rMBP 13'/15 screen estate(programming)?

Hello! i know there was some 13' vs 15' thread but i didn't really found my answer there, excuse me for opening one more. I'm planning to buy an rMBP this summer but i'm really undecided if to go with 13' or 15' rmbp.

Actually i will go with a refurbished version and my options are:

13' - 2.4ghz/8gb/256gb - 1270$
13' - 2.6ghz/16gb/256gb - 1529$ - minor bump in cpu and 16 gb ram for ~250$, worth it ?

15' - 2.0ghz/8gb/256gb - 1700$

The thing is that i was always a desktop guy so never had laptops. Second thing is that i don't have any stores with macs here where i live so i can;t really feel/see them in person.

I'm enrolled in CS at my college and I'm planning to use this laptop at xcode or programming/web dev in general, running 1-2 vm's(linux+win) and some casual gaming but it's not really a priority. My concern is with SCREEN ESTATE, I'm not an experienced developer or something, and i don't really know how big of difference is between the 13 and 15 when it comes to screen estate and programming. At home i have a dual monitor setup so it won't really be a problem but i'm planning to bring the laptop to college or to various places so i ask if any of you had any experiences developing on 13' screens and how cramped is it ? The second concern is that this will be my main computer to say so, and the quad core on the 15' would be nice but i'm pretty sure that the cpu on the 13' is also more than fine for me, at least for 2 years when i plan to sell it.

Appreciate any kind of answers, thank you!

 

I haven't done specific xcode programming on my 15" MBP (non-retina but it has the same scaled resolution as the retina version) and it's been fine programming in MATLAB for me. The biggest issue I've come across isn't with width but rather height. You could help ease that by changing some of the settings around but that might produce subpar results. The 15" is going to provide more (scaled) real-estate than the 13" model. Again, I don't think this is that big of an issue. I coded in MATLAB for a while on a 13" MBP (non-retina) in early 2011. It was a little cramped but I learned to deal with it.

I think it really depends on how much time you're going to spend using the notebook's display. If it's going to be around the clock, you may want to consider the 15" version. If it's only going to be for a few hours a day, the 13" MBPr may suffice. Both will be fine performers even with virtual machines coming into play (I do all of my MATLAB coding in Windows XP, 7, and 8.1 virtual machines on my system). The one thing I recommend is getting model configured with 16GB of RAM. When running multiple VMs, the extra RAM helps. Plus you can never upgrade the RAM in the MBPr, you have to configure it the way you want before ordering as there aren't any aftermarket upgrades. The CPU upgrade in the 13" MBPr is a waste of money too. The performance increase with the (slightly) faster CPU is not worth the high cost of upgrading. You would be better off syncing the extra money into more RAM and a higher capacity SSD than with the CPU.

 

Thanks! My main coding will be at home, just some casual coding outside when needed. It's awful that here we have no store with rmbp 13 or 15 to see them and it's hard for me realize what i prefer more. I'm leaning more to 13' but when i see videos with it on youtube, it just seems small to me but maybe because it's hard to tell from youtube vids. I was just curious if the difference between 13 and 15 screen estate is "big" or negligible?

About the cpu upgrade, i know that it's a waste of money but i'm only going for refurbs where, more or less you have pre-configured models and the cheapest one with 16gb of ram comes also with the cpu bump, basically when you buy a NEW rMBP, only the 16gb ram upgrade costs 200$, now with ~250$ i get cpu and ram ugprade, so it seems good value for the money.

 

The difference between the two display sizes, and their scaled resolutions, all depends on your tastes. I could go back to a 13" model as the display size is fine and I have no issues with the scaled resolution. I believe the 13" MBPr scales to a resolution of 1440X900 and the 15" model scales to 1680X1050. The actual resolutions of both are much higher than that but, when working, they automatically scale everything to a size that looks like those two resolutions. If you think you can get by with 1440X900, then get the 13" model. It weighs less and is easy to just thrown in a bag and go. The 15" is still portable (especially compared to other 15" notebooks) but it is heavier and takes up more space. I think for portable coding where you aren't sitting there for hours on end, the 13" is fine. Whether or not you can work in a resolution of 1440X900 is up to you.

As for the upgrades, that makes sense. It's a complete waste of money if you're buying new and upgrading to that CPU but it's understandable to pay the $250 even if it's just for the 16GB of RAM. I think that's the real feature you should be looking for whether you get the 13" or 15" version. As it stands, I have about 4GB of RAM free when I run my Windows XP, 7, and 8.1 VMs all at once. I dedicate one CPU core and 2GB of RAM to XP, one CPU core and 4GB of RAM to 7, and one CPU core and 4GB of RAM to 8.1. OS X will consume about 2GB of RAM (and once CPU core) when doing this which leaves 4GB remaining of my 16GB. I could cut back on the RAM I let each VM use but it's more comfortable this way. Plus it means I can still do things in OS X (like surf the net, have iTunes open, etc.) while running my VMs.

 

The 13-inch model scales to 1280x800, the 15-inch to 1440x900.

 

You can scale the resolutions to more options than the default to get more space on your screen.

The 13" vs 15" is more about how large you want things... how big of a screen you want. For how much space you have on your screen, its about what resolution (or scaled resolution) you run. You can run the default, or scale it for more space, or use 3rd party tools and run the full resolution with no scaling.

I personally love when programming and having tons of things going on one screen to run my rMBP at a full 2880x1800... that said, its not how I usually develop, and probably not how you'd want to. I only do that when I'm 'on the go' or traveling or in meetings, away from home, etc... Most of my work comes down to having a couple of external monitors attached, which comes in more handy and gives you much more space to work.

 

I have a 13 inch Dell laptop at 1200x800, and, it's a nice laptop, but I'd really rather not do coding on it. I love working on my 17 inch MBP at 1920x1200 though. If it's a choice between 13 and 15, go with 15.

If you plan on running Virtual Machines, go with 16 GB. Windows x64 is probably best with at least 4 GB. You can get away with a lot less with Linux. I think that Mavericks likes 4 GB at a minimum and you probably have some level of paging with that so 16 GB would keep paging way down and provide lots of space for VMs.

If you will generally have an external display handy, then 13 inches may be fine.

 

Thank you people for the input! I'm leaning for the 13' with 16gb of ram because even if i would like the 15', it's a bit expensive and i would be limited to 8gb RAM and considering that from 10.9.3 iris/iris pro will take up to 1.5gb of RAM, ~6.5GB seems kinda little for VM's and i just can't afford an 15' with 16gb RAM. My main coding will be done on external monitors anyway so i guess some casual coding from time to time will suffice on 13'

Thanks again and wish you all a nice day!

 

Great, thanks for the clarification. I thought those lower resolutions were correct but they sounded too low, particularly the 13" model scaling to match the non-retina version. I thought it might scale to match the 13" MBA but I guess not.

That's my general school of thought. It would be different if you were doing the majority of your coding using only the notebook's display, then 13" would be too small. However, if it's just for quick portable jobs, I think it's fine. 15" would be better but the added costs, and you not being able to find a refurb with 16GB of RAM, would make it a poor performer in the end. It would be able to handle multiple VM's better due to to its quad-core CPU but the lack of RAM is a bummer. Since you're going to run one or two VM's at a time, the CPU in the 13" MBPr is fine and it will do great with 16GB of RAM.