I agree. If you have to have the best then i7 is the way to go. Seems like some get no extra heat and others do.
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11in i5 or i7?
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I agree. If you have to have the best then i7 is the way to go. Seems like some get no extra heat and others do.
I agree. If you have to have the best then i7 is the way to go. Seems like some get no extra heat and others do.
That quote might have actually made up my decision. If you're using this computer as a portable second computer, what's the real reason to have that slight bit of an upgrade in speed?
Between the 1.7 and 1.8 your looking about 8% speed increase. Don't get me wrong, every little bit counts - but at what cost? More heat? Battery appears o be the same. If money is no object, I say i7.
On the 13".....
On the 11" it's 25-30% speed increase. much more dramatic when you need it.
I know
Its just some folks may pop into the thread and think you are referring to the 11" seeing as the thread title is 11" related. I was just pointing out that you are indeed referencing the 13. No need to be defensive, my post was not attacking - just clearing any possible confusion for others I have the 11" Ultimate. No issues. Yes it runs a bit warmer than my 2010 13" Ultimate did but not so much as to be a bother nor a concern.
I worried a bit before receiving it, after reading these forums, about the heat. I'm pleased to say it has not been an issue for me. I'm not a power user by any means. I surf, email and write mostly. Some iFlicks and VisualHub encoding but those are the heaviest tasks.
This machine, so far, is my favorite laptop I've ever owned or used. So happy with the purchase. My only complaint is the jerky scrolling in several apps but that is not specific to the machine, rather the OS I think. Hopefully an update will fix that.
m&c
I worried a bit before receiving it, after reading these forums, about the heat. I'm pleased to say it has not been an issue for me. I'm not a power user by any means. I surf, email and write mostly. Some iFlicks and VisualHub encoding but those are the heaviest tasks.
This machine, so far, is my favorite laptop I've ever owned or used. So happy with the purchase. My only complaint is the jerky scrolling in several apps but that is not specific to the machine, rather the OS I think. Hopefully an update will fix that.
m&c
For what it's worth, Macworld's review is up, and they didn't notice an appreciable difference in battery life between the i7 and i5.
http://www.macworld.com/article/161434/2011/08/macbook_air_2011.html?lsrc=top_1
http://www.macworld.com/article/161434/2011/08/macbook_air_2011.html?lsrc=top_1
Like you said, maybe it's because I embedded the image hosted on Anandtech's servers (fixed: now hosted by ImageShack), but we never know: people even vote down questions here, and not necessarily dumb ones
.
Like you said, maybe it's because I embedded the image hosted on Anandtech's servers (fixed: now hosted by ImageShack), but we never know: people even vote down questions here, and not necessarily dumb ones
MacRumors was better before the voting system was added. Basically any objective opinion that strays anywhere from what the majority want to hear - regardless even if entirely correct - is dismissed by folks voting it down.
I can not understand why it was added to the forum. It's a flawed system.
Back on topic..
So I wonder as more and more people now receive their custom ordered machines with the i7 will the consensus come down on Anandtech and MacWorlds extensive results (that there is little battery and heat differential)?
I won't call it the ultimate answer to our questions, but it is a rather elaborate answer:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4554/apples-11inch-macbook-air-core-i7-18ghz-review-update
--> Bottomline: the battery hit by the i7 is close to neglectable. However the heat is a bit higher under permanent full load (video rendering, gaming).
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4554/apples-11inch-macbook-air-core-i7-18ghz-review-update
--> Bottomline: the battery hit by the i7 is close to neglectable. However the heat is a bit higher under permanent full load (video rendering, gaming).
Exchanged for 11in i7
Well, I decided to exchange the 11in/i5/128 SSD for the 11in/i7/256 SSD yesterday.
So far, I've had no issues whatsoever with excessive heat or fan noise. I'd say it's probably very slightly warmer than the i5 was (this is purely subjective - I have not used any apps to measure either), but it is by no means 'hot'.
Although I don't often do a lot that will make use of the i7, I'd rather have it at the times I do need it, particularly since it seems that there will be negligible, if any, difference in battery life (per Anand's review, for instance), especially considering the greater difference between the i5 in the 11in and the i7 than between the 13in's i5 and the i7.
I'm very happy with my decision.
Well, I decided to exchange the 11in/i5/128 SSD for the 11in/i7/256 SSD yesterday.
So far, I've had no issues whatsoever with excessive heat or fan noise. I'd say it's probably very slightly warmer than the i5 was (this is purely subjective - I have not used any apps to measure either), but it is by no means 'hot'.
