Apple Macbook Pro 13" Retina (2015)

by Ching-Wan Yip

Last Updated: April 20, 2017 5:15 PM

First published: April 6, 2015

DISCLAIMER - this is an exhaustive, in-depth hands on evaluation intended for technical audiences. extreme conditions are used to test characteristics of wide range of devices. general users are unlikely to encounter all the potential issues in day to day, limited scope of usage. a long list of problems does not indicate operating difficulties in everyday scenarios. over 40+ years of personal computing, very few technologies have achieved near perfection status, especially performing many different kinds of tasks, and being compared to different design/price point/intended market products. please review the information with these in mind.

http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/

Good

• 2 thunderbolt 2.0 20Gbps ports
• MagSafe 2 power port
• Iris Graphics 6100
• PCI-e flash (4x?)
• SD slot
• 75 Whr battery

Bad

• build quality - one test box fan got grinding sound, another won't charge/can't cmd-R, netbook or even diagnostic
• 2 thunderbolt+1 HDMI, but only 2 external display at a time (+ internal. cannot control which two, just one HDMI + one DP?)
• force touchpad just weird
• scaling only up to 1680-like giant text, option click doesn't work on internal [it works on external] (you can use third party like RDM to force it)
• wireless slow
• heavy
• no TPM for bootcamp
• expensive
• no touch screen/digitizer pen
• no USB-C port

Specification

• 5th Gen Intel Core 14nm 28W Broadwell-U
  • i5 5257U 2.7/turbo 3.1 GHz
  • i5 5287U 2.9/turbo 3.3 GHz dual-core 3MB L3 cache
  • i7 5557U 3.1/turbo 3.4 GHz 4MB L3
• Intel Iris Graphics 6100 (vendor ID 0x8086 device ID 0x162b)
  • two external displays 3840 by 2160
  • Thunderbolt (2x, up to 20Gbps)
    • Native Mini DisplayPort output
    • DVI, VGA, dual-link DVI, and HDMI output
    • optional FireWire Adapter
    • optional Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
  • HDMI
    • 1080p - up to 60Hz
    • 3840-by-2160 - 30Hz
    • 4096-by-2160 - 24Hz
• 128/256/512GB/1TB PCI-e x4 5GT/s SM0256G BXW1JA0Qflash
• 8/16GB(8x2) 1866MHz LPDDR3 (vendor ID 0x02FE part number 0x4544 ... ...)
• 2560x1600 LED backlit IPS 277ppi, scaled resolutions: 1680 by 1050, 1440 by 900, and 1024 by 640 pixels
• Two USB 3 ports (up to 5 Gbps) (vendor ID 0x8086 (intel) product ID 0x9cb1)
• Headphone port - Support for audio line out (digital/analog)
• SDXC card slot (vendor ID 0x05ac (Apple) product ID 0x8406)
• 802.11ac (Broadcom BCM43xx AirPort Extreme 0x14E4, 0x133)
• Bluetooth 4.0 (Broadcom 20703A1 vendor ID 0x5AC product ID 0x8290)
• Stereo speakers
• Dual microphones
• 720p FaceTime HD camera (vendor ID 0x106B product ID 0x1570)
• backlit keyboard with 78 keys, 12 function keys and 4 arrow keys (inverted "T" arrangement) with ambient light sensor (vendor ID 0x05ac (Apple) product ID 0x0273)
• Force Touch trackpad
• Built-in 74.9-watt-hour (6783 mAh) lithium-polymer battery 60W (SMP)
  • MagSafe 2 Power Adapter with cable management system
  • MagSafe 2 power port
  • Up to 10 hours wireless web
  • Up to 12 hours iTunes movie playback
• Height: 0.71 inch (1.8 cm)
• Width: 12.35 inches (31.4 cm)
• Depth: 8.62 inches (21.9 cm)
• Weight: 3.48 pounds (1.58 kg)

Weight

post office scale

Pricing

as of 2015/04/13

• $1299 i5 2.7GHz/8GB/128GB/Retina
• $1499 i5 2.7GHz/8GB/256GB/Retina
• +$100 2.7->2.9GHz
• +$300 2.7->3.1GHz i7
• +$200 2.9->3.1GHz i7
• +$200 8->16GB
• +$500 512GB->1TB PCI-e flash
• $1799 i5 2.9GHz/8GB/512GB/Retina
• +$79 Apple USB SuperDrive
• +$249 AppleCare

