13" Retina or 15" Retina

Question

13" Retina or 15" Retina

Hi, I know this has probably been discussed a lot. But I'm looking for advice on which model to buy. I would like to keep with the 13" model (I currently have a unibody Macbook 2.4GHz with 4GB RAM). But I am concerned with the rMBP performance after reading some reviews and the lack of dedicated Graphics. I use my Mac obviously for every day tasks, email, web surfing, calendar etc. I also use iPhoto and iMovie for minor editing and I also do software and web development, mainly using XCode and Netbeans. My question is, would the 13 rMBP perform these tasks well, baring in mind I prefer the form factor of the 13". I am willing to consider the 15" seeing as the price difference is not that great from the 256GB 13" model to the base 15" model. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

MacBook, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Dec 5, 2012 6:02 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 5, 2012 6:06 AM in response to Michael Bratley

In your case, the only reason to consider the 15" model is if you need the extra horsepower its quad-core CPU and discreet graphics card provide. Since you're only doing minor video editing, where the aforementioned extra power would otherwise be helpful, the 13" will more than suffice especially if you place a high value on the form factor of the notebook itself.

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Answer 2

Dec 5, 2012 6:16 AM in response to saturnotaku

Thanks for your reply. So in your opinion, the 13" model would be more than suitable for software developement etc.?

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Answer 3

Dec 5, 2012 6:15 AM in response to Michael Bratley

Having worked with developers all my career the one thing they tell me is that the greater the spec of their machines the better it is for coding. Developers would say that of course, but from a longevity point of view alone I personally would shelve out on the higher spec 15". Sure, you lose the convinence of the 13" form factor, but the 15" is pretty compact for what it is, and a larger screen is always better for coding IMHO.

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Answer 4

Dec 5, 2012 6:23 AM in response to Vestan Pance

The larger screen does not appeal to me that much.

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Answer 5

Dec 5, 2012 6:30 AM in response to Vestan Pance

If it's a matter of fitting stuff on the screen, you can always adjust the Retina's resolution to something greater than the scaled 1280x800 (on the 13" model) that it is by default. This is something that makes the Retina more appealing than the standard 13" Pro certainly.

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