Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I would say I can consistently get 6 or 7 hours from my 13". What I'm seeing however is a much wider range of battery life. I get around 6 hours when using Amazon Video or FandangoNOW, but as much as ten at low brightness just doing Internet browsing.

Overall, I am pretty satisfied with the 2016 MBP, apart from the erratic battery life. Seems like there are also a few software bugs (eg. emojis appear along the top of the display after I used them on the Touch Bar in Messages, and then switched to another application. Has anyone else experienced this or something similar?).

Certainly! All my tests inevitably had video playback, since I ended up watching some TV :p. I'll try a full cycle without it and see.
 
Just stop. I know being an internet argueboy comes easy but self control is a great thing. Read the specs for the standard and stop looking silly in front of us.
[doublepost=1480019620][/doublepost]The LG Ultrafine 4K has the same ridiculous issue. The three USB-C ports on it can't do more than 40MB/s data transfer when connected to the new MBP. This is disastrously stupid design. These bottlenecks have nothing to do with the USB 3.1 spec.


I know the specs. I have an electrical engineering degree. There is no requirement that Apple provide a cable with the specs you want, and returning a computer (which you said you were doing) because the cable is only as Apple described rather than what you want is the thing that is silly. You rant about this in multiple threads, anyone who can READ knows this is a charging only cable. You are the one arguing on the internet because they can't read a simple description from the manufacturer.
 
How is your battery life ? Would like to know if there's any impact on battery life going from 8GB to 16GB.

I still have the 8 GB, going to exchange it for the 16 whenever they get stock.

If I charge to 100% and unplug, it says I have a sad 6 hours 30 minutes. Not getting even close to 10 hours. Mind you this is with Xcode, Sketch, Coda, Terminal, Safari, iTunes, Messages, Notes, and Mail open.

My machine was initially very choppy (its gotten bit better now, reason I think 16GB will do the trick & stick with the 13") so I did an apple support chat, and they recommended I do the firmware reset. I haven't done that yet.
 
I bought two at this point, both a 15" and 13". The 13" replaces my rMB 12" and the 15" replaces my late 2013 15".

Decent upgrades, although of course 'dongle-gate'. The good news is I can sometimes share dongles.
Dongle stocking stuffers?
 
Last edited:
I happy with my 15" except that I hear the fans spin in idle when I'm in a quiet room ( otherwise the background noise is louder than the very quiet noise of the fans) . I'm worried this might worsen as time goes on ( if there's something wrong with the fans ) Do you guys hear the fans on your 15" in a quiet room ?
 
I happy with my 15" except that I hear the fans spin in idle when I'm in a quiet room ( otherwise the background noise is louder than the very quiet noise of the fans) . I'm worried this might worsen as time goes on ( if there's something wrong with the fans ) Do you guys hear the fans on your 15" in a quiet room ?

You should not. Correct me if I'm wrong people. There's either a background process (or just process really) that's doing it, or there's an issue with it. Idle, you should not hear them in a quiet room (unless your Spiderman). Then again, I don't have my 15" yet so I can't be 100%
 
I am really impressed by my new macbook pro, it's a finely crafted machine. The things that really impress me are the display, robust speakers, touchpad and surprisingly the keyboard. The keyboard is a little noisy but the keys gives a satisfying feedback on every press. Touch bar is an innovation and will be more useful when applications start implementing it, right now only the stock apps and a handful of paid applications support it. There are a few issues like the touchbar does look a bit washed out in front of the bright display and also the the body of the macbook is not properly grounded and its a bit tickly to touch at times.
This is my first mac ever, i am moving from a fairly high-end Dell XPS 15 2015 and the build quality of macbook pro is unmatched.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dtjay7
The only reason I'm taking it back to Apple is the predictable reason. It's just a damn complicated mess trying to connect it to a Wacom tablet, DisplayPort monitor, keyboard, back up drives, and so on.

