Getting used to 13" screen?

TeeJayHoward

TeeJayHoward

Limpness Supreme
Joined
Feb 8, 2005
Messages
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Just picked up a 2011 13" MBP i5 ($999 at Best Buy, price matched from Microcenter) to replace my G73JH monstrosity. When using the little guy at Best Buy the screen seemed fine. Once I got it home and started using it, though, I'm finding myself hunched over with my nose practically on the screen. How long does it take to get used to a smaller screen? Will I ever get used to it, or will I have to end up picking up an external monitor?
 
I use an external monitor with my 15" MBP sometimes.

It took a while for me to get used to the way font looks in OS X, also if you find yourself needing more screen real estate, try Spaces.
 
I find that with anything under 15" I need to use an external monitor, but that's with Windows. Isn't there some setting in Mac OS that allows you to make text larger without lowering the resolution?
 
what are you doing on it is the question? photoshop or any other type of image work? or just browsing and simple stuff?

my fiance just upgraded hers to 8gb and uses it for photoshop and illustrator on a regular basis and i have not heard one complaint about screen size. and at the price you cant beat it.
 
Nicker2009 said:
what are you doing on it is the question? photoshop or any other type of image work? or just browsing and simple stuff?

my fiance just upgraded hers to 8gb and uses it for photoshop and illustrator on a regular basis and i have not heard one complaint about screen size. and at the price you cant beat it.
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I'm just doing some simple web browsing. On occasion I'll work with some simple excel spreadsheets or watch some flash videos. I use the terminal a ton to connect to a Solaris box I've got out in the garage. I guess I'm just used to the 17" on my old laptop. What really bugs me for some reason is the vertical scrolling. It's like seeing 3/4 of a sheet of paper instead of the full document. You did bring up another question I had though - Should I scavenge the 6GB of RAM in my G73 for use in the MBP? I don't think that, given my usage, I really need more than 4GB, but I do intend on upgrading to Lion when it comes out, and I've no clue how big a memory hog it is.

Oh, and the first thing I did was replace the 320GB 5400RPM drive with a Corsair RealSSD 120GB that I had lying around. In the process I misplaced one of those ridiculously tiny screws. Where can I get a replacement? I don't have access to GSX now that I'm no longer working with my previous company anymore. Is it possible to walk into an apple store and ask for one?
 
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TeeJayHoward said:
I don't think that, given my usage, I really need more than 4GB, but I do intend on upgrading to Lion when it comes out, and I've no clue how big a memory hog it is.
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New versions of OS X run better, not worse, on older hardware. This isn’t Windows.

As for your discomfort with the screen size, well, you did buy the smallest size. If the screen zoom and text enlargement features do nothing for you, then yes, an Apple Cinema Display might be in your future.
 
Terpfen said:
New versions of OS X run better, not worse, on older hardware. This isn’t Windows.
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Really? That's awesome. I guess I can take out all but the 128MB that Cheetah needed. It should run even better now that Apple's had 10 years to optimize it! :rolleyes:
 
TeeJayHoward said:
Really? That's awesome. I guess I can take out all but the 128MB that Cheetah needed. It should run even better now that Apple's had 10 years to optimize it! :rolleyes:
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Be sarcastic all you want, but it’s true. Lion will run better on the same hardware that Snow Leopard can run on; Snow Leopard runs better on the same hardware that Leopard can run on; Leopard runs better on the same hardware that Tiger can run on. Etc, etc.

You won’t need to throw gobs of RAM at Lion just to get equivalent levels of performance as your current Snow Leopard install. Again, this isn’t Windows.
 
Terpfen said:
Be sarcastic all you want, but it’s true. Lion will run better on the same hardware that Snow Leopard can run on; Snow Leopard runs better on the same hardware that Leopard can run on; Leopard runs better on the same hardware that Tiger can run on. Etc, etc.

You won’t need to throw gobs of RAM at Lion just to get equivalent levels of performance as your current Snow Leopard install. Again, this isn’t Windows.
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This is so not true. I'm not writing this as an Apple hater because I actually really like macs (have a few). But to say that Leopard runs better than Tiger on older hardware is just crazy. With Tiger you could get away with 512mb of ram for simple tasks but Leopard you need 1gb+.

