Bought the 15" five years ago as at the time, the CPU and GPU were leagues and leagues ahead of the 13". It's not such a large disparity now - probably going for the smaller one next time, be it 13" or 14"!
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Do 13" owners wish they'd gone with 15"?
- Thread starter emilioestevez
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I don't own a MacBook Pro.
That said, however, I am in the market for one after being swayed in by my iPad and iPhone to buy one. I currently own two laptops that I use... a Surface Pro 3 with a 12" screen and an old Lenovo N100 from 2006 with a 15.6" display.
Guess which one gets more use?
I love my old laptop. It may occasionally struggle with some high-end tasks and it may only have a 1280x800 display compared to the stellar 2160x1440 display the Surface Pro 3 feels, but dear God does it feel good to use. The larger 15.6" display is much easier to look at for longer periods of time, because the text scales up nicely to match it. On the Surface Pro 3, I have to scale it up to 200% to get the same comfortable UI size, and then it has even less room to work with.
Whenever I do buy my MacBook Pro, there won't be any choice for me but the 15" model. Heck, I'd love for there to be a 17" rMBP one day. We can only dream.
That said, however, I am in the market for one after being swayed in by my iPad and iPhone to buy one. I currently own two laptops that I use... a Surface Pro 3 with a 12" screen and an old Lenovo N100 from 2006 with a 15.6" display.
Guess which one gets more use?
I love my old laptop. It may occasionally struggle with some high-end tasks and it may only have a 1280x800 display compared to the stellar 2160x1440 display the Surface Pro 3 feels, but dear God does it feel good to use. The larger 15.6" display is much easier to look at for longer periods of time, because the text scales up nicely to match it. On the Surface Pro 3, I have to scale it up to 200% to get the same comfortable UI size, and then it has even less room to work with.
Whenever I do buy my MacBook Pro, there won't be any choice for me but the 15" model. Heck, I'd love for there to be a 17" rMBP one day. We can only dream.
@KaliPaige - go with the 15" for sure. I used a SP3 for about 7 months (upgraded to SP4) for work and the eye strain composing emails and composing spreadsheets on the small screen probably is the reason why my right eye's vision was worsen lol.
I was unsure when I bought the 13inch because I was coming from a 16inch HP laptop and was worried it would be too small; and it was going to be my first macbook *(early 2015 model)
I am very happy with what I got. It's portable and I can take it with me and it still has enough screen for what I need it for.
I am very happy with what I got. It's portable and I can take it with me and it still has enough screen for what I need it for.
Have the 22015 13" mbp and casually looked at the 15". Thought the 15 was way too much money and the size held me back as I wanted a more portable unit. With the size and the battery life, what else could you ask for? Really like the 13" and don't need a 15". If I need a bigger screen, then I just connect the 13" to a larger monitor - problem solved.
I got my MBP in 2011 or 2010 can't remember now but I never regretted buying the 13" I wanted the portability and I think at the time it was cheaper and more powerful than the MBA (or maybe it had a better screen).
When these new slim MBP's come out, I would consider the 15" if they somehow manage to give it a smaller foot than the 2010/2011 MBP I bought (assuming I don't go Surface again).
I was given an Early 2013 15-inch rMBP at work about 18 months ago, and while I do appreciate the extra oomph and big bright (and crisp) display, I'm in the process of switching to a 13-inch rMBP - I definitely need something a little more mobile, even if it means losing the quad-core processor and the dGPU. To be fair(er) to the 15-inch rMBP I'm using, I don't need all this horsepower for my daily tasks, most of my tools are web-based or lightweight apps.
I would agree and that was my thought but with the prices of the 15 being absurd in price for what I need I wasn't going to pay for it when I already have a 17 inch Windows laptop. So I got the 13 inch pro and oddly enough I love the screen size.... Big enough for portable use and yet small enough to be portable compared to the 15 inch. Windows IMHO doesn't scale well past 1080P and that was my problem with the Surface pro 4 for the day I bought it before realizing battery wasn't good enough for me.
I have a 2012 rMBP 15" I wish I would have gone with 13" MBA instead. Too heavy for me to lug around. I stopped taking it with me I used iPad Air 2 anyway.
Appears you're right on that one. I guess I mixed them up because it would make more sense. Sad to see that the 15" got stuck with an older generation processor.
I'm a developer with a 13". With the amount of VMs and dockers I run, I have wanted to upgrade to a 15" for a long time, but now I'm thinking of using my FreeNAS server with Virtualbox and boot2docker instead...
Even if I'm not at home I could just scp the files over to the server and run everything via ssh, which is the exact same workflow I would use if I sat next to the server.
Even if I'm not at home I could just scp the files over to the server and run everything via ssh, which is the exact same workflow I would use if I sat next to the server.