One thing that irked me is that th USB-C charging cable Apple supplied doesn't work at full speed with my Samsung T3. Instead of getting 450MB/s I get a pathetic 38MB/s. No typo. It appears the cable doesn't provide proper transfer capabilities.

For what it's worth, apple's documentation states that the supplied charge cable is not USB 3.0, 3.1, or thunderbolt capable. It's only rated for USB 2.0 speeds when used for data transfer. I don't agree with that decision, but it's not really a reason to complain. It's meant as a charge cable.

The biggest issue with the dawn of USB-C is the confusion over transfer protocols and speeds when it comes to buying cables. But to me, it's a worthwhile growing pain.
 
The battery life on my machine has actually improved after a couple days of use and steadily using it off power. I think 8 hours of normal usage is going to be the norm. (13", i7, 16GB).
 
  • Like
Reactions: skids929
My first 15" 2.9/1TB/460 had a bad keyboard. The second one I got fixed the problem.

I really like this new machine. Coming from a 2015 15" MBP with M370x graphics. Here's my observations so far.
- I actually like the USB-C ports a lot (given that I've bought the $49 USB-C AV dongle and an Anker USB Hub $10). I can now reduce to plug only 1 cable to my workstation setup instead of 4 cables previously: MagSafe, HDMI, USB Keyboard, USB Mouse.
- Screen is amazing, very bright and colorful.
- Performance gain is not super noticeable, SSD is faster.
- Keyboard takes some getting used to, but I actually like it more after a week of use.
- Trackpad is great for my productivity on design software. I constantly need to zoom and pan the canvas.
- Touch bar is great for skipping ads on YouTube and scrolling in Photos app, that's about it. Hope there will be more app support soon.
- Graphics performance is better in Overwatch. I can now play 1080p native scale at medium at > 75fps.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Denumerable
The battery life on my machine has actually improved after a couple days of use and steadily using it off power. I think 8 hours of normal usage is going to be the norm. (13", i7, 16GB).


I agree and I am getting even more than that with just internet surfing. I think the batteries need calibration, they say LI batteries are ready at birth, but I have not found that to be true on a lot of machines that I have LI batteries in. I've cycled about 5 times and used until it was completely drained twice out of those 5 times. If that matters or not I don't know just thought I'd mention it, but I think the battery seems to be sustaining better overall now. I can definitely live with it and I love the machine overall. Absolutely love can't imagine my life with out it now.
 
Just stop. I know being an internet argueboy comes easy but self control is a great thing. Read the specs for the standard and stop looking silly in front of us.
The one looking silly here is the one who thinks he is tech literate but in fact isn't, let alone he reads the specs of the standard. Unlike you, the guy you are flaming actually has the proper technical understanding. Why would I say such a thing? Well because of your following example:

The LG Ultrafine 4K has the same ridiculous issue. The three USB-C ports on it can't do more than 40MB/s data transfer when connected to the new MBP.
USB-C is a completely different standard than USB as it is only a connector and a cable. It can be used for many things, one of which is power, the other is display and another is data but more importantly, it is not tied to any specific standard. You can use it for Thunderbolt as much as you can use it for USB2.0 (which is at 480Mbps or no more than 40MB/s). The cable comes in some varieties being active and passive. In other words, not all USB-C cables or ports are created equal. In this case the charging cable is a USB-C USB2.0 cable meaning that it will charge at a max of 100W and provide data up to USB2.0 speeds. This is entirely within the USB-C spec and so is the USB2.0 speed of the other USB ports on the LG display above.

An apology to the guy you just flamed incorrectly seems in place here.
 
Last edited:
- Graphics performance is better in Overwatch. I can now play 1080p native scale at medium at > 75fps.

How is the noise while playing Overwatch? On my 2012 rMBP with a 650M I'm getting 60 fps on low and 900p. But the fans ramp up to max rpm and it's quite loud.
 
I bought a refurb max 2015 for £2300 and an equivalent spec 2016 for £3300.

