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I've recently decided to buy a 13-inch MacBook Pro. Although this costs me a lot, first-time experiencing this machine could be very interesting for me. Its weight is the other reason that attracts me. However, I'm a little bit afraid of buying this machine.

One reason is its specs. I work with Python and Matlab in my daily work. My programming work is not very intensive and most of the time deals with satellite image processing. I also work with some satellite-image-processing pieces of software, such as ENVI, PCI Geomatica, etc. I don't know how much this laptop is powerful, especially its integrated GPU, to run these apps on Mac.

The other reason that causes me to not think of buying this laptop is its overheating problem. I saw some complaints about the overheating and annoying warmness on the right side of the laptop. Moreover, when it comes to intensive computing, this problem could be become more severe.

With regard to to the above descriptions, do you think buying this laptop can be suitable for me?

I have to add that my current Lenovo laptop has a core i5 CPU and a GT 720m GPU and so far I have had not any serious problem with it for my scientific work.

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It is impossible to determine if the laptop you described would be suitable, because you have not described it. Apple has been releasing 13 inch MacBook Pro laptops since 2008.

Matlab seems to have had performance issues on Mac OS X, I'm not sure if this is still a problem, but you should try to find out, a good place to start is the official minimum requirements of Matlab for Mac OS X: http://www.mathworks.com/support/sysreq/current_release/index.html?sec=mac

Python would probably work fine, however not much can be said about the rest of the software you use, because you did not mention what that software is. First of all, make sure all of your software also runs on Mac OS X or if there are alternatives for Mac OS X that you could use.

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  • Thank you so much for the answer. The 13-inch 2015 release is my target ( core i5 CPU, 8GB Ram, 128 GB SSD). All the software can run on Mac as well. Those pieces of software are used to analyze and process satellite imagery. Those work fine on my current windows laptop. Thank you
    – Federico
    Commented Oct 14, 2015 at 18:53
  • @Federico if you think you'll be pushing it hard, go for an i7 processor. That should be able to handle your load, as long as the programs are available.
    – plainclothes
    Commented Oct 14, 2015 at 18:56
  • Thank you @plainclothes. My budget unfortunately does't allow me to buy the core i7 version. In my country, Iran, everything is much more expensive than its real cost!!
    – Federico
    Commented Oct 14, 2015 at 19:04
  • @Federico I understand. Well, don't let that stop you from picking up an i5 -- they're fast, just not as fast.
    – plainclothes
    Commented Oct 15, 2015 at 21:25

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