Thinking of downsizing to 13". Thoughts?

[Jamiet361]

Hey guys,

I currently own a 15" mid-2012 rMBP and and adore it. It's a specced up model with a 2.6Ghz i7 and a 512GB SSD.

As much as I love this machine however, I simply do not use the power. I'm not a photo/video editor or a developer. I sometimes make electronic music but that is it literally the only content-creation this laptop ever does (other than documents, but that doesn't take much power). I also own a rather powerful hackintosh (see signature), which performs significantly faster than this MacBook.

I'm also a student, so I have to lug my MacBook around more or less everyday. Now as light as the 15" is, its rather large footprint means that it fills my bag almost instantaneously, leaving me little room for books.

At first I looked at the 13" Air but I have simply been spoiled by the beauty of the retina screen, so thats out of the question. Which leaves me with the 13" Retina pro. Before I sell this machine and pull the trigger however, I have a few questions to ask.

How is performance in Yosemite? With the Intel graphics 4000 in this machine, the UI chugs a little and frame rates can hit rather low numbers.

Can the Intel Graphics 6100 almost match the 650m in my current laptop?

How is the 13" to travel with? Does it take up a large amount of space?

Is the 2015 model worth it over the older models?

Thanks!

 

[sprezz]

had a 17incher from 2009 until recently, just got myself the 13 incher of 2015. i don't miss the screen realestate as i have it set to 1920x1200, which is the same as i had on the 17er.

it's a nicer and compacter machine, faster as hell with the SSD. i don't see an issue with screen resolution and estate.

 

[terencedriver]

had a 17incher from 2009 until recently, just got myself the 13 incher of 2015

... Said the bishop to the actress...

 

[Samuelsan2001]

The performance is great ...

... For a little laptop. But the graphics will not match the 650 especially if you game at all. Other than that it's a great little light laptop easy to carry and fast as hell.

 

[Kavier]

I have a 15" MBP at home, but I have a 13" laptop at work. I have to say that I hate the small screen! Sometimes, you just need the extra screen real estate. For that reason, I don't think I'd ever go for the 13" MBP.

 

[CaptainChunk]

I'm a pro video editor, but I never do that kind of work on a laptop. So, my 13" rMBP suits my needs just fine.

The Iris 6100 is really no match for the 650M when it comes to GPU performance, but you may find that it won't really matter. In fact, I actually prefer MBPs without dGPUs because they're a lot less prone to failure.