New 13-Inch MacBook Pro Sans Touch Bar is Marginally Faster But More Efficient Than Last Year's Base Model

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

2014 15" MBP with the 4890HQ outperforms the CPU in new 15" models, has MagSafe, doesn't need multiple dongles, has upgradable SSD, has better keyboard, and can be bought used at less than half the price of the new machines.

So I bought a '14 model in perfect condition three days ago because my wait for the new machines resulted in disappointment.

 

[anthorumor]

So...
(1) no performance improvement
(2) no battery life improvement
but
(3) slightly thinner

Sounds about right.

Don't forget less ports and more courage.

 

[recoil80]

That's entirely consistent with Intel's design philosophy lately. The days of double-digit processor gains are gone. Instead it's all about efficiency.

When it comes down to it, most of the complaints are about price. If these were $200 less I don't think we'd be hearing all the complaints about Apple going all-in with TB3 (which is a good thing in the long run), etc. That's relatively easy for Apple to fix.

Good point.
The new Macs are just overpriced but there's nothing wrong with them. I wouldn't say no to 4 ports on the base model without touch bar, but the CPU is ok

 

[Gelatus]

Earlier this year I almost bought a 13" MacBook Pro. BestBuy had a one week where they were discounted $350. I actually had it in my cart ready to go, but then had second thoughts. I knew new Macs were going to be released soon, so I decided to wait. After seeing these updates, I regret not having gone through with the purchase. I think the new MacBook Pro's are nice machines. But they removed features I use (regular USB ports, SD Card reader) and added features I don't care about (TouchBar, USB-C) as well as raising prices to ridiculous levels.

 

[acctman]

umm can we start the Tim Cook needs to be replaced postings..? I know he was hand picked by Jobs to succeed him but man Tim Cook you suck.

 

[Ghost31]

Better screen and better sound, right? Doesn't that count for something? Also lighter in a laptop is fairly important.
Really the Air without the retina screen is a seriously compromised machine compared to what is available. Screen quality is very important.

The new MacBooks are good laptops, just underwhelming for the price. I would say unless you need one right now, just wait for them to come down in price so you don't have to pay the early adopter fee. I remember people freaking out how the 12 inch MacBook was overpriced when it launched. Then I remember last Black Friday it could be has at $900ish.

 

[sziehr]

Are we not also ignoring the fact that the new version comes with a much better screen with wide colour and twice as bright, better speakers, bigger track pad, better keyboard, 2x Thunderbolt 3 ports, which are also USB 3.1 which the previous model didn't have, and SSD that does 3100MB/s read and write, Bluetooth 4.2, as well as the lighter and smaller design and colour change of course.

I mean the CPU performance alone isn't the entire computer...

We are cause this is a complain fest about CPU performance and battery life / not any fast why it cost so much more.

Our household picked up a non-touch bar macbook pro 13. The almost 10 hour battery life and USB for everything even charging is amazing. The machine is gobs of power and runs as quite as a church mouse.

This is the ideal notebook for carrying around if you need 2 ports or just do not like the 12 keyboard.

I have to say i am impressed. I am gonna upgrade to the 15 just as soon as they are in wider release.

People need something to complain about.

The common theme is:

Apple can not innovate just look at insert thing outside of there control like CPU or battery life

Apple is over pricing there stuff see history of prices of machines on new design curve.

Apple removed all the ports that took "courage" to which i say it did cause now they are out of the power game no more apple only mode of power. No longer shall you be forced to use thunderbolt 2 that no other PC maker will adopt. Now you are in with the rest of the dells.

Apple has lost its way for deciding to not include 32gigs of ram and a free blender with every purchase

There is no perfect notebook never has been never will be. I though the display on the air looked so bad i refused to buy one.

This is just a complain fest cause they did not get something just the way they wanted it.

I am over joyed at the idea that i can 1 cable dock this bad boy to a display / dock. Then 1 cable remove to go mobile.

That is what apple designed these for in mass.

 

[aPple nErd]

these posts about the new macbooks keep getting better and better

 

[ugru]

They ought to stop.

That is how many laptop they will not sell, and only on this forum, for their stupid obsession for thinnes... rMBP 2016 is an underpowered and overpriced laptop....

 

[mrhick01]

I would ask the specs advocates how much faster do you expect the MacBooks to be all things considered?

If you hate the price, don't buy it until Apple lowers it...or buy it and complain, or go Windows. You're part of the market. Speak with your wallets.

