rMBP to take everywhere - 15" too bulky?

[stayley]

Video encoding is in fact dramatically faster than on a dual core.
You are explaining your rationalization for what you bought and not answering his concerns. All too typical of forum posts.

I do realise that video encoding is dramatically faster. But from what I understood OP won't be doing it very often. Really, the few minutes every couple of weeks don't quite cut it in my opinion. If we were talking about regular video editing and encoding then I'd definitely have said go with the quad-core 15" rMBP.

Also, when I was writing that post, I still had the feeling that OP really needs the mobility and given the non-intense workloads I figured the MBA/13" rMBP would be a much better option. Things have apparently changed since then, so don't accuse me of throwing around useless posts, as I tried addressing OP's concerns rather than trying to justify my purchase (that I really feel no need to anyway, because it was thoroughly thought out).

Sure, some (lazy) people think it plus the note materials and occasional (hardcover) textbook are too much, but if you have a good backpack I don't think it's that bad once you've gotten used to it. The days I don't have the Macbook with me don't feel that much tougher than the ones that I do have it with me. However I can understand the appeal of the now much cheaper 13" rMBP for people who don't need the graphics boost and wouldn't fault anyone for buying one because of the price.

I use a bag rather than a backpack and trust me, it makes a massive difference. Not to mention how nice it is to be able to just pick it up with one hand. But I absolutely see your point, get whatever suits your needs best... The OP seems to have made an informed decision and I'm sure he'll be happy with the machine. I personally wouldn't, but who cares if it's not me using it

 

[fotuwe]

I Love the 15 rMBPs size.
It is the perfect combination of weight, size and power.

Because it is so thin it feels like a much smaller MacBook (I have had a Classic 13 MBP, 13 Air as well as a Classic 15 MBP hires/non glossy)

Without a doubt the rMBP 15 is by far the best choice.
I am carrying it every day + working on my trips in the Train.

So 15" MBP all the Way!

 

[fskywalker]

I went from 15 to 13 rMBP looking for portability; no regrets !

 

[ano0oj]

smh just "search"

 

[PDFierro]

The 15" rmbp is inadequate for trains and planes if you ask me. It's simply too big to work with comfortably. You can barely put it on a plane tray, and when you can, the person in front of you is sure to recline his/her seat. 11 inch MBA is a much better candidate IMHO. Or an Ipad...

Otherwise, it is easy to transport. It's a good machine to travel with just as long as you have the desktop real estate to put it on.

13" rMBP should be quite good on trains/planes. But 15-inch is a no-go obviously.

 

[Essenar]

13" rMBP should be quite good on trains/planes. But 15-inch is a no-go obviously.

I guess it depends on how long you're on a plane or train. My daily commute is 30 minutes one way on a bus and I use my 15" comfortably. Took it on a plane a couple times, no problem. I love the real estate. I've outgrown the 13".

The way I see it is that 75+% of the time, I'm using a desk.

 

[mikes70mustang]

I have a MBP 15" from 2008 and it works great still and the weight is fine. The new ones are much more compact and lighter so I'd say it no issue. I took mine to class everyday for notes when I was in school.

 

[Macshroomer]

I use my computers professionally and deal with hundreds of GB's worth of large photo files, mostly scans & huge raw files, so suffice to say, I always appreciate as much power as possible in my machines. That being said, I simply can not use a 15" as a travel computer, not so much the weight as the size. It's like it is "just" too big for so many of my uses and the 13" is really perfect.

So I just have to laugh at all the people who swear up and down that it is 15" or nothing, total BS. I don't care if a 15" has 240GB of ram, 32 cores running at 6,500Ghz and 8GB of video ram, for those of us who need as much computing power as possible in as small a package as possible, only the 13" rMBP will do, period.

If I could get the same 4 core, dGPU performance in a 13" for the same price as the maxed out 15" I would do it, but for some reason, Apple has decided to design it the way they have, maybe it is a battery life issue, I don't know but you could not pay me to own a 15" simply because it does not fit my active lifestyle nearly as well as the 13".

 

[Essenar]

I use my computers professionally and deal with hundreds of GB's worth of large photo files, mostly scans & huge raw files, so suffice to say, I always appreciate as much power as possible in my machines. That being said, I simply can not use a 15" as a travel computer, not so much the weight as the size. It's like it is "just" too big for so many of my uses and the 13" is really perfect.

So I just have to laugh at all the people who swear up and down that it is 15" or nothing, total BS. I don't care if a 15" has 240GB of ram, 32 cores running at 6,500Ghz and 8GB of video ram, for those of us who need as much computing power as possible in as small a package as possible, only the 13" rMBP will do, period.

