Ask HN: What are your opinions and experiences coding on a 13“ or 15” laptop? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are your opinions and experiences coding on a 13“ or 15” laptop?

26 pointseecks81 comments

I am writing this on a 15" Dell laptop that I bought about 8 years ago. It has served me well for everything from gaming (dedicated graphics card inside) to coding to dual booting Windows and Ubuntu.. but it is time for an upgrade.

I do like the 15inch screen size but this Dell is big and clunky. It's pretty heavy too. It's been a while since I programmed on this one because it is a bit slow now.

I have also programmed on a 10" netbook. I did a lot of programming on it but I do think it is too small.

I am trying to decide between a 13" MacBook Pro and a 15" MacBook Pro. Obvious advantages of the 15" are i7, 16GB RAM and larger screen space! The 13 inch has an i5, 8 GB RAM.

I don't have to travel with it much but I will be attending an evening course once a week until Xmas so I do have to bring it out of the house for that. Do people still carry about 15 inch laptops?

When I get my new laptop (whichever one I choose) I will be starting a new project. The project will involve lots of text analysis, neural network stuff, web crawler, database stuff (PostgreSQL), front end web stuff (python/javascript), mobile app dev (iPhone & android). So with this very brief overview, do you have any recommendations?

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I guess I'm a bit of an outlier. I use a 13" laptop for most of my coding, and I don't think I've ever hooked it up to an external monitor (not counting projectors when I'm giving a talk). I used to be part of the "bigger monitors are better" crowd, but I find that focus is my biggest challenge so I actively do not want to have any chat or email or other-distraction windows alongside the one in which I'm editing code. Even without power- and memory-sucking Retina/QHD resolutions, 13" is plenty for a decent edit window and a couple of smaller compile/general-purpose windows.

I'll confirm this. I also have more trouble focussing. So I have programmed for a very long time on a EEE 1005P, which has a 10" screen. I am now working on a 19" monitor because desktop, but still lower the resolution to 1440x900 in order to have less clutter on my screen. The thing is, you should never need to see more than 30-40 lines of code on your screen at once. If you do, the code needs to be cleaner.

For me, as a web developer, I like to have browser and code side-by-side.

Depending on what I'm building, I often want to have a full-screen browser, or at least a pretty wide one.

I work on an 18" laptop and typically I just alt-tab between vim in the terminal and my browser, but sometimes I align them side-by-side.

Yeah, for front-end and mobile stuff I'm sure it's a bit different, and more/larger screens make more sense. I don't know enough to make that translation myself, so I figured I'd just put my data point out there and others can best determine how well it applies to them.

I have a 13" Retina MacBook Pro (2014) and a MacBook Air (2015), having previously worked on 14", 15", and 17" Linux and Windows laptops. My computers get smaller as the years go on, and I like that.

My MBP is the best computer I've ever worked on (and am typing this on). I've used my girlfriend's 15" MBP and I vastly prefer my 13".

I use BetterSnapTool[1] for window management: browser on the left half, SublimeText in the upper right 2/3 of the screen, and Terminal in the lower right 1/3 of the screen. It works great for me, and I can't imagine that another 2 inches would make much of a difference.

At work, I dock to a 24" Dell monitor of some sorts, and that's more than enough extra real estate for me.

[1]https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bettersnaptool/id417375580?m...

wow, what a great (no sarcasm) recommendation for window management. Thanks!!!

Thanks. :) It's a pretty simple solution, I just took a fairly common IDE setup and configured my snap tool to let me easily put my windows where I need them.

I have a 22" external monitor hooked up to my 12" laptop and one of the main reasons for this is ergonomics - I put the monitor on a stand, so that the top edge of the screen is at the same height as my eyes, and the laptop's screen doesn't obscure the external monitor's screen.

The end result is that I have a tiny and lightweight laptop for travel and at the same time reasonably big screen for everyday work.

I've used a 13" laptop as my main workhorse for 7 years now and can't imagine trading it for a bigger laptop.