 

[Hyperion0808]

• You mean when it got thinner? As it with almost every case design (2016: 15.5 mm, 2013: 18 mm, 2012: 19 mm, 2009: 24.1 mm, 2006: 25.9 mm, 2001: 28 mm, 2000: 26 mm, 1999: 41 mm, 1998: 51mm, 1997: 61 mm).
• Or do you mean when it lost ports? As it did with every case design (2016: USB-A, TB2/mDP, HDMI, SD card, MagSafe; 2012: Ethernet, FW800, Kensington lock; 2009 ExpressCard, DVI, FW400; 2006: modem, CardBus, S-video; 2002: VGI, infrared; 2000: SCSI; 1998: Serial, ADB, HDI-15

Actually both. If you're ok with consistently getting a thinner product that loses ports every 4 years, that's your prerogative. I've done the waiting and personally, I'm tired of it. The competition is excelling more this time around than before, and apple remains stuck in their ways that thinner and lighter is always best. Why can't we get more consistent refreshes? You'd think the most valuable company in the world would be capable of doing that even if that is not "their way"

 

[TallManNY]

Performance per watt is much higher but is offset by a lower clock speed and a smaller battery. The net result is a thinner and lighter notebook that is about the same speed as last year's with no improvement in battery life. Not sure how many users will find value in the upgrade from the 2015 model - might appeal to those with earlier models though, who were due for an upgrade anyway.

How many users out there are battery life constrained on their Macbook Pro's? Now back when laptops had a 3 or 4 hour life, I remember being constrained. But even then the constraint meant bringing a power cord with me to coffee shop or in my carryon luggage on trips. Maybe before boarding a plane, I'd top off my laptop. But at 10 hours, I doubt more than 5% of the users run into an issue more than once a year. Seriously to be jamming on your laptop for ten hours without access to a plug strikes me as an unlikely use case. Yes, there is the case of international travel. But even in those contexts I would typically find myself alternating between iPad, iPhone and Laptop and a laptop with ten hours of juice is going to easily last until I get to the destination at the end of the trip. Frankly, I don't think Apple should design laptops with greater than 10 or so hours of battery life. Anything more is over-engineering the device and giving it unused capacity which adds weight and cost that most users will get no benefit from.

 

[yuhijyu]

its clear that with the loss of Steve Jobs, Jonny Ivy has too much influence. this showes again that design was more important than function. It should have equally strong influences!!

Since i need to buy a new laptop its 2015 MBP vs a windows machine...after 10+ yrs in OS eco system i probably will leave Apple.

 

[AfroAbel]

2014 15" MBP with the 4890HQ outperforms the CPU in new 15" models,

any sources to back that up?

 

[dlpowered89]

They really should have compared MBP sans touch bar against the latest gen Macbook Air. I am not at all excited about their pricing for this gen also, but it is unfair to put their 15W chip with the beefier counterpart which is fitted in the last gen MBP. Once we get the touch bar version in, we should be able to see more improvements in speed.

 

[GoodWheaties]

The problem is that this laptop is case design-wise almost identical to the 13" MBP with Touch bar. It is only missing the Touch bar and two TB3 ports. Calling it the new MBA (or better a 13" MacBook) would create an even larger number of complaints.

They have done it before though. The late-2008 MacBook was nearly identical to the 2009-2012 MacBook Pros.

 

[bobdobalina]

edit

 

[BootsWalking]

How many users out there are battery life constrained on their Macbook Pro's? Now back when laptops had a 3 or 4 hour life, I remember being constrained. But even then the constraint meant bringing a power cord with me to coffee shop or in my carryon luggage on trips. Maybe before boarding a plane, I'd top off my laptop. But at 10 hours, I doubt more than 5% of the users run into an issue more than once a year. Seriously to be jamming on your laptop for ten hours without access to a plug strikes me as an unlikely use case. Yes, there is the case of international travel. But even in those contexts I would typically find myself alternating between iPad, iPhone and Laptop and a laptop with ten hours of juice is going to easily last until I get to the destination at the end of the trip. Frankly, I don't think Apple should design laptops with greater than 10 or so hours of battery life. Anything more is over-engineering the device and giving it unused capacity which adds weight and cost that most users will get no benefit from.

How about causal users who just like to not have to keep plugging their notebook into the wall every day?

