Macbook Pro 13" Screen Resolution

Hello,

I have quit a dilemma on my hands here.

After searching, researching, asking questions, etc., I have finally decided on buying a Macbook Pro for college after looking at some very impressive laptops such as the Samsung Series 9 13", Lenovo T420s, and Lenovo X1.

Right now, I am debating whether I should get the 13" or 15".

The ONLY reason I would buy the 15" is for the higher resolution(1680x1050) matte screen.

The 13" would much better suit me as a college student due to its portability and weight. I will be studying in London for 3 months, so having a light laptop in my backpack is the ideal way to go. However, I am trying to convince myself that the 13" 1280x800 screen will be perfectly fine for me. Also, if I do end up purchasing the 13", is the upgrade to a i7 worth it?

I am going to be studying computer engineering and will be using several different engineering applications, and other applications such as Photoshop, xCode, and Eclipse.


Thanks for the help! So... 13" or 15"??

 

You should also look at the 13" Macbook Air, although personally I wouldn't buy one just right now as a refresh is around the corner (maybe as early as sometime this month).

 

I have also looked at the Air, but as you stated, I would not buy one knowing that they are being refreshed soon with Sandy Bridge processors.

 

I haven't found anything wrong with the resolution of the 13" model. It has been more than ample enough for me to write papers in Word/Pages, work in Excel, and make presentations in Keynote/PowerPoint. There is more scrolling involved when reading websites, having a long spreadsheet in Excel, and scrolling through my iTunes library but the trackpad is easily one of the best (if not the best) out there so it isn't a big deal at all.

Most people don't see a need to upgrade to the Core i7 in the 13" model especially since it is still a dual-core processor. It has its advantages compared to the baseline i5 when it comes to factory over clocking and the Intel HD 3000 can also come in at a faster clock rate than in the i5. For everyday use though, I doubt you would notice a difference. It wouldn't be until you started encoding audio and video content, playing some games, and crunching large sets of numbers (ie MATLAB) that you would start to notice a difference.

Another aspect is price. The baseline 13" 2011 MPB can be purchased for $999 new at Microcenter (in-store pickup only). If you have one of those near you, you could always buy it there and take the extra money that it would have cost you and roll that into more RAM and possibly an SSD drive.

 

Supposedly, the refresh isn't that far off. I'd agree unless you push the system frequently, the newer CPU will not make much of a difference. The Air is a great product. Had I not gotten the X220i, the Air was high on my short list.

 

Although I don't use the same applications as you (except for photoshop cs5), the 1280x800 resolution seems to be reasonably sufficient for everything I do. What I wish apple would do is get rid of most of the side bezel and make the screen both larger and higher resolution. This way, the MBP13 could have the same screen size and aspects as the MBP15, while remaining in the MBP13 chassis.

 

I wouldn't really call the 13" MBP "light." It's pretty subjective based on user, but the screen size and resolution on the 13" is too small for me to do work on. Surfing a page or two, sure, but anything beyond that and it gets pretty annoying. I'd rather deal with the pound and get something with a higher resolution/screen size.

 

Isn't the resolution 720P? I have seen displays with much higher resolution.

To each its own, but I feel 13 inch is that sweet spot where I can make it work unlike netbooks which aren't highly ideal for doing work.

 

80 extra vertical pixels...

720p is 1280x720 ... 1280x800 will do 720p fine of course, but because of the extra pixels, there could be black bars at the top and the bottom.

 

Make sure that the engineering applications you require will run on Mac OS X, otherwise you'd have to run Windows on the MBP.