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What is the biggest difference between the 13" MBP 2014 and 2015 models?

S

saintforlife

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 25, 2011
1,046
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I am trying to see if getting a 2014 MBP for $1249 makes more sense than getting the 2015 one for $1424...a difference of $175.

  • Processor - I understand that performance wise there is not much of a difference between the Haswell and Broadwell processors.
  • Battery Life - Are should be quite similar, right?
  • SSD speed - Are the SSDs on 2015 models faster than the 2014 models? Anybody know?
  • TrackPad - Force Touch vs. Regular. Trackpads are always good on MacBooks. Don't care either way.
The SSD speed difference could be the only reason to justify the $175 price premium if I decide to go with the 2015. Thoughts?
 
2015 13" rMBP Enhancements include:

+ Broadwell should give some improved battery life.

+ SSD updates are real, twice as fast in 2015 (13" rMBP and 13" Air only). See article on teardown of Air's SSD (same as in 2015 13" rMBP):
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/11/13-inch-macbook-air-ssd-2x-faster/

+ Improvements to Intel graphics, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

+/- Force Touch seems cool, but not sure about longevity.

- Potential downside: The 2015 13" rMBP no longer supports Windows 7 in Boot Camp, if that matters.


Not sure where you're shopping, but consider authorized Apple resellers like B&H Photo and Adorama. No sales tax (depending on where you live) and discounted AppleCare (the real deal, fully sanctioned by Apple). There are some pretty good deals on the 2015 13" rMBP, especially at Adorama (free AppleCare).
 
saintforlife said:
I am trying to see if getting a 2014 MBP for $1249 makes more sense than getting the 2015 one for $1424...a difference of $175.

  • Processor - I understand that performance wise there is not much of a difference between the Haswell and Broadwell processors.
  • Battery Life - Are should be quite similar, right?
  • SSD speed - Are the SSDs on 2015 models faster than the 2014 models? Anybody know?
  • TrackPad - Force Touch vs. Regular. Trackpads are always good on MacBooks. Don't care either way.
The SSD speed difference could be the only reason to justify the $175 price premium if I decide to go with the 2015. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

You buying from B&H? After much back and forth, I decided to wait for Skylake but if I had to choose, I'd get the 2014 in a heartbeat. Unless you're copying 100GB worth of data, the faster SSD makes zero difference at least to me. Basically instead of opening Safari in 0.5 seconds, it opens in 0.4 seconds.

And I prefer the diving board mousepad with a geniuine click.
 
Cmd-Z said:
2015 13" rMBP Enhancements include:

+ Broadwell should give some improved battery life.

+ SSD updates are real, twice as fast in 2015 (13" rMBP and 13" Air only). See article on teardown of Air's SSD (same as in 2015 13" rMBP):
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/11/13-inch-macbook-air-ssd-2x-faster/

+ Improvements to Intel graphics, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

+/- Force Touch seems cool, but not sure about longevity.

- Potential downside: The 2015 13" rMBP no longer supports Windows 7 in Boot Camp, if that matters.


Not sure where you're shopping, but consider authorized Apple resellers like B&H Photo and Adorama. No sales tax (depending on where you live) and discounted AppleCare (the real deal, fully sanctioned by Apple). There are some pretty good deals on the 2015 13" rMBP, especially at Adorama (free AppleCare).
Click to expand...
The article only says the 2015 13" MacBook Air has the faster SSD. Doesn't say anything about the MacBook Pro. Has it been confirmed that the MacBook Pro has the faster SSD too?

----------
Kendo said:
You buying from B&H?
Click to expand...
Yep. They usually have pretty competitive prices.
 
saintforlife said:
The article only says the 2015 13" MacBook Air has the faster SSD. Doesn't say anything about the MacBook Pro. Has it been confirmed that the MacBook Pro has the faster SSD too?
Click to expand...
The article does only mention the 2015 Air, which I hinted at when I mentioned it but maybe didn't make that clear.

If you read the MacRumors round-up on the 2015 13" rMBP specifically states:

"According to Apple, the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro features upgraded flash storage that is two times faster than the flash storage in the previous-generation machine. The 13-inch MacBook Air received the same update, and benchmarks conducted on that machine suggest that Apple's estimate is accurate."

They followed this statement with the link to the Air's Flash. I would say that's pretty convincing that it applies to the 2015 13" rMBP too.
 
[*]SSD speed - Are the SSDs on 2015 models faster than the 2014 models? Anybody know?
They are, but that is really not a real difference at all. The numbers look good but it has no significance for real world performance. You wouldn't notice a difference. In any real usage scenario you'd be hard pressed to measure a difference. Random performance has not changes, latency hasn't changed and the sequential theoretical performance looks good in benchmarks but that is about all it is good for.
 
The SSD is indeed faster in the 2015 one. Is it really noticeable in day to day tasks ? Not really.
CPU is minimal faster, but focus is more on energy efficiency. So if you want better battery life the 2015 is the one to go, but nevertheless the 2013/14 one also has exceptionally good battery life ( we are talking about a difference of around 1 hour ).
iGPU wise the 2015 one is better, but also like the CPU part the difference in real life is not really noticeable, we are talking about 5fps in gaming / several seconds faster in GPU rendering tasks. On the other hand the iGPU is capable of outputting 4k at 60hz, so if you want to future proof for a potential external 4k display down the road you really should consider the 2015 one.

And like the others have said Force Touch depends really just on your own preference, although I think that it is going to be the future of touch input (maybe we get more features with the new OS X).
 
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