13 or 15 inch laptop?

[Student88]

Which do you think is the better screen size for a graduate student? You need to work off the laptop most of the time writing papers, and running program software like SPSS and SAS. You also want to be able to bring it with you to school occasionally. The laptop will be your main source of entertainment (ie. no tv at home) and you want to keep this laptop for at least 5 years. 

Edited October 3, 2014 by Student88

[GeoDUDE!]

I personally think that both 13 inch and 15 inch is too small for any real work: Buy a 24 inch monitor for the home/office (wherever you do most of your work) or something better and connect your laptop to it. I personally bought a very expensive monitor because i think its worth having the extra pixel real-estate (3440x1440 vs 1920x1080).

 

Consider your power needs: a 15 inch macbook book pro for example is significantly more expensive and powerful than a 13 inch macbook air.  The 13 inch air is more portable, but power and cost difference is bigger.

 

Anyway, just some things to consider. 

[wuglife427]

I have a 15" macbook pro. I like it because when I write papers, I will often have a page of notes and a page of writing side by side. (And when I'm procrastinating, I'll have netflix side by side with tumblr or gradcafe!) Also, SPSS and Excel can get really frustrating when your screen is small compared to your data set; when I know I'm going to have to use SPSS at work, I try to get there before the other undergrads so I can get the widescreen monitor . That said, I have bad shoulders, so I often wish I had gotten a smaller one when taking my laptop to class. I think GeoDude's idea of a small laptop for class and a large monitor you can hook it up to is really smart. The only problem I see is that it limits where you can work: I like to move around when I work, sometimes sitting at my kitchen table and sometimes sitting on my couch or wherever, and a fixed monitor would keep me fidgeting in one spot. But if you're the type of person who always always works at a desk, or you're willing to stay at a desk when you need a bigger screen, then that sounds like a good compromise.

[maelia8]

I know that it would defeat the purpose of portability and lightness, but I really wish that they produced a 15" version of the macbook air. Like wuglife427, I like being able to transport my laptop easily and move it around the house, but a 13" screen for watching movies and looking at images is really just too small. I have a 15" macbook pro mostly for these reasons, when I honestly don't need the increased power or storage space (I'm an historian - the most advanced program I run is Zotero!), but my pro is already 3 years old and out of warranty, so if it dies, I'm thinking of getting a 13" just so that I can save my back and shoulders lugging it back and forth between campus and my apartment. 

[iphi]

I'm personally fine with my 13" for doing SPSS, writing papers and watching movies! I guess I'm in the minority.

[victorydance]

I have a 15.6', would never get anything smaller than that.

[rising_star]

I had a 14" for most of grad school but I also had a 21.5" monitor on my desk at home to connect that laptop to. I liked having both.

[TakeruK]

I have a 13" Macbook Pro for home / personal use. I used to rely on it for a lot of work use too when I had a crappy computer at work. I find 13" more than enough for entertainment (which is mostly web browsing and Netflix). I find that the increase in price to 15" is not worth it, and here is what I suggest instead:

 

For home entertainment, instead of spending the ~$500 or so to go from 13" MBP to 15" MBP, invest that money into a projector instead. My wife and I recently purchased one (using points so it was free, but it would be less than $500 normally) over the summer and we just plug our 13" MBP into it and now have Netflix on a much bigger screen than 15" !!

 

For work, I would say that neither 13" nor 15" is big enough. But I would also say that we should not be responsible for buying our own work computers! I am currently working on a 27" iMac at work and it is a great size. My old work computer was very slow but it still had a 32" monitor. I guess it depends on what you do, but for my work, I think it would be tough to work on anything smaller than 21" and most students have at least two 17" monitors side by side. 

[dr. t]

I have a Lenovo 13" ultrabook which I take to school and a desktop (with two monitors) at home. The ultrabook can handle all my browsing and word-processing needs while my home rig handles the more processor-intensive things I need like GIS software. Together, they cost about $2000, which is about $500 less than a laptop which can match my desktop. Plus, it's a lot easier to upgrade a tower.

Edited October 4, 2014 by telkanuru

[educdoc]

Very interesting topic. Would it be very difficult to work in the lab at school on SAS, SPSS or similar software, then save the work on a portable HDD or high capacity flash drive to continue the work at home? I personally have a big Alienware (did my MA degree in educational multimedia, so lots of software) with a 26" monitor and no laptop as of now. It was never an issue to work at school then take the work to continue it at home. It would be too much of an expense right now to get a laptop, even using a store credit card to pay for it. And a small one wouldn't really help, imo it'd be an useless expense.

[ss2player]

I have had a 2010 Asus 15.6" for a while now, but since starting my program I've realized it has run out of computing gas and is too heavy to lug around (nearly 7 pounds) in the hot Texas weather. I tried to get by with a Nook HD+ tablet, and despite its awesome screen, it just isn't a real computer.

 

So I bought myself the base 13.3" Macbook Air for $900 on Amazon and plan to get a 24-inch monitor for home, I already have a basic USB mouse and keyboard. I think this will be a great setup: Air has amazing portability and battery life, and I can get a "real" computing experience at home. This way you don't miss the Retina screen on the Pro and end up saving some money overall!

[dr. t]

Very interesting topic. Would it be very difficult to work in the lab at school on SAS, SPSS or similar software, then save the work on a portable HDD or high capacity flash drive to continue the work at home? I personally have a big Alienware (did my MA degree in educational multimedia, so lots of software) with a 26" monitor and no laptop as of now. It was never an issue to work at school then take the work to continue it at home. It would be too much of an expense right now to get a laptop, even using a store credit card to pay for it. And a small one wouldn't really help, imo it'd be an useless expense.

