Non-touch rMBP 13 vs Touch rMBP 13

[Ma2k5]

Performance wise, how much % more powerful is the 28w compared to the 15w. I presume there would be a similar performance gap as per previous generations Air vs 13" rMBP?

The base model is very tempting for me, but when you look to upgrade it to 16gb RAM/512gb hard drive, it doesn't seem value for money to not just opt for the rMB 13" with touch-bar, as although you may not need the touch bar, you do in addition get two further ports and a more powerful 28w CPU for just a bit more.

Looking at reviews for the new non-touch bar rMBP, people are getting around 10-11 hours of battery life. I am trying to estimate if the touch-bar model will have battery issues due to

- Having a lower capacity battery at 49kwh, vs the 56kwh of the non-touch bar
- Having to power a more powerful 28w CPU, which runs at a 2.9 ghz at core, vs 2.0 ghz of the non-touch.
- Running more faster RAM (2133 mhz vs 1866 mhz)
- Having to power the touch-bar
- The more powerful Intel Iris 550 GPU

I am getting concerned that the battery might crap out at around 6-7 hours due to these additional factors. Granting this isn't horrible battery, but this means, should I do anything a bit more intensive, battery life might only be 2-3 hours, which is concerning. The non-touch bar in the same scenario (a bit more intensive) might get 5-6 hours.

This is making me lean to either just getting the base rMBP, or take the £££ hit to upgrade the base rMBP to 16gb RAM / 512gb SSD. Or I could just buy the base, sell on in 1-2 years and get a revised version of one of the rMBP's.

What do you guys think? Of course no one can say for sure what it will be without having used it first, but we can make rational judgement based on quoted battery capacity and having used the non-touch bar version.

 

[Floris]

The touchbar 13" has more 'this year' hardware than the other one, it will be a better investment for future macOS updates.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Performance wise, how much % more powerful is the 28w compared to the 15w. I presume there would be a similar performance gap as per previous generations Air vs 13" rMBP?

The base model is very tempting for me, but when you look to upgrade it to 16gb RAM/512gb hard drive, it doesn't seem value for money to not just opt for the rMB 13" with touch-bar, as although you may not need the touch bar, you do in addition get two further ports and a more powerful 28w CPU for just a bit more.

Looking at reviews for the new non-touch bar rMBP, people are getting around 10-11 hours of battery life. I am trying to estimate if the touch-bar model will have battery issues due to

- Having a lower capacity battery at 49kwh, vs the 56kwh of the non-touch bar
- Having to power a more powerful 28w CPU, which runs at a 2.9 ghz at core, vs 2.0 ghz of the non-touch.
- Running more faster RAM (2133 mhz vs 1866 mhz)
- Having to power the touch-bar
- The more powerful Intel Iris 550 GPU

I am getting concerned that the battery might crap out at around 6-7 hours due to these additional factors. Granting this isn't horrible battery, but this means, should I do anything a bit more intensive, battery life might only be 2-3 hours, which is concerning. The non-touch bar in the same scenario (a bit more intensive) might get 5-6 hours.

This is making me lean to either just getting the base rMBP, or take the £££ hit to upgrade the base rMBP to 16gb RAM / 512gb SSD. Or I could just buy the base, sell on in 1-2 years and get a revised version of one of the rMBP's.

What do you guys think? Of course no one can say for sure what it will be without having used it first, but we can make rational judgement based on quoted battery capacity and having used the non-touch bar version.

Well just wait for the reviews and all your questions will be answered!! Apple get their battery estimates spot on if they say it will do 10hours light use it will do!!

 

[terminator-jq]

I'm thinking the Touchbar 13" probably gets around 9-10 hours (similar to 2015 models) while the Non-Touch 13" gets 10-11 (maybe stretch to 12?). Apple probably list 10 hours across the board to keep things unified.

As for performance, the benchmark numbers for the Non-Touchbar 13" is pretty good. Though I'm sure the TB 13" will give you a pretty big jump up. I guess the model you need will depend on what kind of work you plan to use it for (and if you care about having the touchbar).

 

[hiker-]

I'd also expect that the non-TouchBar model has about 10-15% longer battery at the same load. At high load you can drain the battery way quicker with the 28W TDP setup of the TouchBar model and usually that does not scale linearly. But you can compute more in the same time. But usually you don't do that while on battery. So yeah, depends on how you are planning to use it..