Performance: 2013 15" MBP or 2015 13" MBP

[sarakn]

Hi All,
I made the big change from windows October 2013 and have been very happy with it. Being used to a 15" monitor, I stuck with the size and maxed out on storage, memory and processor (see specs below). I travel almost weekly and while the weight of the 15" has been a vast improvement compared to my old Dell, the size now feels too bulky. I'm considering using the 15" as a home laptop and getting a 13" as my primary.

My concern is the 13" is dual core as opposed to the quad core of the 15". Is this something I really should be concerned about? I'm a software architect and use cloud to access a windows development apps. I also use parallels for windows. I want to make sure this will not be an issue.

I've listed the configuration of my current 15" and also the 13" I'm considering. What do you think?
Thanks!

Current 15" Configuration
• 2.6GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz
• 16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
• 1TB PCIe-based Flash Storage

13" Configuration
• 3.1GHz Dual-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz
• 16GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
• 1 TB PCIe-based Flash Storage
• Intel Iris Graphics 6100

 

[Cole Slaw]

Hi All,
I made the big change from windows October 2013 and have been very happy with it. Being used to a 15" monitor, I stuck with the size and maxed out on storage, memory and processor (see specs below). I travel almost weekly and while the weight of the 15" has been a vast improvement compared to my old Dell, the size now feels too bulky. I'm considering using the 15" as a home laptop and getting a 13" as my primary.

My concern is the 13" is dual core as opposed to the quad core of the 15". Is this something I really should be concerned about? I'm a software architect and use cloud to access a windows development apps. I also use parallels for windows. I want to make sure this will not be an issue.

I've listed the configuration of my current 15" and also the 13" I'm considering. What do you think?
Thanks!

Current 15" Configuration
• 2.6GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz
• 16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
• 1TB PCIe-based Flash Storage

13" Configuration
• 3.1GHz Dual-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz
• 16GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
• 1 TB PCIe-based Flash Storage
• Intel Iris Graphics 6100

I have a 2015 13", and it's a great machine.
However, I'd trade it for a 15" quad-core in a minute.
The only reason I didn't get a 15" over a 13" was simply a matter of $$$.

 

[Tankmaze]

Get the 15", the quad core haswell in 15" is gonna be better than the 13" dual core broadwell.

 

[chipchen]

Depends on what you use it for... but in 95% of tasks, I think you'd barely notice a difference if at all.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Depends on what applications you run if they use (or need) more cores then the 15 inch is the way to go if not then the 13 will be all good.

 

[snaky69]

Hi All,
I made the big change from windows October 2013 and have been very happy with it. Being used to a 15" monitor, I stuck with the size and maxed out on storage, memory and processor (see specs below). I travel almost weekly and while the weight of the 15" has been a vast improvement compared to my old Dell, the size now feels too bulky. I'm considering using the 15" as a home laptop and getting a 13" as my primary.

My concern is the 13" is dual core as opposed to the quad core of the 15". Is this something I really should be concerned about? I'm a software architect and use cloud to access a windows development apps. I also use parallels for windows. I want to make sure this will not be an issue.

I've listed the configuration of my current 15" and also the 13" I'm considering. What do you think?
Thanks!

Current 15" Configuration
• 2.6GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz
• 16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
• 1TB PCIe-based Flash Storage

13" Configuration
• 3.1GHz Dual-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz
• 16GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
• 1 TB PCIe-based Flash Storage
• Intel Iris Graphics 6100

If all processing for your development is done in the cloud, you wouldn't notice one bit of difference between the two.

You can get an external drive for a lot less than the SSD upgrade, do you truly need to access 1TB of data at all times?