Thoughts on the 17" MBP. Big.... really??

I'm sure a lot of MBP 17" owners have heard it one time or another: 17" laptops are waaaay to big and heavy to be anywhere near practical. I've heard it on this forum a few times, even directed at me, and I'm sure many other users have heard it too.

But really, is the MBP all that big? It's general consensus that the MBP is one of the thinnest and lightest, if not *the* thinnest and lightest notebooks in its class. However, the size of the screen makes the dimensions large when laying flat, or it would if Apple didn't love to be so stylish and minimalistic.

Basically this thread was made in order to carry out my personal vendetta on people who say that a 17" MBP is "way too big" and to just have something people can refer to if they're considering buying a MBP, and worry that the 17" model would be far too big for them I'm going to be comparing it to a 15 inch Inspiron 1520 for 3 reasons:

- 15 inch Laptops are considered mainstream, and not very large, just average.
- The Dell Inspiron itself is pretty mainstream, being affordable, and generally the Dell laptop of choice for non-gamers.
- And lastly, because I'm not swimming in laptops and these are the only 2 our family owns, so it's all I've got to work with

First off, the top view.

They are very close the the same size when laying flat, the MBP only being slightly longer than the Inspiron.

Thickness comparison.

The MBP CLEARLY wins here by a landslide. Even though the MBP has more features, they managed to cram it all into such a slim case, while the Inspiron is much, much thicker and also weaker. It's much more convenient and space efficient in things like bags or suit cases.

Lastly, length:

Well, the Inspiron is clearly the winner here. Even so, the difference is not very large, although in my personal experience, it makes finding a bag with that specific little pocket for your laptop a pain in the ass, because the pockets would be about a centimeter too small to fit the MBPs length.

I wish I could make more comparisons, but it's all I've got. Feel free to post comparisons of your own. Comparing a 17" to a 15" MBP would really be helpful, and also comparisons of the 13" Macbook would be great. I feel this would be a great help to people who are worried that the laptop they want to buy would be far too big for them, or even too small.

If you want more pics, just ask. I should probably take some with them both opened up, but I'll get to that later.

EDIT: Here's the exact dimensions of the MBP (right off the Apple site)
17-inch MacBook Pro

* Height: 1.0 inch (2.59 cm)
* Width: 15.4 inches (39.2 cm)
* Depth: 10.4 inches (26.5 cm)
* Weight: 6.8 pounds (3.08 kg) with battery and optical drive installed

The starting weight of an Inspiron, with integrated graphics is 5.9 pounds. This one has dedicated graphics, but I'm sure that wouldn't add much to weight. So there is a less than 1 pound weight difference.

 

Wow, in the first picture, they looked the same size for a second!

Thanks for the pictures, Arquis!

And you might also want to post weight comparisons, just for comparison .

 

I find them to be nearly the same weight, maybe the Dell being a little lighter, but not much, I'll find the exact weight and edit my original post though.

 

I believe it is indeed the lightest and thinest 17" laptop around.

 

If I hadn't ripped my old Sager apart.... That beast was 3x as thick (thicker than the Inspiron you have) and just a heavy beast.

But I personally think the 17" are too big. Especially in school. I had problems in classes with the desks being the side of the 15" or smaller. But I've only held the 17" a few times. A client of mine, for whom I was developing a small application for, let me handle hers a few times. Seemed unwieldy. I can understand liking one, no doubt... but IMHO, too big for my tastes.

At this point though, the 15" feels almost too big (but thats mainly cause I want something with more battery life).

 

Interesting pictures Arquis. Thank you.

 

And one question, Arquis; is that Inspiron the rather-recent Inspiron 1520s? Just wondering to make sure, because if it was an old notebook where they were much thicker then it may not be a reasonable comparison .

 

BTW ... we should get some shots of the 17" and 15" MBP with the MB all side by side and stacked :-D

 

Send me your 15.4-inch MBP, get Arquis to send his 17-inch MBP and I'll do it .

 

Yes. It's a brand new 1520. Got it a couple of weeks ago.

EDIT: Also I do understand there are much thinner 15 inch notebooks available, I'm not totally ignorant to that fact That's why I'd love people to post their own comparisons if possible.

