13" Air vs 11" Air?

[smurray]

Is the 2.0Ghz i7 that's in the 13" and 11" Airs the same? If so, does that mean there is no difference between the two than screen size when each model is maxed out spec wise?

[Mreddielu]

I believe the 13'' has an SD card slot, and 7 hr battery.

[mrsir2009]

Originally Posted by smurray

Is the 2.0Ghz i7 that's in the 13" and 11" Airs the same? If so, does that mean there is no difference between the two than screen size when each model is maxed out spec wise?

The 13" had a SD Card Slot and an extra 2 hrs battery life.

[AlvinNguyen]

I have the 2.0ghz / 8GB / 128SSD 11" Air - as far as I can tell comparing it with my friend's machine in 13" format there is no speed difference. The price you pay for the 13" gives you 2hrs more in battery and 1.7" screen size. However, you lose portability by a big margin because of the footprint. Weight wise, the 1/2 lb isn't a big deal to most but to some it is. I like the smaller size because I'm always traveling to remote locations bringing large quantity of photo gears.

[tjl3]

The trackpad on the 11 is not full sized. This goes unmentioned a lot, I feel. It was one of the factors I considered b/c of gestures in Mountain Lion.

[chrfr]

Originally Posted by tjl3

The trackpad on the 11 is not full sized. This goes unmentioned a lot, I feel. It was one of the factors I considered b/c of gestures in Mountain Lion.

I use an 11" Air and a 15" Pro extensively and have never found this to be an issue at all (in fact, I've never even noticed the difference in trackpad size), so YMMV.

[Mrbobb]

Originally Posted by tjl3

The trackpad on the 11 is not full sized. This goes unmentioned a lot, I feel. It was one of the factors I considered b/c of gestures in Mountain Lion.

Coming from a Windows laptop, the 11" trackpad was already big to me, but Interesting!

[ooans]

What is the differance between the speaker volume between these two?

I have a 11" Air and the speakers don't get loud enough for some quieter youtube videos for example.

How loud do 13" MBA speakers go?

[NewbieCanada]

Originally Posted by tjl3

The trackpad on the 11 is not full sized. This goes unmentioned a lot, I feel. It was one of the factors I considered b/c of gestures in Mountain Lion.

I mainly use a magic trackpad, which is a lot larger than even the full-sized laptops' trackpads, but I have no problems using the one on my Air.

Something I don't think anyone's mention yet is that in addition to being smaller, the resolution is 1366x768 in a 16:9 ratio, while the 13 inch is 1440x900 in 1610.

I think both machines are great (had a 13 that I replaced with my Retina 15). Neither one is better than the other; it's just a matter of deciding which trade-off to make.

[tjl3]

Originally Posted by Mrbobb

Coming from a Windows laptop, the 11" trackpad was already big to me, but Interesting!

Ya, the trackpad on the 11 is definitely larger than most Windows laptop trackpads. I didn't mean that it was an issue between the 13 and 11, I just meant to point it out. It was definitely noticeable for me but I too came from a Windows laptop.

[Mrbobb]

Originally Posted by tjl3

Ya, the trackpad on the 11 is definitely larger than most Windows laptop trackpads. I didn't mean that it was an issue between the 13 and 11, I just meant to point it out. It was definitely noticeable for me but I too came from a Windows laptop.

No, is a good thing. One needs some real estate to work the gestures properly, I pitty the Win8 users who have to put up with puny, grudgy Wintel touchpads. And wusup with those Wintel touchpads that are off-center to the left, so wacko, oh am sure there is a reason, but still wacko.

[halledise]

Originally Posted by ooans

What is the differance between the speaker volume between these two?

I have a 11" Air and the speakers don't get loud enough for some quieter youtube videos for example.

How loud do 13" MBA speakers go?

Boom - http://goo.gl/ic3KD - is your friend here

[insimbi]

Originally Posted by ooans

What is the differance between the speaker volume between these two?

I have a 11" Air and the speakers don't get loud enough for some quieter youtube videos for example.

How loud do 13" MBA speakers go?

I just ordered a 13" MBA and would love to know this as well. The speakers in the 15" rMBP are awesome. I'm wondering how this compares?

[0x000000]

The keyboard of the 11" is slightly different, the 'travel' is shallower and lighter (less is worse). Its still a a good keyboard but a noticable difference.

And the palm rest is obviously smaller. While the 13" allows you to rest your palms on the palm rest, you'll have your palm on the relatively sharp edge on the 11" all the time.

You should test all that in a store.

[oxfordguy]

Originally Posted by insimbi

I just ordered a 13" MBA and would love to know this as well. The speakers in the 15" rMBP are awesome. I'm wondering how this compares?

I have both an early-2008 MBP and mid-2012 MBA and was surprised how good the speakers in the MBA actually sound, the 15" MBP does sound better, but I thought the MBA would sound *much* worse, but it doesn't

[TheRichboy247]

I think the biggest factor is portability. All the other differences have been mentioned. The 11" air is about the size of an iPad, while the 13" is a bit bulkier. You are sacrificing battery life and an SD card slot for portability if you go for the 11".

