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Buying a new MacBook Pro: 13 in. vs. 15 in.

bbour38 said:
You're saying there's a equal or greater discount on Amazon, and they don't charge you tax? I've seen $100 discount on Apple on both these models, but all the prices I posted are before tax.

When I say a little design, I mean I'm doing taking photos for product brochures and presentations for a small company rather than laying out newspaper or magazine pages. Design is a small part of my job - I'm not expected to create enormous, artsy layouts every day at work. I'm sure designers with the Intel Core Duo did fine before - every Mac I've been on is extremely fast and handles CS4 pretty well.

So you're suggesting it may be better to get the 13 inch now and buy another 13 inch in two years for the same price as buying the 15 inch now? That seems reasonable since I'd likely have a better processor, RAM etc. in a laptop two years from now, but I really want a laptop that will last me at least four or five years. I think this $1,100, base model 13 inch laptop will last given my experience with how Macs hold up fine, and I'm beginning to think doubling my investment won't generate twice the benefits.

I'm thinking that if my experience here leads to a really serious, exclusive graphic design job, I may be better off getting an enormous screen or an external monitor and having a serious processor. But from everything I read, a 13 inch MacBook Pro should be able to handle my needs for a while.

You said you're leaning toward the 13 inch, too?
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Try powermax.com, no sales tax and free shipping plus the people there are really nice.
 
ahmen9 said:
Then, based on the benchmark, I should go for new 13inch?
I thought 9600 will be even more powerful as it is dedicated.
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It depends on what you need, but as you indicated that you want a real investment for 5-6 years, maybe the ix+ dedicated GPU should be the ideal way to go.

I'm getting the base 13 because it's cheaper & sufficient for my needs (so far). I kinda decided to get an xbox/ps3 for real gaming, and perhaps an iMac for photo-processing/video if I ever need it (loving the display).

You can also wait for the benchmarks (usually notebookcheck.net have some good ones). Have a look at refurb store for the 15" MBPs by the way.

Here's another discussion about the 320m:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/897409/
 
Kingcodez said:
Just get the 13 for now and when they finally refresh it to your satisfaction, or ina year with the new 15's, sell it, take a 1-200 dollar loss, and buy a new computer. Simplest route.

Hell, I'm sure the 15's i5 chip will come down in price too.
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I like this idea in theory, but since I am also a first time mac buyer debating between the 13" and the 15" MBP I thought I's ask, how/where does one sell their MBP when they want to use the sale money towards the newest update?
 
HDD Configuration Options

One thing I noticed about the new 13" MBP vs. the 15" (and 17" for that matter) is that Apple does not offer the option to configure the 13" with a 7200 rpm hdd, only the 5400 rpm. Which is kind of odd I thought. Can anyone think of a reason why they would not include that configuration option for the 13"?
 
ReallyBigFeet said:
Is that legit? How can someone sell Applecare other than Apple or a qualified Apple reseller for so much less?
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Yes these are legit, Apple Dealers make a big profit selling AppleCare and some of them are willing to make a small profit selling them on eBay. In essence all you are buying is the code to register with Apple. So they email you the code, you use it to register your AppleCare online at Apple's website and that's it, your done. Here are a few examples of buy-it-now's for AppleCare on a 13" MacBook (any version, Pro/Air/Etc.) from an Apple Dealer:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130382656852
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220573967661

Don't get ripped off paying full price for AppleCare anymore!
 
w4rmk said:
Yes these are legit, Apple Dealers make a big profit selling AppleCare and some of them are willing to make a small profit selling them on eBay. In essence all you are buying is the code to register with Apple. So they email you the code, you use it to register your AppleCare online at Apple's website and that's it, your done. Here are a few examples of buy-it-now's for AppleCare on a 13" MacBook (any version, Pro/Air/Etc.) from an Apple Dealer:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130382656852
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220573967661

Don't get ripped off paying full price for AppleCare anymore!
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wow thanks man! :eek: did you get one yourself?
*sorry off-topic*
 
Yes I've been getting my AppleCare this way for a while, it's just a matter of your serial number being registered in Apple's systems as having AppleCare and your all set. It's nice that Apple very rarely even ever asks for any receipts for warranty work, they go by the dates in their systems. So I ask you is 3 years of extended warranty directly from Apple worth about $100? FYI you can also get similarly discounted Applecare pricing online for all of their products.
 
Hard drives and RAM are easily replaced, screen real estate is not.

I too was set on the 13" until having worked on one a bit. For some reason there's a big difference between 13" & 15" between size and resolution.
 
I totally get it

hisboyelroy said:
One thing I noticed about the new 13" MBP vs. the 15" (and 17" for that matter) is that Apple does not offer the option to configure the 13" with a 7200 rpm hdd, only the 5400 rpm. Which is kind of odd I thought. Can anyone think of a reason why they would not include that configuration option for the 13"?
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Simple. Heat issues and battery life make a 7200 rpm HD i a 13 inch useless. Same reason discrete graphics are out-It is made for portability.The perfect solution is a base HD and a year from now when prices come down and I feel I need a performance upgrade I buy an SSD. Brilliant, :apple:
Couldnt have made a better upgrade for their basic mbp!
 
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