13" MBP vs 15" MBP

randombar

Hi All,

I know this can be decided in a heap of different ways but I'm currently on a

Mid 2015 15" MBP Quad Core 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7

Battery giving me problems, bluetooth seems a bit flaky. Has to go in to the shop basically.

Looking to upgrade beforehand and pass on what I'm using when it's back from the shop.

So, starting to lean towards the 13" dont see the massive benefit in the screensize at the minute.

What I would be sacrificing is cores and ram essentially. Looking at a 6 core at least vs 4 core and potentially 32gb of ram vs 16gb.

Useage:

Mostly VS Code. Navicat. Chrome. Slack. Spotify. VirtualBox (Vagrant, Sometimes Windows 10)

Sooo questions for the people in the know:

Are the extra cores worth it do you think?

Would the extra RAM be of massive benefit?

DubDJ

If you’ve used the 15” model for a while you’ll probably find it a bit difficult to go down to the smaller screen. It really depends on personal preference, visit a local store like Curry’s and have a look at the display models.

I use similar apps to you and VS code with a browser window can be a bit cramped on the 13” display. If you full screen it and don’t have chrome open to the side for example you should have no problem with the 13” though. I personally prefer the smaller laptop, the portability and design looks better IMO.

If you rely heavily on virtualisation then the more RAM the better really. I got by recently on an 8GB with 2 Linux VM’s running so it’s doable but problematic at times. Windows obviously needs a lot more but depending how much you currently allocate you might need more than 16GB.

Lastly, Apple has a rumoured 16” model MacBook in a more compact form factor supposedly coming in October. I’d hold out and see what’s to come with that. It’s been heavily rumoured for this year so very likely to be announced next month. I’d definitely wait the few weeks if I was you.

randombar

Heard about the 16" all right, would probably change things around pricewise all right.

DubDJ

I’ve seen estimates saying it could be up to $3k so it definitely won’t be cheap. Worthwhile waiting to see what they do with the prices and the current 15”.