I think it's really all about what you need the laptop for when you're mobile. For myself, the MBP is just an "office" machine at home: web, email, etc and I could probably live with a 13" screen -- or, if I really wanted, an external display. However, when I'm on the road, the MBP becomes my development box and that's when I need every inch of screen space I can get, and an external monitor is not an option.
Other people have other workflows and needs, so it's perfectly reasonable that weight and size might become a primary consideration for them.
I don't do any heavy graphics or video processing, so for me the performance differences are irrelevant. It doesn't matter to me whether a build takes 11 minutes or 14 when I'm using the MBP on the road, and at home it's never stressed. Again, other people will do different things with the laptop and performance details may well matter for them.
One size doesn't fit all, which is why I hope Apple keeps making 15-inch models for a long time.
Other people have other workflows and needs, so it's perfectly reasonable that weight and size might become a primary consideration for them.
I don't do any heavy graphics or video processing, so for me the performance differences are irrelevant. It doesn't matter to me whether a build takes 11 minutes or 14 when I'm using the MBP on the road, and at home it's never stressed. Again, other people will do different things with the laptop and performance details may well matter for them.
One size doesn't fit all, which is why I hope Apple keeps making 15-inch models for a long time.
Not a chance for me. I had a 17" mbp that just had to be replaced. Getting accustomed to the 15" but it still looks like a postage stamp. I can't even imagine working on a 13".
The big problem I have as a developer with the 13 inch is screen real estate. Sometime I need to see a browser window, and IDE, and a terminal window all at once. In the office I use multiple monitors, but when I am working on the 13 inch laptop it is really challenging. 15 would be a bit better.
I couldn't either, but since my laptop is for mobile-only, I prioritize portability over screen space. At home and at the office, I use multiple desktop monitors (two 27" at home and two 24" at work).
I purchased our first MacBook, a 15" rMBP in March 2015; we had a 15" Dell XPS, and my wife insisted on a 15" screen.
Two months ago I got the itch for a smaller and lighter MBP, so I ordered up a 13" rMBP from Apple. When it arrived I was very pleased with the lighter weight and smaller foot print. However, my joy didn't last much more than a week, as the 13" screen was just too small for me to view as comfortably as the 15"; I'm in my 60's, and I'm sure that had something to do with it.
Luckily I was able to send it back to Apple just under the 14 days.
If you have good eyes and really need smaller/lighter, the 13" may work for you; for us, it was just too small to use as an actual laptop.
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Two months ago I got the itch for a smaller and lighter MBP, so I ordered up a 13" rMBP from Apple. When it arrived I was very pleased with the lighter weight and smaller foot print. However, my joy didn't last much more than a week, as the 13" screen was just too small for me to view as comfortably as the 15"; I'm in my 60's, and I'm sure that had something to do with it.
Luckily I was able to send it back to Apple just under the 14 days.
If you have good eyes and really need smaller/lighter, the 13" may work for you; for us, it was just too small to use as an actual laptop.
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I've had both, for a laptop i prefer the 13.
it's lighter, quieter, smaller, better battery life.
If i want to do something 3d or processing intensive, i use a desktop. Which is better in every way for that, than a 15" Macbook Pro Retina.
The ways in which the 15 are "better" are entirely irrelevant for my use of the device, so not, for me the 15" is not "better in every way". The 13 for me is "better in every way" that matters.
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The power pack on the 13 is also smaller, and the bag you carry it in can also be smaller and lighter. So no, its not just 1 pound more. If you're actually carting it around, it's significantly more.
The 15"s are not really usable on aircraft in economy either. The 13"s are better for that.
Carrying a 15" isn't "hard" but the 13" is easier and is capable of everything required for me when away from a desk. Battery battery life too.
edit:
oh, for those SP3/SP4 user(s) (who haven't had a mac yet) comparing the readability to a Macbook Pro 13" retina. Don't until you use one in person. Windows' scaling is horrible (I've used SP2/SP3/SP4 and other Windows tablets at work). OS X's is not.
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These are my feelings also. More specifically for heavy duty work I use a Windows desktop system. I build them myself and upgrading as needed for a lot less than a comparable Mac Pro. For their Pro machines Apple needs to quit messing around with the cool compact trashcan design and go back to the standard chassis with slots for 3rd party cards.
Agreed. I have two notebooks that I use regularly, an 11" Air and a 13" rMBP. I've preferred small notebooks for years now; my longest-serving notebook is a 12" PowerBook that's been rocking since I bought it around 2006. When I have something intensive to do, I work on my Mac Pro with multiple monitors at home; otherwise, I enjoy the easy portability of my smaller notebooks. I can definitely see the appeal of the larger MBPs if you do work on the road, but I don't very often. To each their own though
After reading this post I literally had to hop over to NewEgg and see if they actually still made laptop express cards, lol. I haven't used one for work in years.