Just a bit of info about me. I have previously owned the 2011 11" MBA for about 6 months now but due to eyestrain I decided to get a larger mac. I decided upon the 13" 2011 macbook air after spending time reading reviews and also using the laptop for several hours at the store.
1. The screen real estate seems to be significantly larger. I did not think that the 2 inches would make much of a difference but it really does. This is my personal opinion and some might not feel the same. I do not feel the eyestrain that I was having with the 11" after several hours of using the laptop.
2. There is more wrist room. I don't find myself hitting the edge of the laptop while typing. It feels more comfortable when using the computer for long periods of time.
3. The fans seem to have a different audible frequency compared to the 11" macbook air. The best way I can describe it is that the fans seem to be larger giving a deeper sound. I find the sound to be more pleasant and not as obtrusive. Kind of like comparing the sound of a blow dryer(11"mba) compared to a small table top portable fan(13"mba).
4. Battery life. Finally I am happy to say that the battery life is indeed better on the 13" which is rated for 7 hours but with my uses is closer to 6. I consistently got around 4 hours with the 11".
5. Screen Tear: There does appear to be more instances of screen tear when utilizing video playback with things like netflix in fullscreen mode. I can only guess this is due to the larger screen / higher resolution being more taxing on the processor & hd3000. It isn't bad though and seems to mainly happen only during the beginning first few seconds of watching the video right after it finished loading ( i have 25mbps internet with 65ms latency so my internet speed is not an issue on this).
6. Temperatures: The laptop seems to stay cooler. I would attribute this to the larger case and fans which allow more heat dissipation. I don't notice the fans running as much with the 13".
Thats about it so far. If I notice anything else i'll post an update. So far I am really happy with making the decision to upgrade to the 13".
1. The screen real estate seems to be significantly larger. I did not think that the 2 inches would make much of a difference but it really does. This is my personal opinion and some might not feel the same. I do not feel the eyestrain that I was having with the 11" after several hours of using the laptop.
2. There is more wrist room. I don't find myself hitting the edge of the laptop while typing. It feels more comfortable when using the computer for long periods of time.
3. The fans seem to have a different audible frequency compared to the 11" macbook air. The best way I can describe it is that the fans seem to be larger giving a deeper sound. I find the sound to be more pleasant and not as obtrusive. Kind of like comparing the sound of a blow dryer(11"mba) compared to a small table top portable fan(13"mba).
4. Battery life. Finally I am happy to say that the battery life is indeed better on the 13" which is rated for 7 hours but with my uses is closer to 6. I consistently got around 4 hours with the 11".
5. Screen Tear: There does appear to be more instances of screen tear when utilizing video playback with things like netflix in fullscreen mode. I can only guess this is due to the larger screen / higher resolution being more taxing on the processor & hd3000. It isn't bad though and seems to mainly happen only during the beginning first few seconds of watching the video right after it finished loading ( i have 25mbps internet with 65ms latency so my internet speed is not an issue on this).
6. Temperatures: The laptop seems to stay cooler. I would attribute this to the larger case and fans which allow more heat dissipation. I don't notice the fans running as much with the 13".
Thats about it so far. If I notice anything else i'll post an update. So far I am really happy with making the decision to upgrade to the 13".
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