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MacBook Air Decisions...

Skittles.

Skittles.

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 20, 2013
5
0
Canada
Hi All!
I'm buying a refurbished Mac
Book Air from the Canadian Apple Website. I am either purchasing the 2013 11" or the 2012 13" (they're the same price).

Pros for the 11":
Better portability
Haswell (better battery life, other improvements)
PCIE based flash storage
Better graphics (Intel 5000)

Pros for 13":
Bigger screen
SD card slot

I have an iMac at home for more advanced things; this Air will just be for taking notes, internet browsing, music, Pages editing, light work in Aperture. Any opinions as to which I should get?
Thanks!
 
D

DisplacedMic

macrumors 65816
May 1, 2009
1,411
1
i am a law student and i love my 11" air for many of the reasons you stated.
i am sure you would love the 13" as well, but all things being equal i would go for the newer model which is the 11" in your case.

I would definitely spend some time at an Apple Store (or wherever you can) playing with the two sizes though...some people just can't get over how small the 11 is. For me it was the opposite: i walked in sure i wanted the 13, but next to the both the 11 and the 13" rMBP the 13" MBA didn't make sense for me... ymmv
 
ezekielrage_99

ezekielrage_99

macrumors 68040
Oct 12, 2005
3,336
19
I think you have your answer there, it sounds like the 11" in what you're keen to get. If it's Haswell then I would say the performance would be a decent bump over the last generations of MBA.

I have a 13" MBA, and am very happy with it. The reason why I chose the 13" over the 11" was specifically for the screen real-estate and the 1.8Ghz i5 over the entry level i5 in the 11".

Either are great machines and I am finding myself reaching for the 13" over my iPad whenever i go out. I'm guessing if I had my choice again I'd would go for a higher speced out 11" over the 13".
 
D

Dirt Bringer

macrumors member
Sep 16, 2013
30
0
I'm on an 11 inch Alienware with identical resolution as the 11" air right now. I can tell you that for my line of work, it's not enough. Yeah, thin, light, tiny, bla bla. Whatever. It doesn't make a difference if you can't see what the hell you're doing on the screen. In all honesty it's offputting enough that I sometimes put off doing homework till I get home and work on my laptop. I'm looking at a 13" air right now, but I will never again buy a laptop with a 1366x768 display. It's simply not enough.
 
Boyd01

Boyd01

Moderator
Staff member
Feb 21, 2012
7,689
4,572
New Jersey Pine Barrens
I had a 13" 2011 MBA for almost two years and recently replaced it with a 2013 11" MBA. At home I always use a big external screen and keyboard so the size doesn't matter. But when I was travelling with the 13" MBA, I found myself wishing I'd gotten the 11".

So I went with the 11" MBA and am really happy with it. Yes, the screen is small and in some applications the text can be really tiny (Apple Mail, for example). But there are usually ways to deal with this and I find the screen a reasonable compromise for the portability.

Either way, they are great machines. Personally I would get a 2013 model either way though, better battery life and faster SSD (esp the 256 and 512 models).
 
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