Ask HN: 15' Macbook Pro or 13' Macbook Air for web dev?

I love my 13" macbook air; screen size seems fine for development for me, though I do have to alt-tab to toggle apps a lot. It seems plenty fast enough (doing rails development). I also have the 128GB hard drive. I don't use this for photos/music, so I don't have much need for more.

The weight factor is more important than I would have thought.

Do you really need to pay for that fashion? Picked this up from the Dell Outlet for $375 (BTW, myself and co-workers could NOT find a single cosmetic flaw - 2 co-workers ordered the same model):

Item Description:

-- Inspiron 15 - N5040 Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium Unit Price: $469.00 Quantity: 1

-- Inspiron 15 - N5040

-- Label

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-- 8X DVD +/- RW Drive

-- Dell Support Center 64 Bit 2.0

-- 15.6 inch High Definition LED Display with TrueLife

-- Processor Label

-- Processor: Intel Core i3-380M (2.53GHz, 4Threads, 3M cache)

-- Wave Systems Software

-- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Operating System DVD

-- 6 Cell Primary Battery, 48W

-- Scratch & Dent

-- Label

-- Dell Wireless 1502 802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz)

-- Information

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-- Microsoft Office Starter

-- 500 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)

-- Software

-- 65W AC Adapter

-- 125V Power Cord

-- Documentation

-- 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (1 DIMMs)

-- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Operating System DVD

-- Internal NIC

-- Obsidian Black

-- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium

-- Label

-- Intel HD Graphic HM57 UMA

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-- Image Restore Software

-- Keyboard with Gesture Touchpad

-- Shipping Material

-- Save 20% on any Dell Outlet Home Laptop or Desktop with this coupon!

- $93.80

-- Insp15-N5040: 1 Yr Limited Hardware Warranty, Mail-in Service (Included In Price) Unit Price: $0.00 Quantity: 1 Total Price: $0.00Subtotal: $375.20Shipping and Handling: $19.99Shipping Discount: -$19.99Sales Tax: $0.00

Total Amount: $375.20

I had a lot of doubts right before switching from a big dual-screen desktop setup to a 13" mbp for all my development work. So far, I've had zero issues with it. Basically, it never feels like my productiveness is hindered by the screen size.

Given that the 13" air has a better resolution than the mbp, I wouldn't consider it a problem. Of course, it's a matter of opinion and taste. But at least one skeptic was proved wrong very quickly. My next dev machine will probably be a 13" air or equivalent, if my trusty mbp dies.

I love the Airs (my personal one is an 11" and my work one a 13").

The fact that the screen is smallish is great for me. I put apps full screen which is very good to focus on stuff.

Also, they are light. I don't think I ever want to carry a MBP 15" around anymore. Smaller lighter bag is great.

Hint: iTerm2 does Lion's full screen and has a new split screen mode, which is awesome!

I have a maxed out 13" MacBook Air for development and I love it. Being able to cart it around easily is great, and it's plenty fast enough.

I do have an additional screen and I'd definitely recommend at least having access to one if you need it. I have a 24" Dell Ultrasharp which more than makes up for the lower resolution of the Air, when (eg) I want to use Photoshop.

I have a maxed out 13", too, and it's become my main computer. I freaking love the thing, and it's blazing fast.

I use an external mouse (though the touchpad is pretty awesome) but the regular keyboard. It's got a great keyboard.

Also with a maxed out 13" air, had it for 3 weeks. Can't imagine going back to my (previously maxed out) 15" MBP. If you need the screen space plug into a monitor (I've got one 24" and one 27")

Its a delight using the 13" with a riser, external keyboard and trackpad. Lions new features, (full screen, swiping between desktops) really helps with productivity.

What you should consider is, the 13" maxes out at 4GB of ram where the 15" maxes out at 8GB (8G upgrade is around $50 dollars from amazon).

It all depends on you, do you want a light effective machine, or a powerhouse of computer power at the expense of weight.

13" MBA is the best computer I've ever owned.

I have a stock Late 2010 (C2D, GeForce 320M which supports OpenCL, unlike Sandy Bridge) Air 13" and it's awesome.

The thing is, 13" Air and 15" Pro are both 1440*900 so don't worry about screen size.

I love my 15" MBP screen (the hi-res anti-glare). I haven't used a MacBook Air except in stores, but I have a 12.1" netbook with a glossy 1366x768 screen. I couldn't live with less vertical pixels than 768, but the 13" Air's screen would be plenty big enough to get work done. Glossy screens bother me quite a bit though. Sitting in my home office, they're fine, but when I'm out somewhere where I can't control the lighting, the glare can be quite a pain.

Ultimately I had to have the MBP for disk space and memory because I need VMWare and do a lot of photo and video work. But the anti-glare hi-res screen is beautiful.

The obvious answer is to wait until a 15" Macbook Air is released. There has been rumor of a new line of Macbook Pro that are similar in form factor as the Air.

I'm trying to make the exact same decision.

I used to use a 3x24" monitor setup with Windows, now I am using a 2009 MBP 13" C2D in front of me with a single 24" monitor. The problem with this setup is the 2009 MBP is unbearably slow - it lags when closing tabs in Chrome and I do miss having a 2nd 24" monitor. I use IntelliJ for dev. I have full-screen IDE, half-screen browser, half-screen terminal and then I like to have a browser open for documentation/textmate/etc.

1. Seems bad to get MBP when their will be a big refresh 2012 - with MBA 15". If the 15" MBA was available today I would buy it. Macs have good trade-in so it might be worth getting an interim solution - I'm actually considering a low-end 27" iMac so that I can buy 15" MBA next year and use the iMac as server/external display.

2. ViDock is bringing out a Thunderbolt external PCIe solution so you'll be able to drive 2+ monitors from all Thunderbolt Macs. This should be out early January/Feb. From tests you get 90-95% performance of GPU compared with desktop card! Pretty cool. No need to buy the MBP 15" for dual monitor capabilities. http://www.facebook.com/VillageViDock?sk=app_202980683107053...

3. Antiglare high-res on 15". For coding I love having plenty of space, which makes the 15" seem better choice.

I still have no idea what to choose - please let me know what you go with.

I've ordered the Plugable UGA-2K-A which can drive an external 24" so I'm going to wait to see how effective that is with my current setup.