From 15 to 13": anyone suffered?

[bruleke]

So, I have a 2010 Macbook Pro 2.4ghz; 8gb; 256mb video nVidia.

Nothing fancy...
I use it with Internet, Office, Stockbroker and movies.

But I want to upgrade my machine.

At this point I am not sure if I buy a SSD drive or already buy a 2012 MBP, but the 13,3" model.

Why? I need portability, but its hard to me to spend money for "less", since the 2012 13,3" might not be as good as my 2010 MBP. And, since I want something faster, why not just buy a SSD?

Anyway, for those who had a 15" and bought a 13" MBP, how are you dealing with it? Suffering with the smaller screen?

 

[Whatsit]

I didn't go from a 15" MBP to a 13", but I did go from a 15" Dell Inspiron to a 13" MBP. (Early 2011 model.)

I love my 13" MBP. I was concerned that perhaps the screen size would be too small for me after using a 15" laptop for a few years, but actually I now prefer the smaller size. It's lighter, more portable, and the screen quality is fantastic, so I really don't miss the larger screen size at all.

 

[bruleke]

Thats different, because once you buy a Mac you feel that "magic" and forget about the size screen.
I'm talking about this specific change: from a 15,4" MPB to a 13,3"MBP.

 

[Mr MM]

no it wont be downgrade. quite the contrary, since you dont game the gpu wont matter, albeit both have around the same performance, what might not be interesting is the resolution of the mbp13

 

[bruleke]

I have just bough a Samsung 840 256gb because of this comment of yours. I've been researching for a week now and the screen was always something that disturbs me, since I read a lot on my macbook (about 150 pages/day).

Thanks a lot!

 

[Adamantoise]

I have just bough a Samsung 840 256gb because of this comment of yours. I've been researching for a week now and the screen was always something that disturbs me, since I read a lot on my macbook (about 150 pages/day).

Thanks a lot!

Well I'm an owner of the 13.3 Macbook Pro 2011 ... I'm seriously considering buying a 15.4 Macbook Pro 2012.

Sure the screen doesn't look small if you're just browsing the web, but try writing a paper or doing any serious work on it ... You'll want to connect to the closest external monitor you can find.

 

[0r30]

Well I'm an owner of the 13.3 Macbook Pro 2011 ... I'm seriously considering buying a 15.4 Macbook Pro 2012.

Sure the screen doesn't look small if you're just browsing the web, but try writing a paper or doing any serious work on it ... You'll want to connect to the closest external monitor you can find.

+1 , I have a hard time with papers and when running matlab on my 13" . Hopefully I will be getting a 15" soon.

 

[mankar4]

I went from a 15" mbp to a 13" rmbp and I love it. The 13" rmbp actually has more effective screen real estate when you run it at 1680 1050

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+1 , I have a hard time with papers and when running matlab on my 13" . Hopefully I will be getting a 15" soon.

its purely personal taste, but for me the 13" rmbp is a great machine as a standalone for Matlab, R, stata and writing research papers. I use totalspaces to bring back spaces and set up 9 desktops, using 5 of them in a plus pattern, with word in the middle, matlab on one, chrome on one, R/Stata on one, and PDFs of sources on one. Its great. I also use better touch tool window snapping to make sure I get the most out of my screen real estate.

 

[toothache]

I went from 13 MPB to 15 MBP. A lot better to work on Documents.
I bought 13 MBA for work (company paid for it) but I end up using 15 MBP more (actually all the time) and mom is using 13 MBA now.
It is smaller and lighter but most times I'm not carrying the MBP. My car is carrying the MBP and I walk maybe 300 feet with my briefcase.
If you are in similar situation as I am stay with 15 but if you commute public transit I would recommend 13.

 

[T5BRICK]

Thats different, because once you buy a Mac you feel that "magic" and forget about the size screen.
I'm talking about this specific change: from a 15,4" MPB to a 13,3"MBP.

I went from a 15" 2007 MBP to my 13" 2009 MBP and didn't have any problems. I appreciated the smaller form factor and was glad to get rid of the time bomb, I mean nvidia GT 8600M.

