Advice on downsizing to 13"

[shamby3]

Hello,

Newbie to MacRumors, tried to find a specific answer to my question in previous threads but came up empty, hopefully someone here has been in the same situation as me.

I have a 2012 macbook pro 15" macbook pro, upgraded to SSD and 16gb of RAM, its great and handles everything I need perfectly. However, its super heavy (5.6lbs) and battery life is average 3-4hrs so I am considering moving to a 2015 retina 13" macbook pro with 16gb RAM. I travel for work frequently so the 2lb weight saving and more compact profile is pretty appealing, I have used a 13" before and the loss of screen real estate does not bother me.

I do a lot of photography but most of my editing is not too intensive, rarely doing anything hardcore in photoshop however every now and again I will edit short videos, mostly 1080p, rendering some 4k timelapses from time to time. Do you think I will notice I big difference in processing power going from the 2012 quad core to the 2015 dual core??
I'm not concerned with it being able to fly through the tasks more just that it will get it done, without getting insanely hot and sounding like the fans may explode!

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

 

[maflynn]

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

my only advice is to consider the smaller screen size and loss of screen real estate. I went from a 15" to a 13" form factor and everything is all well and good but lately I'm thinking that a 15" would be better suited for me.

You also will get a dual core processor and a slower GPU - food for thought depending on your needs.

 

[shamby3]

my only advice is to consider the smaller screen size and loss of screen real estate. I went from a 15" to a 13" form factor and everything is all well and good but lately I'm thinking that a 15" would be better suited for me.

You also will get a dual core processor and a slower GPU - food for thought depending on your needs.

Thanks for the info, very useful. Ideally I should try to spend more time using a 13" to make sure I am happy with it.
I think I would always want to use a monitor at home anyways so that mitigates the loss in screen size a bit.

 

[maflynn]

Thanks for the info, very useful. Ideally I should try to spend more time using a 13" to make sure I am happy with it.
I think I would always want to use a monitor at home anyways so that mitigates the loss in screen size a bit.

Just something to consider, for my usage I remote into my workstation and while manageable, I find the text to be a bit small for me to work with. There's work arounds to be sure, but I think doing your due diligence and looking at all aspects will give you peace of mind once you make your decision.

 

[elf69]

I went from an old 2007 macbook pro 17" to a 2010 macbook 13"

loss of real estate is noticeable for sure as huge change.
but overall machine ok and text not too much smaller.

I changed mainly for weight issues as taking at 17 to and from work is very heavy.
if you use external screen at home then main this is the cpu and gpu if cope with what you need to do.

both my machines where a 2.4GHz core2duo but of course the 2010 model is faster.

compare the cpu online and see if the difference is enough to worry about.