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Has anybody "downgraded" and regretted it?

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Nov 5, 2009
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So I am currently using a high end 15", and its great and all but its just simply too big for me, I REALLY want a 13".

Somebody in town is selling their 2.26 with two years of apple care for $900. I was thinking about scooping it up and selling my 15" and just pocketing the extra cash.

I never use my 15" to its full potential except for when I game, which is rare lately.

Has anybody done this and just been completely depressed by the performance decrease and regretted it? I would be SO happy with the size, but I often have buyers remorse : )
 
serialtoon said:
I personally think that 13" is the sweet spot for laptops. Speed be damned.
Click to expand...

Im definitely starting to agree. My first was a 17", a few years later this 15". After using my girlfriends white macbook for awhile I hated carrying my 15" around.

I might just have to get rid of this guy and go for it.
 
I guess my only real concern is that my 15" can handle almost any game I play at nice settings and if I start gaming a bunch on my laptop again I will be a bit screwed with the GPU in the 13".
 
I have followed a similar path with Windows laptops. I started huge and powerful and slowly moved with each change to something smaller and simpler. I have not regretted my choice and finally ended up with a tiny but expensive Sony Vaio. Having moved-on from my Windows childhood to a very recently purchased and very adult 13" MacBook Pro was the natural choice. Heck, if they did an 11" I may have gone for that!

The truth is that almost and laptop is powerful enough for routine work with only gaming pushing the limits for PC power-on-the-go. Having something easy to live with is more important for most when it comes to mobile computing. Clearly more focused users require a laptop that can do more and in the case of Apple they meet this need with the 15 & 17" options.

Typing this from my 13" sitting on my lap in a friends house was a pleasure. Doing the same with a 15" would be a little more uncomfortable.

Life is a compromise but in this case it sounds like the 13" is calling to you!

Enjoy.
 
I have had a variety of sizes of computers over the years, but I have always dropped back to 13". It is the perfect size for a high level of portability coupled with an acceptable level of power. I currently have the 2.26 model MBP you're speaking of, and it's wonderful. Since going Pro, Apple really have sorted out the displays on these machines, and coupled with 4GB of RAM, the machine should suit almost all needs fine. I am currently playing Rome: Total War (Mac version) on medium-high specs on this machine. Not bad, considering the sheer amount of action on screen all the time.

Take into consideration one thing, however; if you use the Audio In AND Audio Out ports simultaneously like I have for years, you'll be in for a disappointment. The 13" Macbook Pro has a combined port.

Other than that, it really is an excellent machine, and certainly worth the drop in power.
 
-Ryan- said:
I have had a variety of sizes of computers over the years, but I have always dropped back to 13". It is the perfect size for a high level of portability coupled with an acceptable level of power. I currently have the 2.26 model MBP you're speaking of, and it's wonderful. Since going Pro, Apple really have sorted out the displays on these machines, and coupled with 4GB of RAM, the machine should suit almost all needs fine. I am currently playing Rome: Total War (Mac version) on medium-high specs on this machine. Not bad, considering the sheer amount of action on screen all the time.

Take into consideration one thing, however; if you use the Audio In AND Audio Out ports simultaneously like I have for years, you'll be in for a disappointment. The 13" Macbook Pro has a combined port.

Other than that, it really is an excellent machine, and certainly worth the drop in power.
Click to expand...

Can't you get a splitter dongle so you can still use both on the 13 inch?
 
Don't make a snap decision. Think about it for at least a month.

I'm of the school that the MBP 15 is the absolute perfect size for a laptop, so you're not going to find any help coming from my corner ;-).
 
ozreth said:
So I am currently using a high end 15", and its great and all but its just simply too big for me, I REALLY want a 13".

Somebody in town is selling their 2.26 with two years of apple care for $900. I was thinking about scooping it up and selling my 15" and just pocketing the extra cash.

I never use my 15" to its full potential except for when I game, which is rare lately.

Has anybody done this and just been completely depressed by the performance decrease and regretted it? I would be SO happy with the size, but I often have buyers remorse : )
Click to expand...

the extra speed is a non-issue, get a cheap SSD if you want speed and it will kill the 15 you have. That said of course the GPU is an issue if you play games, I love the 13" form factor, I have a 15" asus with windows 7 that sits on our message center and if I decide to carry it out of the room for whatever reason it feels like a gigantic brick its so heavy, thick and big. Don't like it at all. If I wanted a big screen I would buy an imac and get a real sized screen
 
Unless you need a lot of power (which I would seek in a desktop) if you are mobile the 13" is the best choice.

My previous 15.4 fujitsu laptop feels like a tank in comparison. I can't believe I carried that thing daily.
 
I made the switch to a 13", and I was very disappointed.

Allow me to do a utilitarian calculus for you.

positive vs. negative consequences of 13" "downgrade"

Negative consequences:
  1. No Anti-glare - this frequently leaves me frustrated.
  2. Significant (if not dramatic) performance decrease.
  3. Smaller screen means I can't have as many dashboard items.
  4. Smaller screen makes text harder to read - especially for people with eye problems.
  5. Loss of discrete graphics chipset.
  6. Quality of built-in speakers is much lower.
  7. Had to purchase another carrying case to accommodate 13".
  8. Just are not available with competing specs for an appropriate amount of money (by the time you get around to adjusting ram, hard drive, etc to have a reasonable, although still diminished set of specs, you have spent almost if not more than as much as a 15")

There may be other things to list as well - this is the list that 5 minutes allowed me to generate.