The reason for choosing 13" is that I travel a lot for work and I want to get some work done when I'm on the road. I also find it the ideal size to still accommodate a decent-sized keyboard and trackpad. When I need some extra screen estate, I just hook it on an external monitor.

Because I do allot of programming on it, I've chosen one with a high resolution screen (1920x1080) so I don't trade in screen estate but that might be a bit too high for most people (e.g. everything tends to get a bit tiny).

I used to use a 13" MBP but my work supplies 15" MBP's. Now that I have been on this machine for a while I can't go back. I have tried on my old machine and my wife's and really like the bigger screen.

With the MBP's the extra size really isnt a big deal because they are so light and thin. And with the 15" you can get a MUCH better dual graphics setup which helps with all the other non-coding things you might want to do (gaming).

TBH you probably done need the power you will get, but it is nice to have.

Another anecdote: a friend of mine just picked up a 15" MBP after having a 15" dell for ever. He loves it and was amazed that he could actually run Photoshop without closing other things. And if you have to do any graphics like that the extra space of the retina 15" is really good.

To clarify, dual graphics means there is not JUST the onboard graphics chip but an actual graphics card. http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-retina/

I just upgraded from a 13" MacBook Pro w/ Retina to the 15" version. Key Reasons:

- Display Space: Even when set to the highest possible virtual resolution, there is still noticeable more space on the 15" version. It's still way worse than a 27" display, but the difference makes me more productive.

- RAM: Retina eats RAM. I could run several browsers, VMs, editors etc. just fine on a 4GB MacBook Air. When I upgraded to a 13" MBPr, I was constantly running out of RAM, the machine began swapping and became barely usable. With the 16GB 15" MBPr, it's a very noticeable difference. I easily run into >8GB RAM usage. In addition, when there's available physical RAM, OS X caches some stuff from the SSD which speeds it up further.

I did the sorta the same Wrote code for 4 years on 13" Air, switched to a 15" MBP (with dedicated GPU). Satisfied.

For me, the size or weight of the laptop isn't relevant. It's the "clumsyness of it". With unibody Apple made the larger ones easier to move around.

I'd buy a 17" MBP if they would still make them. I prefer laptops to an external monitor because I use the touchpad with gestures a lot, and I like the focus.

I have a 13 inch and I just got a 15 inch MacBook Pro. The 13 inch is by far much easier to travel with, but I like larger 15 inch MacBook for the screen size. I can open a bunch of iTerm windows and resize them to fit nicely. I did want the 16 GB and I thought I would run virtualbox but I ended up just using homebrew to install PostgreSQL etc. I am trying to figure out a laptop case that is weather proof and easy to travel with as either a shoulder bag or soft briefcase. Given the changes in the MacBook Pro over the years, its not always clear which case will fit which model.

I had a 13" mbp for 5 years and it was great until the last 6 months. The only problem at the end was it needed more memory. Dual booting with linux was a pain, so I stuck with OSX which is a great OS once you get used to all the key commands and helpers (get used to using spotlight search).

I am on a macbook air now, but I would not suggest it for development. Its very thin (which is nice), but its noticeably slower, and I am worried I will run into the memory cap quickly.

The funny thing is that I have been looking at Dell's 13" XPS Developer Edition. Has anyone tried it?

I bought the 1st or 2nd gen (over 2 yrs ago now) It's a really good machine, but I found Dell pretty terrible to deal with. I want there to be an alternative for that reason, but the latest XPS 13 ubuntu machine still looks about the best bet for a linux development laptop.

Anyone else got the latest one? Or can anyone suggest alternatives to the latest one?

on #xps13 irc channel we are 50

This is why I tend to buy 14" laptops.

15" is too big to fit in train and airplane seats comfortably, but 13" is too small to get lots of work done.

However, I guess that rules out a MacBook Pro - oh well.

I would agree with this. I love my 14" ThinkPad because it really does seem to be the perfect size for me, and also probably has the best keyboard of any current mainstream consumer laptop. 13" also cramps the keyboard in most cases (especially with small bezel laptops like the XPS 13) and 15" results in excess weight and size.

I've been coding on a 13" laptop for years now and I must say I would never switch it for anything bigger. Keep in mind that you might an external screen for design heavy projects but that's it.

Recently bought the new dell xps 13 with infinity display and that thing is just a pleasure to work on.

Your only limitation might be battery life if you're going to do a lot of neural network stuff while on battery.

I can have it plugged in nearly 100% of the time.

I bought a 13 inch MBP a few months ago.

So far, it seems great. Screen is amazing (although dim in bright sunlight), and I haven't had any issues with memory (right now, with 3 web browsers and a text editor open, I am using 5gb out of the 8gb total). The processor is very fast, although the integrated graphics card is slow (whether this matters or not depends on what you are doing... I wouldn't buy this if you want to play complex video games or do a lot of graphics work). The screen is big enough to run two windows side-by-side, a long as they don't have too many toolbars.

The one downside is the OS. Yosemite is extremely buggy. Drops wifi connections, hangs when logging out, etc. El Capitan is being released next week though - hopefully that will be better.

Whether or not you need more RAM and a faster processor really depends on what exactly you want to do with it. For me (text editor, multiple web browsers, terminal, MAMP, all running at the same time) it is fast and large enough.

Also, I changed the resolution from the default 1280x800 to 1440x900. Makes text feel right size-wise, and also makes more room on the screen.

I have worked on everything between a 11" Macbook Air and a 17" Macbook Pro. I recently switched from a 13" MBP to the 15" one. Both had 16 GB of RAM but for my work, the quad core CPU that is only available in the 15" models made a noticeable difference and I'm happier now.

Portability: I travel a lot and the 15" is too heavy but the 13" Macbook Pro was heavy as well and in combination with everything else I'm carrying around, the difference doesn't really matter. I got a nice bag that I can convert to a backpack instead. The 15" doesn't feel very "clunky" to me. I was worried that I wouldn't want to sit on the couch with it like I used to with my 13" but here I am and I like it.

Screen size: the 15" screen is a little bit more convenient but the 13" was no problem for me either, you get used to it.

I would never do 11 or 17 " again, the 13 and 15" are both ok to work on.

Thanks! Any suggestions re bags?

For a convertible bag + backpack, I have a Qwstion bag: http://www.qwstion.com

For a more ergonomic backpack when I have to walk more and carry a lot, I use a booq backpack (booq boa because I wanted it to have hip belts).

Tom Binh makes excellent MacBook bags

I recommend having two monitors, I like working with two monitors, it's better than working with only notebooks monitor.

I second you. I have 2 19" in front of me. I can not code on a laptop.

Try a 4k screen.

I used to look at my friends 13 inch laptop and thought "that's way too small, I could never program on that." Now I have a 13 inch laptop and it took me all of 20 minutes to get used to the smaller screen. I find it's a lot more portable too, since I ride to work on a motorcycle and it goes in my bag every day.

Note that you can upgrade the RAM on the 13" model to 16GB, although you have to do this at purchase time, it's not possible to expand later with the current model.

I, personally, use a 13" with 16GB RAM and have external screens both at home and at work. It provides a good balance between portability and utility.

Been on a 13" MacBook Air for the last two years, where I was using a 15" MacBook Pro for a few years previously. I only miss the 15" screen real estate when dealing with apps like Adobe suite or Unity. But for just dealing with text alone the 13" screen is just fine for me.

If you're set on a laptop, my advice is to buy the smallest physical laptop that has the specs you require and then get a dock (something like http://hengedocks.com/) and monitors for working at home.

Do you have a Henge? How do you like it? I've been on the fence about it - the reviews seem to be decidedly mixed.

I have a vertical Henge dock for my 2011 MBP and the Clique (keyboard + trackpad chassis).

