I ordered a 13 inch MacBook Pro with the touch bar online today. I ordered it from apple.com and used the student discount to get $100 off, and get the headphones. I bought the 3.1/8/512GB model. I am starting to think that it was more than I needed, the other computer I was considering buying was the 13 inch MacBook Pro without the touch bar that had 2.3/8/512, the prices were $1899 for the one I bought and $1649 for the one I was considering, I figured that I could sell headphones to make up for difference, did I purchase a machine that was more powerful than I needed? And is the touch bar really that good? Some online say it's the worst thing apple has created.
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.
Did I purchase wrong MacBook Pro?
- Thread starter boombox15
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
You should get the laptop that meets your current and, hopefully, future requirements.
What programs will be run on the Macbook?
What programs will be run on the Macbook?
No one will be able to give you a reasonable answer to your question unless you can tell us what specific types of tasks you need to perform on your MBP. A base model would be overkill for someone who just needs to do email, light browsing and some snapshot editing. Some types of work that require serious computational power would bring a maxed out MPB to its knees.
The touch bar is a serious downgrade for touch typists who are heavily dependent on the F-keys for their workflows. It's a mixed bag of opinions other than that. However, most people seem to appreciate the touch ID feature that is only available with the touch bar models.
The touch bar is a serious downgrade for touch typists who are heavily dependent on the F-keys for their workflows. It's a mixed bag of opinions other than that. However, most people seem to appreciate the touch ID feature that is only available with the touch bar models.
I am not a pro photo or video editor, I typically use mail, safari, photos, maps, iTunes, and the iWork apps. The only thing that I seem to be questioning is whether or not I made the right choice by getting the one with the touch bar
The base model should be more than sufficient for your needs. However, you have 14 days to try the model you ordered to see if you feel that the touch bar, touch ID and 2 extra ports are worth the difference in price. Another thing to consider is that the base model should have a little bit better battery life.
It looks like there is a pretty big difference in processor speed in the touch bar 13 inch, to people on here who own a MacBook Pro with touch bar, is it worth it? Does it make it feel like an iPad an a MacBook Pro? Is it very useful?
It's more useful and dynamic than a row of physical unchanging buttons. It is not like an iPad... There is a large difference in processor speed as you might expect from it being a faster processor.
Whether it's worth it or not is a subjective debate. You're paying for a better computer, which has a touchbar. Not the same computer with the addition of a touchbar. The good news is for the apps you mention, it's fully integrated. For your uses however, a 5 year old $500 MacBook Air would have been sufficient, so you're question on 'value' is surely not that important.
Just use and enjoy your computer, don't worry about $50 here or there, always just get the best you can afford that meets your needs.
Both the base model Touchbar and the base model nTB CPUs equate to very capable computers. For most work, there does not appear to be a big difference between the two CPUs - both are good and more than capable of handling most workloads. I've not personally seen a lot of evidence that either has a clear advantage over the other in real-life usage situations other than the touchbar model being quieter than the nTB (that doesn't mean that evidence does not exist - just that I've not personally seen it.)
The biggest single rationale for choosing one over the other is arguably whether one prefers the physical function keys or the TB - but other factors like the nTB's longer battery life and removable SSD, or the touchbar's quieter operation, could certainly affect this decision too. As you already bought the TB, you could use it for a week (get BetterTouchTool), see if it improves your workload, and, if it does not, return it for a nTB. For me, I like the physical function keys and opted for the nTB, which I do not regret. For some other Users, they swear by the touchbar.
For your work, either model should be great, and both should run quiet under your workload. The MacBook Air and 2017 retina MacBook would probably also meet your performance needs quite well.
The biggest single rationale for choosing one over the other is arguably whether one prefers the physical function keys or the TB - but other factors like the nTB's longer battery life and removable SSD, or the touchbar's quieter operation, could certainly affect this decision too. As you already bought the TB, you could use it for a week (get BetterTouchTool), see if it improves your workload, and, if it does not, return it for a nTB. For me, I like the physical function keys and opted for the nTB, which I do not regret. For some other Users, they swear by the touchbar.
For your work, either model should be great, and both should run quiet under your workload. The MacBook Air and 2017 retina MacBook would probably also meet your performance needs quite well.
Owned my 13" tbMBP for 2 weeks now and I can say the touch bar is a nice feature but not really necessary . If you don't mind the extra money spent then I would get the touch bar version, but if you're a bit tight on money then just opt for the non-touch bar version.
It really adds a little 'spice' to the MacBook with these cool little shortcuts here and there. I do find myself using the touch bar to increase/decrease the brightness or volume(sliding is faster than repetitively pressing a button) as well as touch ID the most.
Meh. The system you've chosen will likely last you a long time, if iWork is the heaviest load you're gonna put on it. Just stick with what you've bought and think about something else.
The TB model uses CPUs with a TDP of 28W vs only 15W for the non-TB models. That won't mean anything for basic computing, but as soon as you start putting stress on the GPU, you're going to hit a ceiling and encounter throttling. So, if you're going to play games, use GPU-enhanced applications or anything else that puts a lot of stress on the system for more than a couple of minutes, the TB model is going to have a significant performance advantage.
So is this only going to be significant with activities that are both CPU AND GPU intensive? I've not had much luck getting the 15w 2.3 to throttle with (sustained) CPU-intensive activities...I've gotten it to sound like a jet airliner, though.
Depends on what you do with it.
I use the same apps as you, but need the connectivity of 4 ports to hook it up to enthernet, monitor, external drive for back up and a printer.
I rarely use the touch bar. When the machine is not docked (and even with no external connections) the battery really suffers.
If I could make due with 2 ports (and I bought this before the prevalence of the docks), I’d have picked the base model.
The buyer would save $250. It's not chump change...
For what you need, there is little to no difference in performance. It comes down to 640 graphics vs 650 but everyone knows neither of these machines have a dGPU. You'd know if you needed it.
Last edited:
i think you bought the right model but at the wrong price. 512gb 8gb tb model goes for like $1600 after tax new on ebay or amazon market.