Anyone went from 15 MBPr to 13 MBPr?

[PressureDrop]

Hi there,

since christmas I occupy myself if I should sell my MacBookPro Retina 15 (purchased in November 2012) and upgrade to a current 13 inch retina model. The main reason for this idea was that I 'm traveling by train very often and I find the 15-inch model a little bit too bulky to work with.

As a software developer I have generally possessed a 15-inch device in the past, but in my opinion today's dual-core processors are also very sufficient.

However, I am torn a bit back and forth, because I will lose screen space. I'm a fan of minimalist systems - usually a laptop is enough for me with no extra cable cluttering my desk. As a desktop a 15-inch system is truly the best all-round system.

So my question: Is there someone who has gone a similar decision here?

Thank you,
Pressure Drop

 

[maflynn]

I went from a 2010 (non retina) 13" MBP to a 2012 15" rMBP because I felt the screen was too small. I agree the 15" is a bit bigger and I don't use it on a train. I have used it on a plane and found it fine but depending on the situation on the train I can see it being cramped.

The justification for my move from the 13" to the 15" is the screen real estate. It was just too cramped for my needs, and demoting into other systems (I maintain servers) was causing a lot of eye strain on the 13". I found the 13" screen too small for Aperture and photoshop as well.

I'm rocking with a 2012" rMBP and I've extremely happy, YMMV but I think going from a 15" to a 13" will be a huge adjustment.

 

[jondunford]

Is there someone who has gone a similar decision here?

i had a 15" retina briefly and "downgraded" to a 13"

what resolution scale do you use yours on? i thought the scaled options were the same for both models, just it will look smaller on the 13

The main reason for this idea was that I 'm traveling by train very often and I find the 15-inch model a little bit too bulky to work with.

i went from a macbook air and like you say the 15" was a great desktop but i found i was carrying around more bulk for no reason cos i never stretched the computer to its limits anyway. i find you will find the 13" a sweet spot if you travel a lot, it's almost a macbook air, with pro internals and retina display

 

[ssn637]

I've also been contemplating a move from the 2012 rMBP 15" to the new 13" model, but have to agree with maflynn. The 15" notebook is just a dream machine and you give up quite a bit just for the sake of portability. Although I wouldn't recommend taking it along when flying economy, I do work with it every day between home and office on the train and appreciate the larger display. If you plan on running Windows in a virtual machine you've also got the luxury of 4 cores to share between operating systems. And the NVidia dedicated graphics is easily twice as powerful as the Iris 5100 for gaming.

The only thing I'd love to have is a 1 TB PCIe SSD. But you can get both with the newer models. Of course, if portability and battery life are most important on your wish list then you'll be very happy with the 13". Just make sure you scale the retina display up to 1440x900 to match the Air's real estate.

 

[applehead12]

I went from a 15" '06 MBP to a 13" '11 MBP to, just recently, the latest 13"rMBP. But then again, I fly quite a bit (~30,000 miles/year) in economy and weight, size and battery life were the primary factors.

It's nice to be able to actually open your laptop even if you don't get an exit row or bulkhead seat. If you travel a lot, I'd get the 13".

 

[leftyMac]

I've gone from 15 to 13 in the past, but I was always using an external monitor. Lately I'm often in a situation where I don't have access to an external monitor, and I'm seriously thinking of upgrading to 15. You can configure to get a massive screen real estate on a rMBP 15, way larger resolutions than my external monitor.

The more I talk about it, the more I want it! Damn!

 

[NocturnalJazz]

Yes. And then returned it for a 15 on the 14th day.

 

[whiteonline]

I work mostly at a desk with a 27" display, so the Mac Book is running in clamshell mode during that time.
There is a bit of a performance hit, but I find the portability (and cost savings) of the 13" worth it in the end.

 

[Robotoki]

My friend did, and he couldn't take the smaller and inferior screen and went right back to 15.

 

[fskywalker]

I went from regular 13" MBP to the 15" rMBP because of the retina display. Had 3 different 15" rMBP (2.3, 2.6 and 2.7 GHZ 2012 versions) and then move back to the 13" size once the retinas went out. Had a high end 2012 13" rMBP (2.9/8/768) and now the high end Haswell 13" rMBP (2.8/16/1TB). I do no regret moving from the 15 to the 13, the 13 inch size is just the right size, less size and weight, same awsome screen. Glad the late 2013 Haswell version came with the 16 GB RAM option, sice 8GB RAM was my only regret with the old version.

 

[fskywalker]

I went from regular 13" MBP to the 15" rMBP because of the retina display. Had 3 different 15" rMBP (2.3, 2.6 and 2.7 GHZ 2012 versions) and then move back to the 13" size once the retinas went out. Had a high end 2012 13" rMBP (2.9/8/768) rMBP and now the high end Haswell 13" rMBP (2.8/16/1TB). I do no regret moving from the 15 to the 13, the 13 inch size is just the right size, less size and weight, same awsome screen. Glad the late 2013 Haswell version came with the 16GB Ram option, which was my only regret with the 2012 version (8GB RAM only available)

 

[mashinhead]

I seem to me that everyone is complaining about the screen size. But this is a RETINA 13 we're talking about. Does anyone use QuickRes and use it at pixel for pixel res (this is how I use my 15)? And if so do you still feel this way?

 

[disasterdrone]

It's all about whether you have external displays.

If you have a big monitor at work, and use the machine on a train, the small screen combined with big monitor at work could be perfect.
If the 13 inch is your main display at work then I'd be concerned.