Macbook Pro 13" or 15"

daz103

daz103

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I basically want a laptop which I can use for basic editing and using tethered in the studio and on location. I had set myself a budget of about £1000, but could stretch to the £1550 for the 15" if need be.

I can't quite decide if the 13" is too small for what I want or if I could save the money. When looking at the 13" it seems adequate until I look at the 15" which just seems a bit better size.

Does anyone have any experience with shooting tethered with the 13"?

any help and advice is welcome.
 
I would agree, my tog mate just got the new 15" anti-glare MacBook & the screen is a lot better than my 13", but the 13" is far more portable
 
Does it have to be a Mac? For under £1,000 delivered you could get a Dell XPS 15 with 1080p screen, quad core i7 processor, 6GB RAM and 750GB HDD. I know because I've been pricing up options in the last few days - just doing a little research :). I've got one sitting in my basket for £906 at the moment, with a discount voucher code to get that price, and with TopCashBack there would be around 7% (8% of the pre-VAT price) cash back to take off that price. If you don't want the 1080p screen you can knock £170 off the price.

My basket Total shown is £885. Add £20 for delivery.

Review - http://www.anandtech.com/show/4274/dell-xps-15-l502x-now-with-sandy-bridge

If you're prepared to sacrifice a little power for a little more panache then you could also look at the Dell XPS 15Z, starting at £899 before discount codes and cash backs.

FWIW I've been a long term Windows user and Dell customer. My current machine, a Dell XPS M1710 is now over 4.5 years old. I'm considering a replacement machine and for the first time am giving Apple due consideration. I love the styling and construction, and I'm sure they are fab machines, but I still struggle to get over the price premium for their product. I'd give OS X a go, but I'd probably buy a copy of Windows to put on in any case - increasing the cost further.

If you want Apple then there's also the Apple refurb store, which might shave something off the price, and TopCashBack has a 3% cashback for Apple.
 
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I have macbook, macbook pro & PC laptops, having had PCs since the mid 90s I find them a lot more intuitive although I do use the macbook pro for shooting tethered as it has a powered firewire port, although for editing I move the files to either my 17" PC laptop or my Desktop which has a pair of Dell 2311 monitors (1 vertical and one horizontal).

If it is just for shooting tethered I would go with the PC option (good deal on the Toshiba Pro660 for £465 at dabs with £100 cashback too) and buy a decent PC with a couple of decent monitors with the rest of the money for better editing.
 
I've got a 13" Macbook, the screen is not as bad as you might think, doesn't feel small
 
I have been looking at the dell xps 15, but it seems a little heavier and bulkier than the mac. I suppose the xpsz could be an option.

I like the mac styling, and feel that if I bought a windows laptop I would still want a mac. The cost saving and extra power from the windows laptop is attractive. Hard decisions. What are sony laptops like nowadays?
 
I started a thread recently asking pretty much the same thing, you can have a nose at the responses here - http://talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=339196

For what it's worth, i'm typing this on my new 15" Macbook Pro and it's excellent :D I went into the apple store in Brighton to see the anti-glare one. Only problem for me is that it would have to be a custom order from Apple as I think they only kept the 17" anti-glare in stock... In the end I bought the basic 15" from work with my not-very-generous-but-helpful-all-the-same staff discount!

Portability wasn't my main requirement but I was very drawn to the 13". In the end the additional performance of the 15" won me over :)

Hope that helps a bit :thumbs:
 
If you intend to use the Macbook for serious editing then the 15" is probably your better bet. I have a 13" Macbook Pro and use it when out and about or for tethered shooting, but I transfer the images to my iMac desktop for serious editing.
 
13 inch is ideal for out and about editing. Depends on your usage, if it is purely for in the field then you won't beat the new Mac Book Airs in terms of portability but obviously at a cost in terms of performance on some tasks. If you want a everyday workhorse for editing as well as in the field then it comes down to how portable you want to be with regards to 13" or 15".
 
I think I had almost settled on the Dell xps15z. But still comes to 1229.99. I think keeping it under 1K would be better for my bank balance.

is there much difference in performance between i5 and i7?
 
ding76uk said:
13 inch is ideal for out and about editing. Depends on your usage, if it is purely for in the field then you won't beat the new Mac Book Airs in terms of portability but obviously at a cost in terms of performance on some tasks. If you want a everyday workhorse for editing as well as in the field then it comes down to how portable you want to be with regards to 13" or 15".
Click to expand...

Yeah, fair point. I may be trading in my 13 for a 15, as i just find it to small to edit in the field or not.
 
daz103 said:
I think I had almost settled on the Dell xps15z. But still comes to 1229.99. I think keeping it under 1K would be better for my bank balance.

is there much difference in performance between i5 and i7?
Click to expand...

If you are considering 13" then have you seen this on the apple refurb site for £1100?

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/FC724B/A?mco=MjIwMTAxNTg

I have bought quite a bit of stuff from the refurb store and has always been perfect.
 
Hi Mate

You could go for the 13" and then buy a monitor for a duel screen home editing setup. Also 8GB of ram has dropped sharply now ~£40 be rude not to :thumbs:
 
daz103 said:
I think I had almost settled on the Dell xps15z. But still comes to 1229.99. I think keeping it under 1K would be better for my bank balance.
Click to expand...

Did you apply the 10% discount code - HXCW$PNS7MWLDM - to your basket and did you consider the ~7% cash back on top of that from TopCashBack?
 
just out of interest if you know someone at uni you can get the educational discount which is a very helpful saving!!!!!
 
If for travel MacBook air?
 
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