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My experiences so far.... not great... 15 inch fully loaded.

T

thedommer2000

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 11, 2016
81
50
EDITED WITH SOME UPDATES

Ok so I am not sure if I will keep this thing. Here are just a few things I noticed so far, good and bad.

1. NO LONGER AN ISSUE. Studio one works after latest restart. ----- I loaded up studio one to stress test a music session (its why I bought this thing). And even with no plugins or anything loaded I get CPU spikes. This could be. Presonus issue. I don't know. Cant play music :( -

2. NO LONGER AN ISSUE. Restarted and now its fine. It struggles with 4k 60fps though. It craps out to around 30fps and jittery. Its not a 4k screen so maybe it will work better on a real 4k screen. ----- I loaded up a 1440 youtube video at 60fps and noticed that the computer can't actually stream it without minor hiccups. They are small but at this price they should not be there.

3. Im coming from a 2009 MacBook. Yes its old but I can't help but feel that this thing is noticeably flimsier. Its still very well built but...Cant help but miss the heftiness of that old one. This one will not survive much of a dent I think.

4. Donglegate is not great but fine.

5. touch bar is not that useful but I still think its a decent addition.

6. The buried volume bar is not an issue because if you press down on the volume button and slide it still changes the volume. So really its not buried at all.

EDIT

7. I am also finding the monitor to bright. and then when I dim it....to dark. Maybe its the high contrast but it feels harder on the eyes. again, I am coming from a non retina old MacBook so I probably just have to get used to it.

EDIT 2

8. Touch ID is awesome but not always integrated. I LOVE not having to put in passwords constantly.
 
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thedommer2000 said:
Ok so I am not sure if I will keep this thing. Here are just a few things I noticed so far, good and bad.

1. I loaded up studio one to stress test a music session (its why I bought this thing). And even with no plugins or anything loaded I get CPU spikes. This could be. Presonus issue. I don't know. Cant play music :(

2. I loaded up a 1440 youtube video at 60fps and noticed that the computer can't actually stream it without minor hiccups. They are small but at this price they should not be there.

3. Im coming from a 2009 MacBook. Yes its old but I can't help but feel that this thing is noticeably flimsier. Its still very well but but. Cant help but miss the heftiness of that old one.

4. Donglegate is not great but fine.

5. touch bar is not that useful but I still think its a decent addition.

6. The buried volume bar is not an issue because if you press down on the volume button and slide it still changes the volume. So really its not buried at all.

EDIT

7. I am also finding the monitor to bright. and then when I dim it....to dark. Maybe its the high contrast but it feels harder on the eyes. again, I am coming from a non retina old MacBook so I probably just have to get used to it.
Click to expand...


Good Post almost exactly the Same Reasons I returned Mine guy at Apple Store was Like Why. I said I decided to wait for Kaby Lakes, and for Apple to Fix the RAM Issue.
 
Qwe9203 said:
Yeah. 32GB is whats missing.
Click to expand...

I am blown away by how much ram OS X is using. from what Ive been told, it does this on purpose and will use less if you are using it for other things. But. Cant test this because Studio one won't work. :(
[doublepost=1479350039][/doublepost]Also just tried downloading Darkness II on steam out of curiosity. It downloaded at 14 mb a second. I didn't know that was possible. I had the game ready to play in like 10 minutes. It ran great but the computer quickly became a sauna after about 5 minutes.
 
Does it really have problems streaming 60fps youtube? That shouldnt really happen but i hope someone else can chime in that has one
 
dk808 said:
Does it really have problems streaming 60fps youtube? That shouldnt really happen but i hope someone else can chime in that has one
Click to expand...

I did a restart and its running a lot better. I am not sure why but the youtube hiccup is gone at 1440 60 fps.
 
I notice the brightness issue as well either too bright or too dark and harder on the eyes.

If you hold your MacBook Pro with the lid closed and shake it hortizontally do you hear magnets in the trackpad moving? Just wondering if it's everyone or just mine.
 
What about your experience with the battery life?

Given the fact that the 13" touchbar model with 16GB of RAM is so close in price to the 15" with only the 460 graphics upgrade, I'm looking at the 15". But $2400 CAD vs $3000 CAD is still huge.
 
My 0.2 cents.

