Upgrading to MBP from MB

[tills24]

Hello all,
I am going to be upgrading from my late 2006 MacBook to a MacBook Pro for school and work. My initial thought was to get the 2.4 ghz 15", because of the extra power, the larger screen than I have now, better battery, etc.
But am I over-thinking the need? Would a 13" suit me fine?

My uses for it will be surfing, MS Office, light photo and video editing (I have a 21" iMac at work, and our video suite has 27" iMac's for my intensive editing). I'm not a gamer, so none of that is a concern.

Would I be better suited buying the 13" MCP, and using some of the savings for a larger monitor for when I'm home?

 

[spinnerlys]

The 13" MBP and even the MB will suffice your needs.

The 15" just has more screen real estate and a bit more power, but the price difference can be used for getting a good external display for the 13" MB(P).

 

[tills24]

I was thinking the same thing, use the savings for a display and a HengeDock for when I'm home. Also, to put the savings aside for more RAM and a SSD down the line.
Is the "higher end" 13" enough of an upgrade over the entry one to justify $300 more?

 

[dcoux09]

I was thinking the same thing, use the savings for a display and a HengeDock for when I'm home. Also, to put the savings aside for more RAM and a SSD down the line.
Is the "higher end" 13" enough of an upgrade over the entry one to justify $300 more?

I really don't think it is. You are getting a slightly bigger harddrive (which can be updated on the 2.4 model anyway) and the difference between 2.66 and 2.4 is certainly not worth 300 dollars. I suspect that if 2.66 ghz was a very noticeable difference, Apple would have elected to use it for their base 15 inch models.