Which MacBook should I buy

[Sophj0895]

so I l already have a late 2013 MacBook Pro and I’m talking to the Apple store for repair, however if it’s more than what I want to pay I’m just gonna buy a new one...but unsure which to buy....

I will be using photoshop and illustrator on it - not everyday though,

I do a little video editing for my YouTube channel

I also play sims 4 but I can just use my pc I have for that,

And of course emails and everyday stuff

So which do you think I should get, as there multiple ones with different memory, turbo boost etc (not 100% sure on everything else)

 

[EugW]

Hi Soph.

Whatever you get, don't get it until June 4. New machines may be released that day, although MacBook Pros are much more likely than MacBooks to be released.

At least some of the 13" MacBook Pros will likely move to quad-core, instead of the current dual core. And some of the 15" MacBook Pros will likely move to hex-core, instead of the current quad-core.

There are also rumours of a 13" MacBook non-Pro. As for the 12" MacBooks, they may not get any significant CPU update even if the machines do get updated, but it would still be safer to wait.

June 4 is less than 6 weeks away.

 

[Dave245]

I think you should go to you're nearest Apple store and try out both the MacBook and the MacBook Pro, that's exactly what i did yesterday and i've got to say that i was surprised by the 12" MacBook, yes it's small but the screen on it is brilliant and totally blows my 2011 MacBook Pro screen out of the water.

Yes it's a small machine BUT yesterday while in the Apple store i discovered that you can change the display setting to have more space which helps when having more documents open (like i tend to do on my Mac's).

If you were to upgrade the Ram to 16GB that would help with photoshop and illustrator, as for playing the Sims 4 i'm not sure you would be able to game on the MacBook. If it's more power you want i would say get the 13" MacBook, from what i saw in the Apple store yesterday with both the 12" and 13" side by side was not a massive difference, the 12" is obviously more compact and smaller BUT the 13" didn't seem a huge deal bigger.

 

[lambertjohn]

I think you should go to you're nearest Apple store and try out both the MacBook and the MacBook Pro, that's exactly what i did yesterday and i've got to say that i was surprised by the 12" MacBook, yes it's small but the screen on it is brilliant and totally blows my 2011 MacBook Pro screen out of the water.

Yes it's a small machine BUT yesterday while in the Apple store i discovered that you can change the display setting to have more space which helps when having more documents open (like i tend to do on my Mac's).

If you were to upgrade the Ram to 16GB that would help with photoshop and illustrator, as for playing the Sims 4 i'm not sure you would be able to game on the MacBook. If it's more power you want i would say get the 13" MacBook, from what i saw in the Apple store yesterday with both the 12" and 13" side by side was not a massive difference, the 12" is obviously more compact and smaller BUT the 13" didn't seem a huge deal bigger.

" totally blows my 2011 MacBook Pro screen out of the water."

How so?

 

[Dave245]

" totally blows my 2011 MacBook Pro screen out of the water."

How so?

Because my 2011 MacBook Pro isn’t a retina screen, also the 12” MacBook screen is brighter and seems to have more colour.

 

[EugW]

Because my 2011 MacBook Pro isn’t a retina screen, also the 12” MacBook screen is brighter and seems to have more colour.

Is your MacBook Pro with a TN screen? I can't tell from everymac.com's summary of the 2011. It just says "TFT", which is meaningless.

My 13" 2009 MacBook Pro has a TN screen and I can tell you the screen is fairly lowish end by 2018 standards. First of all it is not Retina of course, but just as importantly it washes out quite quickly off-axis.

In contrast, the 12" MacBook has a very good IPS Retina screen, so it's got Retina, decent colours, and very good viewing angles. It's a HUGE step up from my 2009 13" non-Retina MBP. The 2017 Retina MBP is even better, but the 12" is already pretty good.

BTW, the native resolution of the non-Retina MacBook Pro is 1280x800, and effectively, that is the only resolution you can use it with. Every other resolution looks horrible on it. In contrast, the 12" MacBook has a native resolution of 2304x1440, which in non-Retina terms means 1152x720, but its default resolution is actually equivalent 1280x800. This default looks excellent on the 12" MacBook so in terms of screen real estate it's the same as the 13" MacBook Pro non-Retina, although because the default text size is smaller, I usually prefer to use the native 2304x1440 / 1152x720 setting with bigger text (which is the same text size as the native resolution of the non-Retina 13" MBP).

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202471

Here are the resolution settings for the Retina 12" MacBook:

Scaled 1440x900 <-- Young eyes might like this since it has lots of screen real estate, but text is very small.
Scaled 1280x800 (default) <-- Default is good for most people, although the text size is a tad small for some.
Native 2304x1440 / 1152x720 <-- My preferred resolution, but a little skimpy on screen real estate for some.
Scaled 1024x640 <-- Text very big for those with bad eyes, but not enough screen real estate.

