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Regarding the Ars Technica review, it gives the 13" w/o TB as a Cinebench score of 35.75 FPS and the 13" w/ TB as 33.21 FPS.

Given the iris 550 is meant to be above the 540 how is this happening?
Very likely that they accidentally flipped the results when putting them in the graph. The 550 shows a gain in every other benchmark.
 
I'm just glad I will have the holiday return period (almost 2 months) to do my own back to back evaluation before deciding if I return it. I currently use the original 15" 2012 rMBP maxed out. My new one is maxed also except for a 1TB and not 2TB SSD.

I'm looking for increased CPU performance in 1:1 preview generation in LR. I'm looking for much better battery life while using LR...not when just watching a video or browsing the web. I'm looking for smaller and lighter. I need time to evaluate the keyboard

All these reviews are fairly useless except the ArsTechnica one as usual. Just glad I can have some time (better than just 15 days) to make up my own mind in my own use case.
 
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Very likely that they accidentally flipped the results when putting them in the graph. The 550 shows a gain in every other benchmark.

I just went back to their standalone review of the 13" w/o TB and it still shows the 35.75 FPS score. I know Cinebench isn't the best metric for integrated intel graphics, but still seems odd.

As you said, shows performance gains everywhere else. Hopefully just an outlier. Debating my choice of the base 13" w/ TB now though...
 
Regarding the Ars Technica review, it gives the 13" w/o TB as a Cinebench score of 35.75 FPS and the 13" w/ TB as 33.21 FPS.

Given the iris 550 is meant to be above the 540 how is this happening?
no, the w TB has 35 fps and the nTB has 33
 
The 550 isn't supposed to perform noticeably better in most use cases anyway.
It's running the same execution units and the same eDRAM cache as the 540 in a higher thermal envelope, that's it.
If you aren't pushing CPU and GPU to maximum for a longer time, there won't be a real difference.

As far as I'm concerned, the 13" with TB is a weird in-between product and the worst of all 3 models.

13" with TB vs 13"
- same weight and size
- slightly better performance
- worst battery life of all 3 new models, even compared to the 15" which used to lack behind in this regard
- running hotter
- 300€ more expensive
- TB won't be useful for most people, as a developer I personally prefer function keys anyway
- Touch ID and 2 more Thunderbolt 3 ports are nice, but not worth the other downtrades IMO
 
I'm not 100% convinced about these benchmarks. The (very good) review by Arstechnica, tried to point out how similar the 2.0GHZ is to the 2.9GHZ, due to the boost speed. But I wonder if benchmarks and the testing enviroment in general, are adequate in determining some of the differences. That's not how these are used day to day. No test can duplicate that (by definition of test).

This is not a new topic. It's been going on for ever, yet this reviewer sounds like it's new to him.

Don't know
 
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no, the w TB has 35 fps and the nTB has 33

I'm not saying it isn't possible a mistake was made, but this chart is very clear. The 540 outscored the 550 on this test.
 

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The 550 isn't supposed to perform noticeably better in most use cases anyway.
It's running the same execution units and the same eDRAM cache as the 540 in a higher thermal envelope, that's it.
If you aren't pushing CPU and GPU to maximum for a longer time, there won't be a real difference.

As far as I'm concerned, the 13" with TB is a weird in-between product and the worst of all 3 models.

13" with TB vs 13"
- same weight and size
- slightly better performance
- worst battery life of all 3 new models, even compared to the 15" which used to lack behind in this regard
- running hotter
- 300€ more expensive
- TB won't be useful for most people, as a developer I personally prefer function keys anyway
- Touch ID and 2 more Thunderbolt 3 ports are nice, but not worth the other downtrades IMO

I would disagree with most of this, but it's very clearly an opinion which you're more than entitled to.
From a pure features and capability standpoint though, the TB model is objectively better in all performance measures except for battery life.

It's faster in all aspects, including CPU, GPU and wifi.
It incorporates a touch bar and Touch ID, which, regardless of personal preference, is at worst equal to the lower end model, and at best a nice jump forwards.
More Tb3 ports and better internal cooling design.

