Advice Needed: MBA + external monitor

[flyersgl]

Hi: I am thinking of replacing my husband's aging Mac Mini with a MBA (he's expressed interest and his b-day is coming up). I think he will still want to have the screen real estate of his 21" Dell monitor when he is at home. I just hooked up my 11" air to the monitor so I could play around and see how it works, and have a few questions:

1. I know he will prefer to work in clamshell mode, but when I did this, the difference in screen dimensions made the stuff on the external display look odd (too much extra screen space at the bottom.) Is there a simple way to address this, or is there always going to be a need to move or resize things when moving from one display to another?

2. Related to #1, if no easy solution, would the screen difference be less if I got the 13" Air?

3. Does the MBA screen turn off in clamshell mode? While mucking around for info online, I saw at least one reference to screen staying on and machine getting extra hot as a result.

4. Do refurbs come from China or domestic? It took me so long to find the time to experiment with my own Air, I am now worried if I order this weekend, it won't get here by 9/10.

Thanks for any advice you can give me.

 

[GGJstudios]

1. I know he will prefer to work in clamshell mode, but when I did this, the difference in screen dimensions made the stuff on the external display look odd (too much extra screen space at the bottom.) Is there a simple way to address this, or is there always going to be a need to move or resize things when moving from one display to another?

Yes, you can select the resolution that's most appropriate for the external display.

3. Does the MBA screen turn off in clamshell mode?

Yes, it does.

4. Do refurbs come from China or domestic?

New Macs come from China. Refurbs come from domestic locations.

 

[3dflyboy1]

The 11" air I had didn't have any problems with an external monitor. Res wasn't a problem because the aspect ratio was the same. I think, if anything, the 13" will be more different because it doesn't have the same widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio the 11" has.