If I could get the same 4 core, dGPU performance in a 13" for the same price as the maxed out 15" I would do it, but for some reason, Apple has decided to design it the way they have, maybe it is a battery life issue, I don't know but you could not pay me to own a 15" simply because it does not fit my active lifestyle nearly as well as the 13".

lol what? You would pick a 2.4 GHZ Haswell i5 over a computer that's powerful enough to solve turbulent flow because it's 2 inches smaller diagonally? When your competitor solves renewable energy and nuclear fusion because his laptop's more powerful than all of NASA's workstations combined, you can enjoy your train ride.

And PS, the 13" Retina Pro isn't for that type of professional work.

 

[PDFierro]

lol what? You would pick a 2.4 GHZ Haswell i5 over a computer that's powerful enough to solve turbulent flow because it's 2 inches smaller diagonally? When your competitor solves renewable energy and nuclear fusion because his laptop's more powerful than all of NASA's workstations combined, you can enjoy your train ride.

And PS, the 13" Retina Pro isn't for that type of professional work.

Some of us just love the 13" size that we would rather max it out than go with the 15".

 

[BearsFan34]

Hey everyone,

Wow, lots of interest in this thread! Well, I finally made a decision today, and bought the 15" rMBP with 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM, i7 2.3GHz processor, and discrete graphics (which I don't really care about, but I read there's a download available somewhere which allows you to turn it off manually if you want to do that, so I thought it was better off to get it now, rather than not get it and regret it later).

My primary "tipping reasons" were:

1. I won't actually be taking it to uni, since I'll have an iMac provided for me there. Thus it won't actually be a go-everywhere laptop, and the 15" is still portable enough, regarding weight and battery life.
2. My mum had the brilliant, yet simple idea of trying my dad's 13" laptop on my desk with my monitor and laptop stand set-up. I found it a little small for my liking, thinking to myself, I wouldn't actually use this portability (for the above reason).

My experience at the Apple store was lovely. I got there at 6:30pm tonight, and couldn't resist rattling off the exact specs of the machine I wanted super-confidently to the welcoming lady at the door. She found me a salesman (or whatever their official title is ), who got me the rMBP with all the accessories I needed. I bought a "Specky" brand case, but unfortunately, the first two didn't quite fit the rMBP right - they may have been warped. He patiently tried them, while I tried to calm myself, worrying that the rMBP would be scratched. The third one, whilst not completely perfect, fit reasonably well. Mum and I ended up being the last customers to leave the shop, at 7:30pm (the store shuts at 7pm), and the salesman cheerfully sent us on our way .

Thanks heaps to everyone for your feedback

This is the exact machine I've had for about 2 weeks now. I've had an iBook G4, white 13" MacBook, 13" MacBook Pro (2008) and a 15" MacBook Pro (2010) with a high res display. They were all heavy, large, and cumbersome.

This rMBP 15" trumps them all. It's lightweight. It may be only a pound or so lighter, but it feels like a big difference to me. It also helps that I don't always have to take the power brick with me every day either if I don't want to. The battery is that good, even with a discrete card.

Best computer I've owned, at any time.

 

[T-Bob]

The 13" *already* is more powerful with a higher TDP profile than most ultrabook style competitors in this weight and size range. It is faster than 18W i7s and has one of the best igpus as well.

Only Asus make a competing Windows ultrabook, and that has a smaller 44WHR battery and is more expensive.

You can always go bigger and better but at what cost? Yes the 15" may not be *much* bigger but to someone like me who is going from a 12.1" 1.3kg machine, the 13" is already a size up, and slightly less portable.

Personally over 2kg makes it a non travel machine. Yes you can put it in anything of the right size and carry it anywhere, but I would be less inclined to do so.

If the surface pro wasn't quite so small and had a more rigid keyboard it would be the perfect sort of footprint and weight for travel anywhere, do (just about) anything machine.

 

[Macshroomer]

lol what? You would pick a 2.4 GHZ Haswell i5 over a computer that's powerful enough to solve turbulent flow because it's 2 inches smaller diagonally? When your competitor solves renewable energy and nuclear fusion because his laptop's more powerful than all of NASA's workstations combined, you can enjoy your train ride.

And PS, the 13" Retina Pro isn't for that type of professional work.

No, I picked a i7/16/1TB for pro work, it works great for what I need a powerhouse laptop to do. Sorry to bust your chops but a lot of us live *very* active lifestyles, we need small and powerful mobile computing solutions, the 13" is exactly that.

 

[Essenar]

No, I picked a i7/16/1TB for pro work, it works great for what I need a powerhouse laptop to do. Sorry to bust your chops but a lot of us live *very* active lifestyles, we need small and powerful mobile computing solutions, the 13" is exactly that.

Yeah, and I live an active lifestyle as well. This year I've done a mud run, a tough mudder, I ride a bike every day to and from class. I'm as active as they come and you know what? A two inch bigger laptop didn't make or break my life style but having a quad core and a discrete GPU definitely made my experience better. I've had zero issues taking my laptop with me places and even bringing along an external hard drive so I can store my movies, music and files on it.

