Hi! I know there are a lot of same questions on this forum but I’ll try to start another one to make it clear. I have a choice between two MacBooks: 1. MacBook 12” 2017 i5/16/256 2. MacBook Pro 13” without TB 2017 i5/16/256 The situation is that 12” is $400 cheaper (it is from the USA) than official 13” machine. I do a lot of web programming (100 or even 200 opened tabs, Sublime, Terminal, MAMP, sometimes Photoshop) and small or medium iOS apps (Xcode. Swift language, a little bit of Objective-C). The apps don’t use much graphics. I work in a different places, so portability is very important for me. I can debug on a device and also I have external display for something like storyboards. If the 12” MacBook will be enough for my work? I heard for example that the autocomplete feature strongly depend on a processor speed and works slow on a ultra mobile processors. Is it true? My current machine is 2012 rMBP 13” 2.5/8/256 and I need to go for 16 gigs of memory. Thanks in advance!
The right MacBook for development
My concern with 12" would be screen size. Even without storyboard, it makes text editing in XCode more tedious. Of course, no problem when you have the external monitor, but that will not always be the case.
What is the processor difference between the 2 models ? You say they are both i5
The i5 in 12” is ultra low power dual core 1.3ghz. Another one (in 13”) is mobile dual-core 2.3ghz. Of course, I will use an external display at home.
The speed difference will be significant between the two. As XCode does a lot of tasks in background, I would recommend going to the fastest if you can afford it. Because there will be no upgrade path later.
Thank you!
Wish you good luck in finding the best bargain for your purchase.
if i could find the last verion of the 17" MBP, i'd buy that for a resonable price, huge screen, quad cpu, max out the ram. it's like carrying a big brick but no one will complain looking at that big screen.