Refurb 13" 2017 vs Used 15" 2015

[hwso1129]

I am split between the two choices listed below. Prices are converted to equivalent US$

Refurbished 13" MacBook Pro (2017) - $1350

• 2.3GHz i5
• 8GB RAM
• 256GB SSD
• No Touch Bar
• Standard 1 year warranty + possibility of additional 2 years
• Iris Plus 640

Used 15" MacBook Pro (2015) - $1400

• 2.2GHz i7
• 16GB RAM
• 256GB SSD
• AppleCare until early 2019 (about 1+ year)
• Iris Pro 5200
• Condition - a slight dent at the bottom, no scratches or other signs of damage
• Battery - 400 cycles @ 7600mAh but the seller says he can get it replaced by Apple Authorised Service Provider if I wish it to be, at no additional cost

There are a few things I would like to ask:

1. Which would you go for considering the warranty, price difference and spec difference?
2. Would the Iris Pro 5200 be much slower than the Iris Plus 640?
3. Would the Haswell chip be too old to be used for the next 3-4 years

 

[ncrypt]

How much do you mind a bigger and heavier Mac?

 

[hwso1129]

How much do you mind a bigger and heavier Mac?

I am fine with both actually. I usually carry my MBP in my backpack. Bigger is fine, as that's inevitably a tradeoff for a bigger screen (unless Apple adopts Dell XPS-like screen). Additional weight is not very welcome but again... inevitable for transition from the 13 inch to 15 inch model

 

[jerryk]

15 inch seems a bit pricey. I would expect a 512 GB SSD and dGPU for that price.

 

[lambertjohn]

I am split between the two choices

Refurbished 13" MacBook Pro (2017) - $1350

• 2.3GHz i5
• 8GB RAM
• 256GB SSD
• No Touch Bar
• Standard 1 year warranty + possibility of additional 2 years
• Iris Plus 640

Used 15" MacBook Pro (2015) - $1400

• 2.2GHz i7
• 16GB RAM
• 256GB SSD
• AppleCare until early 2019 (about 1+ year)
• Iris Pro 5200
• Condition - a slight dent at the bottom, no scratches or other signs of damage
• Battery - 400 cycles @ 7600mAh but the seller says he can get it replaced by Apple Authorised Service Provider if I wish it to be, at no additional cost

There are a few things I would like to ask:

1. Which would you go for considering the warranty, price difference and spec difference?
2. Would the Iris Pro 5200 be much slower than the Iris Plus 640?
3. Would the Haswell chip be too old to be used for the next 3-4 years

Are you in the U.S.? Because the 13" MBP you mention is $1269 on Apple's refurb website, not $1350. And you can get a 2015 15" MBP from the same website for $1699 with one-year warranty and pretty much brand new out of the box. I own the 2015 15" and it's plenty fast for today's computing needs. But I'm a lowly writer, so my needs might be different than yours.

 

[maflynn]

If the 15" has a dent (not sure how big), you run the risk of Apple not honoring the warranty because it was dropped.

Personally, I'd rather get the Mac from Apple then used, but that's just me

 

[hwso1129]

Are you in the U.S.? Because the 13" MBP you mention is $1269 on Apple's refurb website, not $1350. And you can get a 2015 15" MBP from the same website for $1699 with one-year warranty and pretty much brand new out of the box. I own the 2015 15" and it's plenty fast for today's computing needs. But I'm a lowly writer, so my needs might be different than yours.

Nope, I am staying in Singapore where the refurb 2017 with 256GB SSD costs S$1848 (US$1373) and a refurb 2015 15" runs at S$2368 (US$1750). I really wish I was living in the US at times like this. I don't need the most powerful specifications but could benefit from the additional RAM as I sometimes run a VM alongside macOS. The quad core CPU might provide a better performance for that too.

If the 15" has a dent (not sure how big), you run the risk of Apple not honoring the warranty because it was dropped.

I've attached the picture of the dent and the laptop. The seller said he will get the battery replaced by an authorised service provider and give me the receipt as well as a proof that the AppleCare is valid (though I don't know how he will get the battery replaced) If he does however, then I guess that's enough of a proof (since there are only a few service providers and I can call them to check whether it's a legit transaction)

15 inch seems a bit pricey. I would expect a 512 GB SSD and dGPU for that price.

Refurb 15" 2015 with 256GB and Iris Pro would cost $1750 where I live and brand new with the same specs costs $2070...

Generally, the used market in my country is not very big and it's not as active as it is with the US. It's hard to find good deals in this country as there is virtually zero discount at any reseller and so few items in the used market, many of which have ridiculous asking prices

 

[jerryk]

Generally, the used market in my country is not very big and it's not as active as it is with the US. It's hard to find good deals in this country as there is virtually zero discount at any reseller and so few items in the used market, many of which have ridiculous asking prices

Sorry to hear that.

Being a few miles from Cupertino, and where every company hands out MBPs to each employee, MBPs are plentiful and cheap. Sometimes we forget it is not the same everywhere.

 

[hwso1129]

Please keep the votes coming in! It's hard to decide when even the poll indicates 50/50 when I have no preference haha

 

[Poki]

The 15" offers a much faster CPU and faster iGPU (yep, the Iris Pro is actually faster than the Iris Plus 640), twice the RAM, more ports and a bigger screen. The 13" offers the new design with its smaller form factor, better speakers, better display, larger touchpad, faster SSD and Thunderbolt 3.

So I think it really comes down to power vs. portability - I'd choose by deciding which one of the two factors I value more.

 

[hwso1129]

The 15" offers a much faster CPU and faster iGPU (yep, the Iris Pro is actually faster than the Iris Plus 640), twice the RAM, more ports and a bigger screen.

Where did you get that information about Iris Pro from? I only found a few sources that compared them on a few benchmarks such as 3DMark and most of them seem to suggest the Iris Plus 640 is faster than the Iris Pro 5200 (which was one of the main things that made me hesitate about going for the 2015 model) Hmm. Attached is the screenshot of that (left is Iris Plus 640)

 

[Poki]

Where did you get that information about Iris Pro from? I only found a few sources that compared them on a few benchmarks such as 3DMark and most of them seem to suggest the Iris Plus 640 is faster than the Iris Pro 5200 (which was one of the main things that made me hesitate about going for the 2015 model) Hmm. Attached is the screenshot of that (left is Iris Plus 640)

I was looking at gaming benchmarks rather than synthetic ones. Here you can see some results:

Diablo 3, 1080p, max settings: Iris Pro 46 fps, Iris Plus 35 fps
Tomb Raider, 768p, max settings: Iris Pro 18 fps, Iris Plus 19 fps
World of Warcraft, high settings, 1280 x 1024: Iris Pro 53.3 fps, Iris Plus 28.5 fps
Sims 4, max settings, 1080p: Iris Pro 23 fps, Iris Plus 21 fps
GTA V, medium settings, 768p: Iris Pro 38 fps, Iris Plus 28.9 fps
Star Wars Battlefront, medium settings, 768p: Iris Pro 28.4 fps, Iris Plus 26.2 fps

So yeah, it depends on the game, but depending on the actual use case, you can get far better performance in GPU intensive tasks on the Iris Pro 5200 compared to the Iris Plus 640.


https://www.notebookcheck.com/Intel-Iris-Pro-Graphics-5200.90972.0.html

https://www.notebookcheck.com/Intel-Iris-Plus-Graphics-640.189857.0.html