“With the recent update of the 12-inch MacBook, Apple touted not only battery life increases but also improved performance,” AppleInsider reports. “Packing a new Skylake processor and integrated graphics, along with faster storage and memory, we wanted to check for ourselves how much of a performance boost the 2016 MacBook provides over last year’s model.”
“We started off comparing the SSD speed which was faster and more consistent in the new MacBook,” AppleInsider reports. “This should result in a faster loading applications and bootup of the Mac, but in real world usage, we didn’t notice much of a difference.”
“Next, we used GeekBench 3 to test processor performance. Both finished the test at about the same time with the latest MacBook being just slightly faster. Our next test is a CPU and GPU rendering test called Cinebench,” AppleInsider reports. “Once again the 2016 Macbook pulled ahead by just a bit.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This looks like a shoutout between the entry-level MacBooks. The 2016 MacBooks starts with a 1.1 GHz dual-core Intel Core m3 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 2.2 GHz, but we’d like to see how the 2016 MacBook with 1.3 GHz dual-core Intel Core m7 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.1 GHz can outperform the best-spec’ed 2015 MacBook with a 1.2 GHz dual-core Intel Core M processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 2.6GHz.
We bet that a shootout between 2015’s and 2016’s top-of-the-line MacBooks would yield more significant improvements.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Unless if you absolutely are desperate for a lightweight Mac, I cannot 100% justify the necessity of a 12″ MacBook. It’s a pretty expensive word processing machine.
So I have been looking for a new car recently. I was close to purchasing a new BMW i8, which can go from 0–100 km/h (0 to 60 mph) in 4.4 seconds and has a top speed of 250 km/h (155 mph). But then I looked at a Lamborghini Huracán, which has a top speed of 325 km/h (202 mph). But then I noticed the Bugatti Veyron, of which the Super Sport version is the fastest street-legal production car in the world, with a top speed of 431 km/h (268 mph). So the conclusion, by your logic, is that the i8 and Huracán are just too slow to use because they’re basically in the same league as a horse & buggy. Hmmm. Or, based on how I will be using my new sports car, I concluded that all three of these sport cars have a top speed far greater than what I can legally drive in my country. So I bought the i8, and highly recommend it.
My point is this: the whole reason for the mobile computing revolution is the mobility factor. Most people use a computer (desktop or laptop) for what purpose(s)? Internet access, email, photo storage, and general productivity (Office or iWork apps). Compare these duties on a 12-inch MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro: there is little difference in performance (provided each model has 8GB RAM). However, a MacBook Pro is a good fit for my duties, which includes the aforementioned tasks in addition to editing CPU and GPU-intensive 4K video.
There’s something for everyone. It’s about finding the appropriate fit for your own needs. Grandma doesn’t need a Veyron to drive to church once a week.
MacBook Air 13″! That’s a way better choice.
The best-spec’ed 2015 MacBook wasn’t a 1.2 GHz dual-core Intel Core M, but a 1.3 GHz version. I have one.
I had to settle for a june 2012 factory refurbished MBP because Apple stopped offering the non glare screen option. Fortunately my mid 2009 MBP is still going strong, so the newer one is waiting in the wings.
That was the opposite of a real world speed shootout.
Blackmagic Disk Utility, Cinebench, Geekbench are not what people run in the “real world”. It’s what geeks use to give a unit a Geekbench score.
Boot up times, time to open up the exact same sized Photos library, transferring 50GB of files, game frame rates at the same resolution, time to transcode video etc. That’s what I would consider a real world shootout.
Hey, MDN, what’s with all the shouting? I picture the 2015 MacBook saying “Hey, everyone! That 2016 MacBook is one mean machine!”
Oh, you meant shoot-out, both times. 🙂