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First Impressions

PBz

PBz

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 3, 2005
2,616
1,577
SoCal
Some background... had multiple repairs on a 2016 13" tBMBP.. ended up with 2017 15" MBP. Decided to return 15" and instead of single device go iMac 27" (2017) at home and 2017 MB m3/8/256 for on the go. iMac should be delivered today (hopefully it survives the hurricane if we evacuate).. got the 12" MB yesterday.

Absolute first impression walking out the Apple Store was did they forget to put something in the box.. damn this thing is light.

Keyboard (has been my issue).. so far, so good.. I am hesitant with the non-responsive Butterfly key issues but not going to let that stop me from trying a great device. Overall, I type well on it but for some reason it feels small. I know it isn't.. mental thing.. either way.. I would give the keyboard (assuming it keeps responding) an 8.

Screen is gorgeous. 8 (not full color so not a 10)

Weight/portability - are you kidding me? Stupid light - 10

App responsiveness - 8 ..maybe a 9 considering profile.. I know this isn't a MBP and I reserved judgment until Photos came in and much of indexing done.. everything responds very well..

Speed - SSD read/write are both over GB.. all I need at this size. 9

RAM - no matter what I do it doesn't try to use much more than 6. At the Apple Store I opened LOTS of apps and ran programs like iMovie, GarageBand.. Office apps.. and it stayed at 6.. could not really test how well they responded but seemed OK.

When using LR/PS it stays around 6GB (and that was with indexing) and sliders and changes to photos did well. Sliders were fine and responsive.. edits did take a second but it was the first photo after loading the software plus indexing.. Exporting a 24MP edited (RAW to jpeg) image took about 10 seconds.. again.. on par for this profile..

Using office apps like Excel arent' as fun on a 12" screen but when I really need to do that stuff I can use the iMac.

Battery - so far, so good.. I will say that most Macs I have had and tested lately had over 100% of original for a long time.. this MB is already hitting 99%.. but it's only 2 charge cycles so that could change. Can't really comment on time off charge considering indexing and importing photos.

Speed - wow.. I am also considering a 2015 13" MBP and this little MB has better Geekbench scores than that MBP (i know.. I know.. sustained...but I don't do sustained for the most part.. no VM)


Thoughts:
Love the profile.

Considering moving to the m5/512 version for only a few hundred Bens. I feel like I will want to not think about storage.. even though my analysis says I won't need more than 256 for at least 3 years.

Also considering 16GB of RAM. I have read a LOT about that here and am torn as some say the CPU/GPU is a bottleneck to more RAM.. and for 80% of what I do will not be intensive tasks.

Overall.. a GREAT machine for its intended purpose.. GREAT. I just have to decide if I like typing on the little thing with my big paws... I really like it though.. this morning my son had his iPad 3 and when I picked it up I realized it was heavier than my MB. That's nuts.

Thank you to everyone here wh provided feedback and help.

TC
 
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PBz said:
RAM - no matter what I do it doesn't try to use much more than 6. At the Apple Store I opened LOTS of apps and ran programs like iMovie, GarageBand.. Office apps.. and it stayed at 6.. could not really test how well they responded but seemed OK.
Click to expand...

FWIW, this isn't how you should test for RAM usage. Use the memory pressure graph alongside 'swap used' metric within Activity Monitor for a slightly more accurate analysis of your RAM usage. High memory pressure or large amounts of swap over short periods means you'd benefit from more RAM.

In short, even if you had 128GB of RAM, your Mac would try its best to use all of it. So if you have "the same stuff running" on a 8GB model vs. a 16GB model, you will see wildly different 'memory used' metrics (6GB and 11GB respectively, let's say). This is because the Mac wants to make use of it all, whilst leaving a buffer for your next actions. And you want your Mac to use it too - it's fast.
 
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Waiting for the UPS driver to deliver my 2016 m5/8GB/512GB. Best Buy had some decent pricing over the holiday weekend so I decided to pick one up.
 
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ThaiBruin said:
FedEx should be delivering mine today. First run with a Mac. Can't wait.
Click to expand...

What do you think so far? I Just got mines Friday, a 2017 512gb. First mac, I'm considering keeping. Just have to get used to mac os in general. I'd like to find a good free simple IDE to convince me :D
 
MacChinoNyc said:
What do you think so far? I Just got mines Friday, a 2017 512gb. First mac, I'm considering keeping. Just have to get used to mac os in general. I'd like to find a good free simple IDE to convince me :D
Click to expand...
Just got mine an hour ago too. Typing on it now. I was worried about the key travel, but so far, it is't bothering me that much. The "clicks" are what matters to me I think. And it still has the clicky sound, just clearly not the travel.

This is also my first Mac, and this will certainly take some getting used to.
 
Picked up my new 2016 M5/8GB/512GB yesterday at Best Buy (shipped to store). For $975, I feel like it is one hell of a deal. Not entirely used to the keyboard yet, but it is actually a lot easier to adjust to than I expected.

Before picking up the MacBook at customer service, I walked over to the Apple section in Best Buy. To my surprise they actually had a 2015 MacBook (not sure why it was still there) sitting next to a 2017 model - so I was able to check out the gen 1 vs gen 2 keyboards side by side. Yes the 2017 keyboard felt a little nicer, but not nearly a big enough change to make me regret buying the 2016 MacBook for $625 less.

