Upgraded 13" or base model 15"?

[itsLorentz]

Hey,

I'm in the market for getting a macbook pro.

I'm considering 13" MBP (Touch Bar) with the upgraded processor, 16GB ram and 256GB memory. This price tag is $2,299.00.

Though, the 15" MBP base model with 16GB ram, 6 core processor and 256GB memory is priced $2,399.00.

My question is, should i spend the extra 100 dollars for the 15", or go for the 13"? Is there more differences that I need to take into account except size, weight and portability?

Thanks.

 

[buran-energia]

Dedicated gpu on 15, better speakers, fans on 15 run all the time as opposed to 13, but are silent on low rpms. New 15 have ddr4 memory vs ddr3.

One thing that is hard to find out is heat and noise between these two during various workloads. There night be some lag if you use 4k monitor with custom scaling during ui animations on 13, because of weaker gpu...

 

[sosumi99]

As buran-energia says above, the 15" is better in every way. The main advantage of the 13" is portability (and lapability, for some. I can't stand the 15" on my lap). For most people, the 15" in your comparison is the better machine unless you really care about portability (like me).

 

[doitdada]

Dedicated gpu on 15, better speakers, fans on 15 run all the time as opposed to 13, but are silent on low rpms. New 15 have ddr4 memory vs ddr3.

One thing that is hard to find out is heat and noise between these two during various workloads. There night be some lag if you use 4k monitor with custom scaling during ui animations on 13, because of weaker gpu...

Do you mean that the 15" has the fans running all the time? Because that is my experience. 13" doesn't make that much noise?

 

[airlied]

Dedicated gpu on 15, better speakers, fans on 15 run all the time as opposed to 13, but are silent on low rpms. New 15 have ddr4 memory vs ddr3.

One thing that is hard to find out is heat and noise between these two during various workloads. There night be some lag if you use 4k monitor with custom scaling during ui animations on 13, because of weaker gpu...

fan on 13 doesn’t tun all the time? wow didn’t know that!

 

[buran-energia]

Do you mean that the 15" has the fans running all the time? 13" doesn't make that much noise?

1. Yes. 2. They all can make lots of noise (subjective) if you push both the cpu and gpu. But the 13 non-touchbar models might make more noise than the TB because of inferior cooling solution with just 1 fan if you push it to the limits.

fan on 13 doesn’t tun all the time? wow didn’t know that!

It didn't on my 2015 and 2017 tb. And even when they do spin at low speeds, you won't be able to hear them unless you stick your ear into keyboard (you shouldn't be able to hear the fans on 15 as well at low speeds).

 

[Howard2k]

1. Yes. 2. They all can make lots of noise (subjective) if you push both the cpu and gpu. But the 13 non-touchbar models might make more noise than the TB because of inferior cooling solution with just 1 fan if you push it to the limits.



It didn't on my 2015 and 2017 tb. And even when they do spin at low speeds, you won't be able to hear them unless you stick your ear into keyboard (you shouldn't be able to hear the fans on 15 as well at low speeds).

Mine is quiet too. I was doing some Lightroom HDR stuff the other day though and when they kicked on it took me by surprise, I really never hear them routinely. I wonder how the 13” does with a quad core though, I wonder if that materially different.

 

[airlied]

1. Yes. 2. They all can make lots of noise (subjective) if you push both the cpu and gpu. But the 13 non-touchbar models might make more noise than the TB because of inferior cooling solution with just 1 fan if you push it to the limits.



It didn't on my 2015 and 2017 tb. And even when they do spin at low speeds, you won't be able to hear them unless you stick your ear into keyboard (you shouldn't be able to hear the fans on 15 as well at low speeds).

I had 2017 13’ model, I didn’t pay attention on fan speed because it runs quiet most of time. When I got 2018 15’ model and yup! 15’ is definitely hotter, and fans are louder when on full speed.