Im coming from a 2008 unibody MBP. This new laptop is sturdy and well built, yes its lighter and thinner, but does not feel "flimsy". Personally I was happy with the weight and feel of my 2008 unibody but I did not have another MBP to compare it to. Now I have the 2016 MBP and I it is a night and day different in weight alone. They keyboard is actually really great after a short adjustment period.

As to the hidden screen brightness controls. You can actually change what the touch bar displays. If you want you can have it display the extended function keys like a traditional MBP keyboard does. The setting is hidden in the keyboard section of the system preferences.

My experience has been nothing but great so far, sorry about your experience.

Battery: If you're doing general internet/email/word/powerpoint etc, I've been getting around 7-8 hrs of batter life, pretty impressive. If you start doing more intensive task it starts to go about 3-4 hrs.
 
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Anyone getting some slight delays when swiping between desktops? It doesn't always happen. This is on the high end 2016 with 455.
 
deadworlds said:
My 0.2 cents.

Im coming from a 2008 unibody MBP. This new laptop is sturdy and well built, yes its lighter and thinner, but does not feel "flimsy". Personally I was happy with the weight and feel of my 2008 unibody but I did not have another MBP to compare it to. Now I have the 2016 MBP and I it is a night and day different in weight alone. They keyboard is actually really great after a short adjustment period.

As to the hidden screen brightness controls. You can actually change what the touch bar displays. If you want you can have it display the extended function keys like a traditional MBP keyboard does. The setting is hidden in the keyboard section of the system preferences.

My experience has been nothing but great so far, sorry about your experience.

Battery: If you're doing general internet/email/word/powerpoint etc, I've been getting around 7-8 hrs of batter life, pretty impressive. If you start doing more intensive task it starts to go about 3-4 hrs.
Click to expand...
Is your macbook the 15 inch too?
 
scotty588 said:
Could have been Spotlight in the background indexing your files. Same thing happens on iOS and it makes everything sluggish till it's done.
Click to expand...
This.

Whenever you get a new Mac or reinstall the OS, the first thing that MacOS does is have Spotlight index all of the files on the computer. This can take over an hour or more, depending on what else is being done at the time on the system. In earlier versions of MacOS (and likely this one as well, but cannot confirm until DHL gets off it's butt and delivers mine) you can tell by the white dot in the middle of the magnifying glass icon.

During this period, there is a lot of CPU chewed up and disk activity that effectively slows everything down. Why does it do it so aggressively instead of waiting until the computer is idle? Because if not, people would be complaining that spotlight sucks...
 
dk808 said:
Does it really have problems streaming 60fps youtube? That shouldnt really happen but i hope someone else can chime in that has one
Click to expand...

13 inch macbook with touch bar doesn't have issues streaming 60fps... just saying.
 
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Bryan Bowler said:
My brain said "troll" the moment you said the new MBP felt flimsy. How could anyone take you seriously after that?
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His coming from a 2009 machine....... Which is thicker and by definition much more solid feeling....

My 12 MacBook feels flimsy compared to my 2009 17 MacBook Pro :)
 
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BenTrovato said:
If you hold your MacBook Pro with the lid closed and shake it hortizontally do you hear magnets in the trackpad moving? Just wondering if it's everyone or just mine.
Click to expand...

Hmm, are you sure it's not the sheets underneath the display?
 
Qwe9203 said:
15 inches is a bust so far. The CPU is better on the 2015 model.
Click to expand...

Well that's just plain untrue. The 2016 15" has shown to be consistently faster than the 2015 in real world tests. But if you want to stare at benchmark scores all day, be my guest.

Trust me, there are plenty of legitimate things to complain about on this thing. If you're going to do so, make sure it's about something that's not false.
 
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StandardFlint said:
Well that's just plain untrue. The 2016 15" has shown to be consistently faster than the 2015 in real world tests. But if you want to stare at benchmark scores all day, be my guest.

Trust me, there are plenty of legitimate things to complain about on this thing. If you're going to do so, make sure it's about something that's not false.
Click to expand...

I betchya the only place a newer better CPU will fall in test scores is in single-core benchmarks. I haven't looked at the benchmarks, but I would think that could be the case for a lower power/heat processor. But for most people who need a fast processor, multi-core performance is all that matters.
 
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