2016 MPB 13" vs 2015 MBP 15" - Which should I buy?

[bxsonic]

I have been a staunch supporter of the new MBPs by Apple. However, my local Apple store is having a pretty decent sale for the 2015 MBP 15" model at the moment. The models that I'm considering are the following:

2016 MBP 13" with TB/16 GB RAM/512 GB SSD/Intel Iris Pro 550
2015 MBP 15" /16 GB RAM/512 GB SSD/Intel Iris Pro 6200/AMD Radeon R9 M370X

Thanks to the 2016 Apple Tax and steep discount for the MBP 15" model, I will be paying basically the same amount of money for either option. I suppose the 15" will obliterate the MBP 13" in terms of performance. As to positives for the new MBP 13", it will be much lighter, have Touch ID, Touch bar, better display & faster SSDs.

Any recommendations as to which model I should go with? Thanks

 

[fokmik]

Diff in price?
The 15" is more powerful but if you don't really need you should go for the 13" from now on , apple will invest hard in that tb

 

[bxsonic]

The price will essentially be the same for me.
The practical side of me is screaming for me to jump on this deal but the new MBPs just looks so much "sexier" 😳

 

[knudsen2]

I'd decide based on where I was mostly going to use it. For home the 15, for the run the 13. So - I'd go for the 15 because of the screen size (I have one of each a couple of years old, and much prefer the big screen). The only thing I would like from the new ones is the extended color space

 

[fokmik]

Jump on the new one.

 

[deany]

Get the new 13" but be aware the SSD is soldered to logic board.
Will 512 GB be okay in say three+ years time?
What size hard drive did you have 3+ years ago and what size hard drive do you have now?

 

[PaulWog]

Get the new 13" but be aware the SSD is soldered to logic board.
Will 512 GB be okay in say three+ years time?
What size hard drive did you have 3+ years ago and what size hard drive do you have now?

I had a 1TB hard drive 6 years ago. Now I have a 128GB hard drive 😉

 

[deany]

I had a 1TB hard drive 6 years ago. Now I have a 128GB hard drive 😉

Fair play you must have changed the way you store data.

512 GB should be okay with your new method - I guess you use external storage and lots of it!

 

[bxsonic]

Get the new 13" but be aware the SSD is soldered to logic board.
Will 512 GB be okay in say three+ years time?
What size hard drive did you have 3+ years ago and what size hard drive do you have now?

I'm currently using a 2011 MacBook Air 13" with 128 GB so anything would be a major upgrade. 512 GB should be enough. Is the 2015 MBP's SSD upgradable?

 

[deany]

I'm currently using a 2011 MacBook Air 13" with 128 GB so anything would be a major upgrade. 512 GB should be enough. Is the 2015 MBP's SSD upgradable?

YES the 2015 rMBP SSD is upgradable.

On the other hand the 2016 rMBP SSD is NOT upgradable.

I'd go for the 2016 13" rMBP if you need to upgrade as the SSD is substantially more than the 128GB you are used to.

I'm just glad my 2015 13" rMBP 500GB doesn't need upgrading as I would pass due to the soldered SSD on the 2016 rMBP

 

[Ma2k5]

YES the 2015 rMBP SSD is upgradable.

On the other hand the 2016 rMBP SSD is NOT upgradable.

I'd go for the 2016 rMBP if you need to upgrade as the SSD is substantially more than the 128GB you are used to.

If going 2016, I say go non-touch bar. SSD is upgradable, doesn't suffer from touch-bar bugs, may even have less issues with the ports - and it also seems to have a much longer battery life. You are also unlikely to notice a performance difference. Anything that lags too much on the non-tb model, will probably still lag on the tb model (and you'd actually need the 15" quad core variant). I think there are very few tasks which will lag on the non-touch bar, but will work perfectly fine on the tb model.

 

[deany]

If going 2016, I say go non-touch bar. SSD is upgradable, doesn't suffer from touch-bar bugs, may even have less issues with the ports - and it also seems to have a much longer battery life. You are also unlikely to notice a performance difference. Anything that lags too much on the non-tb model, will probably still lag on the tb model (and you'd actually need the 15" quad core variant). I think there are very few tasks which will lag on the non-touch bar, but will work perfectly fine on the tb model.

