rMBP 13" or 15"?

[3587926]

Hi guys,
So I was originally meant to buy the 13" MBP but found out that the Retina version was soon to come out so I thought I'd wait for it.
Come the Keynote, found out it had a small 128GB flash memory and no GPU.
Main problem is the price. It's £1,449 here in the UK. Now a lot of people are saying its way too expensive. I agree. I thought it would at least be £1,249.
Since I'm a uni student and don't have the cash at hand.. I'll be using financing and education pricing. But value for money. Which is better, 13" rMBP or 15" rMBP? Which one should I get? Or not get the Retina at all and get a regular 13" or 15" MBP?
I need advice guys!!

Thanks a million!

 

[Maczor]

Value for the money... the 15" rMBP is clearly better than the 13" rMBP. Since your financial situations doesn't allow to just throw money at the 13" rMBP, I suggest you try giving the 15" rMBP a shot and see how that goes. Also, you can always just get the cMBP instead if the retina won't prove to be as cool as you are expecting it to be...

 

[BeachChair]

Hi guys,
So I was originally meant to buy the 13" MBP but found out that the Retina version was soon to come out so I thought I'd wait for it.
Come the Keynote, found out it had a small 128GB flash memory and no GPU.
Main problem is the price. It's £1,449 here in the UK. Now a lot of people are saying its way too expensive. I agree. I thought it would at least be £1,249.
Since I'm a uni student and don't have the cash at hand.. I'll be using financing and education pricing. But value for money. Which is better, 13" rMBP or 15" rMBP? Which one should I get? Or not get the Retina at all and get a regular 13" or 15" MBP?
I need advice guys!!

Thanks a million!

Considering utility per $, either the 15" rMBP or the 13" cMBP wins.

If you need financing, I suggest you go with the 13" cMBP (or the 13" MBA). The added utility of the 15" rMBP is not worth suffering years of interest payments ...

... unless of course the specs somehow increase your productivity, if you are a web developer who needs to test for HiDPI, or an animator who will benefit from the graphical performance of the dGPU.

 

[Mac-Tech]

15' RMBP is a better option!!

 

[BeachChair]

15' RMBP is a better option!!

There is a 15 ft rMBP now?!

 

[3587926]

There is a 15 ft rMBP now?!

Haha!

 

[scarred]

It all depends on what you value. For $100 you can upgrade to a 15" screen with a decent discrete mobile video, and a beefier CPU. If you are looking at stats only, answer is easy...

I do find it a little funny, how so many people are comparing the stats and $ though. If all you are interested in is performance metrics, you'll do better elsewhere (windows notebook).

How do you put a value on portability? How do you put a value on "feeling"? To me, the 15" is just too big. It feels all wrong to me, not a 'portable' experience. I have to lug my dell around when I'm working (work supplied)... When I'm on personal business, I want something smaller, something sleeker, something that says "wow, this little thing can do that!!??".

To be perfectly honest, I didn't compare the 15" and 13" price until just now (I'm just not interested in the 15"). When I ordered the 13" rmbp, I was comparing to the MBA... A similarly equipped air is only $200 less.

 

[magbarn]

Since you're still a student I would think long and hard why you really need the retina screen as its almost 50% more than the classic mbp 13. Considering the mbp 13 can be easily upgraded to the same speed/performance as the rmbp 13 for very little coin these days (8gb ram and Samsung 830 128gb are quite affordable now, heck even the 256gb drive is only about $175 or so) and the price is just going to drop on these upgrades in the next 6 months. The rmbp 15 is a better value for peformance for the dollar, plus the 8gb limitation on the 13 is just crazy on a 'un-upgradable' machine. Us Americans have a saying 'go big or go home'. Seriously though, this current iteration of the rmbp 13 is just a 'stop-gap' device just like our un-loved iPad 3. Next years haswell version will have 2x the gpu and most likely have a stock 256gb ssd given the precipitous drop in ssd prices.

 

[Mac-Tech]

There is a 15 ft rMBP now?!

LOL you got my joke and opinion...You just got more room on your screen and for those who say its too heavy...Im sorry you need to work out those arms lol....

 

[leenak]

I'd personally look at the 13" air before looking at the 13" rMBP. I have a 15" rMBP and I enjoy it but if it didn't have a video card, I wouldn't have bought it.