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I need a new MacBook after 10 years.

J

JR86

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 30, 2012
8
0
Hi all.

So after 10 years my white MacBook died on me a couple of dans ago. I went to a mac retailer in my town and they advised me to stay away from the air and pushing me to the 13 inch with touchbar.

Besides internet, i mainly use Lightroom and sometimes word and excel.

Now I am im doubt and hving a hard time to deside what to do on a 13 inch model

1. Buy the touchbar 13 inch because of the faster processor as according to the salesperson is better for Lightroom.

For about the same money i can go for option 2 and 3

2. Buy the non touchbar and double the ram to 16gb

3. Buy the previous generation MacBook pro double the storage and ram (to 256 gb and 16 gb) and stil l enjoy MagSafe and USB 3.

Would be option 2 and 3 make it a better machine for Lightroom or is 16 gb overkill and should i opt for a faster processor?

As a final question for option 3. I know there are external memorystick cards available that you can put in the sd card slot thus a cheaper option. Are the any good. Or would it be better to upgrade the iternal sdd for the higher price?

Thank in advance for your suggestions.
 
I agree with Gav2k, I think last years model should suit your needs just fine. I have the 2013 model and it's still great today. (see if you can find one from another retailer Apple never have any specials, or look at the refurbished store to save a bit more money.)

If you want the latest and greatest I would go for the model with touch bar, especially if you use USB all the time, the 4 ports will come in handy.
 
I didn't realize how close the non-Touch Bar 13" and last year's 13" where in price. Bumping the 2015 model to 256GB which is on par with the 2016 model, the difference in price is 10 euros.

Considering that, I would definitely go for the 2016 model.

It is slightly faster in benchmarks (also because it has faster SSD's), can reach faster speeds on the I/O, has an even nicer display (500 nits brightness vs 300, Wide color gamut (P3), has a bigger trackpad, way better sounding speakers (an underrated feature IMO), optional charging off an external battery, smaller power adapter with replaceable and universal USB cable and it is thinner, lighter and has a smaller footprint.

Yes, you only get two ports which will in practice always be in use by the charger and a dongle, but it's not that bad.

The additional 8GB of RAM is worth it. I would even consider 512GB of storage, but that depends on your usage and budget (I have a Bootcamp partition which eats up the space).
 
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I suggest looking around for sales. Apple products are on sale on a regular basis now. MicroCenter recently had the 13" MacBook Pro with Touchbar on sale for $1500. If you can find it on a good sale, I think that's a great buy considering the upgrades over the non-touchbar model.
 
Last years model is probably the better option technically - but I'd struggle personally to recommend it because 6 months ago, it was cheaper, not more expensive - like you'd expect with a 2 year old machine.
 
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After 10 years, it's TIME FOR a new Mac!

I agree with what others wrote -- don't get a MacBook Air (not enough power, not enough ports). Get a MacBook Pro instead.

Chances are, you may not need the touchbar model.
In some ways, the non-touchbar model is nicer (it has a removable/repairable drive, whereas the drive in the touchbar is -soldered- in!)

Also be aware that the 2015 production MacBook Pro models are still part of the "active" product lineup.
They remain excellent Macs, particularly if you have a lot of stuff that uses the older "legacy" ports.
The keyboard is different, as well. I like the older one better.

I suggest you go to a BestBuy brick-n-mortar store if there's one nearby that carries Macs. They may have all 3 MBPro's on display (touchbar, non-touchbar, 2015).

If your budget is tight, consider an Apple-refurbished item. You still get the Apple 1-year warranty, and you can get AppleCare, too, if you want it.

When the 2016's came out, I decided to replace my 2010 MBPro (7 years old). I chose the 2015 MBPro as being more suitable to my needs, no regrets.
 
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If you want to avoid having to invest in a bunch of adapters, I would go with the 2015 model. Also, since the 2016 is Rev 1 of a new generation, I wouldn't necessarily want to jump on it so soon. Going back to adapters, its gonna add up with the 2016, best you work with the 2015 so you can easily connect any existing peripherals you already own. When the USB C market matures, which will take some time, you can think about Rev B, C.
 
Any of those options will work great. As @sunapple points out, there are differences between the 2015 and 2016 models besides the ports. The 2016 has a higher-contrast, brighter screen, better speakers, is smaller and lighter, and if you get the touch bar model you also get Touch ID. The keyboards are different. Be sure to try them out to see which you prefer. Also the larger track pad matters to some people in different ways. Some have trouble adjusting to it.

The SD card slot on the 2015 is a nice feature, which you can use to expand storage, as you say, but be aware it's a lot slower than the internal storage. Usually that won't be a problem. You keep the stuff you need real fast internally, and put other stuff on the SD cards. You can do that on the 2016 too, but it's not as nice because you have to plug in a separate card reader. On the other hand, the built-in card reader will seem slower and slower as cards and readers get faster.

I doubt you'll need either 16 GB or a faster processor for your current needs. The 16 GB is what people usually recommend over a faster processor, but if you want something that will make any difference, for you it could just as well a faster processor (small difference) as the 16 GB RAM (probably no difference, but can be important if you need it).
 
I'd get the 15" 2015 model. Comes standard with 16GB and you get quad core processor.
 
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