13'' vs 15'' MBP

[Sarngate]

I was all set to grab the 13'' MBP until today when i decided that when i go to University this year i won't want to take my main PC with me. So i'm selling that, and i now have more than enough spare change to upgrade to the 15''.

The question i now have to ask is whether this is worth the extra cash. I'll be getting Student UK prices.

The MBP 13'' starts at £858, and the 15'' goes from £1288, a difference of £430. For this i would get (off the top of my head):

- Larger, higher res screen
- Extra audio port
- 330m
- i5
- Bigger Hard Drive
- Shorter battery life

For somebody like me who is an amateur video/photo editor, light gamer and general PC user, is the 15'' worth the extra cash ? Secondly, if it is, what about the Hi-Res (Glossy) Screen upgrade ? Would be awesome if anybody with said upgrade could give their opinions.

Thanks.

 

[DesmoPilot]

Lot's of threads like this already; open your eyes.

 

[Digital Skunk]

Go 15" and go hi res matte if you can.

That machine should last you until at least your junior year of college.

 

[0186279]

I think you already answered your question with your list of pros of the 15"

The larger screen will be nice for the photo and video editing and well as gaming. The faster processor will also be nice for these things and the 330m will help a lot in your gaming, even if it is light.

Everything else is a plus and the 15" is hardly bigger than the 13". The battery life is only a 1-2 hour difference. Dont forget about the better speakers : )

15 all the way.

 

[gwsat]

I was all set to grab the 13'' MBP until today when i decided that when i go to University this year i won't want to take my main PC with me. So i'm selling that, and i now have more than enough spare change to upgrade to the 15''.

The question i now have to ask is whether this is worth the extra cash. I'll be getting Student UK prices.

The MBP 13'' starts at £858, and the 15'' goes from £1288, a difference of £430. For this i would get (off the top of my head):

- Larger, higher res screen
- Extra audio port
- 330m
- i5
- Bigger Hard Drive
- Shorter battery life

For somebody like me who is an amateur video/photo editor, light gamer and general PC user, is the 15'' worth the extra cash ? Secondly, if it is, what about the Hi-Res (Glossy) Screen upgrade ? Would be awesome if anybody with said upgrade could give their opinions.

If you still want to play PC games the clear choice for me at least would be the 13 inch MBP. You could up its RAM to 8Gb for less than what you would have to pay extra for the 15 inch MBP. That way, you could get Parallels or VMware Fusion, either of which is reasonably priced, and be able to run Windows and any PC game you wanted right from the OS X desktop. There is one caveat, though. Although I do run Windows 7 and a number of Windows apps from my MBP's OS X desktop, thanks to Fusion in Unity mode, I am not a gamer. I can say, though, that MS Office and a number of other Windows apps run well on my MBP.

 

[jmdMac]

Lot's of threads like this already; open your eyes.

It seems that there at least one or two of these threads a day.

I agree, plenty of other people have had the EXACT same questions as you, and most likely in the last couple days. The thread right above yours(when I saw) is basically the same thing.

 

[jmdMac]

If you still want to play PC games the clear choice for me at least would be the 13 inch MBP. You could up its RAM to 8Gb for less than what you would have to pay extra for the 15 inch MBP. That way, you could get Parallels or VMware Fusion, either of which is reasonably priced, and be able to run Windows and any PC game you wanted right from the OS X desktop. There is one caveat, though. Although I do run Windows 7 and a number of Windows apps from my MBP's OS X desktop, thanks to Fusion in Unity mode, I am not a gamer. I can say, though, that MS Office and a number of other Windows apps run well on my MBP.

If you want to game, your best option would be bootcamp, not a virtual machine.

 

[vant]

It seems that there at least one or two of these threads a day.

I agree, plenty of other people have had the EXACT same questions as you, and most likely in the last couple days. The thread right above yours(when I saw) is basically the same thing.

I'm noticing an increase in these threads. I've been polite and responded to some, but now its getting annoying. There is 5 13" vs 15" threads on the front page alone.

 

[jmdMac]

I'm noticing an increase in these threads. I've been polite and responded to some, but now its getting annoying. There is 5 13" vs 15" threads on the front page alone.

That's exactly how I feel. If people would just search, they would find 10+ threads that are very recent, no need to make another.

 

[swish2351]

Lot's of threads like this already; open your eyes.

I think they are open. How else would he have typed all this?

Who cares if their is already threads on this. IT DOESN'T MATTER!! He has different needs than the other guys who made their threads! They might be sit at home guys for internet surfing, or video editors, or heavy gamers. Every person has different needs and he wanted a thread with his EXACT needs, not some of one persons and some of another persons.

Get owned.


But to answer your question Sarngate. I think the 13" is amazing. I use photoshop sometimes and it is perfectly fine. I get 11 hours on my 13". My friends 15" i5 gets 4 hours. (That's sooo worth 400 something euros)

 

[jmdMac]

I think they are open. How else would he have typed all this?

Who cares if their is already threads on this. IT DOESN'T MATTER!! He has different needs than the other guys who made their threads! They might be sit at home guys for internet surfing, or video editors, or heavy gamers. Every person has different needs and he wanted a thread with his EXACT needs, not some of one persons and some of another persons.

Get owned.


But to answer your question Sarngate. I think the 13" is amazing. I use photoshop sometimes and it is perfectly fine. I get 11 hours on my 13". My friends 15" i5 gets 4 hours. (That's sooo worth 400 something euros)

After a quick search I came up with three very recent threads on this tpoic, from people who seem to have very similar if not the same needs as the OP.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/913196/

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/900802/

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/908643/

Get owned? I don't even understand what you mean.

 

[DesmoPilot]

I think they are open. How else would he have typed all this?

Who cares if their is already threads on this. IT DOESN'T MATTER!! He has different needs than the other guys who made their threads! They might be sit at home guys for internet surfing, or video editors, or heavy gamers. Every person has different needs and he wanted a thread with his EXACT needs, not some of one persons and some of another persons.

Get owned.


But to answer your question Sarngate. I think the 13" is amazing. I use photoshop sometimes and it is perfectly fine. I get 11 hours on my 13". My friends 15" i5 gets 4 hours. (That's sooo worth 400 something euros)

You're wrong; this guy doesn't have special unique needs - there really is no need to make another thread. There are loads of threads already on the subject; I'm positive at LEAST one of the other threads answers his each and every question.

Get owned? lol? What do you even mean?

Seriously? Photoshop is horrible on a 13" screen (especially at the low 1280x800 resolution). 4 hours on an i5? That's pretty low; i get around 5h30m-6h30m on my i7.

 

[vant]

The only person I saw 'get owned' was swish. lmao

 

[HBOC]

There are so many threads on this topic, that there is no unique needs anymore. I wish they would close the threads when posted, as there are 1345678 pages of this, not including other sites on the web.

 

[Ronnoco]

I get a good solid 6 to 7 hours average on my 15" i5...nearly 8 if I'm just surfing the web and doing email...anybody getting only 4 hours with a new 15" is either doing a lot of CPU/HD taxing work or has a malfunctioning battery...