Test drive impressions 15" vs 17" Macpro

I just got back from Best Buy trying to decide between 15" and 17".

My first impression was that the 15" was plenty big but I'm a big multi-monitor buy with my desktops and later when I tried to put two applications side by side the benefits of the 17" became more clear.

I was disappointed to learn that OS/X has no tiling capabilty, meaning I have to resize the two apps manually on the screen.

The other impression I came away with was that the 17" is really warm sitting on your lap compared to the 15".

Any thoughts about any of this?

I have a 17" and I love it.
Also, Mac laptops have accelerometers. People only have yet to develop apps that can resize based on screen orientation.
But no matter which laptop you end up getting, an interesting app is called LiquidMac and it has liquid particles that move depending on your screen tilted to the left/right. Kind of fun when you're bored and have nothing else to do. Forgot where I downloaded it though.

Don't kid yourself from a small test. Either one of them are going to be warm on your lap. If that is going to be your preferred use (like mine), you'll more than likely need to invest in a stand of some sort. You're not going to want to play a game or watch an hour+ video without one more than likely.

Used dual monitors for the last few years on my win machines. My last setup had a 30" (too big for gaming sitting at a desk) downgraded to a 26" and a 21".

You and a 17" on your lap doing nothing else, or on a business trip using it in your hotel room, probably ok. Get into my habit of watching TV simultaneously, the 15" is plenty big enough. May not be able to see the TV over the top of the screen from your recliner with a 17". Don't even go near a desk at home anymore, except to work on someone else's machine.

I have the 15 inch and took me like a week of going back and forth to the apple store to decide on the 15 or 17 inch. I love the screen and speakers on the 17 inch, but at the end of the day it was just too big for me because I was more mobile than stationary. I know that it's really not that big and heavy for a 17 inch, and that wasn't really the problem. The problem for me came in when I needed to set that thing down on small desks and tables, have it open in m truck, carry on planes, and so on...

So I would suggest that you make your choice based more around what you really need the notebook for, otherwise you might regret your choice if you just base it on screen size alone.

Either way good luck! I'm sure you'll love either one that you come away with.

If you ever go in to battle, the 17" will stop a Sidewinder missile. It's a big chunk of metal there.

I'd recommend the 15 inch. Then again, I could never recommend a 17 inch. I think the 15 might be too big for a laptop for me to use (I dig the 13 inch size for a laptop), but 15s are definitely nice.

As for tiling... use spaces. Then you don't have to resize ANYTHING if you don't want to. Of course OS X will remember the size and location of your windows in apps, so you don't need to do it more than once. I do that and use spaces to make the most of the screen real estate on my 13 inch.

leopard-user1 said:

I have a 17" and I love it.
Also, Mac laptops have accelerometers. People only have yet to develop apps that can resize based on screen orientation.

Click to expand...

What I want is one app on the left half of the screen and another on the right half so I can read one while typing in the other.