13" screen big enough?

hi there, i'm new to the forums and will be new to Mac in 2 months (pc user all my life)! what i am wanting to know is, is the 13" Macbook screen a nice size or is it too small? Earlier today i went and looked at our local PC shop,as there are no Apple shops anywhere near my city (closest one is 6 hour drive) at laptop sizes and the 13" seemed too small. But, in the videos i've seen of the Macbook the screen looks a perfect size. i just want to know your thoughts on the Macbook screen size. oh and the MBP is a little out of my budget for now.

thanks!

Not to sound like a smartalec, but it is exactly 13 inches lol. It is a little small for my needs, but perhaps you could find a PC in a store somewhere that is 13 inches and see how it feels to you. Good luck, and welcome to Macs!

i'll actually need to try it out at the Apple store when i arrive in London and see if its ok, otherwise i'll get an iMac or MBP.

It's actually a 13.3" screen.

I personally don't have a problem with it. Sometimes it can feel a little cramped when image editing etc but not enough to make it an issue. The portability of the Macbook far outweighs any (very minor) restrictions I've had with the screen.

I've not had any problems at all with the screen size. Bigger screens are ofcourse always better, but the footprint of the machine is amazing, so I'll take a small screen over a big clumpy one.

A quick google for laptops with 13" screens will give you lots of online price running sites - something like this clicky. What you want to do is take down a few of the non-macbook product names and see if you can see any of those in your nearest PC shop as this may give you a fair idea of what you'll have with a MacBook.

(Oh yeah it is the 13.3" size you want to compare - and make sure it is a widescreen)

If you can wait till you get to the Apple Store in London (UK?) then that'd probably be the best thing to do I guess.

Anyway - my personal experience - the screen size is great - I really like it.

You might want to try and set your desktop resolution to 1280x800 as this is the resolution of the MacBook display and this will allow you to compare the screen res to that of your current setup.

I was skeptical at first too, but now that I've been using it for about 2 weeks, I think its just fine.

13" sounds smaller than it really is, I guess.

The actual resolution is far more important than the physical size of the screen. The resolution on the MacBook is still far higher than even some of the 15" notebooks that are sold by competitors.
Plus, you still have the option of adding a second display if you really feel the need for even more screen real estate.

I've been using the Macbook for almost 3 months now and the size is just perfect, especially considering the portability of the machine.

Plus, I don't really notice a lack of screen real estate because I use VirtueDesktops with 4 virtual desktops. I have one for browsing and general use, one for iTunes, one for Adium, and one for Parallels (it's fun switching from Mac OS X to Windows in front of people, they get all mesmerized :black. Of course, I use all the desktops for other things too, but it's nice not having to minimize stuff when I can just switch to another desktop.

I got myself a Macbook and I did like it for it being compact but I soon swapped it over for a MBP 15" in the end while i was still in the Apple 14 days return policy. And I must say I love the MBP ALOT better

If it's your main and only computer, I'd say it's a bit little. If it's all you can get now, it's fine, but I need 20" to get work done. No laptop will ever help me there. I am going to buy a 13" soon though for college purposes.

I went with a used PB over a new MB just because I felt the 13" screen was way too small..

I have had my MB for almost 2 weeks now. My desktop at home is a dual 17" lcd setup and I absolutly love my macbook screen! I hate big notebooks too! Hope this helps in your decision.

<R>

if you're going to use it as a portable, taking it out nearly every day and using it on the go, it's a very good size. It's small and light enough to make taking it out not a hassle...if it will just sit on your desk and hardly every be taken out, you could probably go bigger

It's actually a pretty decent size (the 'widescreen' aspect of it helps) especially for being out 'n about. I have found that I mostly use the internal screen even if my 20" 1600x1200 monitor is available. I've been working on my Macbook all day at my desk with just the internal LCD and only hooked up my big monitor to possibly do some music editing a little later a little while ago.

Spanning the monitor (any direction you like, actually; mine is in a vertical arraignment at the moment) is a very powerful feature that pretty much makes the screen size irrelevant. Out in the world it's perfectly workable. It's a heck of a lot better than my Dell's 15" screen that only does 1024x768 (thanks cheap boss.) And my (their) Dell is a lot heavier and clunkier than my Macbook.

Of course, Exposé makes the whole thing that much better. I use that so much I need to find some kind of 'workalike' when I'm forced to do stuff on a Windows (or even Linux) machine.

visualpurple said:

if you're going to use it as a portable, taking it out nearly every day and using it on the go, it's a very good size. It's small and light enough to make taking it out not a hassle...if it will just sit on your desk and hardly every be taken out, you could probably go bigger

Click to expand...

i agree. i love the portability of the macbook and will not complain about the screen size. i jumped from a 17" HP to this and its not that obvious as i don't spend that much time watching movies or what not on it. i have a plane trip coming up in a couple weeks and will see how great it performs in my cramped plane seat.

thanks everyone for the suggestions. i will still have to look at it for myself when i'm in the UK and make my choice. i cant wait for my switch to Apple