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Decision (Haswell or Broadwell) 11.6" MBA?

J

J&JPolangin

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jul 5, 2008
2,593
18
Close to a boarder, in Eu
Well its Christmas and the want of a new machine was being held at bay with my 2011 13" MBP that has a crucial 512Gb SSD with 8Gb Ram in it until I re-injured my shoulder at work a few weeks ago.

Fast forward to 2 nights ago with a "lucky scratch off coupon for the base PX, a just marked down new 11.6" MBA (from $989 to $949), this one being the last in the store until the new year (getting me a $50 discount), and "winning" a 10% off for the scratch off coupon = $809.10 for the current Haswell 11.6" MBA with 4Gb RAM and the 128Gb SSD!

That's cheaper than it is on the :apple: refurb store right now for a new, current model.

I will still have the MBP for other tasks and larger storage needs but the Haswell CPU benches slightly faster than my Sandy Bridge CPU = really in the two days of using it both machines seem on par with the definite weight advantage going to the MBA (obviously).

This thing is so portable, I want to keep it but my goal was to wait for the Broadwell revision next year and give my MBP to my wife (to replace her 2009 Whitebook with 64Gb SSD and 4 Gb RAM by gifting it to a family member who will need a new PC by then).

What would you do, any advice is welcome?!?!
 
i was in same case and i eventually succumbed and purchased Haswell's MBA
first reason, its an huge step forward in term of battery life, Haswell does improve alot about battery life

second reason, Broadwell might not introduce from 2014, at the best Q4 2014

third reason, rumors announce retina display, new form factor, personally retina is really interesting but i am little afraid about new form factor, not because of new size (12'' which is great to me, 11'' is quite small and 13'' is too big) because i think Apple would imitate its iPad Air design
i dont saying its ugly but i highly dislike
maybe i get it wrong

last reason, most plausible assumption would be an Haswell refresh, meaning we will get few performance more
1 hour of battery more, +10% of performance overall


i would definetely suggest you buying MBA right now and sell it if next MBA has Retina, izgo, better design (who knows?)...
 
bubulol said:
12'' which is great to me, 11'' is quite small and 13'' is too big
Click to expand...

Remember, the current MBA is not really 11", it's 11.6". So 12" is not going to be very different in terms of screen size - you would lose 0.2" of the bezel on the current model. I doubt that most people would even notice the difference. Of course, resolution and overall screen quality are another matter.

Personally, I am very happy with my 11" MBA and have no interest in Retina.
 
you r right about only small size difference but 13.3 is too big
yes maybe i am in the minority and find MBA 13''' too big
mainly due to my former laptops experience, i started with netbook, 10''1, 11''6, 12''1
10 inches its clearly inappropriate for having good laptop experience
11''6 inches, there is a little step forward in term of size, you can clearly notice size difference with 10''
its true you might not notice between 11''6 and 12''1 but i trust in Apple for reducing screen's edge, they can manage to put nearly 13'' within 12'' (rumours talked about 12''9 but i am pretty sure its within 12'' format)
 
I had a 13" MacBook back when it white, then I went to the 11" MBA for the last three years and it's easily the best laptop I've ever used. Recently, my wife bought me a MBA 2013 13" and it was very nice. But, after using it for less than a week I wasn't comfortable with the 13" size. I already have an iMac at my office so my laptop is truly to me a portal device.

I ended up giving her my MBA 13" and buying myself a new MBA 11". The 11" just fits me for some reason. The only negative I have about the 11" is due to the small size the palm rest is short, meaning if you have long fingers your hands are crunched up trying to type. But, overall I prefer the 11" over the 13" and there truly is a difference in feel and experience.
 
Hankster said:
I had a 13" MacBook back when it white, then I went to the 11" MBA for the last three years and it's easily the best laptop I've ever used. Recently, my wife bought me a MBA 2013 13" and it was very nice. But, after using it for less than a week I wasn't comfortable with the 13" size. I already have an iMac at my office so my laptop is truly to me a portal device.

I ended up giving her my MBA 13" and buying myself a new MBA 11". The 11" just fits me for some reason. The only negative I have about the 11" is due to the small size the palm rest is short, meaning if you have long fingers your hands are crunched up trying to type. But, overall I prefer the 11" over the 13" and there truly is a difference in feel and experience.
Click to expand...

