Yes, but the 28w CPU isn't, I understand where you're coming from, but given the high cost of the laptop, I guess why not get the TB version, just for the Touch ID
The problem with the TB version, in my opinion is that:
- For some people, not only is the touch bar "useless", but could also be a productivity hindrance (having read through various comments).
- The battery life is noticeably shorter on the TB version, particularly if your main use is not just watching some video or light browsing.
- Performance difference in most cases will be negligible. Both the 28w and 15w CPU have similar max clock speeds and some tests have shown, the 15w version isn't throttling at sustained max clock speed unless the GPU is also worked (and even then, not significant throttling, cooling system seems to be very good on this model). Most tasks people will do, productivity wise, will not meet this threshold and as a result, people won't feel the speed difference between the two models (even with the slightly faster RAM). If people are starving for performance on the 15w, there is a very high chance that even the 28w model won't remedy this and they will need to opt for the 15" model.
- Although temporary (hopefully), the touch-bar and touch-id are quite buggy and feature limited at present from what I've been reading.
- The speaker placement/system on the touch bar model is quite different to the non-touch bar. For me, it seems sub-optimal, but that is completely my opinion and I'd have to look at more scientific tests of the effect of the different way they have arranged the speakers.
You are right about touch-ID and that would be my main reason for purchasing this. But the cannibalized battery life for me personally is too much to handle, and someone who will use VM's to Windows 10/Linux, I don't want the hassle of touch bar mishaps (it should just default to F keys for them, but there are some associated bugs reported).
Re-sale value is probably going to be higher on the touch-bar model, but again it is speculation as we don't know if even the touch-bar model resale might be much lower, if in 1-2 years time a very good updated version of the touch bar is made.
Luckily, Apple Watch unlock is working very well, so I am not missing TouchID
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Aaah, thanks for the info, correct me if I'm wrong but the only significant GPU improvement in KabyLake is it being more efficient at streaming 4K content? What about editing 4K? Or would the Iris 550 would already do fine with editing 4K?
I think Apple might skip Kabylake altogether, it doesn't bring enough to the table and GPU performance is likely to take a hit on the 13" models. Even the 15" model is better off upgrading to the i7-6770 rather than Kabylake.