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Going to 13" non touch from 15" touch

T

twgolf

Suspended
Original poster
Dec 26, 2016
24
14
So Ive had the 15" touch machine since day one and I am a bit disappointed to say the least.

I use the machine really for browsing, office teamviewer to log in my work PC and that's really about it.
Ive had the 'top' macbook pro for the past 5 generations.

If I return this unit and go to 13" base non touch will I notice a drop in speed for the things I do? Going from i7 16 ram Dedicated GPU to a i5 8 ram no GPU...

I actually prefer the smaller size and can use the additional 1500 bucks to put towards a Windows Desktop I'm building at home for home office work.

Has anyone done that move?
 
I also own a 2016 15" Macbook Pro. Also considering doing the same. I am mainly doing this because of piss poor battery life I am getting on my 15
 
yesterday I got 4 hours while browsing and watching the football game.
That is pathetic.
 
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twgolf said:
yesterday I got 4 hours while browsing and watching the football game.
That is pathetic.
Click to expand...
This is also what I am getting on mine. If I run parallels(nothing intensive) my battery lasts only 2 hours. This is beyond pathetic.
 
I just made this move - so far loving the 13" nTB! You will not notice a speed difference - I have a heavy workload with multiple VMs for development.

The 15" is a freaking train wreck - It took 3 exchanges to get one without a scratch near the speaker grill. Once I got a visually perfect one then it had graphical glitches, kept crashing itself randomly, and the battery life was abysmal.

The nTB may really be the best of this generation - I'm hoping with next year's refresh they intro a 15" nTB. The TB is a solution to a non-existent problem which introduces many more side effects of its own!
 
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SlickVik said:
I just made this move - so far loving the 13" nTB! You will not notice a speed difference - I have a heavy workload with multiple VMs for development.

The 15" is a freaking train wreck - It took 3 exchanges to get one without a scratch near the speaker grill. Once I got a visually perfect one then it had graphical glitches, kept crashing itself randomly, and the battery life was abysmal.

The nTB may really be the best of this generation - I'm hoping with next year's refresh they intro a 15" nTB. The TB is a solution to a non-existent problem which introduces many more side effects of its own!
Click to expand...

Such as?
 
SlickVik said:
I just made this move - so far loving the 13" nTB! You will not notice a speed difference - I have a heavy workload with multiple VMs for development.

The 15" is a freaking train wreck - It took 3 exchanges to get one without a scratch near the speaker grill. Once I got a visually perfect one then it had graphical glitches, kept crashing itself randomly, and the battery life was abysmal.

The nTB may really be the best of this generation - I'm hoping with next year's refresh they intro a 15" nTB. The TB is a solution to a non-existent problem which introduces many more side effects of its own!
Click to expand...


Im considering going ntb

Questions for you :

Hows the battery?

Do you get heat/ fan noise ?

Speakers any different?
 
SlickVik said:
I just made this move - so far loving the 13" nTB! You will not notice a speed difference - I have a heavy workload with multiple VMs for development.

The 15" is a freaking train wreck - It took 3 exchanges to get one without a scratch near the speaker grill. Once I got a visually perfect one then it had graphical glitches, kept crashing itself randomly, and the battery life was abysmal.

The nTB may really be the best of this generation - I'm hoping with next year's refresh they intro a 15" nTB. The TB is a solution to a non-existent problem which introduces many more side effects of its own!
Click to expand...

The VMs work fine in NTB 13" with no lag as compared to 15"?
 
SlickVik said:
Yes, they're not that intense - they're both Ubuntu 16.04 Vagrant boxes running on VirtualBox with 512MB ram each.
Click to expand...

Are you running both at the same time? My requirement would be one Windows 7 VM and another Ubuntu VM. They need not run at the same time most of the time.
 
TB indeed is the solution to a non-existent problem. Awful. Hopefully they will release a normal nTB version and not a crippled one (with inferior specs). I want a fast machine with better battery life without that touch bar thingy.

