As stated in the title, what laptop screen size would you buy? 13 inches, 14 inches, or 15 inches? Let’s not consider the price and specification factors. Just on the size of the screen.
Welcome to the forum.
For me, and my old eyes? I like as big of a screen as possible. But it is a pain when I want to sit in a cafe and work. But I work mostly at home where I have big monitors I can plug into. Me, I like having a lot of screen real estate where I can have a lot of things open. Some people manage with a small screen and jump between screens with amazing ease.
How are you going to use it? Are you going to be working mostly in cafes or working from home where you can plug into a big monitor? How are your eyes?
I have dual monitors and four virtual desktops and I still need more space 
2 Likes
Yeah, for me, it’s never enough. But then at work we’d go someplace to work for the day (it was a “fun” place) and other devs would be happily working away on a 13" screen. I don’t know how they do it.
2 Likes
Kids nowadays, they were basically born with a tiny little device in their hands.
1 Like
Nah, 13" or 14" is fine if the resolution is reasonable (FHD or more).
Especially if it’s something like MacBook which has very nice touchpad. If you get used to work on a laptop you can work basically everywhere. Difference between those two sizes is not too noticeable, because you won’t be splitting the screen between different apps anyway.
Can’t say anything about 15" because I’ve never had one.
Have 17" UHD — Love 17" UHD
Especially now with windows 11 upgrade the new multi window management is super convenient for 2-4 windows at a time on the one screen.
Still want dual monitors back but oh well.
Edit: My battery life is a joke so there is that.
I can’t personally accept anything less than 15". I honestly don’t know how some devs use 13" MacBook Pros.
1080p on a 15" screen is pretty much perfect for me and it would drive me nuts trying to use 1080p on a smaller screen.
the price difference between a 13" and 16" macbook pro is about a grand,
cheaper solution than buying the 16" is get the 13" and a portable monitor like https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-MB168B-15-6-inch-Portable-Monitor/dp/B00FE690DI
Specification is important you need something fast and high quality, most PCs are shoddy, my last computer was a 16" Dell Inspiron, it had a horrible fan in it that made a hideous grinding sound (like teeth grinding), and it would overheat all the time. Horrible to work on, would have been impossible to do any professional work on.
Also would recommend an apple magic mouse.
This is what I have and I love it:
It’s 17", 16:10, 2k, thin, and weighs less than 3 pounds.
I only use 13 inch laptops due to their better portability.
I use some form of virtual desktops to help multi-task.
I personally find larger laptops too bulky and annoying to move around. If I’m looking at a laptop I consider portability to be one of the most important factors.
The other thing to consider is the resolution of the screen. A 13 inch 4k screen can still show a lot, but might be “too small” to see. Whereas a 15 inch low resolutions screen might be able to show a lot only if you make font sizes really small, and that’s only if that’s even an option. There are workarounds but generally higher resolution = better experience in regards to what you can see.
I use a 12.5" Thinkpad with 1366x768px for all my work.
I use a tiling window manager in tabbed mode and multiple workspaces, to there is enough virtual space.
I also single-task and single-tab, so there is no need for me to have a big screen.
Big devices are too bulky and heavy for me.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 182 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.