Return i5 13" for last-gen 15"?

[taylorwilsdon]

Help me figure this one out. I've always been a 15" man through the pre-unibody generations (owned 10+) but I moved away from the field I was in and now computers are purely utility for me, I don't browse the web nearly as much (check my last post date!) and don't do nearly as much web development.

I bought the new 13" i5 to replace my very aging and very broken 15" pre-unibody and I'm having second thoughts. I think the 15" models look a lot better, but I want to figure out my best course.

For the $1200 or so I paid (post tax, with discount) for the 13", there are a number of well equip 15" models on eBay. Looks like 2.4ghz-2.66ghz Core 2 Duo's with equal hard drive space.

Cliffs of desires:
Long battery (most important)
Warranty (pretty important)
Screen resolution (pretty important, but I'm making due with the 13")

Should I return the 13 and buy an older 15? How much battery life am I giving up?

 

[soldierblue]

I would.

 

[trip1ex]

Screen resolution? It's all relative. The 13" has a larger PPI than the 15" even though 15" has higher resolution.

Forget C2D imo. Go with the $1269 2010 i5 MBP 15" refurb from Apple store if you are going 15". You get full warranty, better cpu, gpu, etc etc.


How does larger model look better? Look the same to me except one is bigger than the other.

 

[Ach111es]

Help me figure this one out. I've always been a 15" man through the pre-unibody generations (owned 10+) but I moved away from the field I was in and now computers are purely utility for me, I don't browse the web nearly as much (check my last post date!) and don't do nearly as much web development.

I bought the new 13" i5 to replace my very aging and very broken 15" pre-unibody and I'm having second thoughts. I think the 15" models look a lot better, but I want to figure out my best course.

For the $1200 or so I paid (post tax, with discount) for the 13", there are a number of well equip 15" models on eBay. Looks like 2.4ghz-2.66ghz Core 2 Duo's with equal hard drive space.

Cliffs of desires:
Long battery (most important)
Warranty (pretty important)
Screen resolution (pretty important, but I'm making due with the 13")

Should I return the 13 and buy an older 15? How much battery life am I giving up?

you aren't losing any battery life. CNET ran the same tests on the new ones that they did on the 2010s and got an extra hour of battery life. The 2010s only managed 6 hours, while the 2011s managed 7 hours.

 

[Help Please]

Help me figure this one out. I've always been a 15" man through the pre-unibody generations (owned 10+) but I moved away from the field I was in and now computers are purely utility for me, I don't browse the web nearly as much (check my last post date!) and don't do nearly as much web development.

I bought the new 13" i5 to replace my very aging and very broken 15" pre-unibody and I'm having second thoughts. I think the 15" models look a lot better, but I want to figure out my best course.

For the $1200 or so I paid (post tax, with discount) for the 13", there are a number of well equip 15" models on eBay. Looks like 2.4ghz-2.66ghz Core 2 Duo's with equal hard drive space.

Cliffs of desires:
Long battery (most important)
Warranty (pretty important)
Screen resolution (pretty important, but I'm making due with the 13")

Should I return the 13 and buy an older 15? How much battery life am I giving up?

I was in the same boat as you on this one. As far as the 15" looking better, I don't know what's the big difference between the two besides 2" on the screen.

Core 2 Duo? I'd pass. While it's still capable of performing well, it's nowhere NEAR the Sandy Bridge processors. If I were to get a refurb, the farthest I'm going back is early 2010. Currently on the Apple Refurb store there is an early 2010, 2.4GHz Core i5, 15" for $1,269.

Ultimately, I looked at these benchmarks (in the link) and couldn't bring myself to pass on the performance of the 2011 13".
http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/2011/02/macbookpro-benchmarks-early-2011/

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Screen resolution? It's all relative. The 13" has a larger PPI than the 15" even though 15" has higher resolution.

Actually, if you do the math, the "standard resolution" 15" has the same PPI as the 13" (within 3%,) and the "high resolution" has much higher.

For reference, rounded to the nearest whole PPI, Apple's complete lineup at present:
MacBook (white) and MacBook Pro 13": 113 PPI
MacBook Air 11": 135 PPI
MacBook Air 13": 128 PPI
MacBook Pro 15": 110 PPI
MacBook Pro 15" HR: 129 PPI
MacBook Pro 17": 133 PPI
iMac 21": 102 PPI
iMac 27" and Cinema Display 27": 109 PPI
iPad: 132 PPI
iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4: 326 PPI
iPod nano: 220 PPI
iPod Classic: 160 PPI
(Obviously, the Mac Pro, Mac Mini, and iPod shuffle don't have built-in displays, and the Cinema 27" is the only current external display, which has the same screen as the 27" iMac.)

For historical comparison, the 15" "iLamp" iMac G4 had a PPI of 85, and the very original Macintosh had a PPI of 72 (variable based on how you tweaked the screen, though - it was nominally meant to be 72.)