13 or 15 inch for this usage

[DennisdeWit]

Hello,

I currently have the basic model 13" MBP 2016 with TouchBar. I went to the Apple Store last Tuesday and it made me doubt between the 13" and 15". I will use it at a broadcasting company, so rendering video's is an important thing.

Moreover, portability is a bit important too. Would you go for a 13" or 15"? Who at this forum had both and switched to a 15" (or switched from a 15" to a 13"?)

 

[danf1]

I would say the 13" is best if you value portability. I can't imagine carrying around the 15" regularly - but I know that many people do (and the current model is considerably lighter than older models). I toyed with the 15" for the extra screen real estate, but I think the 13" is the sweet spot for me.

 

[Doelago]

I just jumped from an 11" MBA to the 15" MBP TB and found it to be surprisingly portable, even more so than my old 13" 2012 non-retina MBP. The 13" TB will of course be more portable than the 15" one, but I have found no issues lugging around this machine in the week since I received it.

 

[0186279]

Just remember that we are talking 2 inches here. Not only that, but two inches on laptops that are paper thin and incredibly light. Any difference you notice will be in your head except in the most rare situations like on a plane table tray or maybe on small desks in a classroom, but even then the difference is mostly negligible.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

If rendering video (especially 4K) is your reason for buying a laptop then you want the dgpu and quadcore processor its as simple as that. The 15 inch MBP is still incredibly small light and slim for its performance.

 

[New_Mac_Smell]

2016 15" was about the same size and lighter than my 2011 13". I carried that around without issue and so this new one was an extra 2" of screen size, quad-core, dGPU, for the same portability.

The 13" is more portable of course, and always will be compared to the 15". But they're so close these days it's like discussing the portability difference of an iPhone 7 vs. iPhone 7 plus.

 

[jrasero]

Hello,

I currently have the basic model 13" MBP 2016 with TouchBar. I went to the Apple Store last Tuesday and it made me doubt between the 13" and 15". I will use it at a broadcasting company, so rendering video's is an important thing.

Moreover, portability is a bit important too. Would you go for a 13" or 15"? Who at this forum had both and switched to a 15" (or switched from a 15" to a 13"?)

The new 15" has the form factor of older 14" PCs. Really depends if you need the bigger screen and/or the discrete graphics/quad core. If you are not doing any editing save the money and do the 13". A good compromise is maybe getting the Non Touch Bar 15" since you still will get a i7 Quad Core and 16GB but just no TB and dedicated graphics

 

[DennisdeWit]

Thanks, guys! Really helpful. Tomorrow I am getting into a shop and see the difference in real life. I am really temped to go 15”. I think I will enjoy the more RAM and better processor. My 13” can’t handle Audition, Photoshop and Premiere at the same time.

 

[ilian92]

Go with the 15". It's not that big when you get used to it and since you need more power it sounds like the right one for you.

 

[OneMike]

Go for the 15. The size difference is negligible unless you're trying to fit it in a bag made specifically for the 13.

 

[HiRez]

Go for the 15. The size difference is negligible unless you're trying to fit it in a bag made specifically for the 13.

I like to use my laptops lying down (couch, bed) a lot of the time. For this use, I've never quite felt comfortable with the 15 inches. You can do it, but it always feels a little heavy and unwieldy (like it can fall off to the left or right more easily if you reach for something and aren't being that careful). 13 inch is much better in this regard (I assume a MacBook would be even better).

Also, if you're lugging it around all day in a bag, the extra pound can make a difference. It's not a make or break type of thing normally, but I can feel it. If you have a bad back you can really feel it.

Having said that, I think for most people how big of a screen you need and how many cores you can utilize should be the larger factors in the decision. I prefer a 13" for comfort reasons, but I can feel the sacrifice on screen size (can see fewer lines of code simultaneously) and have to wait a bit longer for things to happen (like compiling and running my app) and sometimes those things are painful tradeoffs.

For you, @DennisdeWit, I would definitely go with the 15". Almost any kind of manipulation of video is going to benefit from a faster quad-core CPU and a dedicated GPU.