Tested System

i5, 16GB, 256GB -> ~$1948 if have AppleCare

Display

scaling, only 1024, 1280, 1440, 1680, no "most" text to make UI even smaller? option click scaled button doesn't work on internal, only external https://support.apple.com/kb/PH19043?locale=en_US

use Retina DisplayMenu RDM http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/macbook-pro-retina-display-faq/macbook-pro-retina-display-hack-to-run-native-resolution.html (or Display Menu https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/display-menu/id549083868?mt=12 ), not HiDPI in 2560x1600 native?

cannot disable a connected display

cannot choose which 2 of 3 displays to use? one HDMI + one DP/TB?

HDMI 2.0

doesn't do 60Hz with ViewSonic VP2780-4K http://www.viewsonic.com/us/vp2780-4k.html HDMI 2.0. only 30 Hz. worse, it shows 7680x instead of 3840x2160. Have to do scaling to go back to UHD.

TouchPad

even doesn't move, still make clicking noises?

http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/12/look-inside-the-new-retina-macbook-pros-force-touch-trackpad-and-taptic-engine/

Wireless

TamoSoft Throughput Test Ver. 1.0 Build 28

http://www.tamos.com/products/throughput-test/

server: ThinkPad Yoga on Ethernet

:

SMB

max. out ??.? Mbps - Nighthawk R7500 AC2350 (600+1733 Mbps) http://downloadcenter.netgear.com/en/product/R7500 wave 2 Quantenna chipset firmware 1.0.0.46 -> 1.0.0.82

max. out ??.? MBps - Netgear Nighthawk R7000 (firmware V1.0.3.24_1.1.20) 802.11ac copying to QNAP 4 SSD (2x 850 Pro + 2x MX100) RAID6 TVS-871 (i7-4790S, 16GB, QTS 4.1.3 build 20150313)

max. out ??.? Mbps Cisco 802.11n

pending

Ethernet

TB adapter

max. out 143 MBps - how's that possible? more than line speed, theoretical impossible?

Lenovo ThinkPad USB 3.0 Ethernet adapter 4X90E51405 works fine

Thermal

FLIR i7 thermal camera - http://www.flir.com/thermography/americas/us/view/?id=54156

vent under hinge hottest spot ~56 °C

benchmarks show CPU get to about 86 °C

Battery

VLC playing 10-13 Mbps Bloomberg 1080 .ts over CIFS with 802.11ac, full screen, 2560x1600 native

5 hours. shutdown at 0%, warn at 7%? (settings to change to like Windows 5%/7%/10%?)

charging - est. ~1h30m

Benchmark - SunSpider

http://www.webkit.org/perf/sunspider/sunspider.html

1.0.2

Benchmark - WinSAT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_System_Assessment_Tool

Benchmark - GeekBench

http://www.primatelabs.com/geekbench/download/windows/

v3.3.2 x32

Benchmark - IntelBurnTest

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?197835-IntelBurnTest-The-new-stress-testing-program

v2.54

Benchmark - CPU - Handbrake

http://handbrake.fr/

Handbrake - 2h10m Grandmaster 7.27GB DVD

Benchmark - Maxon CineBench

http://www.maxon.net/products/cinebench/overview.html

R15

Benchmark - Graphics - Chimera

http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/benchmark/benchmark.html

1.10.1

pythonw crashed during solid rendering, max. out RAM and disk at 100%, have to be terminated in taskmgr

Benchmark - Graphics - Unigine Heaven 4.0

https://unigine.com/products/heaven/

Mac:

• Darwin 14.3.0 x86_64
• Intel Iris Graphics 6100 (256MB) x1
• OpenGL 2560x1600, 1920x1080, 1680x1050 fullscreen high/medium Quality (won't go to 1920x1080 or higher w/o RDM)

ThinkPad Yoga

• Windows 8 build 9200 64-bit
• Intel HD Graphics 10.18.10.3960 (1024MB) x1
• Direct3D11 1920x1080 fullscreen High Quality

