Student opinions please.

[196josue]

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Hey guys. At the endof the month I want to get a MBP. I can afford to either max out a 15" MBP or get a base 13"MBP with an ssd and an ipad 2 16GB. I will be using the MBP for school stuff. For those students out there, what would be better in your opinion: 15" MBP MAXED OUT or a 13" MBP and iPad 2? Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[evaporateddwarf]

Unless you're going to be wanting to try to game, if "school" stuff is writing papers, internet browsing and music kind of stuff, go for the 13". It'll be more portable (lighter, and will fit in your backpack nicer), and save you a lot of money.

 

[axu539]

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Hey guys. At the endof the month I want to get a MBP. I can afford to either max out a 15" MBP or get a base 13"MBP with an ssd and an ipad 2 16GB. I will be using the MBP for school stuff. For those students out there, what would be better in your opinion: 15" MBP MAXED OUT or a 13" MBP and iPad 2? Thanks for your thoughts!

Doesn't a low end 13" MBP + iPad 2 still cost WAY less than a maxed out 15"? What do you mean by maxed out?

In my opinion, neither of your options are idea. The iPad offers mobility, which the 13" also provides. Preferably, you'd want a LARGER machine to pair with something mobile. How about an only slightly upgraded MBP + the low end iPad 2?

Otherwise, JUST the 13" MBP would be perfectly sufficient, as you'd be simplifying, and having one machine serve both purposes (mobility and power - sort of).

I'd like to add that I'm a student as well, and my setup is in my signature. Basically all of my disposable income is in that setup right now, but it should be totally worth it once I get the 17" in hand later this week.

 

[196josue]

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Hey guys. At the endof the month I want to get a MBP. I can afford to either max out a 15" MBP or get a base 13"MBP with an ssd and an ipad 2 16GB. I will be using the MBP for school stuff. For those students out there, what would be better in your opinion: 15" MBP MAXED OUT or a 13" MBP and iPad 2? Thanks for your thoughts!

Doesn't a low end 13" MBP + iPad 2 still cost WAY less than a maxed out 15"? What do you mean by maxed out?

In my opinion, neither of your options are idea. The iPad offers mobility, which the 13" also provides. Preferably, you'd want a LARGER machine to pair with something mobile. How about an only slightly upgraded MBP + the low end iPad 2?

Otherwise, JUST the 13" MBP would be perfectly sufficient, as you'd be simplifying, and having one machine serve both purposes (mobility and power - sort of).

I'd like to add that I'm a student as well, and my setup is in my signature. Basically all of my disposable income is in that setup right now, but it should be totally worth it once I get the 17" in hand later this week.

MAXED out as in the 1gb gpu config with a 128Gb ssd..

 

[StatutoryGrapes]

Think about portability. That is key.

The 13 inch be much easier to carry around. If you get the 15, you may end up not taking it anywhere (I know because that is what is happening to me) because it's too much of a hassle. If I had the 13, I would take it more places and, hence, use it more. I plan on making the downgrade to the 13 inch from the 15 inch MBP because of this. Now, if you HAVE to take it with you, then it's not that big of a difference. But if I don't need to bring my 15, I often find myself leaving it behind and using the iMacs in the library.

Then again, my 15 inch is older and only gets two hours of battery, that also factors in.

 

[196josue]

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Think about portability. That is key.

The 13 inch be much easier to carry around. If you get the 15, you may end up not taking it anywhere (I know because that is what is happening to me) because it's too much of a hassle. If I had the 13, I would take it more places and, hence, use it more. I plan on making the downgrade to the 13 inch from the 15 inch MBP because of this. Now, if you HAVE to take it with you, then it's not that big of a difference. But if I don't need to bring my 15, I often find myself leaving it behind and using the iMacs in the library.

Then again, my 15 inch is older and only gets two hours of battery, that also factors in.

And an iPad 2??

 

[acedickson]

That config for the MBP is much more expensive than the 13" + iPad 2. I think the 13" is the better choice but I don't think you'll need the iPad also. You may find that your usage overlaps.

 

[196josue]

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That config for the MBP is much more expensive than the 13" + iPad 2. I think the 13" is the better choice but I don't think you'll need the iPad also. You may find that your usage overlaps.

Ipad 2 is more pleasure than business! Haha

 

[ECUpirate44]

Just get the 15" plain and simple. idk what your uses are, but for student activities, you don't need a "maxed out" mbp.

 

[axu539]

Basically, if you can afford it, a 15" + iPad 2 might be ideal. Power from the MBP and mobility + convenience from the iPad. Since money does seem to be a factor, I'd suggest ONLY the 13" without the iPad 2, since the MBP 13" will be mobile enough to go everywhere anyway.

 

[lukta]

I gave you my student opinion in your other thread. You must have overlooked it or just need to make up your mind at this point.