Hi
I think OP is sold on certain aspects of - "As to positives for the new MBP 13", it will be much lighter, have Touch ID, Touch bar, better display & faster SSDs"

 

[Ma2k5]

Hi
I think OP is sold on certain aspects of - "As to positives for the new MBP 13", it will be much lighter, have Touch ID, Touch bar, better display & faster SSDs"

Other than the touch bar/touch ID, it still benefits from the same lightness, display and SSD speeds. Also I think the speaker configuration on the non-touch bar is more appealing (and may actually result in better sound). If you must have a touch bar and touch ID, then yes, go touch bar. If those are nice to haves, I think you will have a much better user experience with the non-touch bar - especially considering all the issues with the touchbar/touch id people are facing.

I know everyone is just hoping it all gets fixed soon, and that might have been the case sometime a while back - but I don't know, these days, Apple may take ages to fix these issues, if they fix it at all.

 

[deany]

Other than the touch bar/touch ID, it still benefits from the same lightness, display and SSD speeds. Also I think the speaker configuration on the non-touch bar is more appealing (and may actually result in better sound). If you must have a touch bar and touch ID, then yes, go touch bar. If those are nice to haves, I think you will have a much better user experience with the non-touch bar - especially considering all the issues with the touchbar/touch id people are facing.

I know everyone is just hoping it all gets fixed soon, and that might have been the case sometime a while back - but I don't know, these days, Apple may take ages to fix these issues, if they fix it at all.

I'd 100% go non touch bar - 13" non soldered SSD
Luckily my 2015 13" rMBP is perfect, so I dont need to make these decisions.
I actually sympathise for folk who 'need' to buying a Mac laptop

This should be a joyful experience, something to get excited about, apple are making it a bit of a nightmare.

 

[WhiteWhaleHolyGrail]

HD size upgrades can be a false safety net and waste of money. Look at your current usage and add 20% for good measure - where does this leave you? Even if you find yourself stretched you can get decent sized SSD USB sticks to store data on these days. Remember that notebooks are not meant to be used as data hoarders.

I opted for 256gb on my 15 inch tMBP and I know this will be more than enough for the duration of its life based on my usage.

I will say that the 512 + gb HDs have slighter better write speeds (and lower read speeds).

 

[Ma2k5]

I'd 100% go non touch bar - 13" non soldered SSD
Luckily my 2015 13" rMBP is perfect, so I dont need to make these decisions.
I actually sympathise for folk who 'need' to buying a Mac laptop

This should be a joyful experience, something to get excited about, apple are making it a bit of a nightmare.

Just now, sadly I ended up deciding to buy the XPS 13 (base FHD version, love matte) over the new RMBP. I think both have their pro's and con's as expected - and although I have an iPhone/Apple Watch, I can live with Windows as it is much more work friendly (In UK, every major company is windows based). The price difference is what decided it for me at the end. I couldn't go for "Niceness" of Apple products when it came to a difference of £465 (both with 3 years warrant/accidental cover).

 

[deany]

Just now, sadly I ended up deciding to buy the XPS 13 (base FHD version, love matte) over the new RMBP. I think both have their pro's and con's as expected - and although I have an iPhone/Apple Watch, I can live with Windows as it is much more work friendly (In UK, every major company is windows based). The price difference is what decided it for me at the end. I couldn't go for "Niceness" of Apple products when it came to a difference of £465 (both with 3 years warrant/accidental cover).

Hi
I got my rMBP 13" 2015 from JLP with a promotion they run every 3 months extra year warrantee so 3 years in total.
I have macOS Sierra, Parallels running XP (I love XP) W7 and W10
The fan does click on occasionally - which suprised me - but no major problems.

 

[Ma2k5]

Hi
I got my rMBP 13" 2015 from JLP with a promotion they run every 3 months extra year warrantee so 3 years in total.
I have macOS Sierra, Parallels running XP (I love XP) W7 and W10
The fan does click on occasionally - which suprised me - but no major problems.

That was my original plan - being able to just dual boot to get best of both worlds. Unfortunately, battery life isn't the best with parallels and it was just another additional cost for me. Came to £1067 vs £1529 for me in the end, but that is excluding any extra adapters/Parallels/software I might need for the MacBook. Then came the fear of, if I code/use MacBooks too much, I may find that it negatively affects my performance at work (which 99% likelihood, is a Windows Keyboard).