The screen is fantastic. I have it in 1440x900 mode right now, but plan on switching it to 1680x1050 mode soon to give me a little more real estate. I also have a 1920x1080p 13.3" Windows laptop and it turns out that 1680x1050 on a 12" screen is the exact same dpi as 1920x1080 on 13.3", so text size should be what I am used to.

The other big surprise was when I ran Geekbench on this 2016 MacBook. I was somewhat regretting missing out on the performance boost of the 2017, but my M5 clocked very close to the 2016 M7 and 2017 M3, so I am really pleased. The Geekbench score was 3363 Single Core / 6428 Multi Core.

Very happy with this purchase. Looking forward to getting a USB-C docking adapter so that I can hook up my Dell U2515H 2560x1440p monitor (as well as gain a couple of USB3 ports and SD card reader) when I am at my desk.

I was a little hesitant about the 2106 MacBook, but I am really happy I decided to go for it. I hope everyone else has a great experience as well.
 
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MacChinoNyc said:
What do you think so far? I Just got mines Friday, a 2017 512gb. First mac, I'm considering keeping. Just have to get used to mac os in general. I'd like to find a good free simple IDE to convince me :D
Click to expand...

IDE for what? Ask, and you will get a ton of replies :)
 
OldMike said:
Picked up my new 2016 M5/8GB/512GB yesterday at Best Buy (shipped to store). For $975, I feel like it is one hell of a deal. Not entirely used to the keyboard yet, but it is actually a lot easier to adjust to than I expected.

Before picking up the MacBook at customer service, I walked over to the Apple section in Best Buy. To my surprise they actually had a 2015 MacBook (not sure why it was still there) sitting next to a 2017 model - so I was able to check out the gen 1 vs gen 2 keyboards side by side. Yes the 2017 keyboard felt a little nicer, but not nearly a big enough change to make me regret buying the 2016 MacBook for $625 less.

The screen is fantastic. I have it in 1440x900 mode right now, but plan on switching it to 1680x1050 mode soon to give me a little more real estate. I also have a 1920x1080p 13.3" Windows laptop and it turns out that 1680x1050 on a 12" screen is the exact same dpi as 1920x1080 on 13.3", so text size should be what I am used to.

The other big surprise was when I ran Geekbench on this 2016 MacBook. I was somewhat regretting missing out on the performance boost of the 2017, but my M5 clocked very close to the 2016 M7 and 2017 M3, so I am really pleased. The Geekbench score was 3363 Single Core / 6428 Multi Core.

Very happy with this purchase. Looking forward to getting a USB-C docking adapter so that I can hook up my Dell U2515H 2560x1440p monitor (as well as gain a couple of USB3 ports and SD card reader) when I am at my desk.

I was a little hesitant about the 2106 MacBook, but I am really happy I decided to go for it. I hope everyone else has a great experience as well.
Click to expand...
Over the holiday weekend Best Buy had some great deals on the 2016 open box models. Given the significant difference in price between the open box 2016 and the 2017 models the choice was easy for me. Mine looks brand new and is excellent shape. I even opted to pick up the USB-C to Digital AV adapter (which was also open box and therefore saved me $17.00 on it).
 
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mg1984 said:
Over the holiday weekend Best Buy had some great deals on the 2016 open box models. Given the significant difference in price between the open box 2016 and the 2017 models the choice was easy for me. Mine looks brand new and is excellent shape. I even opted to pick up the USB-C to Digital AV adapter (which was also open box and therefore saved me $17.00 on it).
Click to expand...

I did the same thing late last year when the MBP's were all upgraded. Picked up an open-box 2016 MacBook 12" from Best Buy and love it. Saved hundreds of dollars. It's really all the "average user" needs IMO.
 
@MacChinoNyc
I'm not into those kinda things, but I know a lot of my friends use WingIDE for python. But I would also recommend Visual Studio Code, Atom and Sublime Text. They are 'simple' text editors, but with great expandability. For a mac specific app, try out Coda 2, I've used Coda 1 back in the days I was still using PHP.

And there ask around on forums, I'm sure you will get better answers then from me :)
 
Some first impressions after a few days with a base 2017 model. In the last 6 months I've had pretty much every laptop Apple have made for one reason or another. My last one has been a 13" MBP w/Touch Bar, but am looking for something much more portable due to a new piece of work I have coming up. We've also recently got another iMac in the office so a MBP as a second machine is overkill.

  • Keyboard is a big improvement, very similar to that on the MBP. The keys have more travel than the previous rMB and I find it much better to use now.
  • Screen is very nice - the new MBP screens have obviously got a wider colour range, so side by side there's a noticeable difference, but on its own, the Retina display is very nice and have no complaints.
  • The speed and responsiveness of the machine is very nice indeed - I'm guessing that's down to a combination of the new CPU and the faster SSD? It flies and just feels very nippy throughout the OS.
  • I'd forgotten just how small and light the form factor is. Really is ultra-portable and as someone who will often commute to an office by running, this is a big boon for me as its the only laptop I can consider running with.
  • I've done a quick bit of video editing from my GoPro and have been very impressed. Its noticeably quicker than my last rMB - you can feel the chassis heating up a bit when you really push it, but its nice not to have the fans kicking in.
  • My MBP had 16GB RAM and it was the one thing I wasn't sure whether to add to the rMB or not, but I left it at 8GB because part of the reason for doing this is that having a very powerful laptop is overkill for me. So far I've not missed the extra RAM and I've done all the usual tests to load it up and see what happens. I guess the faster CPU and very fast SSD take the load off more than before or certainly mask it?
So far, really impressed with it and its hard to describe just how snappy and responsive the machine feels.
 
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