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Is a 15" Retina Macbook Pro too big to carry around a college campus?
- Thread starter Mr. RPG
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What do you mean by the bolded part? Do you recommend I get the 15" rMBP refurb for $1,599?
and the size is no longer an issue. I'm just concerned about it being scratched, dented, dined, dented, or DoA when I get it.
Well I may minor in Accounting later on in college. But right now I'm going to follow my heart and do what I love the most! ^ ^ But I do have a backup in case things don't fall in place.
Mr.RPG said:
You are more than free to shoot me a PM with things you had in mind!
I'm quite interested in what you're looking for.
OP,
You will be totally fine with a 13" rMBP or a 15" probably even an AIR for your first year in college. It just depends on how much money you are willing to spend. Personally, I have had a 15" MBP since the unibody came out and have been very happy with it. I am sure that you will hear form others that the extra weight will be a deal breaker. All I can say about that is don't be a p#$$%. I think you or any other healthy young person would be able to "lug around" something that weighs 5 pounds most of the time without having to see a chiropractor.
I recommend the 15", you will be much happier with the larger screen. The 13" is just too small for me. But, if I were in your shoes and I had to convince my parents to buy me the more expensive computer I would get the entry level 13" and live with it for a year and then make my case that a newer more powerful computer is needed for me to complete school. Provided you do well in school and are able to sell your old 13" as long as you have not spilled any beer, or other liquids on it. You will learn all about arguments in English 101 and that class will be an excellent tool for you to persuade your parents to get a new one.
You will be totally fine with a 13" rMBP or a 15" probably even an AIR for your first year in college. It just depends on how much money you are willing to spend. Personally, I have had a 15" MBP since the unibody came out and have been very happy with it. I am sure that you will hear form others that the extra weight will be a deal breaker. All I can say about that is don't be a p#$$%. I think you or any other healthy young person would be able to "lug around" something that weighs 5 pounds most of the time without having to see a chiropractor.
I recommend the 15", you will be much happier with the larger screen. The 13" is just too small for me. But, if I were in your shoes and I had to convince my parents to buy me the more expensive computer I would get the entry level 13" and live with it for a year and then make my case that a newer more powerful computer is needed for me to complete school. Provided you do well in school and are able to sell your old 13" as long as you have not spilled any beer, or other liquids on it. You will learn all about arguments in English 101 and that class will be an excellent tool for you to persuade your parents to get a new one.
I need a good display, Air is not an option.
My mother said she's get the 15" I think, I just gotta register for my classes and she'll get it. So Monday I think. but it's the refurb, not new.
Gawd, you young people these days. I can remember when portability improvements meant that you did not have to carry this around with you,
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because you now had one of these :
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If you really can't manage a rMBP then you need to spend more time in the gym
QFT.
My 17" Macbook Pro is the best combination of size / portability / power I've found. The 15" rMBP is just... less, and even easier to tote around.
DO NOT DELAY!! Register for your classes as soon as possible!!!!!!! You do not want to be stuck with the 7:30am class that you could have gotten the same class at 10:30am. Get the refurb, you will not be disappointed. I bought a refurb 24" Cinema Display back in 2009 and could not be happier. My soon to be next computer will be a refurb rMBP.
All I can say from experience is make sure you are registered and your financial aid is in place for the classes you are taking. DO NOT WASTE TIME and say you will do it tomorrow, do it NOW!!
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I've read complaints about scratched and things on here. None of them specified refurbished. They do replace dinged or worn parts, and DOA seems unlikely. If I was going to buy one today it would be one of the refurbished options or from a third party reseller if they offered a better deal. People on here are often incorrect on a lot of factual details when it comes to third party resellers. When it comes to returns, you're subject to the return policy of the retailer. Apple retail is the one with 2 weeks no questions asked. This extends to the Apple retail site. With others refer to their individual return policies. Warranties would still be through Apple unless specified otherwise. Warranty repairs use a combination of new and refurbished parts based on availability.
I really wouldn't worry about buying refurbished. It comes in different packaging, but that seems like the only significant difference. The $1600 one came out in 2012. It's not the .1 ghz spec bump with nothing else changed, but $600 is a considerable. I haven't looked up student pricing on a new one, but I doubt it is that much. The things I dislike have nothing to do with it being refurbished. Ram is what it is. It cannot be upgraded beyond the initial configuration. For my uses there are times where 8 would lag too much, even with an ssd (which I use in both machines). The ssd isn't realistically upgradable. I tend to avoid OWC in general. They are the only ones who provide upgrades, but they are expensive. They will never be cheap due to building after market parts for proprietary items. Apple changes connectors quite often, so they aren't making these things for a very wide market.
OP, something to consider if that your engineering dept/school is likely to have computer labs available for you to use. I have several engineering friends, and they spend a lot of time in the lab as opposed to on their own laptops. They will definitely have Windows machines and likely Linux. You might have to get in good with the art dept to use a Mac lab lol. But in general the computer labs are there to provide machines that can handle heavy lifting when a laptop isn't enough. Good luck with college! Enjoy the next four years as much as you can
Ahhhhh! I will! I will! Just need my high school to send over my transcript so I can get the Hope scholarship and then need to pick classes. That's it.
I'm not sure if I should feel better or worse after reading this message.