 

[bruleke]

I went from 13 MPB to 15 MBP. A lot better to work on Documents..

That WAS my concern.
I read a lot on my mbp, so a smaller screen wouldnt exactly help me. EXCEPT if I could afford a retina macbook, which is not the case.
As I said, I have just made my decision and bought the Samsung 840 256gb instead of investing in a 2012 macbook pro 13,3".

I actually don't need to have the latest machine for what I do. I wont be the consumerist type of person...

 

[toothache]

That WAS my concern.
I read a lot on my mbp, so a smaller screen wouldnt exactly help me. EXCEPT if I could afford a retina macbook, which is not the case.
As I said, I have just made my decision and bought the Samsung 840 256gb instead of investing in a 2012 macbook pro 13,3".

I actually don't need to have the latest machine for what I do. I wont be the consumerist type of person...

Probably the right choice.

really.. if your screen is not giving you any issues (LCD) don't get a new one unless you just want it. 2012 machine will do the same as your old machine. People over react to specs. The specs on your MBP right now is sufficient for pretty much ANYONE in the world besides ones into media production or gaming.

I will keep my macbook until the LCD or the motherboard dies.

 

[hawon]

Which one is more important to you amount portability and screen real estate?

To me 15" is still very portable. If you are thinking about a pk upgrading get a 15" rMBP. You will get both compared to your current mbp.

 

[De5]

went from 17 inch acer to 13 inch mbp, it was really hard to get used to, and im still kind of regretting it.

 

[bruleke]

Couldn't resist. Bought a brand new Macbook Pro 2012 15"
2.3ghz
256gb SSD Samsung 840 (bought separate)
8gb Ram
512 nVidia

Done. Now I'm happy and have a faster computer.

 

[NewishMacGuy]

Couldn't resist. Bought a brand new Macbook Pro 2012 15"
2.3ghz
256gb SSD Samsung 840 (bought separate)
8gb Ram
512 nVidia

Done. Now I'm happy and have a faster computer.

Nicely done (esp. buying the SSD aftermarket). Having just gone from a 13" MacBook to a cMBP-15, it's hard to look at my wife's cMBP-13 now, the screen real estate just seems so tiny. I don't know how she works on it. And she doesn't get why I choose to lug around 5.5lbs instead of 4.5!

 

[Adamantoise]

Couldn't resist. Bought a brand new Macbook Pro 2012 15"
2.3ghz
256gb SSD Samsung 840 (bought separate)
8gb Ram
512 nVidia

Done. Now I'm happy and have a faster computer.

Nice! After much debate and internet searches, I'm actually buying the same thing today.

Selling my 13.3" Macbook Pro and picking this up. I already have a 250gb Samsung 840 (non-pro ), and I'm thinking of springing for the 512gb Samsung 830 just because I know I'm going to install a Windows partition to play some games. (League of Legends, Civilization V)

Not sure what to do with the 250gb Samsung 840 SSD though, maybe I'll use it as an external or something.

 

[runebinder]

A 15" is fine portability wise and carrying about as long as you have a decent bag. I originally carried mine in a messenger bag which was a PITA, then decided to get a Targus Rucksack which is a huge improvement. As long as the weight is evenly distributed on your back it's not an issue.

I live in Nottingham and commute to work which involves a bus into the city centre, a ten minute walk to the train station, a 50-60 minute train ride and a 15 minute walk from the station to work and then the reverse at the end of the day. I do not find it any less difficult on the days where I decide to leave the MBP at home.

My girlfriend has a 13" MBP and personally I could not move down to the smaller screen and loss of a discrete GPU.

 

[mac jones]

I went from a 15" retina to a 13" retina.

It's a trade off. I like to use these on my lap, so no, I'm not suffering.

Depends on how you use it.....obviously.

 

[NewishMacGuy]

I went from a 15" retina to a 13" retina.

It's a trade off. I like to use these on my lap, so no, I'm not suffering.

Depends on how you use it.....obviously.

