13 inch or 15 inch laptop?

Question

before reading anything else, please answer my actual question. Please don't recommend any other laptop because it's annoying if you're asking one thing and someone answers you another.

i'm a in junior high school and i'm saving up for a new macbook pro with retina display laptop. The thing is, i don't think i'll be able to buy a new one for college so i really need it to last at least 6 years. Don't worry i won't buy anytime soon, i'm planning on waiting for the haswell processors for the retina macbooks.

here are my usual tasks:
e-mail
browsing
word processing (a lot of this because i'm in the school paper)
presentations
photo editing
video editing
watching a lot of videos
i might play a few games every once in a while
a lot of multi tasking (this is where the 8gb comes in handy)

i'm debating on whether i chould get a 13 inch or a 15 in retina.

i could afford a13 inch with 256gb and i7 3.0 ghz, but in the coming years would it still be able to be fast enough? and i'm not quite sure about the 13 inch screen because i would prefer a desktop replacement laptop.

buying the base model of the 15 inch retina would drain quite A LOT in my piggy bank but i would get a bigger screen and quad core processors, but my question is, do i really need quad-core? would it be worth spending pretty much everything i've saved? I think the 15 inch is still quite portable so it's not really an issue for me (seriously, if you think this is quite heavy to carry around, you need to exercise more).

also, could someone describe the difference between an i5 from i7 and a quad core from a dual core just so i could have a better understanding of everything.
I'm the type of guy who wants to know everything before going through something big (Like spending all my savings)
again, please don't recommend other laptops because macbooks are built to last as compared to a pc which almost always needs to be replaced every 2 years.
thanks :)
please help me decide

Answer 1

Well - everything dependent from your usage. If you are Photoshop user or CAD/CAM or running engineering simulation or 3D software or video editing - quad core is a must. For all other usage - dual core is ok.



Don't forget - you can sale your MBP and get updated models too! Mac pricing didn't crash fast as on PCs!

Answer 2

13 Inch Vs 15 Inch Laptop

Answer 3

13 Vs 15 Inch Laptop

Answer 4

It's quite simple:

– 13-inch to save money.

– 15-inch for performance.



The 15-inch has discrete graphics. For games and video rendering, the graphics will boost everything a hole league up. An odd thing is that people state "I will only play games occasionally." That doesn't change anything. If you only play a game once a week, that time will be a poor experience on the 13-inch and a good experience on the 15-inch. How often you play games is how often it sucks on the 13-inch.



As for dual core vs quad core, the latter is twice as many cores. I'm not talking down. That's just a fact.

This–> http://www.diffen.com/difference/i5_vs_i7

explains the difference between i5 and i7, although it isn't 100% correct. I'm not writing a treatise on all the different variations available, so just trust that the i7 is a big deal when doing big deal stuff.



Do I have to tell you to get the maximum flash memory? You can not change it later.

Storage is changeable, no matter what the Ex-spurts all over the Web are claiming.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Aura_Pro_Retina_2012

Prices are high as a kite now, but should come down in a year or so.



For resale value, ALWAYS pay for the upgraded options. When it comes time to sell a four-year old Mac, the buyer will have a choice of your plain-John or someone's hot one. Guess what they want? Hot. Like if you could buy a car without power windows. Fine for you, but to resell it, you better have power windows.



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Answer 5

very interesting question