So I have decided to stick with Retina. I love the look. I have a 13 in model now, but I kind of want the 15 in model. I would get the base with 512gb SSD, and I would have a student discount of $200. Is it really worth $700 to upgrade? I have until Saturday to return my 13 in, and I have about $2100 saved up at the moment.
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rMBP 13 vs rMBP 15?
- Thread starter dabigpapi
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Well I am going to use it for school, so basic stuff. I also will be doing a little gaming on it here and there, WoW, maybe Diablo 3, some steam games.
For the money I think it's a good buy to upgrade. Plus you'd be upgrading the processor from a dual core to a quad core. In the end it's really what you plan on doing with the machine. If you want a bigger screen and faster processor definitely jump for the 15" retina.
I just picked up a base 15" rMBP this weekend and I love it!
I just picked up a base 15" rMBP this weekend and I love it!
No no real need for 15", but if you really want/need more screen real estate, go for it! Open box and clearance rMBPs are cheap at Best Buy.
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I've been in a similar quandary. I started out with a 13" MBPr but then, after giving the 15" MBPc a try, I decided I just couldn't pass up the 15" with quad core and 1gb dGPU. I've had my 15" base model MPBr (2012) and it is a significant improvement over the 13" in my opinion. However, I keep vacillating between how much I need this much power and screen real-estate vs. the extra $500-$600 cash I could put back in my pocket. Ultimately, I've decided to keep with my 15"er. It still makes me excited to wake up in the mornings and fire up so that's worth the extra cash out of pocket to me. Personally, whether its true or not, I feel it'll be a better long term investment for future proofing. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
It is only $400 more for the base model, but I would probably upgrade it to a 512 GB SSD. Ugh this is such a hard decision!
I know what ya mean. I spent days studying this trying to figure out which decision would give me the most peace. Try looking at it this way. Add up how much it would cost to get a similarly spec'd MBPc. What you will be left with is the difference in remaining cost for the MBPr, which will be how much all the other inherent benefits of the MBPr will cost ya. From there, you can decide if those things are worth the extra cost or not. For me, it is. For your use cases, maybe not. Therein lies the rub.
Just return it and get the 15, you gonna be very happy with the CPU and GPU Bump, Especially GPU since the 13 has integrated graphics, plus its a more future proof machine.
If money is a issue, Get maybe the one with 256gb sell that stock sdd for 400+ on ebay and put a OWC SSD 480GB on it!
Unless you have the money to dump on a apple 512 or 768 ssd!
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Big screen always make eyes comfortable. However, you may want to have a external big display (such as 24' or 27'), which make your daily usage much comfortable with reasonable spending
I was in the same spot for a while.
If you don't need the cash, like a big screen, and playing games is important, get the 15
If you need cash, game on you Xbox and PS3, or need portability, get the 13.
My gf has the 13, she loves it. I am getting a 15 when haswell comes out since I like the larger screen, battery and do light photo work (although I painfully get by on a MBA now).
One thing to keep in mind is that although the 13 is more portable, it doesnt get better battery life that the 15. That was my main concern. The 13 rmbp owners I know get anywhere from 4.5 to 6hrs. I love the portability of the air, but I love the 7 hr battery the most.