I'm sure that part of that is because you can claw all your real estate back on the rMBP-13's 1440x900 scaled setting.

 

[Adamantoise]

A 15" is fine portability wise and carrying about as long as you have a decent bag. I originally carried mine in a messenger bag which was a PITA, then decided to get a Targus Rucksack which is a huge improvement. As long as the weight is evenly distributed on your back it's not an issue.

I live in Nottingham and commute to work which involves a bus into the city centre, a ten minute walk to the train station, a 50-60 minute train ride and a 15 minute walk from the station to work and then the reverse at the end of the day. I do not find it any less difficult on the days where I decide to leave the MBP at home.

My girlfriend has a 13" MBP and personally I could not move down to the smaller screen and loss of a discrete GPU.

Yup, just bought a 15" MBP about an hour ago (my first ever!) and boy that larger screen is something. Can't wait to install mountain lion on my ssd and get this guy going.

 

[duervo]

Anyway, for those who had a 15" and bought a 13" MBP, how are you dealing with it? Suffering with the smaller screen?

Not suffering. I much prefer the smaller size of the laptop itself ... weight is key too, but I also place a large priority on ease of upgrading for RAM and HDD, which is the only reason I haven't gone with rMBP or MBA.

My tastes and requirements have changed somewhat over the past 7 or 8 years. In the past, I was all for bigger screen and dedicated graphics, because I figured, "Hey, I like playing games, so I need to get the bigger screen and dedicated graphics." However, the times have changed, and I have along with them apparently.

So, when it came time to buy my current laptop (a 2.9GHz i7, 8GB, 750GB 13" Mid-2012 MBP ... Black Friday sale!) I left the larger screen and dedicated graphics behind. Haven't been suffering at all, but I also don't do any video or photo editing. Granted, I did put a Crucial M4 256GB SSD in it right away. So, until then, I "suffered" with the 750GB mechanical drive that it came with.

With that said, I did look at an 11" MBA while I was at the Apple Store to get the 13" MBP. If I didn't care about ease of upgrading so much, I probably would've gotten the MBA 13" with 256GB SSD and 8GB RAM, but not the 11" MBA. The 11" screen on the smaller MBA is just too much of a compromise to make on screen size for me.

(BTW, to put things into a more accurate perspective, the laptop I had before the current 13" MBP, was a 15" MBP)

 

[runebinder]

Yup, just bought a 15" MBP about an hour ago (my first ever!) and boy that larger screen is something. Can't wait to install mountain lion on my ssd and get this guy going.

Cool, I love mine. Hope you enjoy it and welcome to the world of Macs If there's anything you need to know there are plenty of us here that'll be happy to help.

 

[Furifo]

Well I'm an owner of the 13.3 Macbook Pro 2011 ... I'm seriously considering buying a 15.4 Macbook Pro 2012.

Sure the screen doesn't look small if you're just browsing the web, but try writing a paper or doing any serious work on it ... You'll want to connect to the closest external monitor you can find.

+1

I love my 2010 13" but I've been really struggling when reading and writing papers on it. 13" -> 15" may not seem like a big jump but when I used a friends 15" next to mine, there was definitely a significant difference in terms of screen real estate.

I think I'm definitely going to be upgrading to a 15" sometime next year when I can afford to.

OP - congrats, the 2012 15" MBP is a fine, powerful machine. I also think the GPU will have an easier time handling the cMBP resolution when compared to the rMBP (not bashing the rMBP!)

 

[Barna Biro]

Not me. I went from a late 2011 15" cMBP to the 13" rMBP and I don't see myself getting a 15"-er ever again. Screen real-estate is fine for me ( I've been using other notebooks the past 10 years with worse resolution... my 15" Toshiba Satellite M70 had a resolution of 1280x800 too ), but the portability, screen quality and clarity, footprint, etc. are just great ( sure, I wouldn't mind a quad-core in the 13" form factor, but it's not crucial and until they don't come up with a way to properly manage the heat the CPU would produce, we're better off without it anyway ).

I'm definitely a happy 13" owner.