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Jacoblee23

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 10, 2011
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I love my MacBook 2017. My 2017 MacBook Pro with touchbar just feels cumbersome at times in comparison. I use my MacBook more than my pro.
 
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I have a 15" late 2013 Macbook pro and I love that computer (the new macbook pro's with that CRAP touchbar gimmick do NOT interest me. I hope they get rid of that garbage).

But anyways, point being this. I also have a 3rd generation Macbook 12" and I basically use the Macbook ALL the time. I do heavy lightroom work on it and everything. I prefer the 12". Also, in Lightroom, it is faster in the develop module - it is however painfully slow on export.
 
I used the MacBook Pro 13" with touch bar. It's very nice. I really like the touch bar. I really like this MacBook though. I just got it and I love the light-weight. Part of the issue for me is that it is difficult to know what will work well for you until you dive in. I thought the dual-core MacBook Pro 13" would be too little. I wanted a quad-core i7. After using the 13" pro for almost a year I have found it to be more than fine for all my needs except for one. Any Ethernet adapter I add to it says it is connected at 1 GB but the transfer speed is more like 100 MB than 1 GB. I'm not the only one saying this as far as I know. It's actually a big problem for me. It is such a nice machine otherwise. It's got all my work stuff on it. So it's not a fun machine for personal use. It's where I get my job done.

I wanted something very personal. Something with no work-related stuff on it at all. I have three email accounts for example. One is personal, and two for business. This MacBook has only the personal account. And I want to learn the Affinity Photo and Designer app. And I have this vision of using the iPad Pro version of Photo and Designer and saving that work to iCloud and then importing that into things on the MacBook. At this particular moment, I am liking the MacBook more so than any previous Mac.
 
Switching from a 2015 13 Pro to a 2017 MB 12. Love the 12. Will be selling the Pro soon.

Would you say the MB is cooler than the 13'' MBP?

I'm considering getting a MB to replace a MBP 2014 13''. It still does the job but it gets too hot on my lap.
 
Would you say the MB is cooler than the 13'' MBP?

I'm considering getting a MB to replace a MBP 2014 13''. It still does the job but it gets too hot on my lap.

Absolutely. the only time I found that the MB got warm, was then I was syncing my Dropbox and Google Drive. After that, it is absolutely comfortable, while I would often get my MBP warm, with fans running.
 
Would you say the MB is cooler than the 13'' MBP?

I'm considering getting a MB to replace a MBP 2014 13''. It still does the job but it gets too hot on my lap.

The rMB is fanless. So depends on what you are doing on MBP to generate the heat. For normal office type work, I have not noticed any heat. Compile some code, or make a video and it warms up. As it warms up it reduces CPU power to make sure it doesn't overheat.

So if your 13 is getting hot, I'd ask what you are doing on it, to get hot.
 
The rMB is fanless. So depends on what you are doing on MBP to generate the heat. For normal office type work, I have not noticed any heat. Compile some code, or make a video and it warms up. As it warms up it reduces CPU power to make sure it doesn't overheat.

So if your 13 is getting hot, I'd ask what you are doing on it, to get hot.


My MBP would get hot if I had lots of Chrome tabs open. Now, have switched back to Safari, but that's on the new MB 12, so can't really compare, but the MB 12 does not even get warm with loads of tabs opened. Maybe if I use Safari on the MBP, it would also have been cooler than when running chrome.
 
I use my 15" MBP during the daytime and early evenings, and then later in the evening and at night I use my 12" 2017 MacBook. Sometimes I will take the MB out on my deck, too, on nice warm days, and of course I use it when traveling. The MBP is the workhorse which handles all the heavy lifting and various projects.
 
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I love my MacBook 2017. My 2017 MacBook Pro with touchbar just feels cumbersome at times in comparison. I use my MacBook more than my pro.

Which I why I want a 12" Macbook - I'll just wait until there's a compelling enough performance boost over my existing pre-2015 MBP.
 
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I got both macbook core m3 2017 and 2.9ghz 2017 15” mbp. Sold the mbp and replaced it with an iMac.

Macbook is such a joy to use.
 
I have the 2016 13" MBP with TB, 2017 15" MBP with TB, and 2015 12" MB (base model) - I use the 12" all the time. It goes wherever I go, inside and outside the house!
 
So if your 13 is getting hot, I'd ask what you are doing on it, to get hot.

I'm not doing much to be honest. Using Sublime Text, Tower and a couple of Chrome tabs.

It usually idles at around 50ºC but it's common to get to 55ºC or even 60ºC if my wife left something open on her user like Word, Acrobat, etc.
 
I have the 2016 13" MBP with TB, 2017 15" MBP with TB, and 2015 12" MB (base model) - I use the 12" all the time. It goes wherever I go, inside and outside the house!

What are you doing with the other two, and how are you using your devices, since you already have an iPad too?
 
What are you doing with the other two, and how are you using your devices, since you already have an iPad too?

15" stays at home for work and private use. 13" is used at work. I gave away the 12" MB as I am waiting to replace it with the new 12" rMB, whenever that might go out.

iPP is used for weekend trips and daily at work for note-taking and at home for media consumption/games.
 
