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Help Choosing MacBook Pro

D

Dan_525

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hello everyone,

I’m looking at getting a MacBook. Controversial, I know, but I’ve decided on Mac over windows.

Primary use case will be for uni, essays / research etc. I use iPad Pro for note taking (which is fantastic). I also want the notebook to be capable of doing content creation- Adobe Lightroom, Final Cut Pro X in 4K and Logic Pro X. This will all be done on External SSD drives and will only be on occasion but I want the option there. I have the new iMac for video work.

These are the options I’ve narrowed it down to

MacBook : 1.3GHz i5
8GB Ram
256GB SSD
1 Thunderbolt 3 Port
£1340

13 inch MacBook Pro : 2.3GHz i5
8GB Ram
256GB SSD
2 Thunderbolt 3 Ports
£1450

13 inch MacBook Pro : 3.1GHz i5
8GB Ram
256GB SSD
Touch Bar & Touch ID
4 Thunderbolt 3 Ports
£1750

15 inch MacBook Pro : 2.8GHz i7
16GB Ram
256GB SSD
Touch Bar & Touch ID
4 Thunderbolt 3 Ports
£2350


Of course I’d like to pay as little as possible haha.
Any suggestions / advice would be greatfully appreciated

Many thanks
 
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It would. It’s just if it’s worth the extra £500 over the 13” considering I have the Mac and would only edit on the MacBook occasionally
 
Just go with what you affordable. If you doesn’t need much ram, 2.3 i5 will be better option because you save $500 and use that money to get another 4K 43” monitor. LoL.......I will said if you just use it for surfing,VMware,movie,iTunes and restart it once a while 8gb ram more than enough.
 
joefoong79 said:
Just go with what you affordable. If you doesn’t need much ram, 2.3 i5 will be better option because you save $500 and use that money to get another 4K 43” monitor. LoL.......I will said if you just use it for surfing,VMware,movie,iTunes and restart it once a while 8gb ram more than enough.
Click to expand...

The 2.3 i5 in the non Touch bar? 8 GB Ram should be enough for only occasional editing work
 
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I just bought a 15" 2.9 GHz / 512 GB HD. Of course money is key and whatever your budget is may be the limiting factor. But I love this thing. I still use CS4 as it does everything I need it to do and I was able to get it to work with the help of people on the Adobe forums. There is nothing more annoying than lag when editing. So far, it's been really good for that.

i went with the 2.9 instead of the 3.1 as I didn't think that little extra would make that much of a difference. But felt going with the 2.8 I would. Strange I know, but I tend to lean to buying the most powerful I can at the time of purchase. I upgraded from my 2008 MacBook Pro to this one.

I wouldn't go with the 13" for two reasons. Screen real estate is important. I don't hook it up to an external monitor. It has 4 processor cores instead of 2. And the video card options are better. Which is important for picture editing (remember - RAW files are 10s of GB in size. They work much better if you have more memory to work with).
 
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OP wrote:
"Final Cut Pro X in 4K and Logic Pro X. This will all be done on External SSD drives and will only be on occasion but I want the option there."

If this is what you want, you need all the power you can get.
Anything less than a MacBook Pro probably won't do.

If money is an option, and if you have the option to buy Apple factory-refurbished, consider that pathway.

I personally prefer the 2015 design, with a better keyboard and a full complement of ports. But of course, it's not "the latest and greatest".

I would avoid the 2016 models -- too many keyboard failures.
2017 models seem to have slightly fewer keyboard failures, but still have them.
 
ALL of the above will run FCPX and Lightroom. The question you need to answer is what screen size are you comfortable with, and is "speed" an important issue. i.e. FCPX runs fine on a 12" MacBook - however when it comes time to render the video, it may take twice as long (or longer) than on a 15" base MacBook Pro.

If you're gonna hamstring yourself by saying "Of course I’d like to pay as little as possible haha.", then you've made your decision.

Photo and video programs will benefit from 16GB of RAM vs 8, and will also run faster with dedicated video RAM vs integrated.
 
So it’s lookong like the 15” base model would be the better choice then. 16GB Ram as standard, true quad core processor, dedicated gpu and of course a bigger screen
 
A couple of points:
1: The 12" MacBook has a single USB-C port. It is not Thunderbolt 3.
2: I think you need to define "on occasion" for your photo and video editing. Is that once a week, once a month, every three months? Since you have the iMac to do the heavy lifting when you need it, I would argue that you would be just fine with the 13" MBP. Yes, the discrete GPU and increased screen real-estate would be helpful, but that's what the iMac is for.
 
parseckadet said:
A couple of points:
1: The 12" MacBook has a single USB-C port. It is not Thunderbolt 3.
2: I think you need to define "on occasion" for your photo and video editing. Is that once a week, once a month, every three months? Since you have the iMac to do the heavy lifting when you need it, I would argue that you would be just fine with the 13" MBP. Yes, the discrete GPU and increased screen real-estate would be helpful, but that's what the iMac is for.
Click to expand...

