A lot of angst in this thread, but I'll add my 2 cents anyway.
I bought the MacBook to replace a 13" MacBook Pro. The MBP is an older model with 4 GB RAM and was updated to SSD. It's OK and I could update the memory to 8 GB, but honestly I hate carrying the thing around. Most of the time it just sits on my desk at home while I do my real work on my iMac. Plus the thing is too big to use comfortably on the plane in economy class. I don't fly business class most of the time.
The MacBook I got turns out to be way, way faster than my old machine, yes for productivity work (mainly business applications, etc), yet has the perfect footprint, and is oooohhh so light. I love carrying it with me, it's just so convenient. It's so light it's actually replaced my iPad Air 2 for a media consumption as well to a large extent. Now, both my iPad Air 2 and my 13" MacBook Pro sit on my desk mostly unused, and my MacBook is my go-to portable machine (other than my iPhone).
When I want to do more power computing, I will be using my 4.2 GHz 2017 Core i7 iMac. I am also waiting for a USB to DisplayPort dongle in order to use my old 2010 iMac as an external monitor for my iMac, but for some users they could do the same thing with a MacBook. It would be fine for light multimedia creation, and moderate business application work. It feels very peppy, and the Retina screen is nice. BTW, I did some testing and it appears the thing throttles to 2.5 GHz, so we're talking about effectively an 2.5 GHz machine for some sustained loads, and a 3.0 GHz machine in Turbo for very bursty work like... you guessed it... light multimedia work and moderate business application work. And remember, it has HyperThreading too, contributes to its fast feel. I think this machine would be a very good university student machine, and better than the MacBook Air in many, many ways, not the least of which is the screen. It's also appropriate for people like me who aren't editing the next Hollywood blockbuster but need a decent and modern moderate productivity machine.
BTW, I was doing some testing with 4K HEVC video recorded from my iPhone running iOS 11. It turns out for software decode, my iMac Core i7 2.93 GHz quad-core with HyperThreading performs about as well as my 2017 MacBook m3, as in not very well. However, with the High Sierra update, the MacBook m3 will get hardware HEVC decode support, and the iMac Core i7 870 (from 2010) won't. In other tests the iMac would be faster, but for practical purposes the MacBook m3 makes for the better productivity machine in many cases. Yes, my 2010 iMac is, well, from 2010, but even the 2017 MacBook Air would be a problem. That does not get any hardware HEVC decode either, and in the era of ubiquitous iPhones, that's going to be a really annoying limitation going forward.
Case in point: Just running Photos on the old iMac or even a recent MacBook Air would be a problem, because of the lack of hardware HEVC acceleration that the lowly MacBook m3 has (in High Sierra), since Photos is the repository for recorded iDevice videos as well. The main difficulty with the m3 is the screen real estate for applications like that, but that is the trade off for a wonderfully light and portable machine. But of course, for home (or dorm) use one can always add an external monitor. And the same limitations apply to a 13" MacBook Air or a 13" MacBook Pro, just to a lesser extent.
I get the best of both world though: I bought Apple's fastest 2017 iMac to be used in a dual 27" screen setup, and I also bought Apple's slowest 2017 MacBook, for uber portability and moderate productivity as well as multimedia and internet consumption on the road. I did spec it with 16 GB though (which ironically is the same max as the MacBook Pros), since I expect in a few years 8 GB will be limiting. Right now 8 GB is enough for most usage though.
I bought the MacBook to replace a 13" MacBook Pro. The MBP is an older model with 4 GB RAM and was updated to SSD. It's OK and I could update the memory to 8 GB, but honestly I hate carrying the thing around. Most of the time it just sits on my desk at home while I do my real work on my iMac. Plus the thing is too big to use comfortably on the plane in economy class. I don't fly business class most of the time.
The MacBook I got turns out to be way, way faster than my old machine, yes for productivity work (mainly business applications, etc), yet has the perfect footprint, and is oooohhh so light. I love carrying it with me, it's just so convenient. It's so light it's actually replaced my iPad Air 2 for a media consumption as well to a large extent. Now, both my iPad Air 2 and my 13" MacBook Pro sit on my desk mostly unused, and my MacBook is my go-to portable machine (other than my iPhone).
When I want to do more power computing, I will be using my 4.2 GHz 2017 Core i7 iMac. I am also waiting for a USB to DisplayPort dongle in order to use my old 2010 iMac as an external monitor for my iMac, but for some users they could do the same thing with a MacBook. It would be fine for light multimedia creation, and moderate business application work. It feels very peppy, and the Retina screen is nice. BTW, I did some testing and it appears the thing throttles to 2.5 GHz, so we're talking about effectively an 2.5 GHz machine for some sustained loads, and a 3.0 GHz machine in Turbo for very bursty work like... you guessed it... light multimedia work and moderate business application work. And remember, it has HyperThreading too, contributes to its fast feel. I think this machine would be a very good university student machine, and better than the MacBook Air in many, many ways, not the least of which is the screen. It's also appropriate for people like me who aren't editing the next Hollywood blockbuster but need a decent and modern moderate productivity machine.
BTW, I was doing some testing with 4K HEVC video recorded from my iPhone running iOS 11. It turns out for software decode, my iMac Core i7 2.93 GHz quad-core with HyperThreading performs about as well as my 2017 MacBook m3, as in not very well. However, with the High Sierra update, the MacBook m3 will get hardware HEVC decode support, and the iMac Core i7 870 (from 2010) won't. In other tests the iMac would be faster, but for practical purposes the MacBook m3 makes for the better productivity machine in many cases. Yes, my 2010 iMac is, well, from 2010, but even the 2017 MacBook Air would be a problem. That does not get any hardware HEVC decode either, and in the era of ubiquitous iPhones, that's going to be a really annoying limitation going forward.
Case in point: Just running Photos on the old iMac or even a recent MacBook Air would be a problem, because of the lack of hardware HEVC acceleration that the lowly MacBook m3 has (in High Sierra), since Photos is the repository for recorded iDevice videos as well. The main difficulty with the m3 is the screen real estate for applications like that, but that is the trade off for a wonderfully light and portable machine. But of course, for home (or dorm) use one can always add an external monitor. And the same limitations apply to a 13" MacBook Air or a 13" MacBook Pro, just to a lesser extent.
I get the best of both world though: I bought Apple's fastest 2017 iMac to be used in a dual 27" screen setup, and I also bought Apple's slowest 2017 MacBook, for uber portability and moderate productivity as well as multimedia and internet consumption on the road. I did spec it with 16 GB though (which ironically is the same max as the MacBook Pros), since I expect in a few years 8 GB will be limiting. Right now 8 GB is enough for most usage though.
Last edited:
