Looking to get a used Macbook Retina

[Corporate Thug]

3 questions:

1. Does anyone have any thoughts between the 15 and the 13 as far a functionality? Note I only use my laptop without an external monitor when I am traveling. Otherwise, it's plugged into an external monitor.
2. Am I losing out any major improvements by getting a used 2013 model?
3. If there a difference in the build quality between the 15 and 13?

 

[Rakehellion]

The 15" has quad core and discrete graphics, while the 13" is dual. Newer retina models have PCIe storage and Thunderbolt 2.0.

 

[asendra]

Only the top of the line 15" model has discrete gpu (and basically a 2 year old one btw..)

The 15" does have a better igpu, though.

 

[n0x1ous]

If you travel alot get the 13 - if not get the 15

 

[tipoo]

Build quality is about the same, so is screen quality.
There is a huge difference in performance however. Quad core, much higher graphics performance. What is your use case? Student stuff, web browsing, documents, even programming are all more than fine on the 13" dual core. If you do any pro work like photoshop, video editing, 3D modeling, or plan on playing games on the mac, 15". Weight difference is also substantial, personally I carry around an old 15" clunker with a DVD drive, the MBP is a bit lighter than that since it ditches the drive, but only a pound-ish. Still as heavy as most modern 15"s. If it's on your back a lot, that's a consideration.

Only the top of the line 15" model has discrete gpu (and basically a 2 year old one btw..)

The 15" does have a better igpu, though.

If he's getting the older one, even the base had discreet graphics I think. Only with the current one with Iris Pro 5200 did they kill the discreet graphics in the base model. It had the 650M, which is actually still better than the Iris Pro 5200.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Pro#3rd_generation_.28Retina.29