Which rMBP Should I Buy?

[Not That Future]

Hello everyone, first time forum user here! Registered today just so I could get some advice.

My current laptop is a 2006 15" MBP that has been on its last legs for a while now. Obviously anything I buy will be a huge improvement over what I have now, but keep in mind I want this new laptop to last 5+ years and be able to handle anything I throw at it. I'll be using Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Ableton regularly, and maybe a bit of video editing/3D rendering later on down the line.

Which configuration would you go with and why?

[A] $2510 – 13” 2.8 i7/Iris/16GB/1TB
$2310 – 15" 2.0 i7/Iris Pro/16GB/512GB
[C] $2400 – 15" 2.3 i7/Iris Pro & 750M/16GB/512GB

Since I'm coming from a 15" laptop, I think I'd be kind of disappointed with less real estate on the 13" but it just seems like better bang for your buck. I was hoping both rMBPs would get a substantial battery increase, at least 10 hours each, but I guess not. I can't believe the 13" Air gets 15 hours on Mavericks, and these just 8/9! If I go with the 13" I also don't get a quad core CPU or Iris Pro GPU/750M dGPU... will I notice any loss in performance doing what I plan to do?

 

[theKitch]

Whew, and I thought I was quite a hold out coming from a 2009.

It was a tough call for me to go from 13 to 15. My wife actually convinced me to at least try the 15. THRILLED with the larger display and the improved display quality. On my 13 it was painful to do any Lightroom work away from my 27" display. Now it's a dream.

I felt like going quad core was really a must for future proofing the system.

I too am a little sad about the battery life. I suspect I'm going to end up getting anywhere from 10 hours in my absolute lightest workloads on this system (single tab browsing in dim conditions) down to about 5-6 hours under very heavy editing workloads. (As I write this response I'm at 43% and 5:27 remaining...)