Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Knowy74

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 18, 2015
7
0
Wondering if anyone here could tell me how big the difference is between a 12" rMB and a 13.3" rMBP. Is the difference negligible, or is it quite noticeable? Has the smaller screen bothered you?
 
Wondering if anyone here could tell me how big the difference is between a 12" rMB and a 13.3" rMBP. Is the difference negligible, or is it quite noticeable? Has the smaller screen bothered you?

It's definitely noticeable. It's not like going from a 13.3 to an 11" Air though. I went from a 13.3 to the rmb and it hasn't bothered me at all. It's a pretty sleek, sweet machine.
 
It is barely noticeable. It does not bothered me but if they made a 14" screen, I definitely would go for it. I came from a 13.3".
 
Wondering if anyone here could tell me how big the difference is between a 12" rMB and a 13.3" rMBP. Is the difference negligible, or is it quite noticeable? Has the smaller screen bothered you?

The smaller screen is great. My 13.3 rMBP looks poor compared to the new rMB. This machine is really great. Don't sweat the specs. Let me qualify this. I am a systems architect for a cloud software hosting company. I am using it exclusively and Love it!
 
The smaller screen is great. My 13.3 rMBP looks poor compared to the new rMB. This machine is really great. Don't sweat the specs. Let me qualify this. I am a systems architect for a cloud software hosting company. I am using it exclusively and Love it!

Oh I'm not worried about the specs at all. Just wanting to make sure that 12" is not too small.
 
Wondering if anyone here could tell me how big the difference is between a 12" rMB and a 13.3" rMBP. Is the difference negligible, or is it quite noticeable? Has the smaller screen bothered you?

I don't think it's noticeable at all really. I have a 13.3" MBPr and used the new MB in store today.

I didn't even notice it was smaller until I remembered the Youtube review I saw where the guy said it's only 12"

But it doesn't hinder anything at all.

Maybe I was just blown away by the screen, but seriously I didn't feel like it was that big a difference.
 

Attachments

  • FullSizeRender.jpg
    FullSizeRender.jpg
    1.3 MB · Views: 1,267
It's pretty damn noticeable. The Air will have a illusion it's MUCH bigger because of the larger bezels compared to the MBRP. Here is a picture of the 2015 MBPR & MBR side by side.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    1.6 MB · Views: 3,890
It's pretty damn noticeable. The Air will have a illusion it's MUCH bigger because of the larger bezels compared to the MBRP. Here is a picture of the 2015 MBPR & MBR side by side.

I think there's a bit of an optical illusion going on here...if you made the MB the same height as the MBPr it would look closer...

IDK. In this pic the difference looks HUGE though so I'm confused, but somehow when I used it, I didn't miss the extra inch :cool:
 
I think there's a bit of an optical illusion going on here...if you made the MB the same height as the MBPr it would look closer...

IDK. In this pic the difference looks HUGE though so I'm confused, but somehow when I used it, I didn't miss the extra inch :cool:

I mean, if you don't go "back & forth" you might forget about what the 13.3 feels like in a week easily. I don't think the 13.3 makes a NIGHT & DAY difference. I would prob forget about it for a week. When i went from a 2011 MBA to a 2015 MBPR oddly the Pro felt A LOT smaller, because the MBA has the larger bezels around the screen.

I don't think the 1.3" difference should be a deal breaker for most. Its supposed to be a mobile machine. If you want screen real estate get a 15" MBPR :)
 
With a single app or doc, I don't think it's noticeable. With two spreadsheets or documents open side by side, it is noticeable. Speaking based on over a week of actual use.
 
My wife and I recently bought MBA -- she the 13, me the 11. Each has word 2011 and I find writing on my 11 is as great screen-wise as writing on her 13. Moreover, the 11's kb I find is superior to the 13. I tested the new mb the other day at the apple store and the 11 kb and the 12 kb are virtually similar. I love the screen on the 11 so the retina thing in the 12 does nothing for me. Speed-wise my base 2014 11 MBA is faster than the mb 12. The base mbr is a whopping $1300 plus tax. A few weeks ago at best buy I paid $720 plus tax for my 2014 MBA (using the 10% off post office coupon.) I can't fathom these people on here who shelled out $1300 plus tax, many of them just to play games, do email, and surf. What planet is that? I came away from my half hour loving the new mb, but also loving the $600 or so I still have along with my speedy, very portable MBA 11. When the new mb is in its next revisions and has a retail of under a thou plus sale prices i'm sure i'll jump in. I'll bet an update for the MBR will happen less than a year from now, just like when apple brought out a new iPad six months after the previous, pissing off lots of people.
 
