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11" Air i7 or 13" Air i5

mattopotamus

mattopotamus

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 12, 2012
14,934
6,752
I really am on the fence between the two. I plan on getting 8gb ram and I only need 128 gb SSD. So my question is, would the 11" air with an i7 and 8gb ram or the 13" with an i5 and 8gb ram virtually perform the same? At that point, would it just be a matter of which screen size i prefer? Thanks in advance. Too bad i cannot get the i7 13" with 128gb SSD :(
 
All things being equal, you'll not notice a huge difference in performance. I'd say the major difference is size. Do you want a smaller display or a larger one
 
maflynn said:
All things being equal, you'll not notice a huge difference in performance. I'd say the major difference is size. Do you want a smaller display or a larger one
Click to expand...

well if i always need a bigger size i could air play to my hdtv. I have never messed around with an 11" and i don't want to feel "constrained" by the size. Do you own an 11" or used one? I have used a netbook before and God knows that size annoyed me.
 
No I looked at the 11" and found it too small for my eyes. In fact I'm going from a 13" MBP to a 15" MBP. I need more screen real estate. I found using photoshop and Lightroom to constrained on the 13" MBP
 
Thank you. I previously had the 13" pro and that felt fine to me. I have to have my browsers run in a windows mode b.c i cannot stand full screen. I guess with an 11" that would be pretty hard
 
mattopotamus said:
Thank you. I previously had the 13" pro and that felt fine to me. I have to have my browsers run in a windows mode b.c i cannot stand full screen. I guess with an 11" that would be pretty hard
Click to expand...

I use gotomypc to connect to my work computer, and on the 11" MBA, it was impossible because of the scaling required. That was a huge issue for me, but needs are a bit more unique.
 
mattopotamus said:
Thank you. I previously had the 13" pro and that felt fine to me. I have to have my browsers run in a windows mode b.c i cannot stand full screen. I guess with an 11" that would be pretty hard
Click to expand...

The 13" Pro's resolution is 1280 x 800. The 11" MBAs resolution is 1366 x 768 so it's a wash horizontally and quite close vertically.
 
PBG4 Dude said:
The 13" Pro's resolution is 1280 x 800. The 11" MBAs resolution is 1366 x 768 so it's a wash horizontally and quite close vertically.
Click to expand...

May be a dumb queston, but even though the resolution is better on the air than my previous pro would the 11" of the air look smaller than the 13" of the pro, or is it all about the resolution?
 
The screen will be smaller, so everything you see will be smaller, compared to the 13" screen. The 11" screen will show everything on the 13" screen except for the 32 pixel difference in screen height (768 vs 800).
 
PBG4 Dude said:
The screen will be smaller, so everything you see will be smaller, compared to the 13" screen. The 11" screen will show everything on the 13" screen except for the 32 pixel difference in screen height (768 vs 800).
Click to expand...

grr, i guess the only thing to do is go mess with them in store first!
 
mattopotamus said:
grr, i guess the only thing to do is go mess with them in store first!
Click to expand...

Yep. I wasn't sure if the 11" was going to be too small for my eyes so I spent a solid hour messing with it at the store last night (and then another 3 at home).

Don't forget, there is a 14 day return period. Give it a shot for a week and if you don't like it, bring it back.
 
PBG4 Dude said:
Yep. I wasn't sure if the 11" was going to be too small for my eyes so I spent a solid hour messing with it at the store last night (and then another 3 at home).

Don't forget, there is a 14 day return period. Give it a shot for a week and if you don't like it, bring it back.
Click to expand...

if i order a custom online can i return it to the store? Also, i guess you went with the 11" and like it? or returned it
 
I love the portability of the 11" air, but i think the 13" is more portable because it has 7 hours of battery life.

I need to bring my air charger with the 11" and sometimes i can't find the electricity socket in public easily, so i switched to 13", it's not so big, and i can work with it longer than the 11". The vertical space on the 11" is very limiting, especially on browsing and doing documents.
 
aleni said:
I love the portability of the 11" air, but i think the 13" is more portable because it has 7 hours of battery life.

I need to bring my air charger with the 11" and sometimes i can't find the electricity socket in public easily, so i switched to 13", it's not so big, and i can work with it longer than the 11". The vertical space on the 11" is very limiting, especially on browsing and doing documents.
Click to expand...

thank you. Really good post :)
 
mattopotamus said:
if i order a custom online can i return it to the store? Also, i guess you went with the 11" and like it? or returned it
Click to expand...

CTO orders are non-returnable, except in case of DOA.

I'm digging the 11" so far. I have a 2010 13" MBA at home and have been wanting the smaller footprint of the 11" so I am happy so far. I've only used it for about 5 hours though so I don't have detailed impressions.
 
Had exactly the same choice until I tried the 11" for a few hours. Then I knew it was the 13" for me.

The 11" is just too small and feels gimmicky to me. Portability = battery life so 7 versus 4.5 is not even close.
 
spriter said:
Had exactly the same choice until I tried the 11" for a few hours. Then I knew it was the 13" for me.

The 11" is just too small and feels gimmicky to me. Portability = battery life so 7 versus 4.5 is not even close.
Click to expand...

Obviously this person does not understand portability , portability Is also weight and footprint. 13inch is still a big thing to carry. Also to get a full HD recharge takes only 30mins on a new 11inch. It comes down to what you want , if you already have a desktop it's not such an issue but many laptop only users go 13.

Gimmicky? Hang on over 1000 GBP on an i7, 8gb , SSD laptop. Right..... Lol
 
PBG4 Dude said:
Near the bottom of the linked page:



Still, the may is way better than the NO it used to be. Thanks for the correction. :)
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That more than likely means it is up to the store manager. They would probably take it back b.c someone would want it, and they would actually probably sell it really fast since they just came out and most people want something a little more custom
 
I have a 2010 MBA 11" and I have certainly encountered issues with eyestrain that occurred while using it. At the same time, I'm in my mid-40s. So I'd say if you're younger and have good eyesight, the 11" is worth it for portability. But for home use, I'm certainly considering a 2012 MBA 13" and use the 11" only for travel.

Thermals are still a bit of an unknown yet. Despite everyone saying that the wattage between the i5 and i7 are the same, AnandTech previously reported that full load power difference was about 5W for Sandy Bridge. With the diminished amount of material to sink the heat, this may still be a concern on the 11" model. Hopefully AnandTech will have a thorough set of tests for the 2012 MBA's.
 
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