If you are planning to buy a MacBook Pro, but having a hard time to decide which one is better and will you make the right decision – you are exactly what I had been through.

The hesitation

MacBook Pro 13 inch is lighter and smaller, which means it is easier to take it with yourself whenever you need it. MacBook Pro 15 inch is more powerful, has more screen space, however is bigger and heavier – not as portable as the other one. Now the main hesitation which I came across first was: if I’ll get a smaller one, won’t I regret about missing GPU performance in the future? As this kind of decisions are for quite a long term purchase, I wanted to weight all pros and cons.

The differences

Here I will list the differences that I think were important for my decision. I had been looking only at the upper spec limit, not at the whole spectrum.

MacBook Pro 13 inch MacBook Pro 15 inch
Graphics Intel Iris Plus 650 Intel HD 630 + Radeon Pro 560
CPU Processor Dual-core i7
CPU 3.5GHz, boost up to 4.0GHz		 Quad-core i7
3.1GHz, boost up to 4.1GHz
RAM RAM up to 16Gb RAM up to 16Gb
Screen resolution 2560×1600 2880×1800
 SSD storage SSD Up to 1Tb SSD Up to 2Tb (1Tb is enough)
Dimensions 30.41cm x 21.24cm 34.93cm x 24.07cm
Thickness 1.49cm 1.55cm
Weight 1.37kg 1.83kg
Battery 49.2Wh 76Wh
CPU Benchmark
According to Geekbench		 9572 15611
 Ports 4x USB-C 4x USB-C
Speakers Internet clearly shouts that 15 inch sounds so much better!
Price range
Touchbar version		 UK: £1749 – £2799
DE: €1999 – €3349		 UK: £2349 – £3969
DE: €2799 – €4959
Additionally 15 inch MacBook Pro can provide extra power while rendering videos by combining CPU with GPU (tested by myself with Final Cut Pro X)

You may check the visual differences in the gallery at the bottom.

Define the use needs

By defining what you will be doing with your new MacBook Pro you will help yourself to make a better decision that will likely let you avoid regrets in the future.

In my situation I was considering to use MacBook Pro mainly for:

  • web development – that involves code compiling, running virtual machines, naturally not too demanding performance wise, so +1 for 13 inch.
  • video editing – these are usually heavy computation tasks, so that means +1 for 15 inch.
  • photo editing – it does help when you have extra performance, especially when editing RAW photo files. As this is not critical performance wise, 13 inch should be enough, however the bigger screen means more comfortable work, so again, +1 for 15 inch. Despite the screen size and a bit of nice to have extra performance, 13 inch model would do in this case too. Let’s give +1 for 13 inch too.

The decision

Considering all the differences and key use needs that I have listed, I made a decision. Just because of video editing performance and a bigger screen, which is a benefit in all work situations even for the web development, my personal winner is MacBook Pro 15 inch.

P. S. Whom would I recommend the 13 inch?

People who are not performing compute-heavy tasks, who are often on the go and need their computer while on the train, airplane or in a cozy cafe, meanwhile form and weight factor likely more often important for ladies than men – these would be the people happy with a 13 inch MacBook Pro in their suitcase.

Note: the blog post above is my opinion which hopefully will help you with your MacBook Pro 2018 purchase decision!