Spending a week comparing both. Overall I like the 2016, surprised that I like the keyboard, and the touch bar, though the touch bar is getting annoying slowly and I appreciate the physical buttons on the 2015.
The touchbad is too big , I hit it accidentally . The design is great . Can't comment on dongles cause they arrive next week. Battery life, running encodes on both , the 2015 had 50% , the 2016 26% using the same file to test , battery life is a worry.

I have to admit that I need an upgrade from my 2012, and I really like the 2016, but just cannot see it being worth £1000 more.... it's basically the same machine with a new chassis...and worse battery .

Have till 8th Jan to decide. Will see if the 2016 plays nice with my sonnet express , deal breaker
[doublepost=1480196043][/doublepost]
The one looking silly here is the one who thinks he is tech literate but in fact isn't, let alone he reads the specs of the standard. Unlike you, the guy you are flaming actually has the proper technical understanding. Why would I say such a thing? Well because of your following example:


USB-C is a completely different standard than USB as it is only a connector and a cable. It can be used for many things, one of which is power, the other is display and another is data but more importantly, it is not tied to any specific standard. You can use it for Thunderbolt as much as you can use it for USB2.0 (which is at 480Mbps or no more than 40MB/s). The cable comes in some varieties being active and passive. In other words, not all USB-C cables or ports are created equal. In this case the charging cable is a USB-C USB2.0 cable meaning that it will charge at a max of 100W and provide data up to USB2.0 speeds. This is entirely within the USB-C spec and so is the USB2.0 speed of the other USB ports on the LG display above.

An apology to the guy you just flamed incorrectly seems in place here.

Though here also lies the problem, how is the user to know which USB-C cables are charge cables at USB-2 speeds and which are 3.1 speeds. USB-C is such a universal standard that it's confusing also.

Most people on apple site will order the USB-c charge cable and not read that it's only USB 2 speed. My expectation was that it was 3.1 to be honest. Along with TB2 comparability issues....it's not a positive
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: symphara
Though here also lies the problem, how is the user to know which USB-C cables are charge cables at USB-2 speeds and which are 3.1 speeds. USB-C is such a universal standard that it's confusing also.
It is and it does require both manufacturers and stores to properly state what kind of cable it is. This is actually the only real downside with USB-C and I'm hoping it'll get sorted in the future (by having only 2 cables: the passive ones for USB (which is USB 3.1 Gen 2) and active ones for Thunderbolt with only these having the lightning bolt on them), after all, USB2.0 is something from the past.

Most people on apple site will order the USB-c charge cable and not read that it's only USB 2 speed.
Well then they should have read the description don't they? It is their own responsibility to read what it says.

Along with TB2 comparability issues....it's not a positive
It's a new kind of cable that isn't compatible with a lot of other connectors, that's why at the moment we need adapters. This also applies to TB1 and TB2 which Intel has demonstrated when they introduced TB3 (TB3 is backwards compatible with versions 1 and 2). Luckily Apple has one and it seems to be working fine.
 
I am having many problems with my macbook pro 15 with touchbar (Best spec).

1. Everytime I "log on" the display flickers. Found out it goes away if I turn off filevault.

2. When watching a movie, connected to a tv via hdmi adapter I got from apple, the picture goes away (it turns completely black on the tv) every couple of minutes. The black screen lasts about a half a second before showing the normal movie picture thats running. Tried different files. Happens every time.

3. The battery life is crazy short. Been using safari, on 100 prosent battery from start, and now 20 minutes later we are down to 73 %. 2 hours and 55 minutes left. Come on!

4. When I try to move a file in finder the track pad is not able to move it. Its like the track pad doesn't recognize my left finger when i am holdning it down.

