Can't decide... Macbook Air 13 or 11 inch - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

pylon · 08-22-2011, 04:19 PM

Now that these things have some actual horsepower, I am sold. But now, I cannot decide if I want the super sexy 11 inch, or the more practical, but nearing regular laptop dimension 13.

Something about having a netbook sized machine with that amount of power that really is appealing. I would be looking at the 11 inch I5 128 SSD 4 gb of ram model.

Or the equivalent 13 inch for $100 more, with essentially the same specs.

Opinions? I am torn here.

My heart says 11 my head says 13.

sclitheroe · 08-22-2011, 04:21 PM

How many hours a day will you be using it?

Yorkshire Flame · 08-22-2011, 04:24 PM

Do like I do when presented with any difficult decision in life: flip a coin!

pylon · 08-22-2011, 04:25 PM

Not a ton 1-2 hours, and it will be plugged in at least half the time. I also would likely run it on an external monitor a lot of the time.

Mtt48 · 08-22-2011, 04:29 PM

I've used both and I prefer the 13". For me, the bigger display and body adds a lot to the experience of using the computer. The 13" is still incredibly small and light.

edit - I believe the display is substantially superior on the 13" as well. I forget the resolutions, but the 13" really blows the 11" away.

sclitheroe · 08-22-2011, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pylon

Not a ton 1-2 hours, and it will be plugged in at least half the time. I also would likely run it on an external monitor a lot of the time.

In that case the 11" would probably be workable, if your heart is set on it.

Personally, I still like the 13" a lot more - that 11" screen is tiny, and 768 pixels vertically is pretty low (even though its a high res screen for its size, that's not much vertical real estate)

13" also has a significantly larger battery (50 vs 35 watt hours, so 30% bigger

MickMcGeough · 08-22-2011, 04:52 PM

I put a 13" MBA beside my 15" MBP and laughed at the 13" "nearing regular laptop dimensions".

I'd get the 13" myself only because if a 13" MacBook Air is too big for me, I should probably be looking for a tablet.

pylon · 08-22-2011, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

I put a 13" MBA beside my 15" MBP and laughed at the 13" "nearing regular laptop dimensions".

I'd get the 13" myself only because if a 13" MacBook Air is too big for me, I should probably be looking for a tablet.

Thats the thing. I have an iPad already to read with etc. And I have a 16" Toshiba laptop.

pylon · 08-22-2011, 09:41 PM

And went with the 11", and am typing from it now. The footprint of the 13" was too close to the MBP. Love the size, of this thing. It is the perfect "Type in bed" size.

theinfinitejar · 08-22-2011, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pylon

And went with the 11", and am typing from it now. The footprint of the 13" was too close to the MBP. Love the size, of this thing. It is the perfect "Type in bed" size.

I love my 11" MBA. I'm used to the size and I don't miss my 13" MBP.

Russic · 08-23-2011, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pylon

And went with the 11", and am typing from it now. The footprint of the 13" was too close to the MBP. Love the size, of this thing. It is the perfect "Type in bed" size.

I'm with you completely. I was going to buy the 13 but after looking at them side-by-side I went for the 11. Airplane trays, meetings, coffee shops... they all seem to work a little better with a smaller footprint.

sclitheroe · 08-23-2011, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pylon

And went with the 11", and am typing from it now. The footprint of the 13" was too close to the MBP. Love the size, of this thing. It is the perfect "Type in bed" size.

Congrats, that's a nice machine. Glad you are happy.

Rathji · 08-23-2011, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pylon

And went with the 11", and am typing from it now. The footprint of the 13" was too close to the MBP. Love the size, of this thing. It is the perfect "Type in bed" size.

I hope you got the keyboard "splash" guard

pylon · 08-23-2011, 12:42 PM

LOL, you'd think nobody has seen a MacBook air before. I have had half the dealership over at my desk playing with it today. Ultra impressed with the speed of it, and no second thoughts about the size I selected, since we have 23" widescreen monitors on all of our desks, which leads to this question.

Where is a good source to get the monitor cable? I am super stoked to run this thing in a split screen configuration for designing brochures for the store. The iStore wants 45 bucks, and Memory express isn't much cheaper, as they are now getting closer and closer to a regular retail store, which makes me sadface. Back in their brown bag, musty old dungeon days, I loved that place.

Also, opinions on magic mouse. Is it better than a regular mouse? Or just a needless redesign of something that already worked in the first place? It supports all of the track pad gestures, right?

DownhillGoat · 08-23-2011, 12:58 PM

monoprice? Don't know if they have what you'll need, but they do have some mac stuff.

Also, the magic mouse is fantastic. My (former) wife got it for me and I thought "oh yay. A mouse". My opinion changed pretty quick after using it.
The lack of trackball is pretty sweet.

MickMcGeough · 08-23-2011, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pylon

LOL, you'd think nobody has seen a MacBook air before. I have had half the dealership over at my desk playing with it today. Ultra impressed with the speed of it, and no second thoughts about the size I selected, since we have 23" widescreen monitors on all of our desks, which leads to this question.

Where is a good source to get the monitor cable? I am super stoked to run this thing in a split screen configuration for designing brochures for the store. The iStore wants 45 bucks, and Memory express isn't much cheaper, as they are now getting closer and closer to a regular retail store, which makes me sadface. Back in their brown bag, musty old dungeon days, I loved that place.

Also, opinions on magic mouse. Is it better than a regular mouse? Or just a needless redesign of something that already worked in the first place? It supports all of the track pad gestures, right?

Magic mouse is awesome because you can use the swipe gestures, and the 360 scrolling works far better on it than with a trackball. Download MagicPrefs if you get one.

I got a mini-DisplayPort to HDMI (w/ audio) adapter from meritline.com for $8.

pylon · 08-24-2011, 11:21 AM

Quick question for you mac users, are you using Firefox or Safari? Or is there something else I should be looking at.

silentsim · 08-24-2011, 11:23 AM

I primarily use Safari, however I keep Firefox loaded for some sites that have poor compatibility.

Russic · 08-24-2011, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pylon

Quick question for you mac users, are you using Firefox or Safari? Or is there something else I should be looking at.

I jump between the two. I enjoy Safari on the Air just because it takes advantage of some gestures. Two finger swipe as a back button is slick, two finger double-tap to zoom in on a web paragraph is handy on the small screen and three finger double-tap to define/wikipedia a word is AWESOME. The great thing about the Air is that when you run into a compatibility problem in Safari, launching firefox is about a 2 second operation.

Bill Bumface · 08-24-2011, 03:14 PM

I used Firfox and added multi-touch gestures to it. Safari drove me a bit nuts. It doesn't feel like a finished product.