Here are the resolution settings for the non-Retina 13" MacBook Pro:

Native 1280x800 <-- Looks OK. Not great, but OK. Text size is perfect, but text clarity is not great.
Scaled 1152x720 <-- Unusable IMO.
Scaled 1024x768 <-- Unusable IMO
Scaled 1024x640 <-- Unusable IMO.
Scaled 800x600 <-- Unusable IMO.
Scaled 800x500 <-- Unusable IMO.
Scaled 720x480 <-- Unusable IMO.
Scaled 640x480 <-- Unusable IMO.

 

[Photios]

There is a very important thread which was started three years ago when the first generation 12" retina MacBooks came out. The discussion details how to get even higher resolution from the MacBook display at HiDPI. Amazingly, the technique used to achieve this, though broken for me with Sierra, works great with High Sierra, OS X 10.13. All one has to do is to add a couple of lines of code into the profile of the specific display which is attached to the MacBook. The discussion explains how to identify the particular display.

Anyway, I'm using 1536 x 960 (HiDPI), and really like it. Others are using 1680 x 1050.

Check out this thread:

Scale 1680x1050 on rMB without an app

BTW... I found page one and page 7 to be the most helpful.

 

[Dave245]

Is your MacBook Pro with a TN screen? I can't tell from everymac.com's summary of the 2011. It just says "TFT", which is meaningless.

My 13" 2009 MacBook Pro has a TN screen and I can tell you the screen is fairly lowish end by 2018 standards. First of all it is not Retina of course, but just as importantly it washes out quite quickly off-axis.

In contrast, the 12" MacBook has a very good IPS Retina screen, so it's got Retina, decent colours, and very good viewing angles. It's a HUGE step up from my 2009 13" non-Retina MBP. The 2017 Retina MBP is even better, but the 12" is already pretty good.

BTW, the native resolution of the non-Retina MacBook Pro is 1280x800, and effectively, that is the only resolution you can use it with. Every other resolution looks horrible on it. In contrast, the 12" MacBook has a native resolution of 2304x1440, which in non-Retina terms means 1152x720, but its default resolution is actually equivalent 1280x800. This default looks excellent on the 12" MacBook so in terms of screen real estate it's the same as the 13" MacBook Pro non-Retina, although because the default text size is smaller, I usually prefer to use the native 2304x1440 / 1152x720 setting with bigger text (which is the same text size as the native resolution of the non-Retina 13" MBP).

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202471

Here are the resolution settings for the Retina 12" MacBook:

Scaled 1440x900 <-- Young eyes might like this since it has lots of screen real estate, but text is very small.
Scaled 1280x800 (default) <-- Default is good for most people, although the text size is a tad small for some.
Native 2304x1440 / 1152x720 <-- My preferred resolution, but a little skimpy on screen real estate for some.
Scaled 1024x640 <-- Text very big for those with bad eyes, but not enough screen real estate.

Here are the resolution settings for the non-Retina 13" MacBook Pro:

Native 1280x800 <-- Looks OK. Not great, but OK. Text size is perfect, but text clarity is not great.
Scaled 1152x720 <-- Unusable IMO.
Scaled 1024x768 <-- Unusable IMO
Scaled 1024x640 <-- Unusable IMO.
Scaled 800x600 <-- Unusable IMO.
Scaled 800x500 <-- Unusable IMO.
Scaled 720x480 <-- Unusable IMO.
Scaled 640x480 <-- Unusable IMO.

Yes it's a TN screen, i can definitely tell the difference between my MacBook Pro 2011 and when i've been to the Apple store and looked at either the 12" MacBook or the MacBook Pro. One of my friends has a 2016 MacBook Pro which he uses for editing and when put side by side when we are working together i can certainly tell the difference.

My 2012 iMac 27" i don't think has a retina display either, i have thought about getting a new one with the 5K display but if i can't watch 4K Netflix or any 4K or 5K content (iTunes and so on) then i don't see the point at the moment and will just wait.

To be fair tho the iMac i have still works great for what i use it for and i will probably wait until there is a new redesign, which can't be too long surely? it's been nearly 6 years with this thin design. However my MacBook Pro 2011 does need upgrading, the last couple of times that i have turned it on the screen has stayed black and i've had to reset it or it has got stuck on the loading screen (with the apple logo on the white background) and i've had to reset it. That's why i've been looking at the 12" MacBook.

In the Apple store the last time i was in London i was actually surprised by how much real estate i could see on screen.

I'm hoping that since there will be no hardware at WWDC according to rumours (Mark Gurman and so on) that Apple will silently update the 12" MacBook and MacBook Pro's maybe after the keynote? it's either that or they will wait until around October which makes sense if they have an iPad Pro and MacBook event planned like they have in the past.