That's like taking an older computer that runs XP just ok and then putting Vista on it and saying it's running better. It just doesn't happen.
 
To actually answer the OP question.. in Firefox you can use the Zoom feature. Just goto View > Zoom and check Zoom Text Only then adjust your zoom through the menu or by using command + or -. You can also adjust text in the Finder window, when you have a window open, goto View > Show View Options or command J which will bring up your options to increase text size and/or icon size. It's worth it with any laptop if you use it at a desk to have an external display.
 
I have been using 13" macbooks since 2006. When I picked up an 11" air it was a bit hard to get used to, but 13" is the perfect size for me in a laptop.

Whenever I am at a desk (work or home) I use a 24" external monitor, on the road the 11" air is great, but I still prefer my 13" air since the screen is in that sweet spot and the battery life rocks.
 
shoota said:
This is so not true. I'm not writing this as an Apple hater because I actually really like macs (have a few). But to say that Leopard runs better than Tiger on older hardware is just crazy. With Tiger you could get away with 512mb of ram for simple tasks but Leopard you need 1gb+.
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If you bought a Mac with Tiger preloaded, then upgraded to Leopard, your system performance improved.

That's like taking an older computer that runs XP just ok and then putting Vista on it and saying it's running better. It just doesn't happen.
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It actually does happen.

As far as your analogy goes, it’s silly on the surface. The length of time between XP’s release and Vista’s release meant that hardware and average user specs vastly improved. We’re talking a six year gap here. There has never been a six year gap between OS X releases. Microsoft took the approach that the more powerful hardware meant that they could add more system-intensive background tasks, like when they attempted to make cold booting appear faster by making background services load sequentially post login, rather than during boot.

Microsoft focuses on rearranging the parts under the hood. Apple focuses on adding features to apps and new abilities for developers. That leaves their system engineers more time to improve performance.

I guess a new operating system performing better than its predecessor is a strange and completely false concept if you’re coming from the Windows world, but it holds true here.
 
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I think everybody has a "minimum screen size" limit. I'm a pretty average sized person, but I've never been able to adjust to a 13" or smaller laptop. Now that everybody is using 16:9 screens, it's even worse than before.

With nice laptops like the Vaio Z, I've tried to get used to the 13 inch screen. Bigger fonts, zooming in Firefox, etc. But it's just not happening. An external monitor is the simplest solution.

Terpfen said:
I guess a new operating system performing better than its predecessor is a strange and completely false concept if you’re coming from the Windows world, but it holds true here.
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It's true in the Windows world too. This computer I'm typing on now was built in 2004 (Athlon 64 3000+). I had to upgrade from 512MB to 2GB of RAM, but Windows 7 runs way better than XP ever did.

If you bump up the RAM and get a decent sized HD, Windows 7 does run better than XP on even older machines.
 
Terpfen said:
Be sarcastic all you want, but it’s true. Lion will run better on the same hardware that Snow Leopard can run on; Snow Leopard runs better on the same hardware that Leopard can run on; Leopard runs better on the same hardware that Tiger can run on. Etc, etc.

You won’t need to throw gobs of RAM at Lion just to get equivalent levels of performance as your current Snow Leopard install. Again, this isn’t Windows.
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Snow Leopard wont even run on the same hardware that leopard runs on considering it requires 1gb of memory and leopard only required 512mb. They wouldn't put that restriction if they thought it would work fine on a computer with 512mb of ram.

Windows dosent put these restrictions which make it look bad when windows 7 runs poorly on my 6 year old laptop with 512mb ram.

As for a 13inch screen. Its small but give it a month and I am sure you will care much less about it. My major tip would be to make sure you are auto hiding the dock, or have it very small. Use spaces when working with multiple applications, and I actually very much enjoy web browsing in full screen. The browser also will stay fullscreen if you switch spaces on it unlike some applications like word.
 
The problem isn't as much the screen size, it's the resolution. 13" MacBooks have pretty low resolution (1366x768) compared to the 13" Air which has 1440x900. On a smaller screen, the extra resolution goes a long way. Personally, I want the highest resolution possible on my laptop and never could get used to the 13" MB's screen.
 
