2010 15" Vs 2011 13"

[J-bear91]

I'm looking at buying a new Laptop to replace my old 06 blackbook. Have been looking at the current pro line up and some refurb models and has lead to the choice between the base 13" 2011 and the 2010 15' refurb. Size/Form factor isn't the biggest issue. The half kilo weight is nothing to me in my backpack which can also comfortably hold a 15". My biggest concern is the CPU speeds. the 2010 has a 2.4GHz Intel Core i5 and the 2011 has 2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5. HDD are same size, I know 330m graphics is better then HD3000. I do a bit of Video editing at uni but nothing too extreme. My biggest concern is the CPU power of the 15" refurb against the newer sandy bridge processor it's faster clocked but has less cache wondering if this makes much difference? If not i may opt for the Larger 15" with the better 330m Graphics.

EDIT: Does anyone know the CPU model numbers?

 

[Crypanda]

The only difference is thunderbolt, which is cool but expensive for the normal consumer, I got the same question and picked the 15" 2010, some game sessions with mass effect 2 thank me.

 

[ctbear]

I was having the same question and eventually picked the 15. I didnt think it would matter but the extra screen space is really nice.
That and you get a better GPU for games under windows.

The CPU model of my 2.4 15 is 520m iirc...2410m for the 13

 

[islanders]

Those were my two choices and either one would have been fine. I went with the 2011 13. It's a good price point especially if you can get $100 off. It's a nice size, the same as the old 14'', and really portable. Each one has a lot of options to consider if you want to hang onto it or sell it and upgrade sooner than later.

 

[Kyzelios]

For what you are looking to do I would recommend the 15-inch MacBook Pro (2010). You will appreciate the larger screen and its higher resolution and the discrete graphics processing unit will provide more power for video editing tasks.

I personally own a 15-inch MacBook Pro (2010) with an Intel Core i5 2.4 GHz processor and 4 GB of memory, it's an absolute dream to use on a daily basis.

Best of luck with your purchase and have a great day.

 

[randomrazr]

if those were my only two choices, 15inch macbook pro al the way XD

 

[Mr MM]

I'm looking at buying a new Laptop to replace my old 06 blackbook. Have been looking at the current pro line up and some refurb models and has lead to the choice between the base 13" 2011 and the 2010 15' refurb. Size/Form factor isn't the biggest issue. The half kilo weight is nothing to me in my backpack which can also comfortably hold a 15". My biggest concern is the CPU speeds. the 2010 has a 2.4GHz Intel Core i5 and the 2011 has 2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5. HDD are same size, I know 330m graphics is better then HD3000. I do a bit of Video editing at uni but nothing too extreme. My biggest concern is the CPU power of the 15" refurb against the newer sandy bridge processor it's faster clocked but has less cache wondering if this makes much difference? If not i may opt for the Larger 15" with the better 330m Graphics.

EDIT: Does anyone know the CPU model numbers?

the i5 520m (mbp15) is going to be slower than the i5 2415m (mbp 13, yes the socket is different, its the same socket as the ulv and lv cpus from intel, thus the odd number of the cpu), since you dont plan on gaming and that the video decoding and encoding on the mbp 13 is actually better than the nvidia, or any nvidia non quadro gpus (they are actually the worst and bottom scrappers when it comes to video editing, intel being the leader and AMD following closely), I would get the mbp 13

 

[shoppy]

Sorry, I have to disagree I recently a base 2011 13 and returned it after 2 days due to constant beach balling. I needed up buying a used 15 2010 mid model for an extremely good price from a good friend. The built in graphics makes a big difference also screen size is great to have the bigger screen. In real life uses I have had had no beach ball experiences on this 15" I am writing on now.

I am not a power user, this is fast enough for the moment. I am holding out for a new redesign, but that is another post for another day. If the price is right go for the 15" they also hold there value better then the 13"s.

 

[blackbinary]

the 2010 i5 will be slower than the 2011 i5.

For two reasons : architecture improvements between the revisions should give atleast a 15-20% increase in speed. And also, the new turbo boost 2.0 will allow the 2011 model to reach higher clock speeds than the 2010.

In short the new i5 will be able to process instructions more efficiently, and take on more instructions per second, making it the faster processor.

Most of the initial 2011 MBP reviews featured benchmarks comparing the 2011 to 2010, I would go look at those reviews to see the exact different between 2010 15" and 2011 13", but it would be safe to say there is a noticeable difference.

The graphics are only slightly weaker on the 2011, and only for particularly gpu reliant games. Other games which value the cpu more will actually seen an increase.

In my opinion, I would opt for the 13" (for the better resale value as well), unless screen size was a very big issue for you, and an external monitor was out of the question.

 

[Naimfan]

They are both great machines - I have owned both. In the end, the new 13" is faster than the 2010 15". Unless you need the screen space, get the 13". If you do need more screen space, as blackbinary said, then obviously get the 15".

 

[marshallbedsaul]

i had the same issue as your having.

I opted for a 2010 2.53 15'' and love it.
I could not deal with another 13'' mbp just too small for me

 

[jjahshik32]

I picked up the 13" 2.3GHz i5 mbp from microcenter for $999 and stuck an intel SSD in it. It is FAST! I can hook my 13" to my 40" Sony Bravia and plays 1080p content without a hiccup, infact it barely uses any resources playing videos on my tv and surfing the web on the 13" screen, and this is using 4 spaces with even vmware fusion open!

The geekbench on these base model 13" is roughly around 5800-5900 points. Thats about the same as a first generation Mac Pro desktop. So now we are carrying around a Mac Pro in such a small form factor. I am in heaven!

I just cant wait for thunderbolt peripherals later this year or early next year. I'm sure some company will come up with a daisy chain/external splitter connector for the thunderbolt that will let me drive 2 external monitors (I heard the ati 6750 was able to handle up to 6 monitors!).


I was on the exact same boat as you, a 15" 2010 model or the 13" base model. I chose the 13" because I wanted the sandy bridge architecture + the thunderbolt for future usages. I'll probably get a thunderbolt external hdd for some serious transfer rates.

Oh and I'll be upping the RAM to 8GB a little later too!

 

[J-bear91]

Thanks for the replies. I'm Starting to lean towards the bigger 15" do play the occasional game so the 330m will help out in that. In saying so with the expected price drop and Introduction of a new white macbook (Hopefully in the next couple days) will be holding off on the purchace for a couple days to see what happens with the new line up. If the price drop happens and the pro ends up in line with the US prices it may be worth me holding off for a week.