I will miss not being able to sync my phone/watch to the laptop with ease. It also has a better camera placement, speakers and screen (albeit glossy).

 

[deany]

That was my original plan - being able to just dual boot to get best of both worlds. Unfortunately, battery life isn't the best with parallels and it was just another additional cost for me. Came to £1067 vs £1529 for me in the end, but that is excluding any extra adapters/Parallels/software I might need for the MacBook. Then came the fear of, if I code/use MacBooks too much, I may find that it negatively affects my performance at work (which 99% likelihood, is a Windows Keyboard).

I will miss not being able to sync my phone/watch to the laptop with ease. It also has a better camera placement, speakers and screen (albeit glossy).

you'll be back!!

 

[Samuelsan2001]

You give no idea what you use the computer for so no one give you any meaningful advice!!

 

[bxsonic]

You give no idea what you use the computer for so no one give you any meaningful advice!!

I do iOS game development as a hobby so it's not super demanding. Mostly just Xcode, Unity3D and Affinity Designer.

The MBP 15" has never really been an option for me due to the price. So I was just wondering if it's worth buying over the new MBP 13" option given that I would be paying basically the same price for it based on the configuration that I want.

Is the performance for the 2015 15" that much better than the 2016 13"? Obviously the size and weight will be hugely in favor of the 13" model. TouchID is also something that I will surely use. Not sure about the touch bar. But if performance is that much better, I might be willing to give the 15" a shot

 

[deany]

I do iOS game development as a hobby so it's not super demanding. Mostly just Xcode, Unity3D and Affinity Designer.

The MBP 15" has never really been an option for me due to the price. So I was just wondering if it's worth buying over the new MBP 13" option given that I would be paying basically the same price for it based on the configuration that I want.

Is the performance for the 2015 15" that much better than the 2016 13"? Obviously the size and weight will be hugely in favor of the 13" model. TouchID is also something that I will surely use. Not sure about the touch bar. But if performance is that much better, I might be willing to give the 15" a shot

Get the 13" 2015 and an apple watch to unlock🙂

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I do iOS game development as a hobby so it's not super demanding. Mostly just Xcode, Unity3D and Affinity Designer.

The MBP 15" has never really been an option for me due to the price. So I was just wondering if it's worth buying over the new MBP 13" option given that I would be paying basically the same price for it based on the configuration that I want.

Is the performance for the 2015 15" that much better than the 2016 13"? Obviously the size and weight will be hugely in favor of the 13" model. TouchID is also something that I will surely use. Not sure about the touch bar. But if performance is that much better, I might be willing to give the 15" a shot

It will be twice as powerful in multithreaded tasks and the GPU is a lot more powerful too (although the iGPU in the new 13 inch MacBook pros is no slouch). Touch bar nmay be really useful when Apple updates Xcode it could be a real workflow game changer for iOS development, that may be worth looking into.

To be honest you are a tough one to advise bigger screen may be worth it but better screen may be the best choice for you!!

Legacy ports may be a thing you need but if you don't then the portability may well trump everything else if you work on the go a lot.

You may just want to go down to the Apple Store and try them out if that's possible!!

 

[bxsonic]

It will be twice as powerful in multithreaded tasks and the GPU is a lot more powerful too (although the iGPU in the new 13 inch MacBook pros is no slouch). Touch bar nmay be really useful when Apple updates Xcode it could be a real workflow game changer for iOS development, that may be worth looking into.

To be honest you are a tough one to advise bigger screen may be worth it but better screen may be the best choice for you!!

Legacy ports may be a thing you need but if you don't then the portability may well trump everything else if you work on the go a lot.

You may just want to go down to the Apple Store and try them out if that's possible!!

Yeah. Thanks. That's probably what I'm going to do. Haven't really compared the 2 in person side by side. I'm still leaning towards the 2016 13" due to the size and additional features. But definitely going to take a closer look at the 2015 15" in the store as well

 

[jackoatmon]

If it's a complete tossup get the new one because a) smaller b) sexier c) you'll always wonder.

This is a moment like when they went from the white plastic to the aluminum. Be in the future.