So, I'm new to the world of laptops, After years of an iMac being my main PC I've switched completely to the mobile 2018 13 inch MacBook Pro for on-the-go computing. So far my experience has been great, but reading this forum makes me wonder if it's Pro enough. The consensus seems to be that for Pro level video or photo editing and possibly gaming; if your're going to pick one then pick the 15 inch model. If this is true then what real advantage is the 13 inch over, let's say, the upcoming MacBook/MacBook Air refresh?
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Is the 13 inch MBP Pro Enough?
- Thread starter cwazytech
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"So far my experience has been great..." - that answers the question, doesn't it? Forget the Pro tag, it's marketing BS and no more than that.
Does the computer do the job you need it to do? That's all that matters. The term Pro is meaningless.
Which is why I asked, "what real advantage is the 13 inch over, let's say, the upcoming MacBook/MacBook Air refresh?"
We don't know, and can't answer until the upcoming MacBook/MacBook Air is released.
So there are some real advantages to the 13” MacBook Pro over the MacBook/Macbook Air lineup that is likely to be announced soon.
The refreshed MacBook and/or MacBook Air lineup will likely both be passively cooled (I.e. no fans), which will mean they will likely throttle sooner and/or get hotter faster than the 13” MacBook Pro under sustained stress load. Also, while the chips will be refreshed, they will be likely be lower frequency chips with lower turbo boost speeds, which means they will be slower than the 13” MBP chips.
Personally I have a 13” MBP w/TB and I feel it is plenty “Pro” enough for most people’s uses. I personally use it for photo editing without any issue. If you want the larger real estate, or need the extra GPU support (say for video editing), then the 15” is for you. But to say the 13” MBP is not “Pro” enough is kind of subjective in my opinion. Just because people using a 13” MBP aren’t editing videos, doesn’t mean their uses aren’t “professional” in nature.
My opinion in fact is that the 13” MBP will likely be a better deal than the refreshed MacBooks and/Macbook Air, because for a hundred or two more dollars, you get a higher clock speed cpu, active fan cooling, and likely options to get higher RAM specs. But that’s just my opinion.
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I agree with this, but based on the track record of Apple on the MacBook lineup, there are some assumptions that can be drawn. Overall though we won’t know til the refreshed are announced.
Faster CPU for sustained processing tasks (but of course well below the 15" model), faster GPU, faster storage, faster WiFi, more flexible connectivity, likely better display. In a nutshell, the same difference there has always been between a MacBook Pro and a MacBook.
This is extrapolating from what we know about components we'd see in the new MB/MBA.
People always recommend the 15'', the same as when the 17'' existed, they recommended that. The reality is that this year the 13'' Pro has gone Quad Core and is extremely fast - faster than 15'' of previous years. Chances are if a 15'' would have suited you last year then the 13'' could suit you this year.
Obviously there's the usual caveats, a 15'' has gone to Hexa core, from Quad, so performance has got better at the top end, but for the 13'' performance has pretty much doubled (simplifying somewhat). Interestingly the low end Macbooks don't have fans, the non-touchbar dual cores have a single fan. The 15'' I believe has 2 fans but cooling the i7/i9 Hexa cores has had quite a bit of bad press - whether that's still justified after Apple's software updates I'm not sure. The 13'' Pro Quad has 2 fans - which to me seems the sweet spot for performance not getting throttled on the CPU side.
Taking gaming into account, the 2015 15'' base only had iGPU, the 13'' Pro only has an iGPU - so treat it that way - anything that ran rubbish on the 2015 15'' will do similar on the current Quad 2018 13'' Pro. The 2018 15'' has a decent specced card which is something to consider if you want to bump up to the 2018 15'' - the iGPU 13'' can't compete with discrete graphics.
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Will they even continue the Air lineup? Seems pointless to me. For years, the air has been left untouched, no updates. When I bought my first MacBook Pro in 2014, I was shocked to discover that the 13inch air had a res of 1440 x 900: the same as my Lenovo Thinkpad from 2010. I thought apple updated all their displays to Retina standards.....
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The very question, simple and eloquent. Straight to the pointAre your tasks pro enough?
Are your tasks pro enough?
Exactly. One person's pro will be another person's amateur and one person's amateur will be another person's pro.
In my humble opinion, I believe that if you get a 15 inch, you won't have to upgrade in a long time. The high specs carry you through the years. That is, of course, if your workload on the machine remains constant.
How often do people cycle through computers anyway??