[pistooli]

Originally Posted by TheRichboy247

I think the biggest factor is portability. All the other differences have been mentioned. The 11" air is about the size of an iPad, while the 13" is a bit bulkier. You are sacrificing battery life and an SD card slot for portability if you go for the 11".

The above just summarizes it perfectly, and lists all the reasons why I finally went for the 13".

[jrasero]

i7s are the same. But the 13" obviously has a bigger screen that the GPU needs to power.

My first Apple laptop was a MBA 11"

It's really awesome because of it's size. Perfect for lounging and traveling but the deal breaker for me isn't the size of the 11" but the battery and SD slot.

Okay so maybe the SD slot isn't a big deal but the 5hrs for the 11" and 7hrs for the 13" is. Realistically you get 3-4hrs on the 11" and 5hrs on the 13"

So unless you need to save some money and really want a netbook portability I would go with the 13". Better value

[comatose81]

I debated and ended up going with the 11" just because it's so portable. I never even think twice about taking it somewhere - it's easy to carry around, use on a bus or train, etc. The only real difference is the SD card slot and the battery life - for me, battery life isn't a big deal because I'm not using it for school or anything where I wouldn't be able to charge it for a long time.

[MacSignal]

IMO, the 11 would be great for air travel and taking on other long trips where you might be riding on a bus or train and trying to use something more functional than an iPhone/iPad. If that kind of frequent and/or long traveling isn't relevant to your circumstance, then I personally found myself favoring the longer battery life and larger screen on the 13.

Though I lived with a both a MBA 11 and MBA 13 for a couple of weeks, I never noticed that the trackpad was smaller. The keyboards also feel the same to me, which is to say a lot less travel than the MBP.

MBA 13 onboard speakers are not at all close to the quality of the sound of the rMBP 15. Expect to be disappointed.

[J&JPolangin]

I ended up with an open box 2011 MBP while waiting for Broadwell to hit the 11" MBA's (in two revisions) so that battery life will finally reach an acceptable level!

My 13" MBP now has 8Gb RAM and a Crucial M4 512Gb SSD for $85 more than the open box cost of a base 13" MBA

[Amplelink]

Originally Posted by J&JPolangin

I ended up with an open box 2011 MBP while waiting for Broadwell to hit the 11" MBA's (in two revisions) so that battery life will finally reach an acceptable level!

My 13" MBP now has 8Gb RAM and a Crucial M4 512Gb SSD for $85 more than the open box cost of a base 13" MBA

Won't Haswell bring the acceptable battery levels?

[J&JPolangin]

Originally Posted by J&JPolangin

I ended up with an open box 2011 MBP while waiting for Broadwell to hit the 11" MBA's (in two revisions) so that battery life will finally reach an acceptable level!

My 13" MBP now has 8Gb RAM and a Crucial M4 512Gb SSD for $85 more than the open box cost of a base 13" MBA

Originally Posted by Amplelink

Won't Haswell bring the acceptable battery levels?

Right now my 2011 MBP has Sandy Bridge which is the 2nd generation of iCore CPU's.

Haswell may however, I usually don't like going with initial architecture changes and reading the a bunch of articles on both upcoming chips, I've decided for me that I wanted to wait for Broadwell to be implemented in the 11" MBA's before I try and buy one = your choice though.

[duncanapple]

A few comments after reading the above -

Expect to get pretty similar battery life to what Apple quotes in the specs. They tend to be pretty honest with those specs though obviously battery life will vary based on what you're doing. My wife has a 2012 '11 MBA with the i5 (and 8gb ram) and it gets an easy 5 hours using MS word, several safari windows (including 1-2 with streaming audio and sometimes video), and syncing to dropbox every few minutes. The 13 inch does have a bigger battery with a couple more hours of life.

Speaker wise, I cant compare the 13 and 11 as we only have the 11, but the 11 inch speaker is a bit tinny. I don't mean to knock it b/c you do have to be realistic as to what to expect from such a small/thin laptop. It is 100% sufficient for the webex (audio/video conferencing) she does for her online classes. Music would not be all that great, you'd prob be better off plugging in headphones. And in a noisy environment, it may be hard to get it loud enough to be clearly audible; again headphones would prob be your friend here.

Having said all that, the 11inch is a great computer. We also have a 2011 i5 imac with 16gb of ram, and her MBA doesn't seem (for regular tasks, I've never used aperture or imovie with the MBA) any slower at all. The SSD and 8gb of ram do wonders in overall speed. And the size is awesome; it fits easily in just about any of her purses (then again, our imac could fit in some of her purses ) and it is great when using it on an airplane tray table, your lap, etc.

I dont think you can go wrong with either. If it were me and it was my only machine (and I wasn't using an external monitor ever) i'd prob go with the 13. I used a 13 inch macbook for my prior 4 laptops and it was great. In our case though it was just a second computer she could use on the couch/traveling for school so we went 11. Good luck and enjoy the new computer!

[oldtime]

I think the 11 would make a great second computer, especially if you value portability. If it were my primary computer I'd honestly be pretty disappointed. There isn't enough screen real estate to satisfy most users (certainly those on MR) for all tasks.