Laptops for work: given the choice, would you choose a 13" or 15"?

[suicidal_monkey]

For years I have had a 15" laptop for work purposes. I am now faced with the choice :g: of sticking with 15" or dropping to a more portable 13". A lot of the time I guess I will be sat with a monitor and keyboard so I am wondering just how much of a change that drop in screen size would be - appreciate any thoughts from those who have done it (either direction). Likely to be a lot of diagrams, documents, spreadsheets, and possibly some coding, but as I said: _mostly_ I will have a monitor ... can't make up my mind :unsure:

With hybrid working (woo) and also the possibility of needing to visit sites a few hours away portability would be a factor this time. At the sites I may not have a monitor to hand...

[SithAfrikaan]

For me, you will only realise how much monitor real-estate you've lost when you shrink, but you'll never know how much you've gained all these years until you do (shrink).

[sulky_uk]

i really noticed going from a 17 to a 15, not just in weight and in physical size. creen real estate was the biggest thing to get used to, but as you are connecting to a screen most of the time...

have you thought about one of the 14 inchers?

here is a guide

https://www.laptopmag.com/best-picks/best-14-inch-laptops

[albert]

Before this topic degrades into why laptops are wrong in the first place. My 2c is that we have so many options for lighter and high quality larger laptops these days that the size and portability isn't a problem any more. Back 5 years ago a 17" laptop was so heavy and cumbersome, with a power brick the size for a boulder, that it hardly ever left the house.

A mid-price 17" is easily portable now with good enough power management to be used with battery on the move.

For gaming on the laptop, a decent keyboard with anumber pad is my only quality of life/ real estate requirement, as gaming needs to be comfortable and it's still not perfect on any laptop.

[Jamoe]

I've a 15" Macbook Pro but dual screen with a 27" monitor. The MBP screen is lovely to work on, it's crystal clear compared to the bigger monitor so I still use it a fair amount but the size is a little annoying. My sons 13" MBP is fine for word docs and youtube but I don't think it's a great productivity tool. What sort of laptop screens are we talking about here?

Regarding portability, I'm not sure you will notice the difference between a 13" or 15" after you've got a decent laptop bag with space for the charger and various cables/adapters.

How much work you do on trains/planes? They're the only places I can think of where a 13" is would be preferrable to a 15" and where I'd be happy to sacrifice some screen real esate. But that would also depend on how much I would use the laptop at sites without a monitor.

[smilodon]

Something to consider is screen resolution. I used to have a 17" laptop but it ran at 1080p. I now have a 13.5" Chromebook with 2256 x 1502 resolution and it's like night and day. Less screen space but far more information on the smaller screen. I find it a breeze to use documents etc at this resolution. Of course you may already be using a 15" at higher screen resolution which would of course make this suggestion moot

You do need the eyes to be able to see the smaller text, icons etc. though. Young whipper-snappers shopuld have no problem with this

[suicidal_monkey]

My current work laptop is an old 15" macbook pro with the retina (2880x1800?) screen, usually paired with my 1080p 24" MSI curved 144hz VA panel at home or a basic 1080p philips 24" at work. Thinking 1440p (16:9 or 21:9) would be nice upgrade in the paired monitor department. The MBP retina screen is definitely clearer in the fine details but I work mostly off the 1080p 24" monitors for the physical space. Sometimes the switch from MacOS(work) to Windows(home) is a bit of a pain, and I want it to be easier to switch between the two laptops on (mostly) the same kvm so I was thinking maybe a Windows laptop could be a good plan this time :g:...still the MacOS has generally been easier for software development...

I am likely to carry it back and forth from the office once or twice a week and occasionally take it on a train to a warehouse. Unlikely to use it on planes much - maybe one or two trips a year if any? Thinking about it, the 15" MBP I have now was fine in those situations before. The Windows options I was looking at (thinking ease of switching to home setup) were the Dell XPS and Razer ranges, but the bigger Dells get a bad reputation for noisy fans and getting hot. The Lenovo X1 Carbon could be an alternative to those two in the 14" space. I hate numpads and offset touchpads (like those on my aero :sideways:) so anything with a numpad is not going on the list :narnar: (there will likely be no gaming on this laptop - just working :ninja:)

[A Twig]

I had a 13" think pad in my last job, worked really well but mainly because I had docking stations at home and at the various offices I attended - each with dual monitors, so fine for "proper work". With my workflow, the 13" laptop sat nicely underneath the dual monitors, so I could run slack/teams etc on my small screen, then have whatever I was working on side by side on the big ones. A 15" didn't really fit, so I either had to have the monitors "too high" or shove laptop off to the side.

Where the 13" came into its own was being able to work while crammed into one of those godawful crosscountry trains that I seemed to end up spending 10 hours a week on, where there just wasn't the space between my (rather large) gut and the back of the seat in front to fully open a proper sized laptop.

It also meant that I could fit laptop, cables, accessories and overnight stuff all into one 30L rucksack.

In my current role though I have a new 15" Dell precision, and the docking stations are lower profile so it's all great - it's actually lighter than my old thinkpad, and I don't have to go on trains or overnight anymore, so very happy with it.

[TeaLeaf]

I'd echo Smilo's comments on resolution being as important and making smaller screens more workable.  I think I'd also think about how you want to use it.  If it's going to be my daily worker and sat on the kitchen table indefinitely then I'd be going for the biggest screen & keyboard combined with the best resolution I could get for that size within budget.   If OTOH it was going to be carried around from place to place then I'd go 13" with high resolution.  Personally I carry a 13" Surface Pro for one job and an 13" HP Elitebook for another.   Both are touchscreen high resolution 13" laptops and both rock in their roles.