Don't be arrogant and assume that you and every other 13" user are the only people that are active. Quite a lot of Apple product owners are active. And I'm only 5'7" tall and I weigh about 145 pounds when I'm doing more road work heavy training. Even with my short stature, I have no problems with a 15".

I can't study at home so I'm constantly taking my laptop away to cafe's and lounges. I'm not trying to render AutoCAD drawings while I'm sky diving out of an airplane. And I think that 100% of the places a 13" can be used, a 15" can be used as well.

 

[PDFierro]

Yeah, and I live an active lifestyle as well. This year I've done a mud run, a tough mudder, I ride a bike every day to and from class. I'm as active as they come and you know what? A two inch bigger laptop didn't make or break my life style but having a quad core and a discrete GPU definitely made my experience better. I've had zero issues taking my laptop with me places and even bringing along an external hard drive so I can store my movies, music and files on it.

Don't be arrogant and assume that you and every other 13" user are the only people that are active. Quite a lot of Apple product owners are active. And I'm only 5'7" tall and I weigh about 145 pounds when I'm doing more road work heavy training. Even with my short stature, I have no problems with a 15".

I can't study at home so I'm constantly taking my laptop away to cafe's and lounges. I'm not trying to render AutoCAD drawings while I'm sky diving out of an airplane. And I think that 100% of the places a 13" can be used, a 15" can be used as well.

Glad to hear it. Believe it or not, I want to like the 15". So any posts coming from people using the 15" and enjoying it in confined spaces, then more the merrier. I'm not just going to diss the 15" for no reason.

That said, I much prefer the 13" so far. Not just the screen size, but the overall package. I do have a 13-hour flight next year, and will be constantly travelling, so I'm not sure how much I would really enjoy having a 15".

I mean, from what I can gather, the 15" would take up pretty much the whole airplane tray. With no room for a drink or anything. I guess I can see how a 15" could work in a majority of places the 13" does, but the 13" sounds like the overall better option.

 

[Macshroomer]

And I think that 100% of the places a 13" can be used, a 15" can be used as well.

You are thinking this based on the lifestyle you live which is *very* different than the lifestyle I live. I have owned several 15"s and even a 17" in the past, they simply do not work for me, a 13" is really about perfect. Most people who work in the same or similar industries as I do use the same combo of a big powerful home machine and as small a laptop as they can get, the 13" is highly popular in my circle of colleagues for a reason and the new one is just outstanding.

The only reason I would consider a 15" would be if it were my only computer and I did not travel and work on location as much.

 

[commac]

I'm not trying to render AutoCAD drawings while I'm sky diving out of an airplane. And I think that 100% of the places a 13" can be used, a 15" can be used as well.

This made snot fly out of nose onto the beautiful 13rMBP". Thank you for that.

I am currently putting the 13"er through the paces to see if it can handle my load. Connected to an external display with 10 virtual desktops, I have Photoshop with a one gig file open, Flash with a small animation project, Dreamweaver with a template file open, Illustrator with a bunch of vectors on a 8.5x11 300ppi, iTunes playing music and 2 browsers with a dozen active tabs in each. IMovie open for fun and imessenger chatting.

The 13" 2.4/8/256gb is still wicked snappy. I sometimes see lag from the mission control animation which seems to be an all around retina problem. Clamshell with the external makes everything buttery smooth. Photoshop could be smoother when moving large objects around buts its workable.

All in all I'm impressed with the 13"ers power. Running lukewarm. Haven't heard the fan once but music is playing on low. Also, the ram pressure is still about 1/6th seemingly not flinching.

Hard to justify an extra 1000$ for an extra 2inches that could get in the way and from what I understand the UI lag would still exist.

Im still considering the 15" but not sure why after having written this post.

Sorry for making the decision harder.

 

[hawon]

my opinion 13" rMBP is the least logical option.
15" rMBP is much lighter and thiner than 13" cMBP.

if portability is top priority just go with MBA. I am not sure what kind of work you do but MBA should be suffice for the most people's work. Even with i7 1.7ghz in MBA, it can perform 3.3ghz with turbo boost.

If you want the power, go with 15" rMBP. Whoever was able to carry 13" cMBP will not have any issue carrying around 15" rMBP.

 

[nealh]

Seems sad Apple does not make a quad core option with a dedicated gpu for the 13in and let the consumer decide. They could have an option for 13in 2.3 i7 quad core with dGPU and keep the 2.6 i7 quad core for the 15in alone.

It seems to me the crossover for 13in vs 15in is more about screen size.

The choices apple makes baffles me sometimes, if you got a quad core i7 and dGPU in 13in chassis you have to know battery life would not equal the 15in.