 

Why bother with carrying (and losing) your data when cloud storage is so cheap?

[educdoc]

You're right telkanuru, and most of the documents I needed were either on a cloud somewhere or in my dropbox. But the websites I was working on were permanently on a mobile memory device besides my server, as a precaution.

I don't know yet how the stats software looks like and my concern is if I could work on the computers in the school lab then on my desktop at home like I did during my Master program without having to spend my budget on a laptop now.

[lyrehc]

I have a 15" Lenovo Thinkpad Work Station that I love, but I usually use a tablet in my classes.  I find the tablet gives me the internet access I sometimes need, allows me to have pdf files in electronic form so I don't have tons of paper, is light weight, can have notes taken on it if I plug in a portable keyboard, and I'm less likely if a professor gets a bit dry to distract myself with other options.

 

At my desk in the TA office I have a 2nd monitor to go with my laptop, so that I can read SPSS on one and have my papers open in another, for example.

[Student88]

What is heavy for a laptop? The new 15 inch macbook is about 4.46 pounds. My current 13.3 is 3.5 pounds. Do you think 1 pound makes a different? It would in terms of price and performance. 

[GeoDUDE!]

1 pound is a big deal, in my opinion. Consider what the power gets you; most people do not need a 2000 dollar laptop. I'm a power user, I manipulate big data, and my big data dwarfs what most grad students think is big data ( Think terabytes not gigabytes ) and most of the time I don't even need the power of a 15 inch macbook pro (because I can ssh into a much more powerful computer). 

[Student88]

1 pound is a big deal, in my opinion. Consider what the power gets you; most people do not need a 2000 dollar laptop. I'm a power user, I manipulate big data, and my big data dwarfs what most grad students think is big data ( Think terabytes not gigabytes ) and most of the time I don't even need the power of a 15 inch macbook pro (because I can ssh into a much more powerful computer). 

 

 

I can't tell if you are suggesting a 15 or 13. I'd like the portability of a 13" but I am currently using a 13" and the screen is feeling cramped. But at the same time I am concerned about weight.

Edited October 5, 2014 by Student88

[danieleWrites]

I use a 10" tablet for my work, but bring my 17" laptop when I have scheduled conferences with students and need to have two people clearly see multiple documents on a screen. I would assume that my needs != someone else's needs.

 

Mostly, for me, it's about battery life and recharging ability. My laptop has about two hours between plug ins. The tablet can go all day.

[Vene]

I can't tell if you are suggesting a 15 or 13. I'd like the portability of a 13" but I am currently using a 13" and the screen is feeling cramped. But at the same time I am concerned about weight.

Get a second monitor which you can keep at home when you use the computer. That way you have the portability you need and can still have a good sized screen.

[juilletmercredi]

I had a 13" MBP during the later years of my doctoral degree but I also purchased a 24" monitor and hooked it to an external keyboard and mouse.  Best of both worlds, IMO.  I don't really think you need a 15", unless you absolutely hate being tethered to a desk ever.  Sure it looks nicer to watch movies and do data analysis on it, but IMO 15" is still too small for data analysis.  I love my 24" screen for data analysis and writing at the same time, or looking at results while writing.  When I'm at home if I am on the computer during work, I'm at my desk.  I only take the computer away from the desk if I am doing something for fun on my couch or in bed.  (In grad school, I occasionally used my MBP to write away from my desk at home - like in a coffee shop.  But I only did that if I knew I was only writing or reading articles that day.  I rarely attempted to do data analysis on that tiny screen.)

 

My new work setup is a dual monitor set up - a 21.5" iMac with a 22" Dell monitor to extend the desktop and OH MY GOD.  This is what bliss is like.  (I'm a methodologist who spends a good bit of my time doing some kind of data work so...it gives me the feels.)

[Crucial BBQ]

What is heavy for a laptop? The new 15 inch macbook is about 4.46 pounds. My current 13.3 is 3.5 pounds. Do you think 1 pound makes a different? It would in terms of price and performance. 

Yes, 1 pound might seem trivial but you will notice the difference in weight.  

[Between Fields]

I have a new 15" Macbook, and though it's heavier than 13" laptops for obvious reasons, it's still incredibly light and easy to carry around. It's not really any heavier than carrying around a few books with you. The added screen real estate is worth it, along with the performance increases you get with the larger model. As others have said before, even a 15" isn't big enough for everything you'll want to do. I have a Thunderbolt display I use with it at home, which gives you the benefit of a huge iMac-like display but the portability of a laptop. 

 

I've used my colleagues 11" and 13" Macbook Airs in class before and they're just too small for me, especially when you need to look at multiple documents at once. The 15" screen is especially nice in my office on campus, as I wouldn't want to keep an external monitor there and sometimes I need to show things to students who stop by.

Edited October 27, 2014 by Between Fields

[anjp]

Laptops nowadays are getting pretty light... I just went through this decision myself and went for a 12" notebook.  I like the small size, snappiness, and long battery life.  The weight is good too for carrying...but I am on the road all the time for work.  It's so easy to hook up an HDMI cable to a larger monitor for home/office work (and those monitors are super cheap from BestBuy these days).

 

On the flipside, the 15" laptop seems to be the sweet spot for price point.  You can get a good machine really cheap, or a great machine at a decent price.

 

I'm also a big advocate of paper & pencil, and bound books... so I like the small laptop to keep my weight down.