My wife and I recently bought MBA -- she the 13, me the 11. Each has word 2011 and I find writing on my 11 is as great screen-wise as writing on her 13. Moreover, the 11's kb I find is superior to the 13. I tested the new mb the other day at the apple store and the 11 kb and the 12 kb are virtually similar. I love the screen on the 11 so the retina thing in the 12 does nothing for me. Speed-wise my base 2014 11 MBA is faster than the mb 12. The base mbr is a whopping $1300 plus tax. A few weeks ago at best buy I paid $720 plus tax for my 2014 MBA (using the 10% off post office coupon.) I can't fathom these people on here who shelled out $1300 plus tax, many of them just to play games, do email, and surf. What planet is that? I came away from my half hour loving the new mb, but also loving the $600 or so I still have along with my speedy, very portable MBA 11. When the new mb is in its next revisions and has a retail of under a thou plus sale prices i'm sure i'll jump in. I'll bet an update for the MBR will happen less than a year from now, just like when apple brought out a new iPad six months after the previous, pissing off lots of people.

For starters, a group of people who know how to present numbers on a comparable basis. The 2015 11" MBA with 8 gb of RAM and a 256 gb SSD is $1200. The 2015 12" rMB with the same RAM and storage is $1300. You say the screen upgrade is worthless to you, which is fine, but a lot of people are willing to pay for what Anandtech says is the best display Apple has ever put in a laptop.
 
My wife and I recently bought MBA -- she the 13, me the 11. Each has word 2011 and I find writing on my 11 is as great screen-wise as writing on her 13. Moreover, the 11's kb I find is superior to the 13. I tested the new mb the other day at the apple store and the 11 kb and the 12 kb are virtually similar. I love the screen on the 11 so the retina thing in the 12 does nothing for me. Speed-wise my base 2014 11 MBA is faster than the mb 12. The base mbr is a whopping $1300 plus tax. A few weeks ago at best buy I paid $720 plus tax for my 2014 MBA (using the 10% off post office coupon.) I can't fathom these people on here who shelled out $1300 plus tax, many of them just to play games, do email, and surf. What planet is that? I came away from my half hour loving the new mb, but also loving the $600 or so I still have along with my speedy, very portable MBA 11. When the new mb is in its next revisions and has a retail of under a thou plus sale prices i'm sure i'll jump in. I'll bet an update for the MBR will happen less than a year from now, just like when apple brought out a new iPad six months after the previous, pissing off lots of people.

We all have different wants and needs in a product. Some of value form and design over maxed out specs we will utilize. Also, the $ savings is huge to some and means nothing to others. It's a great world we live in with all these options! :cool:
 
  • Like
Reactions: ccrgt
It's a meaningful difference.

However, unlike the Air, the rMB's screen has the same aspect ratio as the rMBP. The 11" Air is 16:9, which is very, very cramped vertically in a small screen.

In the long term, it will be interesting to see if Apple starts to thin the bezels out more. That might be a challenge with the curved case aesthetic that Apple likes, however.
 
It's a meaningful difference.

However, unlike the Air, the rMB's screen has the same aspect ratio as the rMBP. The 11" Air is 16:9, which is very, very cramped vertically in a small screen.

In the long term, it will be interesting to see if Apple starts to thin the bezels out more. That might be a challenge with the curved case aesthetic that Apple likes, however.

And there is also the question where to put the FT camera. Dell literally made a bold move with the 2015 XPS 13. I don't know if they'll repeat it?
 
And there is also the question where to put the FT camera. Dell literally made a bold move with the 2015 XPS 13. I don't know if they'll repeat it?

It's not so much a bold move as a different design approach. If Apple designed a squared edge case, the rMB would have room for a bigger screen, more ports (including full size USB), and even a little more battery. Heck, they could probably make the machine thinner overall. (And with the squared case, they could just push the camera all the way to the edge.)

But that it would not look like a Mac, nor would it have the thin edges that Apple prizes. It's all a tradeoff.
 
It's not so much a bold move as a different design approach. If Apple designed a squared edge case, the rMB would have room for a bigger screen, more ports (including full size USB), and even a little more battery. Heck, they could probably make the machine thinner overall. (And with the squared case, they could just push the camera all the way to the edge.)

But that it would not look like a Mac, nor would it have the thin edges that Apple prizes. It's all a tradeoff.

I was being facetious, but there was not way to tell. ;) I agree - more than most, maybe more than any other, laptop maker, Apple is very tied up in its internal design visions - for better and for worse.
 
The smaller screen is great. My 13.3 rMBP looks poor compared to the new rMB. This machine is really great. Don't sweat the specs. Let me qualify this. I am a systems architect for a cloud software hosting company. I am using it exclusively and Love it!

Does the new Macbook actually have a higher quality panel than the MBP?
 
Does the new Macbook actually have a higher quality panel than the MBP?

There's a section of the Anandtech review on the display with qualitative observations and quantitative comparisons. They said it was the best display Apple had ever put into a retina laptop.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.