Tried reinstalling sierra.
 
just received yesterday my macbook pro 15", 16Gb ram, 512Gd PCIe SSD, Radeon 455, so far everything are amazing, the best experience so far I have about macbook pro
battery life could be better though
 
I love my 15" 16GB ram, 521GB SSD, 2.7GHz. Whew!!! This is one amazing machine. The display is fantastic. The keyboard is amazing. I love the clickyness of it. The touchID thing is a bit weird as it resets itself so sometimes when I shut down my finger prints are completely erased. I'm not sure if that is supposed to happen or not.
 
It is and it does require both manufacturers and stores to properly state what kind of cable it is. This is actually the only real downside with USB-C and I'm hoping it'll get sorted in the future (by having only 2 cables: the passive ones for USB (which is USB 3.1 Gen 2) and active ones for Thunderbolt with only these having the lightning bolt on them), after all, USB2.0 is something from the past.


Well then they should have read the description don't they? It is their own responsibility to read what it says.


It's a new kind of cable that isn't compatible with a lot of other connectors, that's why at the moment we need adapters. This also applies to TB1 and TB2 which Intel has demonstrated when they introduced TB3 (TB3 is backwards compatible with versions 1 and 2). Luckily Apple has one and it seems to be working fine.

Two things.

Product design should be intuitive , with all the markering hype , where exactly has apple made it clear the cable that comes with the computer is usb2 speeds , don't blame the customers here, for not finding some fine print in my opinion . Hint here is something as simple as blue connectors as used for usb3 is good product design .

I honestly had to go out of my way to find and confirm the charge cable was only usb2 speed .

TB 1 and 2 backward support on the new MacBooks is apples issue and it's not working well from everything I have read, I will try my sonnet on Tuesday when I get the dongle , if the new MacBook Pro cannot see my Sonnet express , it's a deal breaker, every other mac wirh TB I own, be it TB1 or TB2 works fine.
 
Just received my 2016 13" 2.9/16/512 TB MBP.

-Keyboard takes some getting used to.
-Battery life less than 10 hours but better than my 2014 15" rMBP with dGPU.
-The hinge feels solid but it is rather loose compared to my 2 years old rMBP. I mean stays at the desired angle but does anyone else feel sth wrong with the hinge?
 
Just received my 2016 13" 2.9/16/512 TB MBP.

-Keyboard takes some getting used to.
-Battery life less than 10 hours but better than my 2014 15" rMBP with dGPU.
-The hinge feels solid but it is rather loose compared to my 2 years old rMBP. I mean stays at the desired angle but does anyone else feel sth wrong with the hinge?
I think it is loser, because they weight it to open the lid without the base coming up. That said, it should still feel pretty good.
 
Having the ports on both sides is one of the things making me consider the TB version as well..

It seems like a huge advantage, but then - I can't think of a time when having just the two ports was an issue.

And I don't know if I want to give up the battery. I mean, I've been using the non-TB for about 3 hours and I'm at 80% battery.

And thats using MuseScore and bluetooth headphones for an hour.

I think in some case only 2 ports may be a problem. I have ordered the TB version with 4 ports because I needc to plug in my good old 27" Cinema Display with MiniDisplayport. I have bought a dongle to connect it. But that dongle does not charge my macbook so I would need use the other port to plug in the Macbook's charger, leaving no other ports to attach storage for backup.
 
Last edited:
I am an old retired guy and am not physically able to do many of the things I used to do even just a few years ago. That said, the computer has become my recreation. As my old HP started dying, I started saving money for the purchase of a new laptop. I wanted a quality laptop and I got to where I could not stand Windows 10, so the MacBook became the most viable choice.

Last weekend, I bought a MacBook Air. Got it home, set it up and several things were just not working right. Talked to the help desk for about an hour and they determined that it was defective and that I should return it. So I did and paid some more money and got the 13" MacBook Pro w/o the touch bar. I've only had it a week, but I absolutely love it. It is capable of doing things that I will probably never do, but if I want to, it's there. I found the touch bar to be a little hoaky and kind of confusing to me and (at least for me) was not a necessary item. Battery life for mine is all day, though I really don't need lots of battery life as I keep it plugged in. I also really like the Siri feature. All in all, I am very pleased with mine.
xvigauge
 
After a week with mine (15"), I'm positively surprised after reading all the negative rants. I had similar, well-configured 2012 rMBP before it, and it feels like an improvement to me.

