Experiences of the small Macbook?

susinead

susinead

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Susanne
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Hello people!
I have a 2012 Macbook Pro that is good (but will be better, I hope, after I change to an SSD drive) and that I use for work and I drag it to and from the office every day. It weighs quite a bit and I'm not too happy with taking it with me when I travel but I do because I need to do some photo editing and although the iPad is ok I don't have the storage options that I have on a computer. Now I'm thinking of buying an extra laptop, just for private and travel use. It doesn't need to be super powerful, the most important feature is that it is small and light, and I LOVE the format of the Macbook 12 inch that came some year ago. The only thing I worry about is the relatively poor processor, but at the same time I don't know much about the m3 or m5 processors, but I see that it has only 1.1 GHz (mine has a 2.9Ghz i7). I'm not competent enough about these tech aspects of computers to be able to compare those. Is that enough to use Photoshop (Elements 14 is that I had a mind for this computer) without frustration?
The only other things I wanted for this computer is to use Safari, e-mail and Coda 2 (to be able to manage websites if I need to when I'm away), and then Photoshop of course.
Do you have any experiences of this laptop and what you can do with it without slowing it down?
I'm not interested in other formats (other than maybe the 11 inch Macbook air, but it doesn't look like they sell it anymore) because what I'm after is something smaller and lighter than the one I have. And not Windows.
 
I think you may have two problems. The first is the size of the screen. I've not used a 12" model but have a 13". It's OK for mail, Safari and word processing, but I found it too small for Photoshop. And then that's the next problem. Photoshop is going to appear awfully slow, with modern day file sizes, compared to the i7 2.9GHz processor you have. Normally I would have suggested you try out the machine in an Apple store, unfortunately with Adobe's CC policy they no longer load Photoshop onto the machines. So you really have no way to compare the results. But I would maintain the slower processor are not really suitable for anything more than web browsing and word processing and spreadsheet work
 
The M7-6Y75 benches a fair bit slower than my old Core2 Quad core Q9550 and that got painful in CS3 and LR3, let alone the CC versions.

A 2012 Pro isn't that weighty, a non retina is about 2kg if I remember rightly. Okay it's about double that of the 12" macbook but you'll definitely have to make some performance compromises for that weight saving.
 
The reason why I wanted the small Macbook was in fact that the 2012 pro is too weighty, and large. I want to have more freedom in packing when I travel. The point is to have a smaller computer. The screen size will likely not be a problem if it isn't because Photoshop itself has a problem with smaller screen. The idea is to have a travel computer for basic photo editing for blogs while I'm away. What I do not want is a slow Photoshop.
Chapper, is it possible to load PS Elements on a machine in a shop, since I wouldn't be using CC on this anyway? Elements comes from the App store.

Or maybe it's better to ditch the idea and use the iPad. I can still upload by ftp for storage. It would be nice to try PSE first though before giving up the idea.
 
When I was in a similar position all I could find was opinion from people who hadn't used one so I bought a 2015 1.2ghz version to try myself.

And I am so pleased I did and i end up using it more and more and my beasty iMac is somewhat redundant for anything but gaming or video editing.

The 12" screen is gorgeous and high enough resolution to use Lightroom which works fine with my 16mp raw files and is very responsive in general usage. It takes a while to do bulk batch actions such as exporting and building previews but I can live with that. Photoshop is surprisingly ok too and totally usable for the odd edit (although as LR gets better and better I use PS less and less).

The only thing I would say is that when under load the battery isn't great, i can easily kill it in under 3 hours with a massive photo import, edit and export. Under normal use it is fine and you can charge it from a power pack meaning you can have 24hours off battery in your bag, brilliant for travelling.

My (70 year old) mum needed a replacement for her dead Air and was going to get a MBP but I pointed her at the 12" MB and she is also very glad she did. She uses it for general office tasks and website editing.

I did do some LR and PS benchmarking on the MB vs my iMac and the difference isn't as big as you might think - if you search in this forum you can find them.

The new 2016 versions are more powerful with better graphics and better battery life so based on my (real) experience I would say go for it.
 
