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Macbook 12" 2015 or 2016

coolman1008

coolman1008

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 21, 2015
86
3
Germany
hi,

At the moment I am thinking of getting the macbook 12".
When i was looking at the prices I could get a 2015 1.2 ghz 2015 mode for the same price or even less that the 1.1 ghz 2016 model.

Which one do you think is the better purchase. At the moment I am using a macbook air 2012 with 128 gb and would be happy with 256gb of storage.

Thanks
 
Indeed. Almost every member of these forums hopes and believes there will be a big hardware event in Oct. Apple has said nothing, of course. Rumors have focused on Macbook Pro but with Kaby Lake processors available for core M, you never know if they might also do something with the Macbook.

To answer your question, you might find the extra hour of battery life in the 2016 to be more valuable than a 1.1 to 1.2 processor bump.
 
Get a new Macbook 2015 1.1ghz 256GB if you can found it lower that 900USD.
There no obvious speed or battery life improve.
 
A big portion of being a "better" purchase would depend on what you use it for. If all you are gonna do is general email, youtube and Netflix - then any old laptop released in the past 2 years will manage for the next 4 - 5 years easily. Then just go for the cheapest option available, regardless of update. If your usage demands are more complex, then it maybe worth waiting to see if there is anything next month before making a choice.
 
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I've had both the base 2015 and am using the 1.2 m5 2016 now. My usage isn't heavy (research, word processing, Internet, media consumption, etc.) and I haven't noticed a huge difference. The 2016 is a bit faster overall and the battery lasts a little longer, but where I really saw an improvement was in the GPU. It lets me do a little more light gaming when I travel.

That said, for casual use the difference isn't massive and if you get a good deal on a 2015 I'd say go for it. My wife's Windows notebook was getting just about 2 hours from its meager battery, so when I saw a refurbished base 2015 on Apple's online store for just about $1,000 I grabbed it. Her use is even less than mine - mostly web browsing and word processing - and she's really loved the increased battery life, way better screen, nice speakers, and most of all, battery life (going from 2 hours to 6+ was huge for her).

As mtneer said though, if your use will be more demanding go with the 2016.
 
If you can get a deal on the upgraded 2015 I'd say go for it. I picked up a 1.3 MacBook 2015 for $900 a couple months back and love it!
 
I would look on YouTube and check out the videos that people have posted of side by side speed/performance comparisons between the two MacBooks. They do things like boot up, loading programs, running tasks in Photoshop, etc. The overall general "feel" of the two machines appears negligible.
 
believe it or not, I found 2016 MAcBook is more reliable than 2015's.
The first Thunderbolt 3 Mac may have the same problem too, the second gen is always the better.
 
Thank you all, just bought a 2016 Macbook for around 930€. I can return it for 30 Days so I just try it.
 
It was a smaller electronic store in my City and it is an refurbished model but it looks like it is absolutely new, has only 2 Battery Cycles and at the moment I am quite happy
 
coolman1008 said:
It was a smaller electronic store in my City and it is an refurbished model but it looks like it is absolutely new, has only 2 Battery Cycles and at the moment I am quite happy
Click to expand...

m3, m5, or m7? Regardless, congrats on the purchase :) This machine is incredible!
 
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