I like it: a space saver and aesthetically pleasing, good build quality, and never had any issue plugging and unplugging (need to follow the setup instructions properly).

However, a bit inconvenient as you need to take out your MBP to power it on. The alternative is to leave your MBP on sleep (and it will wake on mouse / button click). Also, factor in a purchase of the display adaptor extension. I found that my existing Mini DP to HDMI does not fit on the dock.

I have had an Alienware M11X R3 since 2011. Best laptop ever. There is still nothing close to it on the market. It had a 11.6" screen with a GT540M which was great for its time.

Clevo chose to do an "on paper" GPU upgrade of on the WS230 which is their 13.3" laptop (860M and 960M are the same) with a 3200x1800 screen.

The Clevo 650SG is a nice 15.4" with a 4k matte and 980M option.

The Razer Blade 2015 is 14" with a 3200x1800 screen and 970M.

Give me a 12-14" laptop with a 980M and 4k screen and I'll be happy. Razer Blade is closest so far, maybe Razer Blade 2016?

No, 4k in 12-14" is not too small. We have had 1080P 5" phones for a while now and Sony has released 4k phones. So we should be able to have 4k laptops. I'd like an 8k laptop though ;)

13" Although personally I went with an 11" Air. It's docked 80% of the time so I don't have an issue. When I do need to be mobile or code on the couch or something the portability is sublime. Love it. I do a lot of .NET so I have VS in a VM and it doesn't skip a beat. Took a long time and read countless articles and I was hesitant the 11 wasn't going to be enough, but it is in my use case. So happy with it.

There isn't a hard and fast rule to what you need and what works for one person won't work for another. The only way you'll know is to try it for yourself. And even then you could argue either way depending totally on the context so it's a tough call for you to make.

I bought a gaming laptop to use as a mobile linux development workstation. 4K display 15.6", 32Gb ram. pros: lots of screen real estate with super crisp fonts. pros: run many vm's/containers without strain. cons: 5.5 lbs and poor battery life.

I use a 15" Lenovo and on the whole I'm quite happy with it. I like the fact that the keyboard has a number pad, and the screen is big enough that I can fit two Emacs buffers side-by-side without breaking up 80-char-lines. However, sometimes I would still like to have a bigger screen when programming, so I've just ordered an external 20" monitor.

Portability with the 15" is acceptable, but you need a dedicated carrier bag, I wouldn't carry it around in my backpack. That would be the one reason why I might go for a 13" next time I buy a laptop - as long as I have the external monitor at home, the small screen doesn't matter too much.

Funny, I also have an old Dell laptop, and I LOVE the keyboard on that thing. It literally makes my fingers happy to use. It was a tough decision to finally adopt another solution (below), but I finally did it.

I use a de-Chromed Chrome book (acer c720) with xubuntu for personal projects these days. I do java/j2ee on a macbook pro for work, I never use it as a laptop, it's always docked. For personal projects on the chrome book, I code apache/python/django/vim, which run wonderfully on it. The smaller screen does take some getting used to, and the nonstandard keyboard takes some remapping. Otherwise, after 9 months, no complaints.

A factor that can be overlooked is the screen resolution. Normally the 13" screens only go to 1366x768 which can feel like reduction in screen real estate, especially if you have your IDE set up with side panels etc. However I've found with a full 1920x1080 screen if you handle the smaller text everything lays out exactly as it would on your desktop monitor so it doesn't feel as squashed. Best of all nothing changes position when you dock back at your desk. Given the resolution of the 13" MacBook Air Retina is 2304x1440 as long as you can get the font the right size you'll have plenty of screen space.

I have a 15" MBP from mid-2014. I tried the 13" and it was too small for my tastes. I'm very happy with the 15". It is easy to travel with, even the 15" weighs next to nothing.

The only factor you need to consider is portability vs. screen size. You can get the 13" version with 16GB, and for most kinds of coding the other performance differences don't matter.

I just switched from a 17" Macbook Pro to a 13" Macbook Pro. I miss the humongous screen when diffing files, but I just love how portable my 13" is! I don't travel much, but lugging that 17" machine around was such a pain...

