Apple MacBook Pro 13 (Mid 2017, i5, Touch Bar) Review

[ac]

I would add to previous post that if there is some "regulation" that knocks say SSD well below competition like in this Apple SSD case, it sure would be nice to have a way to say "I'm benchmarking or doing intense performance task on battery" .. In Windows you can set Performance mode, not sure about Mac. And not sure if it affects SSD perf in Windows either (should regulating that be of help).

This is so that some people may want to bench the "classic" singular scores, for score purposes but "complex people" care about complex scenarios like, is the mobile device actually usable in mobile use and for how long and that involves different metrics and power use profiles etc.

[marcos]

Hi! Do you know the AdobeRGB % coverage?? Thks!

[Alfonso]

The other MacBooks of the 2017 lineup are also planned for review, but we might wait for our partner shops to get them in stock for us to review. Sadly no review samples from Apple directly currently, but on the other hand that means no dedicated press samples that might be cherry picked, so stay tuned.

Thank you Klaus, provided that the new Kaby Lake CUPs seem a bit more power hungry, this will be crucial for the 2.3GHz model battery life. Also, I'm a bit startled with the 2133MHz DDRL3. Those are'n supposed to be DDR4 frequencies? Will this rise in the RAM speed affect the power consumption? Remember the 2016 without touch bar carries 1866MHz RAM.

All this make the new Kaby Lake update a bit of a mystery.
Eager to read your 2017 2.3GHz MacBook Pro Without Touch Bar review.

[Lucas]

The recent update completely removed colour accuracy data in sRGB mode (which is far less accurate than P3 mode by the way). Why??

Also it's bizarre that 2017 model uses PWM instead of DC as seen in all previous models.

[bodayw]

As some others stated in the comments already, I am also interested in whether the keyboards on 2017 models are improved over the late 2016 model, i.e. do they still have those issues when the machine is warm?

Our MacBook Pro 15 (Late 2016) we use in the office also had some problem with the "S" key recently. The key stroke was either not triggered or triggered twice. However, the problem was gonge after a while.

This sounds very likely to be the said issue, quite common on 2016 models, and it only happens when the machine is heated up.

Also, gonge -> gone.

There is one person on reddit who had her/his 2016 MBP replaced four times with the same keyboard issue, and when she/he finally got the 2017 version, the issue hasn't appeared so far.

Could you also test this in your review please?

[Badr]

I'm also quite puzzled about the fact that this model has worse battery life than the previous generation!

I waited for the 2017 model specifically to ensure that the battery life issues with the previous models were overcome since this packs a more efficient chip.

Could this problem be related to the specific review unit?

Many thanks

[Klaus Hinum]

We got another model with 512 GB in house and it also showed comparable battery runtimes. So either the old MBP13 battery runtime was somehow too long (e.g. adaptive brightness, altough I dont think so) or the updates in OS X also did change something. Kaby Lake itself should be more power efficient.

Regarding the s-key problem, that happened with our 15-inch model after months of usage, so its hard to judge after 2 weeks if the new keyboard is better in that regard.

[Matt Besh]

I intend to buy 2017 (KabyLake) 13inch with touch bar, mainly for music production and live playing (Cubase, Ableton Live, Kontakt, Plugins etc.).

I will definitely get 16GB ram and 512GB SSD, but wondering whether to go for the i5 or the i7 configuration?

Be glad to get your smart advice.

Tnx

[Jonny_J]

Hi! Will be much more delayed your non-touch bar 13" MacBook Pro review?

I'm in a bit of a hurry, because the units of the 2016 are running out of stock everywhere, and I need to make the decision ASAP.

Basically I need the best battery life, and as I read, the new Kaby Lake processors may be a bit more power hungry. This machine for instance, performs worse battery-wise. And that's only explainable due to its higher clocked Baby Lake CPU.

So I need to reed your battery test and comparison of the 2016 ntbMBP and 2017 ntbMBP in order to decide wich one to buy. If the battery performance is the same -or better- then I'll pick up the newest model. If it is worse, which is probable, then I have to hurry and pick up one of the 2016 models.

Just give us a deadline, if it's not too much asking, in order to wait or not for your review (or, at least, the preview). The next week, maybe?

Thank you in advance.

[Walter]

Thanks for the good detailed review.  I'm also trying to decide between this touch bar vs the non touch bar version.  Is that initial review going to be posted soon?

[Klaus Hinum]

Non Touch-Bar is in house, first informations will be out next week. Regarding the keyboard problem, it definitely was not related to a heat up unit, but was happening all the time.
Regarding i5 vs i7, it usually does not pay off to take the higher end CPU, other than if you really need every MHz of speed (e.g. rendering tasks) or you dont care on money.

[lcdd]

The 2.4 GHz problems appears wičh other laptops too, with particular USB A 3.0 card reader, i think it is caused by bad shielding of that reader cable. For example, other USB-A 3.0 accessories are fine (does not matter whether it uses usb cable or directly connects to port like thumbdrive),bluetooth stops too,  strongly depends on the distance to the display

Are you sure this is problem of the notebook itself?

[gesmi]

Can you please test the color accuracy for sRGB on this and the non touch bar version?

[Klaus Hinum]

Well testing sRGB accuracy is a bit wonky in OS X with Calman Client (that we use). I am not sure if the results are really accurate as the tools are switching profiles when testing. Thats why we sticked to P3.

[Alireza]

waiting for macbook pro 13 inch 2017 non touch bar review...