13" vs 15" MBPr for development

AndyOHart

Hey.
Going to get my first macbook soon. Graduate of computer science so I want to use for programming. I have a desktop PC I will use for taking and heavy duty stuff, pretty much getting macbook cause they are meant to be great for development.

From talking to people, the 13" is meant to be fine with retina for coding, but some people say it is too small. The difference between the 13 and 15 will be 340 euro (getting on eGlobal).

Just want opinions from developers about what you think. Will the extra 2 inches and better processor be worth it?
Thanks.

Sad Professor

Just so you know, there's a Mac forum if you want to post this there as well.

jester77

I had the same dilemma when upgrading my machine. I had a 15 inch but found it too big for lugging around. I went with the 13 inch retina, no regrets. I put it on the highest resolution and it works great. No issue and lots of real estate. I can run tmux sessions with 4 panes and it is fine.

AndyOHart

What is the power difference between the 15 and 13? I know the 15 has the Iris Pro, but is it a big gap?

MrGarak

With the 15" you will get an i7 processor and 16GB RAM instead of 8GB, a decent improvement.

I guess it depends what kind of development you'll be doing. For example OS X still performs most tasks very well with only 4GB of RAM and a dual core processor.

Most developers actually seem to go with the MacBook Air because it's lighter, more portable, has significantly better battery life and despite it's lower specs can do most development tasks with ease (running IDE's/text editor/browser/SDK) and will save you some cash. Developers generally don't need the retina screen (except maybe for testing) so it's a good fit.

That said it is also nice to have a lot of power and an awesome screen so cost is a big factor.

I would say the Retina 15" is best suited to Graphic Designers and people working in Video Production, but still a great machine for anybody else.

Whatever you do I would strongly advise getting it directly from Apple (or maybe Amazon). I went through hell with Apple trying to get a (barely) out of warranty repair when I had terrible IR issues with my 15" Retina MBP display, because I bought it off eBay. I know eGlobal are cheaper but it could come back to bite you later.

I would also advise going to PC World or Compu-B and looking at each of them in person to get a better impression.

(I have since sold mine on as damaged and am considering a new one, so I've put a lot of thought into this :P)

AndyOHart

Yeah was just wondering how much of a power difference is there betwee the i5 Iris and the i7 Iris Pro.

Yeah well I want to be able to do all sorts of development, web stuff do and I do photoshop too. I also make videos, however I have a desktop computer at home that might be better for that.

Yeah well for the 340 difference I'm leaning towards the 15".
I don't think the weight difference would be that great? I will be going to a shop tomorrow to check them out, size wise and weight wise.

I was going to buy it off eGlobal. 500 cheaper, comes sealed and with warrantys

MrGarak

Yeah they are cheap but I wouldn't buy something that expensive off them, they're based in Hong Kong and it could be a nightmare if you do run into any problems with it either on arrival or down the line. Anyways good luck with it whichever way you go!

AndyOHart

MrGarak wrote: »

Yeah they are cheap but I wouldn't buy something that expensive off them, they're based in Hong Kong and it could be a nightmare if you do run into any problems with it either on arrival or down the line. Anyways good luck with it whichever way you go!

Yeah I know just can't afford getting it from apple. They have guarantee and handle all import shipping so seems okay and they said that you have the year guarantee from apple.
Thanks man probably going to risk it