2016 vs. 2019 13" Macbook Pro

[ckorhonen]

I'm looking to buy a computer for use at home & for travel - currently I have a 2016 13" MacBook Pro (16Gb, 3.3Ghz dual core, http://browser.geekbench.com/macs/405). It's getting a bit old. Debating if I should consider the 2019 13" models with the two thunderbolt ports.

At work I have the 15" i9 MacBook Pro, and have been really spoilt by the 6 CPU cores. Primarily using it for software development, running multiple docker containers and VSCode.

At home I'll mostly be using email, browser (Safari, lots of tabs), and office apps. However I do want the option to do some coding in a pinch. Battery life is somewhat important for travel.

Any thoughts on wether it would be be worth the upgrade? I'm mainly curious if I'd actually notice any speed differences going from 2 to 4 (lower speed) CPU cores. The single core Geekbench score is ~600 higher on the base model, but obviously that does not always translate into real-world gains.

 

[Zippy99]

I don't think you're going to notice the difference for the usage you described. As an example, I use my wife's 2013 MacBook Air 11" w/ 4Gig RAM for email and browsing sometimes, and there is little difference with my 2018 MBP 13" w/ 16Gig for the same activities (both run Mojave). What I do notice is that I love the form factor and keyboard of the older machine, which just goes to show that often newer usually ends up being 'different' rather than better.