Benchmark - Graphics - Unigine Valley 1.0

https://unigine.com/products/valley/

Storage - BlackMagic

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/intensity/software

Disk Speed Test

Thunderbolt

Akito Thunder2 Quad Mini enclosure - http://www.akitio.com/portable-storage/akitio-thunder2-quad-mini (SUNO fan)

- stripped RAID - i520-180x2, s830-256 (i know, they are old, all i can find in a hurry, should use four identical 6Gbp SATA-III 500+MBps ones) and a 850EVO-250

io - 1.28 GBps

cannot write to NTFS drive, can mount and read

copy from Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1TB thick ST1000LM010-9YH146 with Thunderbolt adapter, Apple Thunderbolt cable. io - 128 MBps

from Kingston DataTraveler G4 32GB to GoFlex. data - 110 MBps

copy to Western Digital My Book Thunderbolt Duo 6GB http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=630 - 320MBps

Elgator Thunderbolt Drive+ 512GB - 432MBps

USB

cannot mount NTFS 64GB Kingston USB 3.0 drive

SD

Sandisk SDXC extreme pro 64GB UHS II UHS speed class 3 U3 280MBps 1867x read, 250MBps1667x-write

cannot write to exFAT

copy from SD - 55.5 MBps read, 56.2 MBps write

Camera

QuickTime Player 720p H.264 .MOV, VLC save as PNG

under FL light

x-rite Munsell ColorChecker (Classic)

• http://xritephoto.com/ph_product_overview.aspx?id=1192
• http://www.xrite.com/top_munsell.aspx?action=products&CategoryID=28
• http://www.xritephoto.com/ph_product_overview.aspx?catid=28

under tungsten

DKC-Pro - Digital Kolor Card Pro - digitalimagflow.com (defuncted) http://www.dgkcolortools.com/dkc-pro-multifunction-color-tool.html

Acoustic - noise level

Pyle PSPL05R - http://www.pyleaudio.com/sku/PSPL05R/Digital-Sound-Level-Meter-With-recording-Function

34 dBA ambient, 1" from vent got to 60 dBA at 86°C

Accessories

• +$29 Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
• +$29 Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter
• +$29 Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter
• +$29 Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter
• +$99 Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter
• +$79 Apple 60W MagSafe 2 Power Adapter
• +$9.99 MagSafe to MagSafe 2 Converter
• +$29 Apple Thunderbolt Cable (0.5 m) - White/Black
• +$39 Apple Thunderbolt Cable (2.0 m) - White/Black
• +$69 Apple Magic Mouse
• +$69 Apple TV
• +$299 AirPort Time Capsule - 2TB
• +$399 AirPort Time Capsule - 3TB

File Vault

at first few minutes, then become 10, then 13. when done encrypting, optimization - 58 min. then 2 hours! worse than Microsoft OneDrive upload progress bar.

(profile related? not default i assume - cannot login until enable, that's bad)

Disk Utility

if volume already encrypted, restore an unencrypted volume over, even it says erase, keep encrypted filesystem. need to manually erase to unencrypted first.

iMovie

share to YouTube asks for 3 permissions (vs. Corel VideoStudio Pro X8 only need one)

Numbers

crash just by create 2 columns, 10 rows data, plot chart, change format, move data, crash

QuickTime Player

crashed trying to open Handbrake created .MP4

Finder

locks up CIFS share, cannot eject

other locks up, cannot shutdown, have to force power down etc.

Parallels Desktop 10

see other page

Reviews

• http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/31/macbook-pro-with-retina-display-review-13-inch-2015/
• http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/04/ultrabook-plus-the-2015-13-inch-retina-macbook-pro-reviewed/
• http://www.macworld.co.uk/review/mac-laptops/new-2015-13-inch-retina-macbook-pro-review-3601221/
• http://www.stuff.tv/apple/macbook-pro-13in-2015/review
• http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/pc-mac/laptops-portable-pcs/laptops-and-netbooks/new-macbook-2015-1287806/review
• http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/the-new-apple-macbook-pro-13-inch-is-finally-fully-4k-capable/
• http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/apple-macbook-pro-13-inch-retina-2015
• http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/13-MacBook-Pro-Retina-2015.htm
• http://www.computerworld.com/article/2903853/deep-dive-review-new-13-in-macbook-pro-brings-force-touch-to-the-trackpad.html
• http://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Pro-Retina-13-Early-2015-First-Impressions.139364.0.html