 

Yeah, im not sure if its all Dells, but at least the 1520 has ALOT of border, very big and bulky (a friend has one)

 

Yeah those inspirons are just huge and bulky. Honestly i dont know why people buy them. My friend also has one and honeslty its really the bare minimum i would carry around for a 15 inch. When opened the mbp does look huge. At the apple store it did anyway.

 

Well, the MBP beats the socks off my my old IBM Portable from college, so I'm happy with the size! Basically a desktop with a fold-up keyboard and a handle on the back.
I hope to be ordering my 17" MBP this week after Mac Expo!


http://www.vintage-computer.com/ibmportable.shtml

 

Wow! That thing is real funny. I hope you still have it, because it's just classic

 

The Inspiron 1520 is an especially thick and heavy 15.4" notebook. That's why Dell has mostly replaced it by now with two thinner and lighter models: the Inspiron 1525 (for those without need for too much power) and the XPS M1530 (for those who want better performance and high-end options).

Still, I have to agree that the 17" MBP is especially portable for a 17" notebook.

It looks like you've got a 1520 in the picture (right?), but the 5.9 pound weight is from the newer 1525. The 1525 is thinner and lighter... so the 1520 you have pictured (I think) would be a bit heavier.

 

I have a 14" ThinkPad T60 and to me the 15" macbook looks huge, partly because to me it seems that there is wasted space by the keyboard, and Apple decided to place the speakers there. On my T60 the speakers are almost on the underside of the laptop. Like when I am typing where my wrists lie, the speakers are facing me from under my hands and reflect the sound off of the desk which actually works very very nicely. Basically, I just think that the notebook's keyboard should take up the entire length of the computer, and place the speakers somewhere else. So that the limiting size of the notebook will not be based only on the screen size, but also by the keyboard. That is just my opinion.

Basically my point is that to people like me with tiny screen sizes, we will probably see the 17" MBPs as huge gargantuan things that do not seem conventional to have as a portable notebook. I see the 15" as being an ideal size.

 

Well, on a 15" MBP, or any MBP, the deciding factor is the screen size. Keyboard size is absolutely irrelevant, because the screen itself has a very small boarder, and making the keyboard stretch from side to side would not magically make that 15 inch screen a 13 inch screen.

 

I am just saying they could have made the machine more compact if they had the keyboard as the limiting factor, but then it would not be a 15". All I am saying is that they should keep the same screen size, but maybe include additional keys like a number pad or something that would fill up the space that the speakers occupy so that that space seems a bit more "used".

 

That would have been impossible, since the screen occupies most of it's area. You still have to respect some dimensions. But they could add a number pad and that would make it a boring, sort of business machine, made only for spreadsheets and well...it would of been OK for Windows users, I think.

 

Just a thought, I know it is not traditional but I think it would be cool. I like it when a company uses up all space of the machine as efficiently as possible.

 

i can manage that no problem, I will finally get my review for the 17" MBP finished and inlcude those type of pictures as well.

i can probably manage to get side by side comparison shots of a 17" MBP, 15" MBP, and possibly a 12" powerbook as well, and maybe a MacBook.

and just for the record, what laptop uses space as efficiently as a MBP, have you seen the inside of one of these things?, there is absolutely no room for anything else, if they change one thing, 4 other things would have to be moved or changed, the 17" model has significantly larger speakers than the 15" model which are quite significantly more powerful. change the keyboard, have to put the speakers somewhere else, which would need other hardware moved, etc. etc.

as much as I like having a dedicated numPad on my Fujitsu, it honestly doesn't effect my workflow drastically, as I can easily have a full size keyboard setup in those situations when a numpad is handy, like working in after effects, maya, final cut, photoshop, whatever.

 

Yes, that would be nice, but I think it looks clean enough right now. I am somehow amazed about what Apple can do with a 17" laptop. The weight is great, they have a WUXGA screen and a small form (for a 17").

 

I use a 17 inch MBP for work, and prior to that I had a 15 inch. I prefer the 17. Its got more than enough desktop real estate, and doesnt feel heavier than the 15. When I get in to work tomorrow, I'll see if I can snap some pics of the 17 and 15 together (I even think we have an older laptop sitting around somewhere).