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

13" or 15"

sareece

sareece

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 23, 2010
19
1
OK I'm going to buy my first mac, a mac pro. I've been a lurker for a while & I've finally decided to take the plunge (Financially). My question is, do I loose that my by going with a 13" or is a 15" really that much better. I will use it mainly for work so it's going to be a daily carry.

What do most carry?

Will I miss out if I keep holding out for the new ones or do I look for a good deal now?

Thanks for everyones help.
 
sareece said:
OK I'm going to buy my first mac, a mac pro. I've been a lurker for a while & I've finally decided to take the plunge (Financially). My question is, do I loose that my by going with a 13" or is a 15" really that much better.
Click to expand...

Mac Pros are desktops and you can attach whatever display you want. If you're talking about the notebook, it's a MacBook Pro. There are dozens of threads on this, if you search.

Which size MacBook Pro should I buy
Which Apple notebook should I buy?
 
It's really a function of preference and price - you can snag a refurb 13" for $999 with a printer; you can spend twice that on a 15". If you need the real estate, go bigger. If lighter is more important, go smaller.
 
Hi, i recently got a 13" one and all i can say is that the screen is pretty big, at the store the 13" model looks way smaller than at home, in your hands or your lap, it's actually as wide as a 4:3 17" monitor i have, and it's better to carry around than a 15" but if you don't travel and you rather need a mobile desktop, you can get 15" or 17" models, you'd feel the difference too, however i even feel my 13" a bit heavy,(2KG) so the 15" should be some 25% heavyer
 
Do I still hold out for the new ones, whenever that will be? will they be that much better?
 
I vote for the 15".

Having used all three sizes (13", 15", 17") and especially just exchanged my 13" uMBP for a 15" one, the 15" is perfect!!

I walk around campus for 7+ hours a day and the 13" feels almost the same as the 15", both very light. But the reason I chose the 15" was due to the matte screen option that it provided (very important to me as there are reflections everywhere on campus, even inside classrooms with very bright fluorescent lights) and the screen realestate, which is big enough for everything!

I felt the 13" was like more of a toy than a real notebook on your lap. The screen was so small that I had to look further down on it, which gave me a cramp in my neck.

Also I felt using the 13" screen in dual monitor mode with my 24" LED ACD at home was too small. The 13" was so puny that I just used it in closed shell mode and half the time I felt that the screen was going to waste.

Now with the 15", its big enough to have webpages opened to view or anything else from a distance next to the 24" screen.

The 15" brings the perfect mobility, screen realestate, GPU (if you need it for the extra power, it sure runs my 24" LED ACD ALOT better than the 13" with its weak 9400m gt, such as expose and spaces being sluggish) and feels like a real notebook.
 
I'm going to disagree with those who said that you need dedicated graphics with the 15" MBP, but my usage may be different then theirs. I went with the 15" because the 13" is just a bit to small for Lightroom and photoshop. I not gaming on the MBP nor am I connecting a second display so the 9400 meets my needs pretty well. Before I made my choice I ran across a lot of threads with people who said they almost never use the dedicated graphics though that may change if Apple incorporates nVidia's Optimus technology in the next MBP update. The money I saved over the cost of a slightly faster CPU and the dedicated GPU are going towards an SSD.

As to waiting for the next rev no one knows for sure but I'd be willing to bet that only the 17" and higher end 15" will have either the i5 and i7, I think the 13" and lower end 15" are likely to stick with the core duo with a speed bump. There is also the issue of Apple rev 1 products to take into consideration. Apple has had its share of issues with first rev stuff before, though I never had any issues with my rev 1 MacBook and only one issue (which was fixed under Apple Care) with my rev 1 MacPro.
 
Alvi said:
Hi, i recently got a 13" one and all i can say is that the screen is pretty big, at the store the 13" model looks way smaller than at home, in your hands or your lap, it's actually as wide as a 4:3 17" monitor i have, and it's better to carry around than a 15" but if you don't travel and you rather need a mobile desktop, you can get 15" or 17" models, you'd feel the difference too, however i even feel my 13" a bit heavy,(2KG) so the 15" should be some 25% heavyer
Click to expand...

i second this. when i first saw the 13" i thought man that is pathetic. so small, i wanted a 15" myself. but went to my university and rented out a 13" unibody macbook and man my mind was BLOWN awayy.
 
I'm quite happy with the portability of my 13" MBP, the 15" looks pretty good compared to this, but I like being able to easily take this one with me.
 
I've been torn as well

I have been debating with myself and looking at the different threads, and now as I sit here waiting i'm fairly certain that I will go with the 15. I'm a developer and I want to use this to learn and develop apps for the iphone and ipad. so hopefully when my tax refun comes in the revision will be out and I will be good to go.
 
bob5820 said:
As to waiting for the next rev no one knows for sure but I'd be willing to bet that only the 17" and higher end 15" will have either the i5 and i7, I think the 13" and lower end 15" are likely to stick with the core duo with a speed bump. There is also the issue of Apple rev 1 products to take into consideration. Apple has had its share of issues with first rev stuff before, though I never had any issues with my rev 1 MacBook and only one issue (which was fixed under Apple Care) with my rev 1 MacPro.
Click to expand...

I don't think they will leave a Core duo in the 13". With a starting price at $1200 it would be foolish to leave a chip like that in there, when competition is offering i5's for $600-$700.
 
I was trying to decide the same thing and went to the store to look at both. I decided I'll get a 13" because right now i need portability. I have a 15" HP Pavilion and I really wanted a large screen to watch movies and other things, but it's heavy and a beast to carry around. I'm going to go with 13" because I travel a lot and want something I can slip into a shoulder tote.
 
I personally love the 15 inch. I've owned a MacBook Air and two 15 inch MacBook Pros. When I briefly left the MacBook Pro line and had just an Air, the 13 inch screened bothered me all the time. While I loved the weight, I felt like I shouldn't complaining about two pounds.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back