Need some thoughts on MBP vs MPA (yes another one)

[cramazing]

So here is my situation; I am just a casual user, I work in Sales for Cyber Security, so I dont do anything of the graphics or video editing stuff.
My job gave me an entry 16" MBP for emails, Zoom, and Office work (overkill, I know) and I have it connected to a monitor.
I currently own a 2019 13" base MBP with the terrible Touchbar, this thing is starting to heat up quickly as soon as I play Youtube vids with a few Chrome tabs open. I don't really need to replace it but I want to because I am getting a trade in value for it, since probably in a year I will get nothing for it. I also connect this one to another monitor as well and its been in clamshell mode for most of its use.

However, my office is turning into a nursery as my wife and I are expecting our first child, all thats left there is my work desk. So I think there will be many times that I will have to take my laptops out of the room and do my stuff there.

So now I am looking upgrading my personal laptop to either the 15" MPA or the base 14" MBP, both machines will be 16gb and 512gb of storage, as Ive done my research that thats the best config to go with, even for casual usage.

When I went to the Apple store to check out both machines, I noticed the 14" is really just a 13" and its maybe 1/4 in bigger, or at least it felt that way, when I put the 14" MBP next to the 15" MBA, I noticed that I liked the 15" screen much more, in clamshell mode none of this will matter.

But since I have the 16" MBP from work, does it make sense to get a 15" MBP if I am concern about screen size?
I'm not concern about weight or anything as I almost never take my laptop out the house, maybe when I travel.

I know this all sounds like 1st world problems, I thank anyone in advance for reading and responding.

 

[dmccloud]

So here is my situation; I am just a casual user, I work in Sales for Cyber Security, so I dont do anything of the graphics or video editing stuff.
My job gave me an entry 16" MBP for emails, Zoom, and Office work (overkill, I know) and I have it connected to a monitor.
I currently own a 2019 13" base MBP with the terrible Touchbar, this thing is starting to heat up quickly as soon as I play Youtube vids with a few Chrome tabs open. I don't really need to replace it but I want to because I am getting a trade in value for it, since probably in a year I will get nothing for it. I also connect this one to another monitor as well and its been in clamshell mode for most of its use.

However, my office is turning into a nursery as my wife and I are expecting our first child, all thats left there is my work desk. So I think there will be many times that I will have to take my laptops out of the room and do my stuff there.

So now I am looking upgrading my personal laptop to either the 15" MPA or the base 14" MBP, both machines will be 16gb and 512gb of storage, as Ive done my research that thats the best config to go with, even for casual usage.

When I went to the Apple store to check out both machines, I noticed the 14" is really just a 13" and its maybe 1/4 in bigger, or at least it felt that way, when I put the 14" MBP next to the 15" MBA, I noticed that I liked the 15" screen much more, in clamshell mode none of this will matter.

But since I have the 16" MBP from work, does it make sense to get a 15" MBP if I am concern about screen size?
I'm not concern about weight or anything as I almost never take my laptop out the house, maybe when I travel.

I know this all sounds like 1st world problems, I thank anyone in advance for reading and responding.

The 14" MBP is not "really just a 13"" MBP, that is really an optical illusion of sorts. What's changed is that as the bezels around the displays have shrunk, the chassis as a whole has also shrunk. This is why the 14" Pro is similarly sized to the older 13" Pro, and the 16" Pro is of similar size as the 15" MBP.

Here's a comparison of the 2019 Intel 13" Pro and the current 14" Pro:

Size and Weight (13" MBP - 2019)​

• Height: 0.59 inch (1.49 cm)
• Width: 11.97 inches (30.41 cm)
• Depth: 8.36 inches (21.24 cm)
• Weight: 3.02 pounds (1.37 kg)3

Size and Weight (14" MBP - 2023)​

• Height: 0.61 inch (1.55 cm)
• Width: 12.31 inches (31.26 cm)
• Depth: 8.71 inches (22.12 cm)
• Weight (M2 Pro): 3.5 pounds (1.60 kg)
• Weight (M2 Max): 3.6 pounds (1.63 kg)

Outside of the weight (which honestly is still negligible), the overall volume of the 13" and 14" MBP are very close in size:

13" MBP (2019): 59.04 cubic cm
14: MBP (2023): 65.40 cubic cm

The weight difference can largely be attributed to the use of more aluminum in the 14" as well as the cooling systems used for both the M2 Pro and M2 Max.