MBpro 15" or 17" for photoediting AND travelling ?

For the first time, I'm planning to buy a MBR to replace my outdated 15,4" Toshiba Satellite. Until now, I've been a windows user. I'm doing nature photography and need the NB for organizing and partially editing the photos on my trips with Lightroom and PS CS5. Since my DSLRs can also record (full HD) videos, I'm thinking of some video editing, too. But this is not the most important task for now.
I'm in the dilemma to decide on the 17" vs 15" for months now. From what I've seen, the screen of the 17" simply is amazing. I compared both MBs at a local store (both glossy though). I don't know if it's just the larger screen size or/and the additional resolution - but I got the impression that the 17" has a significantly better screen than the 15". On the other hand, many voices state that the 17" is too heavy and too bulky for travelling, i.e. for handling in airplanes or at location, the more as you have a lot of photo gear to carry with you. Therefore they find the 15" to be the best compromise whatever this word means here.
Indeed, the weight of the 17" is about 350 grams more than the weight of my Toshiba which doesn't seem much more at first sight, but the 17" clearly has larger dimensions.

In the end, it's a personal decision, of course.
However, I would appreciate comments on the portability of the 17'' by those who own this MBR and use it for travelling (or can compare both NBs in this regard).
I'm also very much interested in opinions of the experts regarding the screen quality of both machines (maybe my impression mentioned above, is wrong).

I also would like to know the experiences of users who do serious photo /(video) editing with one or the other MBs or - even better- compared them in this regard.
Finally, is there a difference in battery life between the 15'' and 17" ?

Thank you in advance

Wolfgang

 

My brother owns a 17 while i own a 15. I'm involved with some photography and video editing myself, though my brother does not. I've often compared both our NBs and although i have to admit that i much prefer the screen of the 17, although some would disagree if they purchased the high res option which i didn't. Regarding portability, i do agree that it is a bit too much to bring around while traveling, however the 17 should have much more power and it does make a difference in heavy photo / video editing.

Edit: (Forgot to Mention)
There does not seem to be a difference between battery life between the two.

 

Thank you very much for your comment. Do you judge the 17 being superior just because of the screen size or moreover because of better color or wider gamut, contrast, brightness, sharpness etc which certainly would have more impact for me than just the size ? Could you also specify what is meant by "more power" if the battery life is about the same ? Thank you again !

 

isn't it the same battery ??, how can a more powerful laptop with 2" bigger screen draw the same power as a less powerful one?? , i know that screens eats the battery life , 2" / 17 is more than a 10% increase in size so i think less battery life will be noticeable , unless its equipped with a bigger battery

 

I had the same decision to make between the 13" and 15" when I purchased mine. The 15" is fine for traveling and iPhoto is nice for organization and basic editing. I wouldn't want to carry around the 17" but it is possible. Funny thing is that I stopped bringing the MBP on trips and now bring the iPad and camera kit. I store the photos on the iPad and use the large screen to weed out the bad shots. I do my editing at home mostly except for a few shots here and there that I play around with using Photogene. If you really need to edit on the go though I'd go with the 15". In the end it all depends on what you are comfortable with.

 

The 15" and 17" Macbook Pros have identical components. The only minor difference is that the 2.53 GHz 17" comes with 512MB worth of VRAM, while the 2.53 GHz 15" has 256MB.

I don't know what you mean by "power" other than that.

 

I would get a MBP 15 for portability and save the differences to buy a good IPS screen like Dell 2410 because it provide more color accuracy than MBP screen.

 

I would invest in a display calibration tool as well if I were doing color-critical photography work.

 

Thank you for your advices. I have a Xrite (Gretagmacbeth) spectrofotometer for calibration and an Eizo CG -241W for color-critical photographic work at home.
Regarding the MBs in question, it looks like the majority is voting for the 15" for travelling. So I tend to go this route though I've been indeed fascinated by the screen of the 17". But the screen actually is useless if the 17'' is too bulky and too heavy for taking it on the airplane or on a ship . Since I oftenly capture several thousand shots on a trip, I was thinking that the 17" would be a better choice for critically organizing my shots and to start with editing before I return back home and can do the final work at my desktop. But maybe the 15" is good enough in this regard.

Wolfgang

 

I think the screen is the exact same quality, its just a different resolution. With the 15 you get 900p if you pay for it and with the 17 you get 1080p standard. But I think a base 15 with 1080p is something like $1900 and a base 17 is like $2300.

 

15 gets 900p or 1050p

17 gets 1200p

all are 16:10

 

The 17" also has an express card slot whereas the 15" does not.
You could use this for a compact flash adapter which is quite useful if you're using the laptop for photography work.

 

Yes, I know - in fact this is an additional advantage of the 17" but nevertheless could not solve my dilemma of portability vs. screen size/quality since I do need the NB for my trips. At home, I can use my desktop for photography work.

 

As far as I know, the core i7-MB 15" and hi-res screen comes with 512MB, too

 

All i7 MBPs have 512MB of VRAM, but only the 17" i5 2.53 GHz has 512MB of VRAM.

 

Hi all,

Dislike the black glossy bezel of the mb's screen, then have heard, that choosing an option "Hi-Res Antiglare Widescreen Display" on mb 15" and "Antiglare Widescreen Display" on mb 17" byers get the silver screen bezel, just like in mb air, is it true ?

 

Yeah, it's silver just like the pre-unibody MBPs.

 

just like to say I travel with my 17" all the time and love it.

 

I just got a 17" and it's pretty awesome, haven't gotten to photo editing yet but the 1920x1200 resolution is probably >> than 1440x900 or even 1680x1050

 

The pixel density on the 15" HR is almost the same as the 17" screen.

 

but your workspace is still smaller!

 

Only slightly. I'll sacrifice the two inches of screen space for the added portability of the 15".

It's all personal preference in the end.

 

This doesn't help my cause much, but some consider the 15" a little larger than you would expect and the 17" a little smaller than you would expect. You can see this in the bezel surround of the display for instance ~ the area of the black surround.