My very first Apple :-)

[mrrf]

Long story short: I need a notebook and I felt in love with the MacBook Pro after I tried it some. The fact is that I have some doubts regarding which one I should take and so here I am.
The one I like most is the 13" Retina with 256 gb hd / 8 gb ram. I am a web developer, programming mostly in PHP and Javascript. The programs that I will use are:

1) Eclipse
2) Photoshop (for some basic needs)
3) Adobe Lightroom (for some RAW photo editing)

My questions are:
1) Is the screen actually TOO small to program ?
2) Can the integrated graphics handle two 24" monitors ? (office and home usage)
3) Is it powerful enough to do some basic RAW photo editing without going nuts ?

Thanks.

 

[capathy21]

My questions are:
1) Is the screen actually TOO small to program ?
2) Can the integrated graphics handle two 24" monitors ? (office and home usage)
3) Is it powerful enough to do some basic RAW photo editing without going nuts ?

1)Depends on who you ask, some say yes, some say no.
2)Yes
3)Yes

 

[SarcasticJoe]

1: Depends on what you're used to, but I've seen people work on projects with a LOT of code on a 12" netbook (i.e an even smaller screen with a crappy resolution). I myself opted for a 15" model last time I got a new machine in part due to being used to a 15" screen (had nothing but 15" Macbook Pro's for the last 7 years).

2: Much slower GPU's can handle 2 monitors with that kind of work, so asking about is like asking if a station wagon can hold two bag of groceries.

3: These days RAW editing is mostly HDD/SSD speed and Apple has some top class SSD's in their current machines, so it's once again a bit silly to even ask.

 

[mrrf]

Thanks for your replies.

Happy about point 2 and 3 and I understand the 1 is kind of personal. I programmed for some time on a 13" screen on a very old Sony laptop and it indeed felt small. Nowadays I would however use the notebook just while being outside the office, which is not so much time after all so I think I could make it, the quality of the monitor looks stunning.

I've got two extra questions:

4) not being a quad core, how is the performance while running a virtual box ?
5) do you guys use disk encryption (FileVault) ? does it affect performance much ?

Thanks again.

 

[MartinAppleGuy]

Thanks for your replies.

Happy about point 2 and 3 and I understand the 1 is kind of personal. I programmed for some time on a 13" screen on a very old Sony laptop and it indeed felt small. Nowadays I would however use the notebook just while being outside the office, which is not so much time after all so I think I could make it, the quality of the monitor looks stunning.

I've got two extra questions:

4) not being a quad core, how is the performance while running a virtual box ?
5) do you guys use disk encryption (FileVault) ? does it affect performance much ?

Thanks again.

I personally would recommend the 15" entry model if you are going to be running a virtual box. You will have more RAM for it as well as much better performance due to there being 8 threads.

 

[bmwx12]

For Photoshop and Lightroom you will be fine, and the resolution will be great for it. I run both on a 2011 MacBook Air and they run pretty well. Not super speedy, but I'm not waiting much either.