First Mac :MBP 13" or 15" ??

Hey all,

I've decided buy the recently upgraded MBP for my college.
Now, I'm terribly confused as to whether to go for the 15 inch MBP or the 13inch MBP .

Well as i said earlier, i've decided to buy it for college purposes so there would be a fair deal of lugging around the MBP. The 15inch weighs around 2.5 Kgs and the 13inch weighs around 2kgs. How big a difference is 0.5kgs ? Because i don't mind shelling out the extra amount.

Also I'm a gamer , not hardcore but i play games like call of duty. Will the graphics card be able to handle it?

I would mostly be using it for watching movies and so on, will the 13inch screen be too small?

I'm thinking of buying it this week.

Thanks for the help,
Sathya

 

Please fill out the faq in the What Notebook Should I Buy? forum.

 

I've done it . I've got 0 replies. Pathetic.

 

I would say that unless you want the 9600 card for graphics then you should go with the low end 13 inch, upgrade ram and HDD, and grab an external monitor if you need a desktop too.

Otherwise if you want the upgraded graphics then the high end 15 or 17 is the only way to go.

And the 13.3 is fine for viewing, the 15 is better but you also have to account desk space in classrooms which the 13 will be better.

(My sig shows the way I went, all ships in tomorrow morning )

 

Patience young padiwan.

 

Well i checked out the 13inch at the istore , imho its a bit too small for watching high def movies.

Well im sure even the graphics card in the 15inch wont play call of duty so graphics is not a issue.

Its been two months.


Well i both MBP's weigh the same so i guess i'll go for the MBP 15inch.
The time looks perfect especially with the price cut. Whaddya say?

Also does anyone know abt the apple support in india?

 

I'm not sure about the support in India.

If you're going for the 15" you might as well get the $2000 model because the base 15" has the same specs as the highend 13".

I think the base 13" or the $2k 15" makes the most sense in their price range.

Movies on the 15" will look better because it is a bigger screen, but it will not be able to do 1080p. I just use my external 24" for all my high def needs.

 

If you get the 9600M you should be able to play CoD4 and CoDWaW at decent settings.

 

If you want decent performance in COD5 your going to have to get the 15inch. Thing is the $2000 macbook pro has only 256mb vram, your going to have to get the $2300 2.8Ghz 15inch, its the cheapest with the 512mb 9600m gt. For that price though you could build an i7 gaming pc for $1300 and then buy a $1000 macbook. But whats your budget? If you need to spend less than 2k then get the $1700 15inch, the 9400m can play COD on low res/detail, and you have $300 for warranty/apple care/windows. The 15inch is more than portable, for my first year of college I carried around a 17inch laptop, it fit in my backpack and on my desk no problem. The 15inch macbook pro is also only 1.5inch wider, and less than an inch in depth. Weight doesn't matter at all really all of them are really too light to even matter. BTW if you want to watch HD movies, the 15.4inch screen is only 1440x900 so you can only watch in 720p, only on the 17inch macbook can watch in 1080p.

If you really want a decent gaming pc with HD support, and don't need OS X I'd suggest an HP HDX 16t, you can customize one with a 16inch 1080p screen, the 512mb 9600m gt, and a blueray reader for about $1250. It also has the option of a 1024mb GT 130m for $100, thats faster than the 9600m gt and uses the same amount of power, it could probably max COD. The HDX16t however weighs 0.7 kg more than the 15inch macbook. Hp usually offers allot of sales and discounts so you could probably get a couple $100 off for being a student.

 

9600mGT is 128bit. 256mb vs 512mb will not make much difference.

 

If you really like to play games, I would recommend that you get the 13" which is perfect for any academic or general use task you can throw at it. Take the savings you get from not buying the 15", and then buy a PS3 / Xbox 360 and bam... You can play all the games you want.

In regards to the weight difference, the .5 KG won't really effect anything, but the footprint difference will.

 

The difference in weight may not be noticeable but the size difference certainly will be.

Get the 13 inch MBP and a Xbox/PS3/Gaming Desktop if you want to game. Neither the 13 nor 15 inch models have the resolution for full HD movies.

On another note, then resolution available for these "premium" laptops are pitifully low.

 

13" is a bit small for high def movies, but since you won't be watching high def movies on the thing, it shouldn't matter.

the only way you even really have access to hd movies would be through itunes, since you don't have a blu-ray player on the machine.

anyway, either will be fine, but the 9600m gt will play games a lot better, and i also feel like you will play less video games than you think you will, and the 13" will be more practical all around.

 

neither the 13" nor the 15" support "real" high definition anyway (1080p) so you're stuck at 720p - which both support.

Mediocre pixels per inch on the 15" so I'd get the 13" (more res for the size)

 

I'll have to say, the 15 inch is a beautiful display given it's pixel count. If it's a great display, I wouldn't care what resolution it was, as long as it's comfortable and a good screen.

 

Glad you're happy - but those of us that have experienced higher ppi would never consider 1440x900 on a 15" display to be great.

 

I see what you mean. I guess I'm just content with my 1280x800.

EDIT: 2,000th post!

 

Thanks guys !

But now that i've been using my pathetic ( i've changed my opinion after seeing the macbook pro yesterday) 15 inch dell for 3 years, the 13 inch seems to be too small. And as I'm a computer science student, I'll be on the comp 24x7 so the screen could be a hindrance.

About gaming, I have a psp and a ps2 . And most importantly i have a gaming desktop so its not such a big priority.

My budget is around 1800$ i guess.

And I really want a mac cause i wanna try out os x.

 

Get the $1700 macbook pro then, your only option if you go mac. Make sure you take full advantage of any student discounts you can get, if so you may be able to get the $2000 model for $300 off or something.

Well once you get used to 1920x1200 your spoiled for life. It would of been really cool for Apple to offer an option of a 15inch 1920x1200 screen, even if it would be too small for some users, the extra screen space is REALLY convenient, not to mention it looks amazing. Clevo is the only manufacturer that I know of right now that offers a 15.4inch 1920x1200 screen.

 

Well the problem is, I'm in india. So if i'm buying here the 15inch MBP which costs 1700$ is being sold for 2100$ here which is stupid. And the student discount knocks off a 100$ so i get a deal either way. So my only option is to buy to it from america without the student discount.

That's why im byuing the 1700$ model instead of the 2000$ model.

 

Woah, time machine much? I thought you were asking which NEWLY UPDATED (on June 8) Macbook Pro to get lol.

 

I've been considering the macbook for the past two months. I almost ordered the dell studio xps 13 in the middle. Then i decided to wait for the WWDC 09.

 

Remember that the 15" you're buying does not have a dedicated graphics card.

If you're a computer science major, you'll probably benefit from a dual external monitor setup whenever you're sitting at a desk.

If this is you're first time using OSX, its going to take some time to getting use to. If you've been using windows, OSX's layout is the complete opposite of it.

A lil off topic, but I find macbook's screen resolution a bit lacking. I'm giving up my 15" 1680x1050, for a 13" and I'll be missing the real estate.

 

Nope. Lenovo ThinkPad W500, HP 8530w to name one of their's, and numerous Dells (M4400, and even the lowly XPS1530 had it before the consumer models went 16:9)