15" vs 17" macbook pro...which should i choose

I have the opportunity to trade my 15" macbook pro in for a 17" macbook pro. They both have 2gb of RAM, but the 15" is a core2duo 2.33ghz vs the 17" has a coreduo 2.16ghz. I've also heard the 17" has a worse battery life than the 15" (which makes sense). On the flips side, the 17" has a 160gb hd vs the 120gb hd.

So should I choose the 17" for the bigger screen and bigger HD or keep the 15" for the *rumored* better battery life and the newer gen and faster CPU?

For myself personally, I find the 15inch to be the optimal size for traveling and screen real estate. Really the nicest size for a laptop. I have a 15inch pbook and a 12inch and I still think the 15inch is easy to lug around.

What I am saying this might come down to preference. I find the 17inch too big for my daily routine... have you had a chance to carry it around for a moment? Are you planing on taking it everywhere? Does the added size/weight annoy you?

Another thing... you can upgrade the hdd relatively... easy down the road...plus the 120gb *may* be a faster rpm drive... Additonally, you can add an external display to the 15 inch... for a lot more screen space.

The core2duo should also have hidden "n" wireless capabilities... a plus too! The c2d's are nifty... but both machines are plenty capable.

So yeah, I am all about that 15inch. But for some people that big screen is very important.

What wil you use the machine for?

I would go with the 15" because of the core 2 duo, the better battery and the newer gen... and that 17" is the first gen 17", so there is bound to be problems...

OH, and Welcome to the Forums!!

EDIT-XTREEM said:

I would go with the 15" because of the core 2 duo, the better battery and the newer gen... and that 17" is the first gen 17", so there is bound to be problems...

OH, and Welcome to the Forums!!

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Thx for the welcome, I have only had a mac for about 2 months, so I still don't know what I'm doing for the most part. As for the use, I boot to mac at work and run work apps (msoffice, term, xterm, etc...) At home I boot to windows to browse internet and play games (mostly FPS's). The 17" would be great for playing games and browsing the net at home. At work, doesn't matter much since i have a 20" external lcd. I'll probably get a chance to play w/the 17" since my 15" power button broke and sunk down into the laptop. It still works, it's just a matter of time until the button slides into it too deep and stops working. They are sending it in to get it fixed, but i have no other desktop, so they're giving the 17 to me as a loaner and possibly keep if i like it.

Back to the being a mac noobie, I love the design of the hardware, but I've still had OSX lock up on me which seems odd since that's opposite of what MAC is all about. Does it have to do with the intel architecture being new to mac? I just imagined it being much more stable. There are a lot of things i like about booting to the mac side, but windows is so familiar to me its just easier sometimes. And windows is so much easier to browse for and manipulate files and browse network shares. Just my 2 cents.