This.

I'd go even further in fact, and say that you probably don't even need the laptop - iPP and iMac should cover all bases!
 
I've used FCPX, Xcode, After Effects, InDesign all on my base 2016 13" Touch Bar MBP without issue. The 15" will be faster obviously, but it's a lot more money for perhaps only marginal gains. I wouldn't spend more than I needed to, especially if I had a modern iMac as well which can easily cope with much larger projects.

You can cut short 4K projects on a 12" MacBook if you want, despite what a lot of people say it works quite well. Rendering times are obviously quite long and the screen is a bit cramped, but it's doable.

Personally, I'd go with a 13" MacBook Pro. As to which model, it depends on how often this is going to be used. If it's your main computer, I'd go for the Touch Bar model for the slightly faster processor but also two extra ports (plus the TB/Touch ID are actually quite useful). If it's going to be a secondary computer, with most work still being done on the iMac, I'd just go for the base model with the function keys.
 
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parseckadet said:
A couple of points:
1: The 12" MacBook has a single USB-C port. It is not Thunderbolt 3.
2: I think you need to define "on occasion" for your photo and video editing. Is that once a week, once a month, every three months? Since you have the iMac to do the heavy lifting when you need it, I would argue that you would be just fine with the 13" MBP. Yes, the discrete GPU and increased screen real-estate would be helpful, but that's what the iMac is for.
Click to expand...

1- I think a single usb-c would be a disadvantage
2- On occasion, I mean taking it on holiday to use as a main computer for photo editing and video work. So say 4 weeks a year. Doesn’t need to be super fast, just capable
[doublepost=1515323098][/doublepost]
cambookpro said:
I've used FCPX, Xcode, After Effects, InDesign all on my base 2016 13" Touch Bar MBP without issue. The 15" will be faster obviously, but it's a lot more money for perhaps only marginal gains. I wouldn't spend more than I needed to, especially if I had a modern iMac as well which can easily cope with much larger projects.

You can cut short 4K projects on a 12" MacBook if you want, despite what a lot of people say it works quite well. Rendering times are obviously quite long and the screen is a bit cramped, but it's doable.

Personally, I'd go with a 13" MacBook Pro. As to which model, it depends on how often this is going to be used. If it's your main computer, I'd go for the Touch Bar model for the slightly faster processor but also two extra ports (plus the TB/Touch ID are actually quite useful). If it's going to be a secondary computer, with most work still being done on the iMac, I'd just go for the base model with the function keys.
Click to expand...

I think I’d agree with the 13 inch, the 15 will be faster but lot more money for the extra performance. I’d go with the Touch bar because I think it will be useful and I do fancy Touch ID. Also the extra ports will be useful and the faster processor is a bonus
 
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Quick update - after some research, I’ve found the processor in the non Touch bar is better than the processor in the bouch bar model for the 13” (base models)
 
Boost clock speeds are higher in the nTB model

That’s going off geekbench and Cinebench scores. How they will perform under load with thermal throttling I don’t know. The TB model has a better cooling system
 
Dan_525 said:
Boost clock speeds are higher in the nTB model

That’s going off geekbench and Cinebench scores. How they will perform under load with thermal throttling I don’t know. The TB model has a better cooling system
Click to expand...

Other forum already did the tested on both machine. NTB will slow down the clock speed when it get hot faster compare to TB because of lesser ventilation. So don’t just pay too much attention on the spec.
 
Dan_525 said:
1- I think a single usb-c would be a disadvantage
2- On occasion, I mean taking it on holiday to use as a main computer for photo editing and video work. So say 4 weeks a year. Doesn’t need to be super fast, just capable
[doublepost=1515323098][/doublepost]

I think I’d agree with the 13 inch, the 15 will be faster but lot more money for the extra performance. I’d go with the Touch bar because I think it will be useful and I do fancy Touch ID. Also the extra ports will be useful and the faster processor is a bonus
Click to expand...
When you spec out the TB 13" with 16GB RAM and a good size SSD, then the difference in cost fades away, so that for me the 15" has much better value with 4 CPU cores, a real dedicated GPU and a larger screen. I find that the new form factor and lower weight makes the 15" very portable.
 
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