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New 13-Inch MacBook Pro Sans Touch Bar is Marginally Faster But More Efficient Than Last Year's Base Model
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15W processor vs 28W processor. We should see much better jumps with the Touch Bar model. Of course, this also says a lot about how much Intel has stalled.
Had Apple used the Kaby Lake processor there would have been a little more boost (almost solely from clock speed) but still nothing like what we saw from Core to Core 2 or Core 2 to Core i5/i7. Intel's all about efficiency.
These Macbooks give me the same impression as the latest iPhone. Losing standard ports is a real pain until the market's caught up a little.
Personally, I would give these a miss. I'm glad I wasn't waiting for these...
Personally, I would give these a miss. I'm glad I wasn't waiting for these...
So now you have to pay the extra $$$ for the emoji bar in order to get better performance than last year's 13-inch Pro model, whether you like it or not.
Nice.
Nice.
And it comes in different color
I love the new colour and the non-gaudy logo. I wish that's all they changed, with a spec bump...
Indeed. Thinner and lighter. Impressive and really great for a consumer product (MacBook), but it's hardly the number 1 item on many (if not most) professional users' wish list. Why can't Apple understand this!?
It's sad how little difference there is between all those CPU generations from the past 5 years or so, no wonder they put so much emphasis on what would otherwise be labelled as "gizmos", they're the only differentiators.
We must really be hitting a ceiling in terms of what traditional CPUs are capable of.
We must really be hitting a ceiling in terms of what traditional CPUs are capable of.
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.
for people comparing about the image
the 2015 is a i7 3.1 Ghz procesor agains a i5 2.0 Ghz. The new one being on par with the previous makes it an impressive feat.
the 2015 is a i7 3.1 Ghz procesor agains a i5 2.0 Ghz. The new one being on par with the previous makes it an impressive feat.
I think that's the point. Apple isn't expecting to sell many to those who bought MacBook Pros over the last 1-3 years. We will see a bigger boost from the Touch Bar model. Remember that this is comparing a 28W Broadwell with a 2.7GHz base clock speed to a 15W Skylake with a 2.0GHz base clock speed. Turbo Boost reduces that somewhat, but there is still a difference.
And yet for people buying it it will give exactly same performance for extra cost with castrated expansion. Impressive indeed.
This product is not the exact replacement for last years MBP, so I wouldn't agree with your point, do a comparison with the 13" MBP with touch bar, and I'm sure there will be a much bigger difference.
I have been an Apple lover for so long, as I thought they were trying to provide modern (not bleeding edge) technology to the masses at a reasonable profit margin (maybe 30%, but just guessing). The simplified design includes a significantly smaller battery (cheaper for Apple). Lack of all the various ports (magsafe, full size USB, etc) is fine, but that means the internal design is great simplified and much cheaper to make (requiring expensive dongles as a separate purchase). Using dated hardware is fine since low power components are needed for a thin computer (I like thin). So overall, the manufacturing cost has probably gone down significantly, so now the profit margin is probably significantly higher. I don't mind if companies are greedy by 30%, but Apple is getting ridiculous. I don't know what their profit margin is now, but seems reasonable that such a simplified design has got to be cheaper than previous designs. I want the new touch bar laptop, but it's just out of reach now.
My work got me a 15" rMBP in February. I figured a redesign would be coming and I'd be outdated for the next 3-4 years. Looks like I got the better end of that deal
My wife has a 2011 MacAir. We agreed to wait another year. This release was underwhelming and $500 overpriced.
should have kept the thickness of the old model along with the battery size and given us 2-3 more hours or run time. If I wanted an uber thin and portable laptop I would by a Macbook... or an Air.
This is true, but it is still baffling that they call it a Pro, instead of calling it "Macbook Air". It muddles the branding, cause now you have two new "Macbook Pros" which are fairly different. And you also have the "Macbook Air" which is old tech. I guess they just call it pro to try to justify the pricing.
Makes me think of SJ's story when he joined apple and he had to ask the marketing folk which one of the Macs he should recommend to his friends back then. Having a simple, clean product line was one of his major achievements early on. That's clearly been lost sunder Tim.
The price sure ain't thinner.Imagine the new 13" MBP with a battery capacity similar to that of the older 13" MBP...
"I'm sorry, what was that?... It's thinner you say?"
Makes sense.
Several things:
1) It's hilarious that Apple is calling this thing a MacBook PRO. It is clearly a slightly "upgraded" MacBook Air in terms of power.
2) Even if it's clearly a MBA replacement, its battery life is still as good as (If not slightly worse) the MBA's, which I can easily get 10-13 hours from.
3) For people who are expecting dramatic changes, here's where I'll step in and "defend" Apple - Skylake is not that dramatic of a change than Broadwell.
1) It's hilarious that Apple is calling this thing a MacBook PRO. It is clearly a slightly "upgraded" MacBook Air in terms of power.
2) Even if it's clearly a MBA replacement, its battery life is still as good as (If not slightly worse) the MBA's, which I can easily get 10-13 hours from.
3) For people who are expecting dramatic changes, here's where I'll step in and "defend" Apple - Skylake is not that dramatic of a change than Broadwell.
It is certainly not going to be faster on prolonged heavy workloads. I find this report be be slightly misleading on MR side. Just looking at Geekbench scores is certainly not enough. Then again, this laptop is positioned as the MBA 13" replacement and is not targeted at users who require prolonged heavy workloads.
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The display assembly is likely to be quite expensive. Its very thin, 500nits, wide gamut and 16:9. Probably a new manufacturing process.
[doublepost=1477926950][/doublepost]
The display assembly is likely to be quite expensive. Its very thin, 500nits, wide gamut and 16:9. Probably a new manufacturing process.
So basically all the innovation came from Intel in the form of Skylake and all Apple did was put a smaller battery to keep battery life the same while cutting costs. Great!
I got mine in March.. I was seriously considering waiting for this one to come out, but it was taking way too long. So I went ahead and purchased the previous one. Best decision I have taken in recent times. By the time I am ready to buy a new one, hopefully there would be a good Macbook Pro out there. That will also give the industry time to catch up so I wont need a dongle to connect the Mac to everything else in this world.My work got me a 15" rMBP in February. I figured a redesign would be coming and I'd be outdated for the next 3-4 years. Looks like I got the better end of that deal
I'm more disappointed in the [lacking] GPU "options" and RAM. It can drive 4K displays with GPU's that are subpar, maxing out at 16GB's DDR3 RAM which the GPU's will require especially for "Pro" systems running "Final Cut Pro", which means less available RAM.
My current gen 12-Core Mac Pro6,1 with dual D700's and 32GB's RAM cranks all cores when working on projects and still requires a good amount of time. I couldn't imagine doing the same work as Apple claims with these systems. These components on a professional grade system with a higher price tag is indefensible.
My current gen 12-Core Mac Pro6,1 with dual D700's and 32GB's RAM cranks all cores when working on projects and still requires a good amount of time. I couldn't imagine doing the same work as Apple claims with these systems. These components on a professional grade system with a higher price tag is indefensible.
Yes, I'm upset about this as well. This model is there solely to generate revenue. Its weirdly positioned and weirdly marketed.