Being a recent college grad I can say that lugging my laptop and all my English books around got old. I primarily used the lappy for note taking so leaving it at home in trade for some notebooks was a viable option for me.

It was great for group projects and surfingnthe web (pre smartphone). I love my laptop though, even if I don't carry it everywhere.

Was an older 13 inch MacBook btw, which got me through all the papers and research college through at me. I even gamed on it a bit and did some video editing (as much as i could do with a 55gb hdd) What I'm saying is that any of these MacBooks smoke mine and would work for just about any schoolwork you threw at it.

 

[v66jack]

I'd go with the 13" MBP, just because its lighter and way more portable. I use iPad for looking at uni PDF's but thats about all actual work I do on it. The rest is just messing around.

One of my mates attempts to complete 6 angry bird levels every law lecture. So if you want to be focused in lessons, probably best not take the iPad out!

 

[Matthew9559]

I have used my MBP in sig for past three years of college. The 15" is more than portable. Fit on all of my desks well. If you only have a textbook or two, couple notebooks and the laptop it is still very light to carry around.

 

[pogoyoyo]

you also have to realize the student discount is 100$ more on the 15" than on the 13" i believe (200$). BUT i suggest not getting the ipad 2, still useless, get an iphone and you have an ipad + phone, with a lesser screen, but with that 15" mbp and iphone you could use them for whatever the ipad 2 was supposed to serve you for. I HIGHLY suggest not getting the apple SSD's because they are overpriced. I suggest getting the low end 500gb HDD and buying an aftermarket SSD, i suggest OCZ. I bought a 240gb OCZ Agility 2 SSD and ITS FAST. REAL fast. And it only cost me 400$. Safari opens in half a second, itunes opens in 1 second. So, i suggest getting the 1gb GPU but staying with the low end HDD, or upgrade it to the 7200rpm and later, get rid of the DVD drive and put the HDD in it's place, you won't be using the DVD drive for anything anyway. Once you order the parts needed to convert the space for your HDD, you can choose a company that ships the mounting kit for 99$ and includes an enclosure for the DVD drive that you'll be taking out, so you can use it through USB in the future.

 

[196josue]

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I gave you my student opinion in your other thread. You must have overlooked it or just need to make up your mind at this point.

Being a recent college grad I can say that lugging my laptop and all my English books around got old. I primarily used the lappy for note taking so leaving it at home in trade for some notebooks was a viable option for me.

It was great for group projects and surfingnthe web (pre smartphone). I love my laptop though, even if I don't carry it everywhere.

Was an older 13 inch MacBook btw, which got me through all the papers and research college through at me. I even gamed on it a bit and did some video editing (as much as i could do with a 55gb hdd) What I'm saying is that any of these MacBooks smoke mine and would work for just about any schoolwork you threw at it.

Ipad 2 changes things haha

 

[Angelo95210]

For school grab a 13". I have a 15" and it's too large in my bag.

 

[axu539]

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Ipad 2 changes things haha

it seems like you have the ipad 2 as a pretty high priority. In that case, maybe your decision is already made, and you should just buy the 13" + iPad. Either way, with a 13", I'd suggest going for the i7, as it has a significant enough power boost to be worth the price difference.

 

[196josue]

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Ipad 2 changes things haha

it seems like you have the ipad 2 as a pretty high priority. In that case, maybe your decision is already made, and you should just buy the 13" + iPad. Either way, with a 13", I'd suggest going for the i7, as it has a significant enough power boost to be worth the price difference.

How big of a difference?

 

[opera57]

Yeah as a student myself, I would go for the 13" MacBook pro and the iPad. The iPad is much better to take for lectures for making notes on, it's so light you don't even notice that you have it in your bag. Also maybe consider a cheap monitor to go alongside the MacBook pro if you think that the 13" will be too small.

 

[axu539]

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How big of a difference?

Well just looking at clock speeds, the i7 has 400 MHz higher which is a 17% performance boost in heavy loads. The i7 is also capable of Turbo up to 3.4 GHz, vs the Turbo of 2.9 for the i5, and the i7 has 2 mb more L3 cache than the i5. Finally, the i7's IGP is also clocked a little higher.

I think all this is a much bigger difference than the 2.2 v 2.3 GHz quad core models.

 

[MrPresident]

I know you said MBP but is there any thing to be said for 21.5" iMac and an iPad, or do you need two portable devices?

 

[Luba]

What about a 13" MacBook Air? Do you really need the DVD drive? Carry the Air would be a dream. I've got the 15" and it's a pain to carry. I always want to leave it home, but always glad I have it even though it's a pain to carry.

 

[196josue]

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I know you said MBP but is there any thing to be said for 21.5" iMac and an iPad, or do you need two portable devices?

Got a Mac mini for that. I want MBP to take to school and study on, and ipad for fun.