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Jacoblee23

macrumors 65832
Original poster
Nov 10, 2011
1,504
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I own a 2015 13" MacBook pro. The MacBook form factor though has me intrigued. Is the less power noticeable if all I do is sure the internet and use pages and etc?
 
I own a 2015 13" MacBook pro. The MacBook form factor though has me intrigued. Is the less power noticeable if all I do is sure the internet and use pages and etc?

I would say you can envisage dropping the whole 13" for only a Macbook 12". Check out the benchmarks, a maxed out 2017 MacBook might be more powerful or have at least comparable performance to the 2015 13".
 
I would say you can envisage dropping the whole 13" for only a Macbook 12". Check out the benchmarks, a maxed out 2017 MacBook might be more powerful or have at least comparable performance to the 2015 13".


Depends what you want/use it for I guess. I have both a MacBook pro 15" from late 2013 (Which I still use and love and I just got the 2017 MacBook i7.

I Absolutely love the portability and size of the 12" as a computer to leave in my bag at all times or take with me traveling. Any extra heavy lifting necessary and I use the 15"

I have no interest in the 2016/17 MacBook pros. I don't see much performance increase over what I already have and I think the touch bar is a horrible gimmick.

Fingers crossed my 2013 holds out! (Knock on wood!)
 
Depends what you want/use it for I guess. I have both a MacBook pro 15" from late 2013 (Which I still use and love and I just got the 2017 MacBook i7.

I Absolutely love the portability and size of the 12" as a computer to leave in my bag at all times or take with me traveling. Any extra heavy lifting necessary and I use the 15"

I have no interest in the 2016/17 MacBook pros. I don't see much performance increase over what I already have and I think the touch bar is a horrible gimmick.

Fingers crossed my 2013 holds out! (Knock on wood!)

How does it do for surfing, word documents and simple things like that? I don’t do graphic design or anything like that.
 
Depends what you want/use it for I guess. I have both a MacBook pro 15" from late 2013 (Which I still use and love and I just got the 2017 MacBook i7.

I Absolutely love the portability and size of the 12" as a computer to leave in my bag at all times or take with me traveling. Any extra heavy lifting necessary and I use the 15"

I have no interest in the 2016/17 MacBook pros. I don't see much performance increase over what I already have and I think the touch bar is a horrible gimmick.

Fingers crossed my 2013 holds out! (Knock on wood!)

This pretty much describes my situation, except I would like a 2017 MBP with Touchbar!

Until recently the one port limitation of the MacBook meant I needed to use my maxed out late 2013 15" MBP for organising external drives and data, but last week I got the Caldigit USB-C hub which gives full function equivalent USB3 connectivity to the MBP. The common portable USB-C hubs are useful for limited tasks and I carry one in my bag, but are not a substitute. Discussed here.

So I would say (depending on your needs) that if you are going to make the 12" MacBook your only computer get a Caldigit or OWC hub for desktop use. Without it I needed the MBP as well....with it I could manage with 12" MacBook alone.
 
i too have a late 2013 MacBook Pro 2.3GHz i7 and a first generation MacBook.
For a couple of years i was using the MBP as my only computer and most of the time it was in my studio running Cubase and occasionally Logic. When i started my own business [architecture] i was using the MBP, but it required me to travel to and from work everyday...after about 6 months i was over how heavy it was in my bag with everything else, so i got a MacBook.
The MacBook was great for email, word, internet, Indesign and photoshop. I used it exclusively for work fro 12 months, until i got an iMac for the screen real estate.

At home now i still use the MBP in the studio for music applications [where it still outperforms my 2015 3.5Ghz i5 iMac anyways] and use my MacBook for general around the house use and as my travel machine.

If Apple ever made a quad core i7 in a 13" i think id probably sell these two and get the one computer, but for now the power of the 2013 MBP is only marginally below the current models and the weight of the 12" MacBook makes it so useful that i keep both.

I could never survive with just a 12" MacBook as Cubase and Logic really require CPU power for extended periods of time. But for short bursts [In Design, Photoshop] i think it does really well.

Depends what you want/use it for I guess. I have both a MacBook pro 15" from late 2013 (Which I still use and love and I just got the 2017 MacBook i7.

I Absolutely love the portability and size of the 12" as a computer to leave in my bag at all times or take with me traveling. Any extra heavy lifting necessary and I use the 15"

I have no interest in the 2016/17 MacBook pros. I don't see much performance increase over what I already have and I think the touch bar is a horrible gimmick.

Fingers crossed my 2013 holds out! (Knock on wood!)
 
i too have a late 2013 MacBook Pro 2.3GHz i7 and a first generation MacBook.
For a couple of years i was using the MBP as my only computer and most of the time it was in my studio running Cubase and occasionally Logic. When i started my own business [architecture] i was using the MBP, but it required me to travel to and from work everyday...after about 6 months i was over how heavy it was in my bag with everything else, so i got a MacBook.
The MacBook was great for email, word, internet, Indesign and photoshop. I used it exclusively for work fro 12 months, until i got an iMac for the screen real estate.

At home now i still use the MBP in the studio for music applications [where it still outperforms my 2015 3.5Ghz i5 iMac anyways] and use my MacBook for general around the house use and as my travel machine.

If Apple ever made a quad core i7 in a 13" i think id probably sell these two and get the one computer, but for now the power of the 2013 MBP is only marginally below the current models and the weight of the 12" MacBook makes it so useful that i keep both.

I could never survive with just a 12" MacBook as Cubase and Logic really require CPU power for extended periods of time. But for short bursts [In Design, Photoshop] i think it does really well.


Yep. Totally relate to this. I keep the 12" in my bag at all times - i found the 15" too heavy to carry around, but it's my main computer at home. the 2013 15" performs very well - especially in comparison to the 2017 models.

I HAD the 2015 12" but upgraded to the 2017 12" i7. I found the difference in performance to be pretty large. I think the 12" i7 could perform most tasks very well now but i still use the the 15" when home.

Have been thinking about an iMac as well for the screen... but not sure. I think i have what i need now.
 
How does it do for surfing, word documents and simple things like that? I don’t do graphic design or anything like that.
Why are u concerned about that? Do u really think it might be to slow for that?
Every smartphone can do that easily. So with a MB not a problem at all.
You can even do more intense stuff like photo editing, VM, basic CAD or video editing...
 
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