Maxed out 13" or base 15" (with touchbar)

[Mohammad001]

In terms of performance, which MacBook Pro with Touchbar would you choose? Portability is not really an issue. I know the 15" has dedicated graphics and quad-core, but which one is most worth the money compared to the official pricing on Apple.com? On an everyday basis, would I notice any difference between the three? I don't game, but I do work with huge data sets and resource-heavy programming/algorithms.

It will be my main laptop for everything.

Macbook Pro 13" with Touchbar - $2,499
3,3 GHz DualCore i7
16 GB RAM
512 GB SSD

Macbook Pro 15" with Touchbar - $2,599
2,6 GHz QuadCore i7
16 GB RAM
512 GB SSD
Radeon Pro 450

Macbook Pro 15" with Touchbar - $2,799
2,7 GHz QuadCore i7
16 GB RAM
512 GB SSD
Radeon Pro 455

 

[yillbs]

I have a maxed out 13", and I can play pretty much any game I want with the iris pro. If you can deal with 6 - 7 hours of battery, then the 13 is the way to go IMO. It's form factor alone is nice. It's tiny, super bright screen, and the touch bar is a bit more " in reach " of the keyboard with it being smaller. However, based on the results I'm seeing, the 15 doesn't really get very good battery life either. So, ultimately, it's up to you. I personally think the I7 dual core with the Iris pro 550 is more than enough, make sure you get 16GB ram, I only have the 56GB drive, because I have a NAS at home that I can connect to from anywhere, and that stores everything else I need. Plus I have an external SSD at my workstation that handles the rest.

 

[WhiteWhaleHolyGrail]

The battery on the 15 inch is monstrous - I get around 10 hours with medium use. Don't believe the hype on here as it's not representative of the majority.

The 15" is clearly the powerhouse of the range (quad core cpu and DGPU) but it all depends on your use. IMHO the 2.7ghz 15" gives the best bang for buck for most users.

 

[paaj]

Base 15" is clearly a better permormer than max 13". Best performance/price woukd be the base 15" model or the base 15" with 460 if you use the gpu.

 

[hiker-]

I don't game, but I do work with huge data sets and resource-heavy programming/algorithms

Sounds like you want a quad core CPU, especially when you say that portability is not an issue.

 

[Mohammad001]

I was in the store, but they only had the 13" without Touchbar on display. I assume it is the same size as the one with Touchbar? Honestly, it was beautifully compact, but for some reason it just felt way too small for me. Usually I don't mind the size of the 13" in previous iterations of the Macbook Pro - maybe it is the smaller bezels. At first I dismissed the computer, thinking it was the 12" Macbook.

Thanks guys, I think I will stick to the 15" with the 455.