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I have a 15" late 2013 Macbook pro and I love that computer (the new macbook pro's with that CRAP touchbar gimmick do NOT interest me. I hope they get rid of that garbage).

But anyways, point being this. I also have a 3rd generation Macbook 12" and I basically use the Macbook ALL the time. I do heavy lightroom work on it and everything. I prefer the 12". Also, in Lightroom, it is faster in the develop module - it is however painfully slow on export.

This!

I'm at a coffee shop using the 15" to type this reply and while it's nice to use, when I leave here, I gotta put the 15 under the seat to hide it. The 12" fits in the glovebox just right and can be locked with ease.
 
Any Ethernet adapter I add to it says it is connected at 1 GB but the transfer speed is more like 100 MB than 1 GB.

It probably says 1 Gb (Gigabit) instead of 1 GB (Gigabyte). 1 Gigabit is about 100 MB (Megabytes).

People mix it up all the time.
b = bit
B = byte
8 bits = 1 byte
 
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My work setup is a 15" MacBook Pro at home / work and a 12" MacBook anytime I travel. Unless I am traveling for longer than a week, I stick with the 12". Its a really nice machine and honesty, it's the only Mac I really love when I use. ( I have a 2018 15" and owned a 2017 one earlier as well.). This setup works really well for me.

I tried living on a 13" and use it as as my only machine but it felt like a compromise at home and work where I spend most of my time. The 15" is really powerful and faster. So I figured at home and work, I'd get the best 15" machine and for travel I'd get the best ultraportable. I do also have a 10.5 iPP when I travel.
 
My work setup is a 15" MacBook Pro at home / work and a 12" MacBook anytime I travel. Unless I am traveling for longer than a week, I stick with the 12". Its a really nice machine and honesty, it's the only Mac I really love when I use. ( I have a 2018 15" and owned a 2017 one earlier as well.). This setup works really well for me.

I tried living on a 13" and use it as as my only machine but it felt like a compromise at home and work where I spend most of my time. The 15" is really powerful and faster. So I figured at home and work, I'd get the best 15" machine and for travel I'd get the best ultraportable. I do also have a 10.5 iPP when I travel.

I was thinking about going this route. However, why not the iMac for home use?
 
Because, I don't like sitting glued to just my desk chair all the time when I am working. So having the 15" makes it easy to move anywhere, any room etc. when I work. I have a LG 5k that I use usually at work during the day. And in the evenings I usually sit on my couch or in my kitchen and its nice to just have the 15" with me everywhere.

Usually when I am at home, I don't mess much with the 12" ( maybe once in a while). But if I am stepping out, then i leave my 15" docked to the display etc. and just grab the 12".

It might need re-working your habits with these machines, but once you get that going, this makes the best of both worlds. The most powerful machine at work/home. The best ultraportable on the road. I kinda prefer the extremes at both ends and don't care much for the middle - 13". And this is based on my workload. I know folks who love the 13" and it works well for them, so ymmv.
 
Usually when I am at home, I don't mess much with the 12" ( maybe once in a while). But if I am stepping out, then i leave my 15" docked to the display etc. and just grab the 12".

It might need re-working your habits with these machines, but once you get that going, this makes the best of both worlds. The most powerful machine at work/home. The best ultraportable on the road. I kinda prefer the extremes at both ends and don't care much for the middle - 13". And this is based on my workload. I know folks who love the 13" and it works well for them, so ymmv.

You are absolutely correct in thinking this.
 
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Because, I don't like sitting glued to just my desk chair all the time when I am working. So having the 15" makes it easy to move anywhere, any room etc. when I work. I have a LG 5k that I use usually at work during the day. And in the evenings I usually sit on my couch or in my kitchen and its nice to just have the 15" with me everywhere.

Usually when I am at home, I don't mess much with the 12" ( maybe once in a while). But if I am stepping out, then i leave my 15" docked to the display etc. and just grab the 12".

It might need re-working your habits with these machines, but once you get that going, this makes the best of both worlds. The most powerful machine at work/home. The best ultraportable on the road. I kinda prefer the extremes at both ends and don't care much for the middle - 13". And this is based on my workload. I know folks who love the 13" and it works well for them, so ymmv.

That's pretty much me, too. The middle of the road isn't really light enough and really not powerful enough either. Having the 12 and the 15 is a great combo. Enough power on the road in a really light iPad-like form. And these days with cloud services, it's easy to have all of your key files synced perfectly between the two.
 
That's pretty much me, too. The middle of the road isn't really light enough and really not powerful enough either. Having the 12 and the 15 is a great combo. Enough power on the road in a really light iPad-like form. And these days with cloud services, it's easy to have all of your key files synced perfectly between the two.

Absolutely, I would have bought the 12 if I were in a cooler climate. I regularly see 40 Celsius (105 F) ambient with humidity in my country now, and I figured I would need to have a design with a fan to avoid throttling with the simplest of tasks. Hence I could not go the 12" route and had to take the 13 MBP.

That 12 is a dream portable. Keyboard and a trackpad worth of width and boom, a computer.
 
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