For comparison, I buy a computer every 5 years and I am expecting the following (as entry criteria):

1) new laptop has to have consistently better battery life than the one it replaces
2) more RAM and better specs in general
3) same base price

Technological advances mean that it is expected that performance improves at each iteration so it should be already reflected in the base price i.e. Not OK to charge extra for incremental improvements (see Moore's law or similar - this is the normal direction so new base price should be equal or lower than previous base price). Why are suddenly computers becoming more expensive each year? Are we stuck again in the 80s?

At the moment, apart from the screen which is obsolete, I am struggling to find a reason to upgrade from my 2010 15 MBP i5 with 8GB of RAM, dGPU and 512 Samsung SSD replaced by myself. This thing is fast as it boots in seconds. Everything is snappy. It's also rock solid.
 
Falcon80 said:
Are you running both at the same time? My requirement would be one Windows 7 VM and another Ubuntu VM. They need not run at the same time most of the time.
Click to expand...

Yes - I have 2 different applications that talk to each other via APIs.
 
looks like tonight I make the exchange.

The track bar 15" has been a train wreck. Yesterday the track bar disappeared on me and showed 1/2 icons for some reason and was unresponsive. The 13" is a better fit on my lap anyways and with the extra 1500 I will build a sick gaming PC
 
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SlickVik said:
I just made this move - so far loving the 13" nTB! You will not notice a speed difference - I have a heavy workload with multiple VMs for development.

The 15" is a freaking train wreck - It took 3 exchanges to get one without a scratch near the speaker grill. Once I got a visually perfect one then it had graphical glitches, kept crashing itself randomly, and the battery life was abysmal.

The nTB may really be the best of this generation - I'm hoping with next year's refresh they intro a 15" nTB. The TB is a solution to a non-existent problem which introduces many more side effects of its own!
Click to expand...


great to hear.
 
I have had a 15" touch bar $2799 model for several weeks. After much thought I went and purchased a 13ntb base model. The decision to try the 13" was based upon the extra $1500 for the 15" and that I have an iMac 27" that has been sitting since I got the 15". The touch bar is very cool but I have so far had very little use for it. Going to check battery life on this 13" and compare to my 15"
 
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teerexx52 said:
I have had a 15" touch bar $2799 model for several weeks. After much thought I went and purchased a 13ntb base model. The decision to try the 13" was based upon the extra $1500 for the 15" and that I have an iMac 27" that has been sitting since I got the 15". The touch bar is very cool but I have so far had very little use for it. Going to check battery life on this 13" and compare to my 15"
Click to expand...

Keep us posted!
 
twgolf said:
looks like tonight I make the exchange.

The track bar 15" has been a train wreck. Yesterday the track bar disappeared on me and showed 1/2 icons for some reason and was unresponsive. The 13" is a better fit on my lap anyways and with the extra 1500 I will build a sick gaming PC
Click to expand...

How did you calculate it to be a difference of $1500? For 13" NTB, are you intending to get just 8GB Ram with 256GB SSD?
 
Falcon80 said:
How did you calculate it to be a difference of $1500? For 13" NTB, are you intending to get just 8GB Ram with 256GB SSD?
Click to expand...

in canada base machine is 1899 minus 50 for boxing day I paid 3499 so actually 1800 after taxes!
 
I'm considering switching from my 15" 2.6ghz 16gb 460 to the 13" 2.0ghz 16gb NTB.

I actually had the 13" NTB model when they were released, but also had the 15" on order and wanted to try both before deciding which to choose.

After nearly 2 weeks with the 15", I am underwhelmed. I average about 4 hours battery life on very basic usage (email, web, Spotify, calendar, dropbox). The touch bar is a gimmick, and absolutely useless. I miss the ESC key and physical buttons press on the volume/brightness function keys. The trackpad is also too big, causing misclicks and palm rejection not working sometimes.

The only advantage for the 15" is the actual screen size, and TouchID.

The 13" NTB has the best speakers of the 3 models, consistently 8 or more hour battery life, more than capable processing power for most tasks, and much better value. In terms of cons, lack of TouchID and the smaller screen.

I'm torn between the 13" NTB and the 15"...
 
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