Resolution or Real Estate?

[AppleGoat]

Disregard price, power and portability, if you were a graphic designer and forced to use one screen (and one screen only) would you choose do your work on a 15.4" Retina MacBook Pro or a 21.5" iMac? Essentially what I'm asking is would you prefer the detail and sharpness of the Retina screen or the size of the iMac? I know you could have your cake and eat it too by hooking up a MacBook to a 21.5" IPS but that's not what I'm asking here.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Dan

 

[Pjrufus]

Disregard price, power and portability, if you were a graphic designer and forced to use one screen (and one screen only) would you choose do your work on a 15.4" Retina MacBook Pro or a 21.5" iMac? Essentially what I'm asking is would you prefer the detail and sharpness of the Retina screen or the size of the iMac? I know you could have your cake and eat it too by hooking up a MacBook to a 21.5" IPS but that's not what I'm asking here.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Dan

I can't answer without considering portability. For me, I would/did go with the MBP because I like options. Because I can, I take my MBP to clients on occasion. You can always add a large display later. if you think you will never need or want to take your work with you, choose the iMac. I used my MBP for nearly a year before adding my Thunderbolt, and I still have the option to go portable if I want to.

Only you can say what is most important to you and how you work. Even with the lovely Retina screen, I work in Photoshop a lot, and to be efficient, a lot of screen is taken up by the program windows I like to keep open, not much room left for the piece I'm working on. I would choose the largest screen possible with the best resolution I could afford.

 

[paolo-]

I've got a 21.5" display attached to my 15" retina MBP and I edit pictures on the 15" screen if that can answer your question.

But then again, your question is oddly asked, getting some more information would help.

 

[leman]

You seem to be confusing about what these terms mean in the first place. The MacBook Pro has both a higher resolution and a larger real screen estate than the 21" iMac. I think you wanted to ask about the display size.

 

[AppleGoat]

Thanks everyone for the responses.

Yes -- I did deliberately go about posing the question in a roundabout way. I'm just looking for any reason to stick with the setup I have now, which is a 13.3" Eary-2011 MacBook Pro and a 21.5" IPS. Anyone who can recall one of my posts knows that I have been salivating over a 15-inch Retina MacBook for quite some time now. I wanted one when they were announced back in 2012 but over the past year I've been on the verge of pulling the trigger a few times -- always pulling back. I'm eyeing the $1699 refurb configuration, the current 15" base model, but can neither commit to upgrading from a perfectly fine machine nor curb my desire to upgrade to a finer machine. Thus the insanity.