RAM.. is fine. I don't know what you're doing that would need 16 GB of RAM, but my Windows gaming PC hardly uses no more than 40% of RAM and it has 8GB when Chrome has about 35 tabs, playing music, and having a few wordpads up. 256GB is low, but it is very managable. My current hard drive on my Windows gaming PC only uses about 50GB, with the SSD uses about 40GB. SD cards will always help.OP, something to consider if that your engineering dept/school is likely to have computer labs available for you to use. I have several engineering friends, and they spend a lot of time in the lab as opposed to on their own laptops. They will definitely have Windows machines and likely Linux. You might have to get in good with the art dept to use a Mac lab lol. But in general the computer labs are there to provide machines that can handle heavy lifting when a laptop isn't enough. Good luck with college! Enjoy the next four years as much as you can
I'm not sure if they do, but I don't really care. I have a great Windows machine already so it doesn't matter to me.
I probably won't, honestly.
My last little bit of advice is:
If you get the $100 iTunes or iApp or whatever please buy or listen to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by the Smashing Pumpkins, you will not regret listening to it.
If you get the $100 iTunes or iApp or whatever please buy or listen to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by the Smashing Pumpkins, you will not regret listening to it.
the 15" retina is too big and a bit too expensive for an undergrad in my humble opinion....at least if i was the one paying for it that would be my attitude.
laptops were just becoming common when i was in college and i HATED the big clunker laptop i had. as soon as i could i got a small dell inpiron for work and then grad school. when i joined an all mac lab and was forced to switch, i chose a 13" macbook as the early model Air just wasn't powerful enough to do what i needed. Today it's a whole new story - in my opinion they've finally started taking the "pro" adjective seriously and to compensate they've made the Airs into fantastic computers, certainly suitable for almost anything a typical undergrad is going to need. If i were doing it all over again i would go with an 11" and get an external monitor. Hell, going that route and splurging on an Apple display would STILL be cheaper than the 15" retina.
Smaller the better for a kid walking around campus i would think. and unless you are planning a lot of video games or doing serious video editing, i personally would go with an Air...and like i said - take a good look at the 11.
it all comes down to preference, go play with them in the store! the 13" rMBP might be a good compromise for you.
Hey, I majored in English and I'm doing great
But teachers are paid decent salaries here In Switzerland. Also, I minored in CS and worked in IT for 12 years before I got my teaching degree - that might have helped a bit.
Ahhhhh! I will! I will! Just need my high school to send over my transcript so I can get the Hope scholarship and then need to pick classes. That's it.
I'm not sure if I should feel better or worse after reading this message.
I'm not sure if they do, but I don't really care. I have a great Windows machine already so it doesn't matter to me.
I probably won't, honestly.
Forget Windows... A respectable computer engineering school/dept will use Unix like operating system, particularly Solaris. You'll likely do your labs on thin stations that are connected to big servers...
You could try doing do what kids have done for years when they want to buy something.
Get a job.
Theres plenty of time between now and colleges starting up to find a summer job and make the difference. Minimum wage is what $7 something an hour now?
Bag some groceries sir, push some carriages, maybe you'll even smash a coworker.
I'm not sure if I should feel better or worse after reading this message.
It's easy to max out 8. When I had 8 if OSX was being bad about releasing memory, I would get 10s of GB of pageouts over a couple days of use. Given that they would be somewhat concentrated in when they would happen, the slow down was noticeable to me. As for what I was doing, 3d modeling and paint work, some photoshop up to 2-3GB files, a little after effects, and some zbrush work. I don't see a reason to fear refurbished models. They go through an extra round of quality control as they're supposedly very thorough. As I stated, if I was buying one today, I would check the refurbished section first. As far as ram goes, specific things eat enormous quantities of ram. A few years ago a lot of these applications used scratch disk mechanics where they would store a lot of extra data on disk. Today it's mostly held in ram, because modern machine generations can handle it.
Mac OS X Mavericks will decrease the amount of RAM programs and the OS itself takes up. I don't need 16GB of RAM. I don't have or need Photopshop. I'm a programmer and that is simply it. 8 is fine. Hell, I could manage with 4.. but I wouldn't want to.
I can't drive and I won't be able to get my license until mid-July where it wouldn't even matter to get a job then, because I'd be going in to school right after I got it.
Also, have you never seen the documentary where it was "semi-proven" that being a beggar and being good at convincing and manipulating money you can make more than triple what the minimum wage is just by sitting around a city asking for money?
I don't think it is really big for me anymore. I think I'll be fine and for the last time, the screen is important to me. I won't go for an Air. I've heard it's display is absolutely terrible.
You were just asking why I needed it before. I definitely found Lion and ML to be rough with too little ram. It seems like Snow Leopard freed it up more aggressively. Wasn't you real concern whether refurbished models were problematic though? As I mentioned there, I would buy refurbished if I was on the market and the refurbished section had the model I wanted.
The problem is, I found a completely new sealed 15" rMBP for 1850 on ebay, whilst the same refurbished model is 1599 (1720~) with tax in the Apple Store.
Should I still go refurbished?
I can't drive and I won't be able to get my license until mid-July where it wouldn't even matter to get a job then, because I'd be going in to school right after I got it.
Also, have you never seen the documentary where it was "semi-proven" that being a beggar and being good at convincing and manipulating money you can make more than triple what the minimum wage is just by sitting around a city asking for money?
You've got a busy summer of warcraft lined up,
i gotcha.
the 13" rMBP is my fall back.
You mean WoW? WoW stopped being good when Catacylsm came out.
I played from 2007 - 2011.