2016 MBP (15') not impressed compared to MBP (13')

[zincmask]

I purchased Late 2016 15' MBP with TB (i7/256gb) to replace my wonderful workhorse 2013 13' MBP (i5/128gb very basic model) hoping it would serve me faithfully for the remainder of my medical school.

Is it normal to feel underwhelmed by its performance? The new MBP still freezes occasionally, ( which was the main reason I replaced by old one) and worse yet, the battery life seems worse! I understand that I am nowhere close to using this machine's full potential, but I'm bummed out how similar it performs compared to my old mbp. Maybe I will appreciate it more once I start using lightroom and photoshop (if I find time).

What do you guys think?

 

[jerryk]

It should not stall. Have you take it to Apple?

And when it stalls are you running a specific program or visiting a specific web site?

 

[JoelTheSuperior]

It certainly shouldn't be freezing but it's hard to say why it is - best bet if you can't diagnose it yourself is to take it to an Apple store.

Regarding the battery life, it's not really surprising to be honest. The 15" MacBook Pro of the current generation has a smaller battery than the previous 15" and whilst the CPU is more efficient, under load it will almost certainly drain the battery quicker. In fact, I tested my 2017 MBP against the 2014 and... yup, the battery was quite a bit worse. What you also have to keep in mind is that the 15" model has a dedicated GPU whilst the 13" doesn't, which trades battery life for improved performance.

 

[vipergts2207]

Did you start completely from scratch with your new computer and move everything over manually, or did you setup the Mac using migration assistant. I always move my files manually when getting a new computer to make sure I'm not carrying over any quirks to the new machine. It's more of a pain, but in the end I can be sure that the computer is operating optimally and not carrying over any issues.

 

[peraspera]

The fact that you have gotten freezes on both machines should put third party software on the suspect list. See if running in safe mode eliminates the freezes. If it does you likely have a startup item that is a problem.

If the freezes occur in safe mode try creating a new user account. If that eliminates the freezes the problem is somewhere in your user account.