MacBook Pro base model?

[Dave245]

Hey guys, i've been looking into purchasing a 13" 2016 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar but i'm a little stuck on the specs. Is there much difference between the 2.9GHz, 3.1GHz i5's or the 3.3GHz i7? also is it best to upgrade the RAM from the baseline 8GB to 16GB?

Has anyone brought the baseline model 13" with 2.9GHz, 8GB Ram and 512SSD if so how fast is it? what are your personal experiences with the machine?

personally i'm planning on keeping my machine for as long as i have my 2011 MacBook Pro (5 years) I've opted for the 13" because i loved the form factor when i tried out my friends.

 

[44267547]

Hey guys, i've been looking into purchasing a 13" 2016 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar but i'm a little stuck on the specs. Is there much difference between the 2.9GHz, 3.1GHz i5's or the 3.3GHz i7? also is it best to upgrade the RAM from the baseline 8GB to 16GB?

Has anyone brought the baseline model 13" with 2.9GHz, 8GB Ram and 512SSD if so how fast is it? what are your personal experiences with the machine?

personally i'm planning on keeping my machine for as long as i have my 2011 MacBook Pro (5 years) I've opted for the 13" because i loved the form factor when i tried out my friends.

Just received mine today actually. I ordered the baseline model you listed.

My experiences it is that it's very responsive and faster then I anticipated. I actually was going to order the Touch Bar, but then I realized that wouldn't really suit my needs and difference in price point was not appealing. I think the 13 inch is a great size for portability and 15 would've been too big for me. I think the Touch Bar has a lot of potential, but it just doesn't apply to me currently.

I think 8GB of RAM is more than enough for what I need for, and it certainly has met my standards as far as efficiency and speed. I will say that the 3.3 GHz i7 is very powerful, more power than what I required.

 

[Dave245]

Just received mine today actually. I ordered the baseline model you listed.

My experiences it is that it's very responsive and faster then I anticipated. I actually was going to order the Touch Bar, but then I realized that wouldn't really suit my needs and difference in price point was not appealing. I think the 13 inch is a great size for portability and 15 would've been too big for me. I think the Touch Bar has a lot of potential, but it just doesn't apply to me currently.

I think 8GB of RAM is more than enough for what I need for, and it certainly has met my standards as far as efficiency and speed. I will say that the 3.3 GHz i7 is very powerful, more power than what I required.

So you weren't put off by the negative comments then? the reason I'm opting for a Touch Bar model is because i had the hands on experience with my friends 13" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and i really liked the Touch Bar itself, in fact i found myself using it a lot. however he has a fully spec'd out model and i was wondering what's the best spec to with since I'm not a very spec type of guy, i just buy the tech and use it

 

[monkeydax]

I think just off the shelf, you are not going to notice huge performance difference between the CPUs and RAM. For most consumers, I guess 16GB RAM in the long run would be more future proof, and each CPU increment is quite small and less significant unless you're doing heavy video/photo editing then you'll notice that 10-15% increase in speed.

 

[44267547]

So you weren't put off by the negative comments then? the reason I'm opting for a Touch Bar model is because i had the hands on experience with my friends 13" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and i really liked the Touch Bar itself, in fact i found myself using it a lot. however he has a fully spec'd out model and i was wondering what's the best spec to with since I'm not a very spec type of guy, i just buy the tech and use it

I wasn't put off at all by the negative comments. I tend not to read too much into negative hype and I let the experience to speak for themselves when I actually have the opportunity to test the product. I think the Touch Bar has a lot of potential for developers and still in early stages of what it can really do. I just felt for the price point, I didn't offer anything to me that I ultimately needed. And I know the Touch Bar has potential to drain battery someone faster than an Non Touch Bar models, Which The trade off would be more important for me to have extended battery life if applicable.

But I'm very similar to your standards, where I purchase technology and I appreciate it for what it can do and I don't need to worry about every little specification or complaint. But I do like the Touch Bar and it's fairly convenient with a variety of shortcuts.

 

[Dave245]

I think just off the shelf, you are not going to notice huge performance difference between the CPUs and RAM. For most consumers, I guess 16GB RAM in the long run would be more future proof, and each CPU increment is quite small and less significant unless you're doing heavy video/photo editing then you'll notice that 10-15% increase in speed.

I forgot to mention my usage, that's my mistake sorry!

I will mainly be using the machine for writing but i also do lots of research so i tend to have a lot of tabs open in safari, i also love to do the split screen and picture in picture (basically i have a lot of things open at once). I use Apps like Pixelmator, iMovie and Evernote. I also edit a monthly podcast.

 

[monkeydax]

I would get the base with 16GB of RAM (good for lots of tabs, but still not really required since 8GB is still enough just for the purpose of tabs) and consider getting 512GB of SSD just so I don't run into problems in the future with space.

 

[Dave245]

I would get the base with 16GB of RAM (good for lots of tabs, but still not really required since 8GB is still enough just for the purpose of tabs) and consider getting 512GB of SSD just so I don't run into problems in the future with space.

Yea I'm thinking 16GB with either 512SSD or the 1TB. I'm going to be picking up in store, does anyone know if I could select a day to pick up? As I don't live near an Apple Store and have to travel about 8-10 miles away.

 

[Sanpete]

You can find benchmark speeds for the various processors here:

https://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

Just call the store to see if they can guarantee they'll have it for you on the day you want to pick it up.

 

[Dave245]

You can find benchmark speeds for the various processors here:

https://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

Just call the store to see if they can guarantee they'll have it for you on the day you want to pick it up.

Thank you for that! I've taken a look at the bench marks and it looks like the 2.9GHz would be good enough. ill do more research it's not like I have to buy one straight away anyway.

 

[Dave245]

The thing that concerns me when researching is if Apple removes the Touch Bar, if I buy into the machine and they drop support for it. I wonder if there will be updates later this year to the MacBook Pro.

 

[The Game 161]

The thing that concerns me when researching is if Apple removes the Touch Bar, if I buy into the machine and they drop support for it. I wonder if there will be updates later this year to the MacBook Pro.

Don't think you need to worry. They wouldn't bring in touch bar then remove it

 

[Dave245]

Don't think you need to worry. They wouldn't bring in touch bar then remove it

I hope so, it would be really annoying to buy something then they drop support for it. I have ready rumours they will bring the Touch Bar to the iMac keyboard. I suppose it depends on how well it did with the new MacBook Pro's, there are different opinions on it, some people don't like it but others love it and that even comes across on this forum, not to sure about the general consensus tho.