Just thought I would share my experience and impressions of the baseline MacBook that I picked up last Friday.
For a little background info, my primary machine is a mostly maxed out late 2015 iMac (4 GHz i7, 1 TB SSD, 24 GB memory, etc). I haven't had a Mac laptop since an original 2006 MacBook. As a technical person who disagrees with Apple's current obsession with thin, I kind of scoffed at the rMB when it was released last year, then paid it no more attention.
I decided I wanted a laptop for my upcoming vacation next month, because I wanted to edit photos in "real" software while on the road. Based on what I thought I knew about the rMB (underpowered, not enough ports), I assumed the only choice would be an 11" MBA. However after a few weeks of research, I was surprised to find myself leaning more and more towards the rMB. What I liked:
I went to the store and played with a baseline rMB next to a baseline 11" MBA. Both seemed equally snappy in the UI, no stutters or beachballs. A test of exporting the ~1000 or so demo images from the Photos app was interesting: the rMB led most of the way, and only fell a few seconds behind toward the end (assume it started throttling due to heat). I was surprised and impressed. From what you hear elsewhere, you'd think the rMB would get demolished in such a test.
I decided the demo M3 was good enough for my needs as a secondary machine, no need to bump up to M5 or M7. So I jumped in and got one on Friday.
So far, the machine has met all expectations. I've loaded all my applications, including Aperture, which I will use for photo editing. It's been perfectly snappy throughout - not as fast as the iMac, but I don't expect that. As a secondary machine and travel machine, it is far more than adequate. I'm truly impressed with what Intel has achieved with these new mobile processors.
I still need to test a few more intensive things (maybe light video editing, not sure if I'll do that on the road). I decided I would return it for a faster model if I found anything that was just too slow in the first 2 weeks. But so far, I see no reason to do that.
As for the single port, I realized that even with previous laptops, the times where I would use more than one port at a time were few and far between. As a travel/secondary computer, those times would be even fewer. So really no issue. As a bonus, I was one of the winners of the MacRumors USB-C hub giveaway, so that worked out well!
Oh, keyboard - that's hotly contested a subject, too. It still feels a little awkward to me, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. It's not enough for me to hate the machine, that's for sure.
Aside from the trip, I'm excited to have a real machine to use in different rooms of the house, rather than being chained to the iMac desk or getting by with my phone!
Edited to add TLDR: 2016 M3 MacBook performance was on par with 2015 i5 MacBook Air, UI perfectly snappy without stuttering. Obviously not as fast as my top-end iMac, but not nearly as slow as complainers would have you think. Perfectly adequate as a secondary machine for me (and maybe a primary machine for many), and quite impressive given the 1.1 GHz base clock rate!
Hope this experience helps anyone who may be struggling with a buying decision.
For a little background info, my primary machine is a mostly maxed out late 2015 iMac (4 GHz i7, 1 TB SSD, 24 GB memory, etc). I haven't had a Mac laptop since an original 2006 MacBook. As a technical person who disagrees with Apple's current obsession with thin, I kind of scoffed at the rMB when it was released last year, then paid it no more attention.
I decided I wanted a laptop for my upcoming vacation next month, because I wanted to edit photos in "real" software while on the road. Based on what I thought I knew about the rMB (underpowered, not enough ports), I assumed the only choice would be an 11" MBA. However after a few weeks of research, I was surprised to find myself leaning more and more towards the rMB. What I liked:
- Smaller and lighter, important for travel
- Better screen (more in terms of color reproduction and viewing angle than PPI)
- Ability to charge from any USB power source, critical for travel
- Faster storage
- No noisy fans
I went to the store and played with a baseline rMB next to a baseline 11" MBA. Both seemed equally snappy in the UI, no stutters or beachballs. A test of exporting the ~1000 or so demo images from the Photos app was interesting: the rMB led most of the way, and only fell a few seconds behind toward the end (assume it started throttling due to heat). I was surprised and impressed. From what you hear elsewhere, you'd think the rMB would get demolished in such a test.
I decided the demo M3 was good enough for my needs as a secondary machine, no need to bump up to M5 or M7. So I jumped in and got one on Friday.
So far, the machine has met all expectations. I've loaded all my applications, including Aperture, which I will use for photo editing. It's been perfectly snappy throughout - not as fast as the iMac, but I don't expect that. As a secondary machine and travel machine, it is far more than adequate. I'm truly impressed with what Intel has achieved with these new mobile processors.
I still need to test a few more intensive things (maybe light video editing, not sure if I'll do that on the road). I decided I would return it for a faster model if I found anything that was just too slow in the first 2 weeks. But so far, I see no reason to do that.
As for the single port, I realized that even with previous laptops, the times where I would use more than one port at a time were few and far between. As a travel/secondary computer, those times would be even fewer. So really no issue. As a bonus, I was one of the winners of the MacRumors USB-C hub giveaway, so that worked out well!
Oh, keyboard - that's hotly contested a subject, too. It still feels a little awkward to me, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. It's not enough for me to hate the machine, that's for sure.
Aside from the trip, I'm excited to have a real machine to use in different rooms of the house, rather than being chained to the iMac desk or getting by with my phone!
Edited to add TLDR: 2016 M3 MacBook performance was on par with 2015 i5 MacBook Air, UI perfectly snappy without stuttering. Obviously not as fast as my top-end iMac, but not nearly as slow as complainers would have you think. Perfectly adequate as a secondary machine for me (and maybe a primary machine for many), and quite impressive given the 1.1 GHz base clock rate!
Hope this experience helps anyone who may be struggling with a buying decision.
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