 

[SWC]

I know I am in the minority here but I am quite happy with what we got overall. Ultimately Apple has said they won't be adding a touch screen and that they feel the 10~ hour battery life is the sweet spot as it covers a a full work day for most users. So you shouldn't really expect to see either in any updates until they change their philosophy around that. I think there are a lot of people who WANT a touchscreen but don't need or will use one outside of the fun of playing with it at first. I bought a Surface Pro 3 as my work laptop a couple years ago and quickly came to dislike it and couldn't wait to dump it. Outside of graphic artists there isn't much practical use in a touchscreen on a laptop right now compared to the trade offs.

As for the ports not being "pro" what isn't pro about having 4 of the fastest & most versatile connectors to ever exist? While having an adapter isn't as convenient as being built in for $40 you can get a single dongle that adds 3 USB-A ports, an HDMI port and a SD card reader. So you have one adapter that replaces all of the missing ports, gives you one more USB-A port than you ever had and still leaves 3 thunderbolt 3 ports available on the machine.

I'm also not really sure what people wanted in terms of processor etc. that Apple could have delivered on. They are using the latest chips available from Intel and AMD. The only thing that could have been faster was the graphics if they used the new gen nvidia chips but it's my understanding they are a lot more power hungry and don't offer enough extra performance over the top end AMD option to justify the battery drain. By the time Intel starts shipping Kaby Lake en mass in late December/January (pending no more delays) we'll be about due for the next refresh in the spring if they go back to their old update cycle.

If you really look at the pricing, they didn't really raise the price per se, they just eliminated the low end model for each size and added a new higher end standard configuration. For the 13" that was the $1,299 model with a 128 GB ssd, for the 15" they eliminated the $1,999 model with integrated graphics. The new entry level MBP is no slouch either, it's benchmarks right in line with the old top tier 13" so I would say that's a pretty good gain considering Intels lack of any significant boosts lately. My only real disappointment is the lack of a 32GB ram option but I suspect there's not a lot of demand for that option to justify the power draw of regular DDR4 vs low power DDR3. I suspect we will see the option when Intel adds support lpDDR4

 

[wxman2003]

Apple died with this release. Someone needs to ask Tim Cook when the wake will be.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

any sources to back that up?

any sources to back that up?

Geekbench, Luxmark and CPUBoss. 4890HQ outperforms the 6700HQ. This shouldn't be a surprise when you look at the clock speed. It is still one of the fastest mobile CPUs on the market.

 

[Pootmatoot]

Apple died with this release. Someone needs to ask Tim Cook when the wake will be.

You'll need a dongle for that.

 

[chronos1919]

And you would be wrong. The first MacBook Air was an incredibly compromised machine.

That was exactly my point. The $1,499 model is a compromised machine given the "Pro" name. Akin to the Air when it was released.

 

[raybo]

The hardware isn't the problem - its that $1499 that's the problem.

This machine would be a great "upgrade" from the MacBook Air if it were in the $900-$1200 price range occupied by the Air and the entry 13" rMBP. It isn't - it costs as much as the old mid-range 13" MacBook pro from which it is a marginal upgrade. And its called the MacBook Pro. So, that's what its going to get compared with.

The Air was the choice for students, users with light computational needs, and people who wanted a second Mac. Unfortunately, it still is.

It seems like as massive blunder for Apple not to have an up-to-date offering for less than $1k - which is still a hefty premium over a perfectly serviceable plastic brick of a PC laptop. A handful of high-rollers willing to splurge $3000 on a laptop might look good in this quarter's sales figures, but its not going to keep the Mac platform viable - with third party support, expertise and software - in the longer term. A colleague's old MBP died today (it had lived a long and eventful life with the scars and dents to show for it) and will need replacing.... methinks they're gonna end up with a PC when the powers that be see the price of a new Pro.

Well, maybe they should have an Air update, but this entry 13" MacBook Pro is much better than the machine it replaces - it is in no way a "marginal" update... Again, much brighter, accurate and efficient display, much larger and improved trackpad, much smaller in all dimensions, much lighter, 2 state-of-the-art connectors, much better speakers, better graphics, faster memory, faster SSD, faster overall than the previous model and almost as fast as the much more expensive high-end previous model - how is all of this considered "marginal"? WTF were you expecting? Remember - the old model was no slouch!

 

[brentsg]

the MacBook pros should have been released with the option of 8 cores and 16 cores, 128GB of RAM and 6 or 8 USB-C ports and magsafe included.

this is what PRO means, SPEED, PERFORMANCE and EXPANDABILITY

It's so difficult to discern sarcasm on the internet.
[doublepost=1477941365][/doublepost]

Battery life of 15 minutes. How pro!!

Might as well include an imaginary battery technology to go along with the other imaginary parts.