 

[justinf77]

As buran-energia says above, the 15" is better in every way. The main advantage of the 13" is portability (and lapability, for some. I can't stand the 15" on my lap).

Funny, one of the biggest surprises for me when I switched from 13" to 15" was that the 15" actually fits better on my lap. I agree that the 13" is better for maximum portability of course, but for "lap-ability" the 15" wins in my case.

 

[Abaganov]

for me the 13" wins.
I have no need for a dGPU. when I am at my home I connect the it to a 27" monitor and when I am out the portability of the 13" is awesome. so it's a win win.

 

[Hadron]

I've used 13" and 15" before, and debated which to get this time, but in the end 13" won. But I do need portability (though the current 15" is better than my last one there, but still wouldn't fit in some of the bags I carry and would be more of an annoyance on planes and trains) and do not need a dGPU. Your requirements may differ.

 

[cyclotron451]

I also bought the 2018 13" MBP with TB, (13" purchase was due to buying the infamous 15" MBP8,2 in 2011 which eventually destroyed itself twice) I figured that the embedded GPU in the quad-core i5 is likely to work well enough for normal use and if I need some extra graphical computing then the external eGPU will be perfect and cheaper/better than the price differential to the 15" with its compromise discrete GPU

16GB RAM and 256GB and for me the stock 2.3GHz quad-core i5 was the solution, as nearly as snappy as the QC-i7, so I chose the lower thermal profile CPU as the overall design of the laptop is so thin that I want to minimise TDP, hopefully maximise lifetime.

 

[ascender]

Personally i think it comes down to screen, CPU and gpu. If you don’t need those things then the new 13s are very powerful machines in a small package. Effectively you’re getting what used to be the power of a 15” machine the size of the original Air.

 

[maflynn]

My question is, should i spend the extra 100 dollars for the 15",

Yes, for a 100 more, you get more cores, a dGPU, and more importantly (imo), a larger screen.

 

[Brian Y]

For 100 more it's a no brainer IMO.

 

[Abaganov]

for many of us it's not about the money difference which is indeed not a big deal. it's just that we prefer the smaller form factor, and overall feel of the machine (and don't need the dGPU, the 2 extra cores and we if we need more screen real estate we simply hook it up to a external monitor)

 

[Gamer-Dad]

Having both, I prefer the 15" over the 13". The 15" fits better on my lap, is easier to get comfortable with, and the extra screen size definitely helps. While the 13" is quieter, the 15" is no slouch. Its quiet as well, and when you do something that taxes the CPU the fans spin up. Same with the 13". Both machines are great machines, but like has been said before, for $100, you are gaining 2 more physical cores, 4 more hyperthreaded cores, dGPU, faster memory, and more screen space. The 15" is faster to and feels snappier with day to day tasks.

 

[maflynn]

if we need more screen real estate we simply hook it up to a external monitor)

For me its definitely the screen real estate. I do hook up my laptop to a monitor, but I also travel with it, so the times its off my desk, the 15" form factor is much better imo then the 13"

 

[A_ardvark]

I recently moved to a 15 inch base model from the i5, 16gb, 512gb model I owned for a month (Apple's customer service and return policies really are amazing).

No issues with the 13 model, but the screen size felt limiting. I had to work with "more space" to get my day to day work done, which caused me some eyestrain. I looked into an external monitor, but I'm trying to work less from home and I want to be able to open my computer wherever I am and get to work.

I was thinking about a 512 upgrade, but I need the computer now so I opted for an external ssd. Hopefully that will work well enough.

 

[sosumi99]

for many of us it's not about the money difference which is indeed not a big deal. it's just that we prefer the smaller form factor, and overall feel of the machine (and don't need the dGPU, the 2 extra cores and we if we need more screen real estate we simply hook it up to a external monitor)

This. I just find the 13" so much more comfortable to use than the 15", and that comfort is worth the extra premium. Pure specs wise, it is indeed a no-brainer to get the 15".