As for whether this is worth the money, that's entirely up to personal preference and usage.
But I would definitely say this model is still smack dead in the middle of the lineup, like it always has been, between the new "Air" on the lower end and the 15" on the higher end.

For me, the 13" w/TB ticks more boxes than either of the other models. The only thing I really don't like is the price when compared to previous years' models. But that could be said for all 3 models from my perspective
 
yeah i don't think these reviewers actually do anything with computers that requires this kind of componentry

it's like, wow, yet another laptop that's perfectly suitable for web browsing and mail and whatever else journalists use

just like every laptop for the past 15 years

and here are some abstract meaningless geekbench numbers wow!

we're so disappointed in the CPU even though we haven't shown you its limitations in any meaningful context, and probably have no idea what the numbers even mean


ok dudes, but like, what happens when you actually do real stuff in the real world that taxes the components?
like, turn on some programs and play around with high-intensity features and tell us if it works or not!

guess we just gotta wait for it to get in the hands of the target demographic, and see reviews done by 3D animators and indie film directors and stuff
Reviewers have gotten lazy much like they claim Apple has.
 
so the Apple call about battery life is it true or not? all 3 model can last 10 hours web browsing?
 
I currently have the no TB version and the battery life is great. I am getting 11 hours. I also have a TB version on order and, along with battery life concerns, the TB dimming is a huge deal to me. How is that productive at all? I will have to touch the TB to see what is being displayed?
 
that doesnt mean Apple was lying when they said you have 10h of battery surfing the web. If the non touch get more, thats even better, but i dont think the touchbar models are bellow 10h
according to review 13 touch bar is getting 8.5 hours?
 
From Ars Technica review

The Touch Bar also times out in the name of saving battery life, which completely makes sense but can be less convenient than the static function keys if you’re just playing audio or video and not interacting with the computer for extended periods of time. The Touch Bar’s display dims after 60 seconds and turns off after another 15, and you have to tap it, the keyboard, or the trackpad to wake it back up. There are no controls anywhere in the System Preferences for changing this even if you want to.

Have to press 3 keys just to do the simplest of task like volume and brightness?
 
From Ars Technica review



Have to press 3 keys just to do the simplest of task like volume and brightness?

From What I understand when the touchbar is on you can press and hold on the brightness or volume buttons and it becomes a slider (although strangely you end up sliding on part of the touchbar next to the actual image of the slider) so you don't have to tap the brightness then tap again to change, you can tap and hold and slide in one movement.

I agree it's annoying that when the touchbar is off you have to press something just to get the option of selecting an option.

There is a YouTube video somewhere that shows better what I mean, but I've watched so many today I can't remember which exactly.
 
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From What I understand when the touchbar is on you can press and hold on the brightness or volume buttons and it becomes a slider (although strangely you end up sliding on part of the touchbar next to the actual image of the slider) so you don't have to tap the brightness then tap again to change, you can tap and hold and slide in one movement.

I agree it's annoying that when the touchbar is off you have to press something just to get the option of selecting an option.

There is a YouTube video somewhere that shows better what I mean, but I've watched so many today I can't remember which exactly.

and I guess you could technically just move the mouse and then it would light up the touchbar.
 
From Ars Technica review



Have to press 3 keys just to do the simplest of task like volume and brightness?
NOT true. Press and hold the volume/brightness key and adjust it
[doublepost=1479146930][/doublepost]
according to review 13 touch bar is getting 8.5 hours?
Not true. On non TB you can get around 11-12.5hours based on your brightness and the tb you can have around 9.5 to around 11.10 min
 
NOT true. Press and hold the volume/brightness key and adjust it
[doublepost=1479146930][/doublepost]
Not true. On non TB you can get around 11-12.5hours based on your brightness and the tb you can have around 9.5 to around 11.10 min

where are you seeing that claim? All of the reviews, which have had it for a week are not getting that at all. The few who have actually used the device instead of just doing video streams are getting even less.
 
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