...yeah, I'm in the same boat with the 13.3 vs 11.6 in debate also...I've tried every year machine since 2010 on the current form factor and while I'd love to have the SD card slot of the 13.3 in MBA, I always gravitate back to the 11.6" machine as my favorite during the trial periods before I decide the 11.6" battery life was too short and end up returning both machines...the Haswell 11.6" MBA is just about where I need to be battery-wise for a portable machine (which was why I was trying to hold out for Broadwell for the slightly faster clock speeds and slightly better GPU)...but at this price for a current machine its growing on me to be a keeper:D

Just waiting to see how the machine and battery do with streaming several hours of football games come Monday morning in Japan before making my "final" decision:p
 
I had a 2011 13" MBA and now have a 2013 11" MBA. I am really impressed with the battery life on the new machine. I can spend an hour doing web browsing and e-mail in the evening with the screen at low brightness (which is plenty in dim room) and it still shows 100% capacity. After 3 or 4 hours of watching ripped DVD's in iTunes at bedtime, it still shows 80% battery. The size and form factor are just great as personal movie player and I like the 16:9 screen. I have the 512gb SSD, so there's room for lots of movies in addition to all my other stuff.

I really liked my 13" MBA, but this time it's "love". :D
 
...well I'm on the base config of the 11.6" MBA and with all the SSD failure's I was hearing about on different forums I decided that I didn't want to be bound by an SSD that was so hard & expensive to swap out if there were problems (& I still have my 13.3" MBP w/ 512Gb SSD and 8Gb Ram in the house if needed).

I leaning toward the MBP as an "in-house portable machine" between office and living room and the MBA as my main traveling machine out of the house:).

I also want to upgrade my iPad (3rd Gen 64Gb cellular) to an iPad air or rMini but I'm having trouble deciding between the two = the rMini is so portable but the Air screen is really nice!
 
Boyd01 said:
I had a 2011 13" MBA and now have a 2013 11" MBA. I am really impressed with the battery life on the new machine. I can spend an hour doing web browsing and e-mail in the evening with the screen at low brightness (which is plenty in dim room) and it still shows 100% capacity. After 3 or 4 hours of watching ripped DVD's in iTunes at bedtime, it still shows 80% battery. The size and form factor are just great as personal movie player and I like the 16:9 screen. I have the 512gb SSD, so there's room for lots of movies in addition to all my other stuff.

I really liked my 13" MBA, but this time it's "love". :D
Click to expand...


I did exactly the same upgrade...love the 11" but honestly for my uses, its hard to really see the difference in performance from the 2011 version - I don't do a lot of video encoding.
 
I agree in terms of the "everyday things" that people might do such as Safari, MS Office, e-mail, etc. I had the 2011 and 2013 machines side by side when setting things up and was surprised how similar they felt.

But there definitely is a difference in Final Cut Pro rendering time and latency dropped from 13ms to 9ms in Logic Pro which is pretty significant. Then, of course, the 2013 machine has USB 3 and that is a pretty major difference if using a compatible external disk.

But for me the most important difference is that I now have 8gb RAM and a 512gb SSD. In 2011 neither of those were available on the MBA; 4gb/256gb were the max.
 
Boyd01 said:
But for me the most important difference is that I now have 8gb RAM and a 512gb SSD. In 2011 neither of those were available on the MBA; 4gb/256gb were the max.
Click to expand...

...if this were my only machine, that would weigh on my considerations but this is my portable, traveling companion so 128 SSD w/ 4Gb RAM was a hard deal to pass up since it was an "off the shelf" purchase :)apple:doesn't ship to military addresses:mad:)...and I have a 512Gb SSD and 8Gb RAM (in my 2011 - MBP that is:p).
 
bubulol said:
you r right about only small size difference but 13.3 is too big
yes maybe i am in the minority and find MBA 13''' too big
mainly due to my former laptops experience, i started with netbook, 10''1, 11''6, 12''1
10 inches its clearly inappropriate for having good laptop experience
11''6 inches, there is a little step forward in term of size, you can clearly notice size difference with 10''
its true you might not notice between 11''6 and 12''1 but i trust in Apple for reducing screen's edge, they can manage to put nearly 13'' within 12'' (rumours talked about 12''9 but i am pretty sure its within 12'' format)
Click to expand...

minority or not, i agree. obviously it's a personal choice but i have always preferred small laptops. before i was switched to a 13" MBP for work a few years ago i was using a 11-12" dell dimension...as soon as it came time to upgrade that macbook i went ot the 11 air and i love it!

perfect for me.

(of course i also got a TBD)
 
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