Graphic Designer entering college.

[aud.]

Hello,
This fall I will be in college studying graphic design. I will take courses such as Drawing, 2D Design, Printing, Photography and of course Graphic Design. I have been a windows users for most of my life but I do own a old G4 iMac OS X Tiger that is really really slow and have not run any programs such as photoshop on it. I do not see switching over being a issue but the problem I am having is which MacBook Pro to buy. My choices are the 2.88ghz 15" or the 17". The only thing that is making me re-think on which one to buy is portability and screen real-state. Portability being of course going to class to class and not being weighted down much. However, I want screen real-state that is going to be enough to design and work on things without scrolling around or having to minimize and maximize all the time.
So which one do you see fit for me?
Thanks.

 

[thegoldenmackid]

15" and External Monitor?

 

[Tomorrow]

Contrary to what you may have been told, a 17" laptop is portable - not as portable as a 15", but still portable. And you can get a lot more screen with a 17" than with a 15" - 1920x1200, same as a 24" iMac.

 

[rhcpfan0]

For me it's really not so much about the weight as it is the footprint the computer makes, because the weight differences really aren't that much if you think about it.

 

[ThomasW91]

Hey dude, doing the same as you, I'll be at South Carolina in the fall. I just got the 15" and I'm definitely glad. My friend has a 17" and I don't think I could haul it around. I will be buying a 24" external soon, probably the Dell Ultrasharp, so I am not worried about screen size. I wanted portability for class, and the fastest I could buy.

I love my choice, would do the same again in a heartbeat.

Oh and one more thing, I assume your school with have a Mac lab with Mac Pro's for the design students, so you will want to do most of your work on those. I sure will, but I don't know what I will do when I get hooked on the ridiculous speed of them. Even if you got the 17", that's not big enough to comfortably work on, so either way you will need an external screen, therefore get the 15" and save $200 (compared to 17) and put it towards a nice display.

 

[aud.]

Hey dude, doing the same as you, I'll be at South Carolina in the fall. I just got the 15" and I'm definitely glad. My friend has a 17" and I don't think I could haul it around. I will be buying a 24" external soon, probably the Dell Ultrasharp, so I am not worried about screen size. I wanted portability for class, and the fastest I could buy.

I love my choice, would do the same again in a heartbeat.

Oh and one more thing, I assume your school with have a Mac lab with Mac Pro's for the design students, so you will want to do most of your work on those. I sure will, but I don't know what I will do when I get hooked on the ridiculous speed of them. Even if you got the 17", that's not big enough to comfortably work on, so either way you will need an external screen, therefore get the 15" and save $200 (compared to 17) and put it towards a nice display.

Thanks that helped a ton.