15 or 17" that is the question

alright so its my first post on here and im stuck between the question of getting the 15" or the 17" mbp. i want to do some video editiing but nothing professional and doing some photoshop. i am also going to be putting bootcamp on it with windows (not sure xp or vista). if you guys had any suggestions please feel free to say them. thanks

you can do that on both 15 and 17, it depends more on the internal components than the screen, but I personally love the 17" and can not see myself now using anything less. The 15" is more portable obviously, but I can sacrifice, because the portability difference was not significant enough for me. I highly recommend the 17"

--

try to go into a applestore and play around with both sizes, then you will have a better feel of what youprefer.

What's the down side of the bigger screen, apart from the money? 17" is always going to better than 15.

When I bought my MacBook Pro, I had gone through the same analysis comparing and contrasting a 15" vs. the 17". Eventually, my decision rested on the 15" based on my assumption of increased portability, lighter weight, and cost.

After several months, I wish I had gotten the 17" model. In the end, the rational reasons for my choosing the 15" inch weren't very important. The portability factor for me was my biggest error. In a laptop bag filled with documents, the extra few ounces and added inch or two of bulk from the 17" would have been rendered a completely moot point.

I find myself often wishing I had a larger screen.

Best of luck!

My experience was just the opposite. I started off with a 20" iMac and a MacBook and ended up consolodating into a 15" MBP. The screen is more than adequate -- and in fact, the native resolution of the 15" display is the same as the 17" display on my old notebook.

Well, some of us with regular old Macbooks get by just fine with 13.3". After all, if 13 inches isn't enough to please...

Anyway, I post this as someone who likes to use the biggest monitor available at the highest resolution. My 20" external CRT is usually dark and I mostly use the internal 13.3" LCD.

We have a 17" MBP at the office, and I've played with it a bit. It's nice to have the large LCD, but it is a really large computer. Perhaps I'm biased to the ultra-portable Macbook, but I'd have a tough time hauling that aluminium beast around with me.

thanks guys for trying to help me out. im gonna go to the apple store soon. i just want to consider that im going to be carrying it around at college next year so portability is sort of an issue. i think i just have to go to the store and check them out.

I had the same doubt while I were chosing what to buy for my first mac. I do edit photos in Photoshop, so monitor quality and size matters.

I've decided that the 17" wouldn't leave me with something that I would call portable. So my decision? I've bought a 15" MacBook Pro AND a 20" LCD monitor. I've paid something around US$ 250,00 in my monitor...less expensive than having the same configuration for my MBP with a 17" lcd.

Think about it.