Item — HN Reader

Deciding between with/without touchbar. Is there a real difference between both? I'm really bad comparing hardware. Here the main difference I've notice:

Non-touchbar:

• Up to 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i7, with 64MB of eDRAM

• 2 USB-c ports

• Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640

With-touchbar:

• Up to 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 with 128MB of eDRAM

• Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655

• 4 USB-c ports

As a developer point of view, it looks like the non-touch bar is a good option, and there is not a big gap between both?

4 comments

The non-touchbar model didn't get any updates, its the 2017 model with the 7th gen processors.

This. There is supposedly a large difference in performance between these CPU generations.

13” inch non touch bar is last year model, no upgrade to keyboard and with 7th gen CPU. This refresh updates only the touchbar models with new keyboard design and 8th quad core CPU, which could means significant CPU performance improvement.

Adding to what others here have said, non-touchbar has one fan instead of two and runs hotter even at idle. Apple really doesn't want anyone to buy it.

Non-touchbar's wifi card supports up to 867Mbps while the touchbar's wifi card supports up to 1300Mbps.