Mr. Wolf said:
The problem isn't as much the screen size, it's the resolution. 13" MacBooks have pretty low resolution (1366x768) compared to the 13" Air which has 1440x900. On a smaller screen, the extra resolution goes a long way. Personally, I want the highest resolution possible on my laptop and never could get used to the 13" MB's screen.
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MB resolution is still 1280x800.
 
obug said:
It's true in the Windows world too. This computer I'm typing on now was built in 2004 (Athlon 64 3000+). I had to upgrade from 512MB to 2GB of RAM, but Windows 7 runs way better than XP ever did.

If you bump up the RAM and get a decent sized HD, Windows 7 does run better than XP on even older machines.
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that's precisely what i'm trying to argue. they way it was put is that taking the exact same hardware for say, Tiger, would run better on Leopard. There's no way Leopard works better on 512mb ram than Tiger does. Of course if you bump up the ram that helps immensely but that's not what was originally being discussed.
 
I have no issues with my 13 inch MBP, but I don't do any Photoshop on it or anything along those lines. I do hook it up to my 24 inch monitor if I'm going to do stuff with my photos or do video editing. In those instances the 13 inch screen doesn't do a great job.

If you want more vertical space try moving your dock to the side of the screen, so it's not taking up space on the bottom... or set it to auto-hide.
 
auto hide ftw. don't forget to set up expose too. that's worth its weight in productivity gold
 
I've been putting off using spaces. Maybe it's finally time.

On a side note, I'm flat-out in LOVE with the new (to me) three finger gestures to go forward/back in a web page. I loved the two-finger scroll for a while now. Looks like they made gestures even better!
 
thurstmw said:
You have just changed my life by informing me about bettertouchtool
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i know. it changed mine too.

I've been putting off using spaces. Maybe it's finally time.

On a side note, I'm flat-out in LOVE with the new (to me) three finger gestures to go forward/back in a web page. I loved the two-finger scroll for a while now. Looks like they made gestures even better!
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Better Touch Tool is something that you NEED to have. It allows you to create a multitouch gesture for just about every command you can think of. In addition, it works with the magicmouse. IMHO, it is the best free utility available for macbooks, period.
 
give me some examples of shortcuts gestures you have set up cuz i can't think of anything i might need
 
Don't forget about Spotlight Search.. great way to launch a file or a program. I do command space, type ope for OpenOffice and before results come in I hit Enter. OpenOffice is always the top result so it launches.

There's two other popular keyboard shortcut apps that people swear by, Quicksilver and Launchbar. You don't just get program shortcuts but you can make shortcuts for anything.
 
LOVE Bettertouchtool. Best free utility, I use it on my Magic Trackpad with my iMac. I use a standard mouse, but I keep the trackpad on the left of the keyboard for custom gestures (expose, dashboard, screen shut off). Even though it's free, I was happy to donate a few bucks to the guy. Excellent tool.
 
shoota said:
give me some examples of shortcuts gestures you have set up cuz i can't think of anything i might need
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I just started using it. I am using three finger swipes to navigate spaces, 5 finger swipes to toggle full screen on apps, and I changed up a few of the 4 finger gestures to be similar to what apple offers but a little more suited to how I like them.
 
Took me a while to get used to the 13... still next go-around 15.4 all the way.

I only use my laptop screen when I travel which is maybe 6-8 times a year for <5 days a time normally... so little usage.

I'd really love a 15.4" Macbook Air :)
 
My girlfriend got one of the early 2011 13" MBP's. For some reason I thought the resolution was 1440 x 900.... oops! Definitely 1280 x 800.

I went with the 15" and hi-res antiglare screen myself. That's probably as small as I'd like to go and the physical size is not much larger than the 13" MBP.
 
I will never go less than 17" again..... yes, they are a few pounds heavier, but MAN is it ever worth it.
 
I've used a 13" exclusively for a period. You do get used to it pretty easily if you're not going back and forth between your 13" and a big monitor. I agree that a 15" is probably the sweet spot. 14" even is on the small side.
 
My 13" MBP gets probably 80% of my home use now and for a laptop, I don't think I'd really want a bigger screen. It just works out so perfectly.
 
QwertyJuan said:
I will never go less than 17" again..... yes, they are a few pounds heavier, but MAN is it ever worth it.
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I wish it were just the weight I was worried about. Sadly, the 17" is $1500 more. For that price, I'd rather just buy a 30" external monitor and a nice night out on the town!
 
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