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Does Anyone Regret Getting the 14” MacBook Pro Instead of the 16”?

I was sold on the 16 when I took my MBP 15 in for a trade and laid it on top of the 16 it was hardly noticeable its what you are use to but a friend had a MBP 17 now that's heavy and hugh but had they shrunk the bezel that would have allowed them way more screen realastste.
 
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I have both the 14 inch and 16 inch MacBook Pro. I use my 16 inch as my desktop computer and my 14 inch as my travel laptop. This arrangement works perfectly for me 🙂

Specs for my laptops are seen in my signature.
 
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A few years in with the 14" and my regrets was not expecting to be unattached to the monitor 2 years in. For the Ultra I'm definitely going for the 16" as long it's slimmer
 
yummysapple said:
I do intend to get a dell monitor for my MacBook
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If the iPad were my thing, I’d probably use it mainly for sidecar as external portable display , watching workout videos on the bigger screen and jotting down notes or digital art. I’d probably not use it as much overall. Especially when it comes to gaming and running CAD/coding software, I think the Mac is better because it has more features and power than the iPad Pro, in my opinion.

My iPad mini 1 was what it started me on the Apple ecosystem 12 years ago, but when iOS 9 axed it off from iOS 10 and ate its performance, and I can’t run more than half of the latest apps on it, it just sat in the storage area for years until I finally got rid of it for Apple earth day promo.
 
conmee said:
I usually run my 16” in clamshell in a Brydge vertical dock, but one of the first things I noticed besides it being fatter/heavier (almost 3/4 of a pound heavier than my 15” 2019), were the side vents. The top of the Apple Silicon MBP vents are cut right above the curvature of the case resulting in a sharpness to them. The Intel MBPs have a bit of a chamfered edge above the top of the vents rather than meeting at a sharp angle. I don't recall the wife's MBA having this issue, but she's not home at the moment so I can't confirm (but sounds like this isn't the case with MBAs).

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i had the same issue, bruised my calf recently because of the side vent on a 16in mbp (apologies for hair)
1780299699765.jpeg
 
turbineseaplane said:
The 13 & 14" screens feel too cramped to me, especially on Tahoe now with all the corner rounding and padding pushing the content further in on all UI windows.
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Cramped! by losing at most 1mm. I've read some stuff on here, over the years. but that's incredulous.
 
I really like the 15" MacBook Air but sadly I don't want an IPS display and I need 48GB RAM for the Local AI & Agentic coding without external MCP.

Hoping Ultra will be a good one for us 🙂
 
I plan to eventually connect my 14" to a Studio Display xdr. With that, 14 vs 16 inch, sure the thermals are better on the 16 but I don't do much that would really have that make a huge difference. The majority of the things I do, I can even get away with using a 35W charger with the m5 pro chip. I'm coming from a 16" intel MacBook Pro, and the more compact size and portability is really great.

I've also been using a 14" MacBook Pro for work the last year and a half and it's been awesome to use, don't miss the 16" at all as at the office I mostly have it in clamshell mode.
 
If I was seriously thinking about the 16" I would be better off buying an upgraded Mini or a Studio at that point. I think 14" is pretty much ideal for a laptop. If I was Air shopping I would choose the 15" over the 13" though as 13" to me is just too small and cramped.
 
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I just picked up the MacBook Pro 14" M5 16/512 at Costco couple days ago as they were on clearance for $1,199.97 (obviously Costco did this because Apple has discontinued the 512 GB model, so Costco had to lower the price to get rid of the inventory to make more room for other inventory). I had used 16 inch before and it's definitely feels more like a desktop like for me. I much prefer the 14 inch as it's more portability than the 16 inch imo.
 
ive just gone from an M4 pro 14" to M5 pro 16" and it feels too big. I thought going up in size would be nice, and it is, but i think i prefer a 14".



keksikuningas said:
i had the same issue, bruised my calf recently because of the side vent on a 16in mbp (apologies for hair)
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I had something similar but with my 14" and foot. I was placing the laptop into the back side pocket of a backpack, picked up the bag without zipping it up, it fell out and the sharp edge at the back underneath that runs the length of the back landed on the base of one of my toe nails. lots of blood and now half a dead toe nail!
 
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Apple_Tiger said:
I just picked up the MacBook Pro 14" M5 16/512 at Costco couple days ago as they were on clearance for $1,199.97 (obviously Costco did this because Apple has discontinued the 512 GB model, so Costco had to lower the price to get rid of the inventory to make more room for other inventory). I had used 16 inch before and it's definitely feels more like a desktop like for me. I much prefer the 14 inch as it's more portability than the 16 inch imo.
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Wow I wish I would have had the opportunity for that deal.
 
16-in for me. If Apple hadn't canned the 17-in in 2012, I would have that. But then when I'm away from my M4 Mini (with twin 32-in monitors), I'm typically working on multiple windows at the same time, sometimes with a display set at 2560x1600 (thanks to QuickRes). And then when I'm travelling and want something small and light, I have the 13-in Neo. 100% of my files are in the cloud so it matters not which device I'm with.

So it all depends on personal needs. I can quite appreciate that 14-in is fine for many people. I remember the excitement when PC monitors were introduced with advanced 640x480 resolution...
 
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When I bought my 16 MBP and took it home I was floored by the screen real estate compared to my 15 MBP and the fact you could lay them on top of each other and it was barely noticeable what was noticeable was the large black bezel on the 15 and the thin bezel on the 16. Never noticed a discerable amount of weight difference. When I want portable above all else in my situation its really hard to beat an iPad Pro 11 inch.
 
ab2c4 said:
If I was seriously thinking about the 16" I would be better off buying an upgraded Mini or a Studio at that point. I think 14" is pretty much ideal for a laptop. If I was Air shopping I would choose the 15" over the 13" though as 13" to me is just too small and cramped.
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That's pretty much how I feel, although a 2012 16"MBP was my desktop from late 2012 to early 2021 - originally paired with a 23" Cinema display and then a 27" Thunderbolt display. The 16" never left the desktop, with a 2009 MBP doing the traveling as the smaller size was much more conducive to carrying around. This was repalced with a 14" 2017 MBP, which then was replaced with a 14" M3 Pro MBP. The 2012 MBP was replaced with an M1 Mini 16G/1T which gave a much better desktop experience than the 16" MBP. The number one reason was no good compromise on positioning the 16" MPB and the external display, the keyboard could be placed directly in front of the display. While it was possible to use the 16" in clamshell mode, it just made more sense replacing it with a dedicated desktop machine.
 
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