is 2 core 4 thread cpu, not a serious more performance boost.
I suggest memory upgrade.