Although I don't often do a lot that will make use of the i7, I'd rather have it at the times I do need it, particularly since it seems that there will be negligible, if any, difference in battery life (per Anand's review, for instance), especially considering the greater difference between the i5 in the 11in and the i7 than between the 13in's i5 and the i7.
I'm very happy with my decision.
I've already gone for the 11" i5, and while I haven't had a chance to test them both yet (or even one of them ), I still think I made the right choice with the i5. However, what I thought was a clear winner is now......well.......not so clear. Either way, I'll be 99.9% happy, with 0.1% regret floating around in the back of my mind.
While I doubt I'll regret having either laptop model, the way I think about it now is: I gave up 15-20% speed for a more comfy laptop to have on my lap, and one that won't lead to the fans turning on as frequently.
I really don't see my computing needs changing much in the next few years, and so the benefits of the i5 I listed make it good for people like me.
), I still think I made the right choice with the i5. However, what I thought was a clear winner is now......well.......not so clear. Either way, I'll be 99.9% happy, with 0.1% regret floating around in the back of my mind.While I doubt I'll regret having either laptop model, the way I think about it now is: I gave up 15-20% speed for a more comfy laptop to have on my lap, and one that won't lead to the fans turning on as frequently.
I really don't see my computing needs changing much in the next few years, and so the benefits of the i5 I listed make it good for people like me.
Congrats. Hope it works out well for you
Thanks... I think it will. The only potential downside is that I went from having the Samsung SSD to the Toshiba (from 128GB samsung -> 256GB Toshiba). I actually hadn't been all that concerned about it, but whilst looking at some other things, saw the figures in the Anand review, and was quite unpleasantly shocked. One of the tests (the 4KB random read) showed that the Toshiba is slower than the Samsung by a factor of more than ten!
(2.49MB/s vs 27.2MB/s) The test in which the two were the closest showed that the Toshiba was about 30% slower than the Samsung. Will these differences be likely to have a noticeable or major impact on actual performance of the machine? If so, what sorts of activities are likely to see the greatest differences and what are the differences likely to be? I have read through some of the threads on this, but can't find much about whether it will actually be likely to make a difference in terms of actual performance as seen by the user.I want to believe that they are both good quality, fast SSDs and that Apple would not use slower parts knowing that this will adversely impact on the performance seen by their customers. However, I also know that people pay very good money to replace the standard SSDs with higher performance models, so there has to be some clear benefit in doing so.
Any comments?
Just speaking generally, though, I have to say the the MacBook Air 11in is just perfect to take to uni. Semester 2 just started here this week (in Sydney, Australia) and it really is ideal as a uni laptop. I have an old (around 3 yrs??) ASUS Eee PC. It's one of the very early ones they made; I think it might have been the second version they released, after the initial 7in linux one that started it all (the one in question is 9in and came with Windows XP loaded along with 12GB of storage (i.e. one 8GB drive and one 4GB drive - which was actually a disaster, since the 4GB drive was set as the windows drive and it was just too small once you install an update or two)). Whilst its footprint is slightly smaller than the 11in MBA, it's far bulkier, only very slightly lighter (I seem to recall the weight being listed as around 0.99kg vs the 1.08kg of the MBA 11in), ridiculously slow, forever giving low disc space warnings and had much poorer battery life. I'd actually all but entirely given up using it at uni (and almost everywhere else) since it was almost always more of a hassle than it was worth. It would take forever to boot, then to do anything was painfully slow (the flash drive being so full really didn't seem to help this, but nor did the awfully slow CPU and paltry amount of RAM (1GB, IIRC)) and finally take forever to shut down. In contrast, the MBA boots in less than 20s from a cold start, is extremely nimble in all tasks I'm ever going to require of it and could handle plenty more and shuts down completely in a couple of seconds. I can honestly say that it is easily the best computer - by a wide margin - of any type (desktop, laptop, ultraportable/tablet/PDA) or size I have ever owned. It's been quite a long time since I was so excited about a computer. I'm sure that this is partly due to it being the first mac I've had, but it's much more than that, too.
Wow... that ended up a LOT longer than I intended.
I've been using an 11 i5 and i7 for a few days and for the most part the temps are similar and in some cases the i7 is a degree or so cooler. Particularly after processor intensive activities the i7 gets cooler quicker. No issues with fan noise. The only issue is that the i7 has an LG screen while the i5 has a Samsung. They are slightly different; can't say one is better than the other. The Samsung is slightly yellow while the LG definitely has brighter whites and deeper blacks.