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susinead said:
Do you have any experiences of this laptop and what you can do with it without slowing it down?
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I'm a university lecturer and I use my 2016 MacBook 12" everyday for work and it's great, as it's very light, compact, quiet, and quick. It's very easy to transport from lecture to lecture. I can't comment on photo editing, as I use my iMac at home for that, but I often have multiple powerpoint presentations open at a time, usually connected to a second monitor or projector, and it runs like a charm.
 
Of course for the record performance is subjective. Some people are happy working on a slower machine, personally I find it gets frustrating really quickly.

Likewise the weight of the machine, 1.5-2kg isn't that bad in my opinion. However I was lugging a 17" 3.5kg Dell Workstation Laptop around for a few years.
 
Yes, it is subjective but due to the high burst speed of the newer m core processors most of the start stop single core tasks that make up most of the day to day running of the machine in and office environment are handled pretty easily and seamlessly (and also why they fall down on the heavy multi core number crunching).

Given the chance I would happily use my MacBook in place of my work machine and my requirements are largely similar to the OPs.

I also know of quite a few people outside of my corporate IT policies who use the new MacBook too and they tend to work with large "creative agency" type media where a 1gb PowerPoint isn't unheard of (although completely pointless) and lots of tasks open at the same time. They seem happy enough although admittedly they tend to be at the director level and don't actually do much of the heavy lifting (which is left to hipsters with iMacs back at the office).

And, to reiterate my point, have you actually used a new MacBook?
 
Chappers said:
Normally I would have suggested you try out the machine in an Apple store, unfortunately with Adobe's CC policy they no longer load Photoshop onto the machines.
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There always used to be two demo images in the stores - consumer and pro. The pro image usually had CC installed. The images on the MacBooks the last time I played with one had both Final Cut and Logic, which are Pro apps and they run pretty well.
 
No. But having extensively used CS4->CC on the 2012 i7 MBP I know even that struggles these days with the newer versions of the Adobe suite.

And looking at benches and reviews of the M core it isn't unreasonable to state that it will give a drop in performance. Whether that drop is significant to you personally is another matter.

You don't always have to have used the device in question. In fact in my opinion it can be a little more unbiased, everyone generally loves to validate their own purchases.
 
neil_g said:
You don't always have to have used the device in question. In fact in my opinion it can be a little more unbiased, everyone generally loves to validate their own purchases.
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Point taken, I do a lot of consumer testing in my job so know a thing or two about bias. What I would also say is that when working in a company full of scientists and life-long 'experts' it's surprising how often assumptions are proved wrong in the real end user experience.

In this instance I bought the MacBook purely as a way of editing photos for a trip to Alaska as my 2011 i5 Air really couldn't cope and the screen resolution was way too low to do anything useful. My expectation, having read a lot of opinion on t'web and looking at benchmarks was that it would be similar performance to my Air but with a nice screen and would serve as a means to an end for that trip (at the time you couldn't edit raws on an iPad or I might have considered an iPad Pro). What has happened is that I now rarely use my 2015 27" 3.3ghz iMac as the MacBook is good enough for all but the biggest of library/batch edits, high level photoshopping or 4k video editing, which I rarely do anyway.

As another comparison, in general use the MacBook feels swifter and more responsive than my 2011 iMac which would have quite comfortably best a MBP from that time. It would still beat the MacBook in heavy CPU work or games but in day to day responsiveness the Macbook has it.

I am not championing it based on specs or outright performance, just pointing out that as it has become my go to machine for pretty much everything which must say something about the product. In comparison I only ever used my Air for internet browsing and a bit of office work as it was too slow for anything else, that wasn't my go to machine for anything.

It is probably the same reason I now shoot m43, I bought one just to try and it became the camera I always used so I sold all my Nikon FF gear. I need good enough and a nice user experience, not the best.
 
