Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
The No Touch Bar 13 Macbook Version
- Thread starter Abaganov
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Wait, so there was a downgrade in processor category but they still increased the price? How could I justify paying $300 more for it? Knowing that I'll get better... speakers? A marginal increase in display quality?
space grey buddy, space grey..
but on a serious note , there was not a downgrade , don't compare this model to the previous base macbook pro model , this is a macbook air replacement.
the $1799 model with the touch is basically the real base model pro
Just pulled the trigger on a base model with the 512GB upgrade. I've always maxed out my MacBook Pro but this time I'm just not feeling it (mostly for $$ reasons). Good luck on all your decisions.
IMO yes. There are times on my current Macbook Air when I still wish I had more ram (I have i7, 8gb model from 2013). You don't need to be doing processor intensive stuff to need lots of ram. You just need to be doing lots of things like running a VM + adobe suite + chrome to appreciate the extra Ram. If (and that is a big if) I end up upgrading it would probably be to the non touch bar model with 16gb of ram.
Ordered this one. 13" No Touch Bar/16GB/2.0Ghz i5/512SSD.
Reasoning:
Pros:
Reasoning:
Pros:
- Still significantly faster and more capable than the 12" MacBook that I'm replacing, especially for VMs (a primary use case for me)
- Do not need super fast processor
- Still get TB3 + P3 Wide Color Gamut
- Should get better battery life - 15W processor + 54.5 watt-hour battery vs 28W processor + 49.2 watt-hour battery
- Save $300
- Get it next week
- No touch bar
- Only two TB3/USB-C ports
Last edited:
Think of the non-TB MacBook Pro as a MacBook Air, because that's what it is. It uses the successor to the 15W processor in the Air and other Air components.
So it should perform better than the current Air, maybe around the same performance as the entry-level 2015 MacBook Pro.
Personally I think it seems like a fantastic notebook, and the best value among Apples lineup.
As a MacBook Air replacement, it's what the MacBook should have been.
Spec wise, they 540 and 550 are quite similar, probably only about a 5-10% difference. In practice, the 540 will not be able to keep up peak performance for as long as the 550, so for anything prolonged, the 550 will be significantly better.
Congrats bud , you made a smart decision it seems, this is the same exact config i'm looking to get , please update us on performance once you get the chance
The thing is... Then the price would be around the one of the 13" Touch Bar base model with the better CPU, GPU and faster yet smaller (8 GB) RAM. Still worth it or better go for the 13" Touch Bar base model?
*and also 2 more USB slots
I can't really see how i will use this touch bar thing , I don't do much video edits/photoshop , i have a felling that if i will get it , it will just sit there, useless , and I will hate it.
at the same price I would rather get double sized SSD/RAM and actually not having the bar is a plus for me.
I think people would be excited about it at $1099. At $1499 it's the new air in terms of use case but 50% more expensive.
They removed all USB ports, removed SD card support and designed a more horrible chicklet style keyboard with barely any depth, while increasing the price heavily...how is this an upgrade again?
More importantly the glowing apple logo is gone.....
More importantly the glowing apple logo is gone.....
I'm certainly enjoying mine especially now that I got two external hard drives to work with. And boy, do I love putting MagSafe everytime I need to charge it!
This is basically Apple screwing over the Mac people. Cool, no Touch Bar. We have iPhone and iPad Pro with a Apple Pencil. More areas to clean up anyway. But $400-$500 MORE for it? Goodbye, MacBook. Hello, Surface Book i7.
I'm ordering blind/without touching it, so hope the size/weight/feel is as good as I think it will be/as good as some of the reviews make it out to be. Rene Ritchie of iMore has a video out there stating that the non-OLED version is thinner and lighter than the OLED version, but I think this is a mistake. Here's the video where he mentions this (towards the end):
ha interesting, he is probably wrong? but they didn't really talk much about this version on the event so who knows
update: on the spec page that compare the two http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/
its the same weight/size for both
Most likely an error. Apple states exact same dimensions and weight for OLED vs. Non-OLED... that said, they also state the exact same battery life with differing battery capacity/processor wattages, so who knows.
I think that depends. For me personally, one of the reasons to upgrade (eventually) would be to get 16gb of ram. And doing that on the touch bar version gets me up to $1999...which is right about my limit.
Also the 2 vs 4 usb-c/thunderbolt ports is a moot point for me. IMHO if you aren't using a single usb-c port/thunderbolt port with a dock you are doing it wrong (since the alternative is buying a separate dongle for...everything).
Hopefully someone will do a nice in-depth comparison of both models!
It is a different class (15w) of CPU, and it is in fact SLOWER than the 2.7GHz (28w) CPU in the 2015 model.