I guess the 15" isn't as bad as the 17", but since you do plan on carrying it around I'd recommend to go with the more portable option.

I use a 13" Macbook Air and find it to be perfect, though I don't think 15" is unwieldy, even if you're like me and work from couches/cafes frequently. Laptops are just so thin and light these days that 15" hardly seems less portable in most scenarios.

The main reason I use 13" is because I'd probably spend $1000 more for 15", and I try to limit the price of hardware in total that I have on me. My laptop and phone together cost about as much as a loaded 15" rMBP.

However, 15" seems to pay off when using IDEs with all their panes.

A 13'' only useful for short coding sessions on a plane or small train seats, for other locations it is just too small, specially if you are into IDEs.

I travel a lot and coding (a lot) on my 11 inch Macbook air works very well, also for very long coding sessions. Not sure what the obsession is with programmers and big screens but I went from multi monitor setups to smaller and smaller over the years. The 11 inch air would be perfect if it had retina and 20 hour battery life. I would never buy anything else. Battery life just still sucks for small laptops unfortunately, that would be my only reason to buy something like a Thinkpad X250 with 3-4 6 cell batteries I can hotswap. But in general I find it way too big.

I never managed to work comfortably with Eclipse, Netbeans, Android Studio, Qt Creator or Visual Studio in tiny screens.

Specially when doing code navigation across multiple modules or UI design.

Also quite painful when using the debugger and being forced to context switch all the time between top level windows.

I carry my 15" MBP Retina on a 1.5 hour commute. It's light enough that I really don't think too much about it. I carry a change of clothes and a few other items as well so it is not the majority of the bulk and weight. The adapter is heavy so I bought one for the office to avoid carrying it back and forth. I think I would feel cramped on a smaller screen, but that is based on being spoiled with this big screen.

Pro Tip: You can use the smaller power adapters (from the 11" Macbook Air) with the bigger laptops, as long as you're not running the GPU at full blast.

However, if your Mac needs more power than the adapter can provide, it'll take it from the battery.

Only downside: When your battery goes empty, the Macbook won't start immediately when a weak power adapter is connected. It will first charge the battery a bit, and only boot again after a few minutes. If you use the power adapter with the correct rating, the Macbook boots immediately after connecting it to power.

A couple of things that I haven't seen mentioned here yet:

- You might like getting a 4K external screen: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10168766

- A 2ndhand desktop or previous-gen server in the corner can provide extra computational power; AWS et. al. throw in staggering network bandwidth and uptime guarantees.

I develop on a 13" MBair it's the perfect size.

I would go with a 13" and then connect to a monitor at your main work area when you need side by side displays. I use a 23" Acer monitor from amazon and a rain mStand, wireless trackpad and keyboard, It's a great setup for my main work station. Having a 13" air is great for working in other locations, outside and at a coffee shop.

I switched from an old dell inspiron to a shiny dell xps 15 (http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-15-9530/pd)

I bougth it during last black friday, and I've been happy with the purchase until now. Only caveat: had to disable the touchpad because i tend to touch it when typing

I've switched from a maxxed out 15" Retina to a new 12" MacBook and I'm not having any problems. I don't do anything hardcore like iPhone development though or anything that requires compilation - just Web stuff and some Ruby and Rails. Now being used to the 12", I imagine the current 13" MBP would feel amazing in comparison :-D

I own a 14" System76 and a 13" MacBook Air and I hardly find any difference while working on the two. Its even more jarring especially because the Air's resolution is far worse (Non-retina vs full hd).

I have always wanted to try out the Dell XPS 13, but its way too costly. For me, the choice is between a 13" laptop or something lower (12", perhaps).

What's your experience with System76? Are they worth their money?

I wrote a blog post after I bought it [0]. Its a pretty good machine, which has rarely ever given me software troubles. However, the hardware is kinda flimsy and not as good as a Mac. I also faced issues with the hard disk and battery recently, which has made me the brunt of many jokes for buying a Linux machine over a Mac.

