What do people think to the new MBP?

JamesM · 8 Feb 2017 at 10:08

Still loving mine, was a fairly steep learning curve being my first mac but I hardly ever use my desktop PC for anything else other than gaming.

Kind of wish I had gone for a slightly higher powered version but never mind.

Out of interest I've seen that you can install W10 through Boot Camp. Genuine question, what benefit does having W10 on a mac give you?

ChrisD. · 8 Feb 2017 at 10:10

Windows only apps mainly, but I tend to just run a VM if I need Windows or use my desktop.

Phate · 8 Feb 2017 at 10:11

JamesM;30482050 said:
Out of interest I've seen that you can install W10 through Boot Camp. Genuine question, what benefit does having W10 on a mac give you?

To do something you specifically can only do on Windows that isn't possible on a Mac. You can then do it.

Although apart from playing specific games, I struggle to think of anything specific!

englishpremier · 8 Feb 2017 at 11:25

Also you might have devices for work say that only have windows drivers. I had that issue when I used to run linux.

Hyburnate · 14 Feb 2017 at 14:56

Visio and MS Project are only on Windows so I use Parallels for them. Oh and all the Office for Mac lose certain features.

TS7 · 14 Feb 2017 at 15:40

Is it possible to charge the new MBP using a USB powerbank?

Hyburnate · 14 Feb 2017 at 19:03

TS7 said:
Is it possible to charge the new MBP using a USB powerbank?

Yep totally doable

This one is highly recommended:

https://www.anker.com/products/A1374011

MacRS4 · 17 Feb 2017 at 14:14

Well I finally gave in and have bought one of the base model 13" units (non-touchbar), really to replace my travel buddy 2016 Macbook. I was finding the Macbook a bit too sluggish in anything but the simpler of apps. So far, that doesn't seem to be an issue with this 13" unit?

Dunno, will see how I get on. I tell you what - it does make you realise how small & light the actual Macbook is! If only it were just a bit more powerful.

celliott · 20 Feb 2017 at 19:48

Has anyone tried light gaming on the new MBPs? I'm moving soon and deciding whether to sell my desktop + 2013 MacBook Pro for a 2016 MacBook Pro. All I really play these days is TF2 and stuff like Borderlands.

A lot of reviews say heat is an issue and theres a lot of thermal throttling?

Shinken · 23 Feb 2017 at 16:39

I've used the 15" for windows bootcamp gaming (the AMD Pro 455 & 460).
Haven't played your games but played Shadow of Mordor & GTA V -- they both ran well at 1080p with medium settings on GTA.
I really haven't noticed any throttling & the area above the TouchPad gets warm but not hot.
Maybe other games cause those issues but I haven't experienced them.

TS7 said:
Is it possible to charge the new MBP using a USB powerbank?

The 15" MacBook Pro might be a problem as it uses a 87W charger instead of the 13"'s 65W.
So if you using the 15" whilst charging with the Power Bank it'd probably still need to use the internal battery.
I haven't seen any 87W+ USB C chargers apart from Apple's

Spit said:
Installed Office 365 on my 15" TBMBP, the Touch Bar doesn't seem to be working with it?

It does work with Office 2016 following an update this month

Spit · 27 Feb 2017 at 17:07

Gave the 15" MBPTB speakers a good test today and like others have said they are astounding. Obviously bass will always suffer but anything with vocals is incredible. Great work from Apple.

Even at max volume that filled the room I heard no distortion.

Faded · 4 Mar 2017 at 17:50

dowie said:
It doesn't have much going for it - I had both(briefly) the Dell is on the way back to the factory in China and I'm very happy with the MBP.

Do you mind if I ask what specs each of these machines is?

dowie · 4 Mar 2017 at 18:11

Faded said:
Do you mind if I ask what specs each of these machines is?

Mac: 3.3Ghz i7 Skylake, Intel Iris graphics 550, 16GB LPDDR3 2133MHz, 500GB SSD

Dell: 3.5Ghz i7 Kaby Lake, Intel HD graphics 620, 16GB LPDDR3 1866MHz, 1TB SSD

UberTiger · 5 Mar 2017 at 14:24

Hyburnate said:
Visio and MS Project are only on Windows so I use Parallels for them. Oh and all the Office for Mac lose certain features.

I misread that as MS Paint and thought to myself, wow, that's a lot of effort just to get a basic paint program

Hyburnate said:
Yep totally doable

This one is highly recommended:

https://www.anker.com/products/A1374011

That's so cool. Didn't know that was possible.

Hyburnate · 5 Mar 2017 at 18:20

UberTiger said:
I misread that as MS Paint and thought to myself, wow, that's a lot of effort just to get a basic paint program

That's so cool. Didn't know that was possible.

Nah sadly not just MS Paint

DanF · 6 Mar 2017 at 16:30

Hyburnate said:
Yep totally doable

This one is highly recommended:

https://www.anker.com/products/A1374011

had a chat with some guys selling these at a show, they said a new version is coming out which will be better for the MBP 2016, they reconed the current one was fine for the macbook but maybe not the pro

ChrisD. · 6 Mar 2017 at 16:37

MacRS4 said:
Well I finally gave in and have bought one of the base model 13" units (non-touchbar), really to replace my travel buddy 2016 Macbook. I was finding the Macbook a bit too sluggish in anything but the simpler of apps. So far, that doesn't seem to be an issue with this 13" unit?

Dunno, will see how I get on. I tell you what - it does make you realise how small & light the actual Macbook is! If only it were just a bit more powerful.

I have the MacBook and I find it quite slow at anything other than browsing the internet so I've been thinking about replacing it.

Spit · 7 Mar 2017 at 08:36

Is there a way of selecting the 450 graphics to run when on power? In the energy saving tab you can only turn off the graphics switching for power and battery.

McBain · 8 Mar 2017 at 07:37

Got work to buy me one of the non touchbar versions, compared to my personal 2014 the form is beautiful, can't believe it's so slim.

Saying that I can't say i'm overly happy with the keyboard, doesn't feel as nice to use.

Everything else is standard Apple, beautiful build quality, awesome screen, massive touch pad. It's good.

MacRS4 · 8 Mar 2017 at 12:31

ChrisD. said:
I have the MacBook and I find it quite slow at anything other than browsing the internet so I've been thinking about replacing it.

Yeah - they're in a different world performance wise. Sat here working away actually on JUST the 13" rMBP non-touchbar. Has Windows 10 running in Parallels, and a load of RDP sessions up on the big screen. No way could my small Macbook cope with that.

My impression of the machine is highly positive. Keyboard is a bit noisy - only thing I can really think of.