Andy Taylor said:
There always used to be two demo images in the stores - consumer and pro. The pro image usually had CC installed. The images on the MacBooks the last time I played with one had both Final Cut and Logic, which are Pro apps and they run pretty well.
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Last time I checked (10 months or so ago) yes Logic Pro and FCPX but only Photo's. And that was on a 27" imac. No Photoshop. That was Apple Store Trafford Centre.
 
susinead said:
The reason why I wanted the small Macbook was in fact that the 2012 pro is too weighty, and large. I want to have more freedom in packing when I travel. The point is to have a smaller computer. The screen size will likely not be a problem if it isn't because Photoshop itself has a problem with smaller screen. The idea is to have a travel computer for basic photo editing for blogs while I'm away. What I do not want is a slow Photoshop.
Chapper, is it possible to load PS Elements on a machine in a shop, since I wouldn't be using CC on this anyway? Elements comes from the App store.

Or maybe it's better to ditch the idea and use the iPad. I can still upload by ftp for storage. It would be nice to try PSE first though before giving up the idea.
Click to expand...

It's unlikely they will let you load anything on. I had to negotiate to load some video files so that I could test render times with FCPX. Also although Elements is on the App store, you would have to purchase it to download. Which means you would need to log on with you Apple ID.Macs at the Apple store are fairly locked down so you may have a problem. I can understand their concern of unauthorised items being loaded. I'd make an apointent at your local store to evaluate you machine of choice to see how well it works. You may find that Photo's gives you a good idea of performance anyway.
 
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Thought I'd dig out some of the numbers from my LR testing between my Macs on some CPU intensive actions that I might do when on holiday. All done using the same 16mp Olympus raw files.


2015 iMac i5 3.3ghz, 2TB Fusion drive (top non-custom model)
export 25 raws to 8mp with low sharpening for screen = 1:14
HDR merge of 5 images, auto tone, medium deghost = 21 seconds
Stitch 4 image pano, spherical, autocrop = 9 seconds

2015 Macbook 1.2ghz
Export 25 photos to 8mp, low sharpening for screen, graphics disabled = 1:51
HDR merge 5 images, auto tone, medium deghost, graphics disabled = 51s
Stitch 4 image pano, spherical, autocrop, graphics disabled = 15s

For the non CPU stuff both feel highly responsive, levels, curves, NR, panning/zooming etc.
Lag in rendering raws to full screen is there in both but both are quicker than my 2011 iMac was.
Macbook was universally quicker with graphics acceleration switched off.
For giggles I downloaded, I think, a Canon 5DS file, or maybe it was a Nikon D800 and the Macbook wasn't as responsive as with the 16mp files but it didn't suffer as much as I expected (actually I expected it to give up and cry).

The thing that surprised me wasn't how slow the Macbook is, which was expected, but how slow the iMac is, I would have thought it be somewhat quicker vs. the Macbook. I guess that could be Adobe's lack of multi core optimisation as when running some of the benchmark software obviously the iMac smashes it (not to mention graphics performance). But still, as the end user experience there isn't as much difference using LR (and PS) as I would have expected.

I wouldn't use the Macbook as my only machine as there are times when power (/Clarkson) is necessary but for me those times aren't that often.
 
The places you'll likely notice a drop in performance isn't doing 'global' type editing, but when doing stuff like brushwork, gradients or spot removal. My old 2009 Macbook was and is fine (just a little sluggish) with 20mp raw files from my Sony, but start doing any brushwork and it becomes almost unusable after a couple of strokes.
 
Chappers said:
It's unlikely they will let you load anything on. I had to negotiate to load some video files so that I could test render times with FCPX. Also although Elements is on the App store, you would have to purchase it to download. Which means you would need to log on with you Apple ID.Macs at the Apple store are fairly locked down so you may have a problem. I can understand their concern of unauthorised items being loaded. I'd make an apointent at your local store to evaluate you machine of choice to see how well it works. You may find that Photo's gives you a good idea of performance anyway.
Click to expand...

Store machines are locked down with an app called Deep Freeze - it doesn't matter what you do to them, a reboot will revert them to their "clean" state. Staff should be aware of this and let you upload your own files for evaluation. When you're finished, simply restart the mac and your files will be gone. :)

I found this site with some Photoshop benchmarks: https://macperformanceguide.com/blo...Macbook2016-Photoshop-diglloydBenchmarks.html

The MacBook isn't anywhere near as fast as a 2013 Retina MacBook Pro, but it's not terrible considering the lower specs.
 
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