[0]: https://captnemo.in/blog/2014/07/04/galago-ultra-pro-review/

I use a 17" laptop personally because I love the number pad on the keyboard and the bigger screen (and I do take it around with me).

I would get the more powerful laptop if possible due to the text analysis and neural network stuff you will be doing. Hook it up to an external monitor if you can. It really helps to have the display at eye level.

I own a 2015 13" MBP (Retina) and it's a fine machine for coding. I don't ever hook it up to an external.

Do you use an IDE or text editor?

Usually just a text editor. For a while I was using Atom and now I'm on Visual Studio Code.

I have a 13" Retina Macbook with 27" monitors both in my office and at home. Whilst the 13" is great to carry around and fits nicely into airplane and train tables - I did find my old 15" much better for displaying more workspaces in sublime and jumping into photoshop quickly etc.

I use a 13" without an external screen for most coding and like it, just like many people say, it's easier to focus on one thing if you can't have more than two files open at the same time for me.

The computer is fast enough, the two extra cores are probably helpful, but the 13" is fast enough.

For my main development laptop, I actually recently got a Thinkpad W550s at work -- 15.6" screen. I was worried about the size, but I have come to like it much better than the 12.1" I had before (Thinkpad X220). I guess I'm swinging between extremes more though. :)

I have an 11 inch Macbook Air and 15 inch Macbook Pro. The battery life of the 15 inch is far too poor (but if you don't travel much you wouldn't mind) so I hardly ever touch it. I would go for the i7 though; I notice considerable difference when i'm compiling.

Does the general consensus of HN believe the i7 option is worth the upgrade for the 13" MBP Retina? Standard software development; also been killing my air with powerpoint thanks to school lately, with the various simultaneous use of VMs to load windows programs

I find them too small. I've got a 17" Mackbook Pro, and I'd buy them bigger if they existed. Unfortunately even the 17" is not being made anymore. No idea what I'll do when this one needs to be replaced. A Thinkpad perhaps?

I use a 15" rMBP, but it's almost always hooked up to two 27" displays. I think coding without the monitors is doable, but at least in my case, I'm also doing design work so they're pretty necessary.

Just ASKING: Why are you switching to a Mac instead of a more sane Linux dual boot machine? Mac's dual booting is a serious PAIN with my experience. The machine runs HOT and the battery drains FAST on anything but OS X.

He mentioned that he does iOS development, so Macs are the only way to go

It something I will just be starting. I have wanted to play around with iOS apps for a while. I also noticed that MacBook Pros aren't THAT much more expensive than other laptops when you max the other laptops out.

You get an Mac Mini? That is the way I deal with iOS.

How is the Mac Mini? To be honest, I don't know much about it besides what I looked up briefly. What specs do you have in it and do you use a mac/apple monitor?

I got a used one from a friend. I just needed it to compile my work really. I tried Xarmarin and Unity. Seems to work fine.

I went from a Macbook Pro 15" (pre-retina) to a 2015 Macbook Pro 13" Retina (with max resolution: 1680x1050), and I haven't been hindered at all.

I code on it daily. I did get some upgrades like the 16GB RAM.

Maybe a useful suggestion: I sometimes add my ipad as second screen, using Duet. That software makes the ipad screen very responsive (needs usb cable). I have seen others doing this as well.

I like having dual setups, but 13 inches is fine by me (MBA 13") Would I like 15? Probably, but I'm not missing the extra size when I can plug a second or third monitor

I second @ramon's answer. . Usedto be with a 13" monitor but bought a 15" alongside it now Fulfilled. .!

Hate it. My eyes are going, and I need to be able to quickly look at all of the tools I use "at a glance".

Been thinking about upgrading to 15" from 13" after using El Capitan's split screen feature.

If you move to a MacBook, beware of the keyboard. Especially the ENTER key can be rather tiny.

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