This is my opinion and clearly is not Apples as they see the trade off of battery life, heat or sales of 15in being affected to large. Yet they did not do this with new rMini and Air. Only really difference is screen size and slight cpu bump.

 

[AJP123]

Hey everyone,

So at least one of you asked me to give feedback, and I've been crazy busy with uni, so I haven't been able to until now. On the bright side, that's given me time to actually use it, so I can give constructive feedback.

After carrying it to uni a lot this week, as my desktop computer (iMac) that will be provided for me hasn't come in yet, I can safely say it's portable. Maybe not ultra-portable, like a Macbook Air, but portable enough to carry around to and from home, on a bus, into the office. And indeed, when I use it, I love the extra screen real-estate. I do have extra monitors for at home, but still, it's awesome to work on a decent screen . Am I using the extra power of the 15" that the 13" doesn't provide? I'll be honest, probably not. But it's there if I need it.

On the negative side, I'm disappointed with the Speck case I have for it - some of the plastic is a little sharp on the case, which makes me worry about it getting scratched. It's also a very tight fit - the salesman at the Apple store went through three cases before finding one that actually clipped on. Meanwhile, I'm trying to control my breathing, worrying that he'll scratch it. I've also had a few technical glitches with it, such as the machine not waking up from sleep properly (which I think forces a shut-down, but I'll have to get back to you on that), but it's not affecting my work in any way, so it's fine.

In all, though, it's a fantastic machine . Let me know if you have any more questions.

 

[apptastic]

What is your feedback now that you might have been using the rMBP 15 for almost 3 weeks ?
I've to make a choice between the top stock configuration of 13" and 15".
Pretty much confused at the moment. It will be my main and only computer.

I have been using a 15.6" HP laptop for the last four years, and I'm not sure whether 13" will fit seamlessly into my workflow. Although, I'm pretty much sure that I won't be needing the extra power that 15" provides over the 13", for work purposes.

 

[BearsFan34]

I can't recommend this notebook enough to anybody that can afford it or who's work can afford it.

There have been a fraction of times when I'd wish the computer was lighter, but in retrospect I've realized that those are the times when the iPad Air would have sufficed for the task(s) I needed at that time. Otherwise, for work, home, wherever--if a computer is what I want, this one is beyond adequate…as a matter of fact, it's the best computer I've ever owned, mobile or desktop (including iOS devices).

 

[nStyle]

I've owned my 15" for about a year and a half and have since considered trading for a 13". I never use the capabilities of the 15" and prefer the smaller size for writing and portability around the house and outside of.

Not sure what I'll do yet, but I did play around with the 13" just for S&G's - I noticed the speakers were much worse since they are under the keyboard (could definitely sense a more muffled sound). The screen was more or less equivalent. Everything was larger since it is equivalent to a smaller resolution. I kind of liked that, but it could have been just because it was a smaller screen and having things larger made the loss in screen real estate more tolerable.

The reason I'm considering the switch is I wanted the 15" as my at home computer and then have an 11" MBA for traveling and such. I bought the 11" and returned it shortly thereafter since I knew there would be no way I would want to sync two computers and worry about which programs were on which. I much prefer the peace of mind of keeping up with one device plus maybe an iPad, thus the reason I am considering the 13".

OP, I think you would have been better off with the 13" based on your initial thoughts and your replies. I'm not sure why you went 15", but congrats either way and I hope you are enjoying it.

 

[sonyisawesome]

I've owned my 15" for about a year and a half and have since considered trading for a 13". I never use the capabilities of the 15" and prefer the smaller size for writing and portability around the house and outside of.

Not sure what I'll do yet, but I did play around with the 13" just for S&G's - I noticed the speakers were much worse since they are under the keyboard (could definitely sense a more muffled sound). The screen was more or less equivalent. Everything was larger since it is equivalent to a smaller resolution. I kind of liked that, but it could have been just because it was a smaller screen and having things larger made the loss in screen real estate more tolerable.

The reason I'm considering the switch is I wanted the 15" as my at home computer and then have an 11" MBA for traveling and such. I bought the 11" and returned it shortly thereafter since I knew there would be no way I would want to sync two computers and worry about which programs were on which. I much prefer the peace of mind of keeping up with one device plus maybe an iPad, thus the reason I am considering the 13".

OP, I think you would have been better off with the 13" based on your initial thoughts and your replies. I'm not sure why you went 15", but congrats either way and I hope you are enjoying it.

Because 13" is an inferior product compared to 15". It's designed to be small and compact and sacrifice every other specs in doing so.

 

[PDFierro]

Because 13" is an inferior product compared to 15". It's designed to be small and compact and sacrifice every other specs in doing so.

I love my maxed-out 13" rMBP. Couldn't ask for more. There are those of us who value that smaller form factor over having a quad-core CPU and all that jazz but still rely on it to get a lot of work done.