If you’re in the market to pick up a brand new notebook and you’re looking at Apple, then these two laptops you’re seeing right now may be at the top of your list: the new MacBook Pro (2016) 13-inch base model without the touch bar or the 12-inch MacBook from earlier this year. Price-wise, the MacBook is actually a little bit more expensive than this MacBook Pro by about $100. But in terms of money, they are very much in the ballpark of each other and they both pack some really awesome features that the other may not have.
But in this video, we’re trying to answer one big question: Which one is quickest? Well, let’s find out.
The first test we’re going to do here is a pretty typical test. It’s called Geekbench 3. This tests the CPU of the computer to see how it stacks up to the rest of its competition by running it through a whole bunch of CPU-intensive tasks. We are running the two tests simultaneously and both on the Intel 64-bit CPU test.
So as you can see, the MacBook Pro 13-inch is actually the first to finish with a Geekbench score of 3,391 for your single-core processor and 7,175 for your multi-core score. And shortly after the MacBook Pro, the 12-inch MacBook finished with a single-core score of 2,949 and a multi-core score of 6,046.
The next test we’re going to run is Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, which basically determines how fast the computer’s SSD drives because SSD has a humongous factor in performance of your notebook. And right of the bat, you’re going to see higher scores on the 13-inch MacBook Pro. On the 12-inch MacBook, we’re seeing write speeds of around 803Mbps and read speeds of around 950Mbps while the MacBook Pro has a write speed of around 1356Mbps and a read speed of over 2000Mbps. I actually think this MacBook Pro is breaking the Disk Speed Test program because I believe it is even faster on its read speeds and it just topped out the gauge.
The last test I’m running here is a full-on export of a 4K video clip that’s around four minutes long. The total time is 3 minutes 56 seconds and 11 milliseconds, all shot in 3840x2160 at 24 frames per second. So let’s go ahead and get started.
The first to finish here is the 13-inch MacBook Pro at a time of 2 minutes 36 seconds and 21 milliseconds, finishing the product in less time than its real-time, which is really impressive for this 13-inch base model MacBook Pro. And the MacBook is done with a time of 5 minutes 15 seconds and 19 milliseconds for the exact same clip with the same settings.
So all in all, you can see a pretty monstrous performance gap between the 13-inch MacBook Pro base model and the specked out MacBook at $1599. For $100 less, you may be getting a slightly thicker MacBook and a slightly heavier MacBook, but you are getting a lot more bang for your buck. And in my opinion, if you’re in between this new MacBook Pro 13-inch and the older MacBook 12-inch, I would say definitely go for the MacBook Pro. You get a larger trackpad and you can see all these performance gains that you can see clearly right here on this video.
Would you choose more portability or power? Would you spend the extra money to get the thinner and lighter MacBook? Let me know in a comment down below.