To me it's just a solid laptop at size bracket I prefer. I am particularly impressed by the keyboard. Speakers and display are also clearly improved. Fingerprint sensor is definitely a useful improvement, although I'm still learning how light a touch is sufficient for it.

I can't really say much of the touch bar at this point. I never really used function keys for other tasks than brightness and volume. With little customization touch bar doesn't at least get on the way. Maybe later on it becomes more useful or I figure out how to use it effectively.

On pure number-crunching side CPUs haven't improved so much, but both integrated and discrete GPUs are now good - not feeling sluggish with the retina display. SSD speed (and probably also latency) improvements are a definite plus too.

I don't personally connect lots of devices to my laptop, and thus lack of this-and-that connector isn't really a big problem to me. I'm looking forward for mostly USB-C dominated future anyway.

The most pleasant surprise to me is that thanks to a good USB-C implementation, this laptop can be actually powered by a USB-C phone charger! My Nexus 6P charger provides 3A at 5V (thus 15W), and it's actually sufficient to maintain battery levels on light use. I wasn't really expecting the new MacBook Pro to work with 5V power adapters, but apparently it does...

I think it's too early to provide a complete personal verdict of the laptop, but this far I'm not disappointed at all. I had fears over keyboard feedback, but it turned out to be at least par with the old one, just different. The same goes with touchpad; I actually like the feedback more than the old, "purely mechanical" one.
 
  • Like
Reactions: xvigauge
Product design should be intuitive , with all the markering hype , where exactly has apple made it clear the cable that comes with the computer is usb2 speeds , don't blame the customers here, for not finding some fine print in my opinion .
It's in the first two sentences of the cable's product page. When you go buy an MBP they only list it as being a USB-C charge cable. The cable actually being able to transfer data at USB2.0 speeds is a surprise for those only reading the pages they go through when ordering the machine. I don't have the machine yet so I don't know if it's on the box but it was with previous versions (as well as in the documentation that comes with it).

Hint here is something as simple as blue connectors as used for usb3 is good product design .
It is just as good a product design as having a lightning bolt on it. Mind you, there are people that try to plug a USB-A connector into an ethernet port. For those, all is lost.

I honestly had to go out of my way to find and confirm the charge cable was only usb2 speed .
Wouldn't say I had to go out of my way but I had to do a little something. However, I did not even think about it being able to transfer data at all since it is being touted as a charge cable all over the place (just not in the store for the separate cable) so this was rather nice surprise.

TB 1 and 2 backward support on the new MacBooks is apples issue and it's not working well from everything I have read, I will try my sonnet on Tuesday when I get the dongle , if the new MacBook Pro cannot see my Sonnet express , it's a deal breaker, every other mac wirh TB I own, be it TB1 or TB2 works fine.
Apple has little to do with Thunderbolt, it is Intels baby and their baby only. Apple does what everybody else does: buy the chips off of Intel since Intel doesn't allow other manufacturers (except for Texas Instruments). What could be an issue here is the software itself and that is more Apple than Intels problem (they still have to work together though) but it could very well be the sole issue of the manufacturer of the device (in this case Sonnet Technologies). They also have to make sure both the hardware AND software side of things work properly.
Officially Intels Thunderbolt 3 is fully backwards compatible with TB1 and 2. TB 1 and 2 are not fully forward compatible with TB3 though (they do not support the 40Gbit/s for example, nor do they support USB). Apples TB2-TB3 adapter is one of the adapters that can be used to connect TB1/2 devices to a TB3 machine or TB3 devices to a TB1/2 machine. It looks an awful lot smaller than the one from Sonnet though. If I were you, I wouldn't get all worked up about it not working.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MH01
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.