Macbook Pro: 13" or 15"

Hello,

My birthday is on the horizon and I'm planning on getting a Macbook Pro; sell my old laptop and then buy a Macbook Pro with the money (plus savings).

I will only be using it for casual gaming, i.e. Minecraft, Humble Indie Bundle Games (2 and 3), etc, as well as school so I would like it to be nice and portable. :)

I was wondering whether you would think the 13" would do? I'm used to using a 15" computer but I've always found it a bit too big to carry around with me.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I'll be doing some PHP coding as well as website design in general.

asked Aug 16 '11 at 08:07

Hugo
1.7k●24●31●51

edited Aug 16 '11 at 08:20

4 Answers:

oldest newest most voted

If you are big on coding PHP with a live preview window to the side of the source window, then you should probably get the 15" also, if you want a Quad Core, you will have to go with the 15". If you are big on portability, and are planning to use this in classrooms and coffee shops / book stores, you may want the 13".

answered Aug 16 '11 at 08:43

Daniel Brown
431●27●30●42

Thanks for the answer! I'm pretty big on coding but I'm quite used to, on my current laptop, using a small window for and and having the browser window in the background or, alternatively, just alt-tabbing most of the time. I will probably take it to class and coffee shops too..

Edit: The thing I'm wondering about is the Intel HD 3000. At the moment my computer has an i3, 4GB Ram and an ATI Radeon 4500 Series, I can run some quite high end games on low graphics, do you think a MBP 13" will be able to do this (I'm talking Indie games rather than Battlefield on the Mac)?

(Aug 16 '11 at 08:57) Hugo

hmm, I have to say, it (talking about 13'' HD3000) runs almost all steam games good, and minecraft at full render distance. But, it get very very hot. If you are using it tabletop, great, but don't game on your lap. (but who does that anyway) also, games DRAIN battery power, I can get 6-7h out of my macbook pro just browsing, Gaming: 1,5 max.

(Aug 17 '11 at 10:01) N2505

If you have found the 15 to be too big, go with the 13. I currently have a 15inch MacBook Pro, the 13, in my opinion was too small of a screen.

answered Aug 16 '11 at 09:52

Alex Melton
823●70●81●91

I don't find it too big but I hardly use the screen space. I mean, most of the time everything is fullscreen but there is a huge amount of whitespace.

(Aug 16 '11 at 10:22) Hugo

1	If you need to carry it around then get a 13"... answered Aug 17 '11 at 05:17 chcnorris29 341●7●8●15 Thanks for the straight up response. (Aug 17 '11 at 05:33) Hugo That is ok... I am thinking of getting the 13" macbook pro as well... (Aug 17 '11 at 10:53) chcnorris29

I bought the 13'' pro for school, I still have an iMac at home, so screen size isn't a problem for me. If this is your only computer, go with the 15'' because the screen is small on the 13''. But the 13'' is way more portable. So if you are going to drag it around all day, pick the 13'', its also a lot cheaper. One piece of advice, buy apple care.

answered Aug 17 '11 at 05:45

N2505
161●7●9●15

Why should I buy Applecare?

(Aug 17 '11 at 05:55) Hugo

Your talking about having it with you a lot, so the chance of it breaking goes up. (putting it in a bag, taking it out.) So id recommend buying apple care to extend your warranty from 2 to 3 years. You don't have to buy this when you purchase the device, you can do this within one year. But if you are planning on, lets say replacing the HDD with an SSD, and then replacing the superdrive with with the old HDD. Then don't buy applecare. O and BTW, apple care and a OCZ Vertex 3 120gb costs about the same.

(Aug 17 '11 at 10:08) N2505

I'm not sure that I can buy Apple care with the Macbook Pro because I'm buying from a Reseller although I will be moving in 6 months so I would be able to get it then. So I get a 2 year warranty with the Macbook Pro?

(Aug 17 '11 at 10:21) Hugo

you can also buy it at a reseller, actually, you can buy it in every reseller, and even online, You get 1 year with you macbook, and buying apple care gives you 2 more, in total 3 years. Now I look at it, I made a mistake in my comment, sorry.

(Aug 18 '11 at 06:30) N2505

Oh, okay. That sounds good. I guess I'll wait for just under a year then, before I get Apple Care.

(Aug 18 '11 at 07:14) Hugo

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