Positive consequences:
  1. smaller
  2. lighter
  3. costs a little less dough

In my opinion, the negatives far outweigh the positives, at least for me. I did spend some time evaluating these at the apple store, but the set up of the apple store is far different from my own home, and over time I came to greatly regret my decision. I'm just waiting for the update to move back to a 15".
 
Relznuk said:
I made the switch to a 13", and I was very disappointed.

Allow me to do a utilitarian calculus for you.

positive vs. negative consequences of 13" "downgrade"

Negative consequences:
  1. No Anti-glare - this frequently leaves me frustrated.
  2. Significant (if not dramatic) performance decrease.
  3. Smaller screen means I can't have as many dashboard items.
  4. Smaller screen makes text harder to read - especially for people with eye problems.
  5. Loss of discrete graphics chipset.
  6. Quality of built-in speakers is much lower.
  7. Had to purchase another carrying case to accommodate 13".
  8. Just are not available with competing specs for an appropriate amount of money (by the time you get around to adjusting ram, hard drive, etc to have a reasonable, although still diminished set of specs, you have spent almost if not more than as much as a 15")

There may be other things to list as well - this is the list that 5 minutes allowed me to generate.

Positive consequences:
  1. smaller
  2. lighter
  3. costs a little less dough

In my opinion, the negatives far outweigh the positives, at least for me. I did spend some time evaluating these at the apple store, but the set up of the apple store is far different from my own home, and over time I came to greatly regret my decision. I'm just waiting for the update to move back to a 15".
Click to expand...

the truth is the only real world advantage the 15" has over the 13" is the anti glare display and maybe the discrete graphics if you have applications that can utilize it. The price difference is staggering though at practically 2x the cost, $1200 vs. $2300. A modest SSD and 4gb ram upgrade can be had for under $300. In the list above number 4 is completely untrue; the 13" and 15" have nearly the same dpi which is what currently defines how large text is on the display. I clearly do not agree with the upgrade comments either especially since the 15" models do not come by default with a SSD. As far as the processor speed unless you have some specific need for the higher end processor, it seems to be just something to brag about. Furthermore in which case you are better off waiting for the core ix notebooks with better performance.
 
Keep your 15" and get an ipad if you desire something smaller. Griping about a 1 pound difference and and a few centimeters on dimensions is moot. Sure the extra pound can make a difference but the 3lb difference between a Macbook and iPad is truly night and day. Sounds to me that you would be better suited by getting an ipad or netbook for light on the go activities.

Personally for a laptop I expect full feature or as close to it as possible, the 15" increased screen real estate and easier on the eyes screen makes the 15" a winner. For a laptop I expect desktop capabilities or at least near desktop capabilities. I rarely activate my 9600GT but when I do it makes me glad that that its there.
 
Relznuk said:
Smaller screen makes text harder to read - especially for people with eye problems.
Click to expand...
This is actually wrong. 13" MBP has almost exactly the same PPI that the 15" does, so the size of the screen makes no difference in the text size.
 
kny3twalker said:
the truth is the only real world advantage the 15" has over the 13" is the anti glare display and maybe the discrete graphics if you have applications that can utilize it. The price difference is staggering though at practically 2x the cost, $1200 vs. $2300. A modest SSD and 4gb ram upgrade can be had for under $300. In the list above number 4 is completely untrue; the 13" and 15" have nearly the same dpi which is what currently defines how large text is on the display. I clearly do not agree with the upgrade comments either especially since the 15" models do not come by default with a SSD. As far as the processor speed unless you have some specific need for the higher end processor, it seems to be just something to brag about. Furthermore in which case you are better off waiting for the core ix notebooks with better performance.
Click to expand...

$2300? You're comparing the least expensive 13" model to one of the more expensive 15" models? That's just not a fair comparison. Let's look at some machines that are actually comparable. The $1500 13" vs the $2000 15". For $500, you get a larger screen, discreet graphics, a decent boost in processor speed, plus a larger hard drive. That's not a bad deal.

So your claim about the 15" being "nearly 2X the cost?" False. And a really weak argument to boot. There is a 15" model within $500 of either of the 13" models.

I don't care to battle you on this, since everyone is entitled to their own opinions. But please, don't post FALSE information.
 
ozreth said:
Im definitely starting to agree. My first was a 17", a few years later this 15". After using my girlfriends white macbook for awhile I hated carrying my 15" around.

I might just have to get rid of this guy and go for it.
Click to expand...

Do not ever use the MacBook Air then; because then you'll think any computer is too heavy.
 
downsizing is good

I had a 15 inch 1st, went 17inch went back to 15 now I am using 13inch. For what I use my laptop for...taking back and forth to work; using at work etc... it is PERFECT for me. I don't miss the speed really. do I have some regrets? Sure I miss the resolution of the bigger screens "(my friend just got a 17inch) but man...have portability in a nice package is EVERYTHING. Of course, if I want to do some serious crunching, I also just bought a 27 inch imac, but for the last 2 years only had a mac mini and this 13 inch. I love it.
 
-Ryan- said:
There are definitely USB ones available, but is there one for the jack port? :confused:
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure you can get a splitter for the jack port. You can use the iphone headphones and the mic and headphones work.

Just checked and there's one here for example.

Edit: Sorry looks like that's a home made one. I'd have thought there'd be one somewhere though.
 
Personally, I find the 15" perfect size for me, even with transport between places (I take it everywhere I go basically). I had all 13" macbooks, ranging from the alum. macbook, macbook pro and macbook air, and I find the 15" my favorite out of all regarding specs, and honestly compared, it isn't a life changing difference in weight that would make me downgrade to a 13"
 
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