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Did anyone else exchange their 11" for a 13"?

I have a 21 inch iMac. So, when considering getting a macbook, I knew that 11 inches was not going to be acceptable. I do a lot of creative work (like editing, and photo stuff) so I need a big display. Don't waste your time with the 11 incher. If you need something to be portable, get an iPad. (My wife does this. She has an Otterbox case, and totes it around in an amCase case.)
 
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Applefan 2013 said:
Yes, the option to choose between the 11" and the 13" is nice, but I cannot see how someone can use the 11" all the time. Even my 13" cMBP seems small. And it's a good thing that we don't live in North Korea, where we wouldn't have a choice. #
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Yep,

Even my 13" MBA is small for my tastes but works great in the field.

Hard for anything not to be small when you are used to your 27" iMac at home and office desks.
 
cshel24 said:
I am going from a 11 to a 13 myself. I got a MBA 11 (used) a while back to use as a beater computer. I really love the MBA, but the 11 is a bit small for me. It is a great little computer, but I have trouble seeing the screen w/o squinting or wearing glasses (or zooming in on pages). I definitely love the weight and how thin the MBA is over the MBP.

I grabbed a 13 on the Best Buy sale over the weekend. I am very impressed with the 13. Another determining factor for me is that I hear the 13 has better battery life than the 11.
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Really? The PPI is pretty similar, or certainly not enough to need

I'm a bit near-sighted, and suffer from astigmatism, and yet I use my 11" MBA without glasses. In terms of overall pixels, they both offer rather similar pixel dimensions (in the length and height directions), so it's not like you can do a lot more on the 13" than you could on the 11.6".

My main issue is the lack of vertical pixels on the 11". It's enough to drive me insane. :eek: However, I still think I'd prefer the 11". I had the 13" MBP before buy the 11" MBA, and was surprised that the usability of the 11" MBA was so similar.

My next laptop will be a 12.5" Retina MBA, so whatever. ;)
 
11" is great for people that have better eyes than me,
going to exchange mine asap hopefully, for an old 13" 2010 :)

as much as i like to use it, it always feels like my face will explode after some usage
 
SusanK said:
No, but I'm tempted. I love my 11' MBA. Occasionally I would like more screen. I was looking at the 13' MBA yesterday. It's nice but the 11" "fits" me so well.
Click to expand...


Shall we go for it? I have a 13 for now.
 
Yes.
Now switching to 15" MB Pro
The 11" MBa is the best device I ever had - an almost invisible computer.
Just need a bigger screen for work.
 
SusanK said:
No, but I'm tempted. I love my 11' MBA. Occasionally I would like more screen. I was looking at the 13' MBA yesterday. It's nice but the 11" "fits" me so well.
Click to expand...
I traded my Surface 2 in for an MBA 11". The portability is amazing for a full-function notebook. The 11.6" screen took a little getting used to (I'm coming from 15.4" MBP, and have a 21" iMac for my desktop)

There are two things that I'm finding make using the 11.6" screen more enjoyable.

1. Set the dock to auto-hide.

2. Use apps in fullscreen mode. The touchpad gestures are great for this... 3-finger swipe enables me to switch quickly and easily between apps.

This is obviously no revelation for most, but for those of us who never used those capabilities before it can help.
 
sracer said:
I traded my Surface 2 in for an MBA 11". The portability is amazing for a full-function notebook. The 11.6" screen took a little getting used to (I'm coming from 15.4" MBP, and have a 21" iMac for my desktop)

There are two things that I'm finding make using the 11.6" screen more enjoyable.

1. Set the dock to auto-hide.

2. Use apps in fullscreen mode. The touchpad gestures are great for this... 3-finger swipe enables me to switch quickly and easily between apps.

This is obviously no revelation for most, but for those of us who never used those capabilities before it can help.
Click to expand...

Alternatively put the dock to the side, I do not miss the space there at all and this way get a better vertical size for the windows.
 
Abstract said:
Really? The PPI is pretty similar, or certainly not enough to need

I'm a bit near-sighted, and suffer from astigmatism, and yet I use my 11" MBA without glasses. In terms of overall pixels, they both offer rather similar pixel dimensions (in the length and height directions), so it's not like you can do a lot more on the 13" than you could on the 11.6".

My main issue is the lack of vertical pixels on the 11". It's enough to drive me insane. :eek: However, I still think I'd prefer the 11". I had the 13" MBP before buy the 11" MBA, and was surprised that the usability of the 11" MBA was so similar.

My next laptop will be a 12.5" Retina MBA, so whatever. ;)
Click to expand...

It might be an issue of my eyes... I am not as young as I used to be. I might be blaming the computer for something that is my own fault. The place where I use the MBA 11 is when I am in a public setting. In those situations I am wearing contacts, which does seem to have an adverse effect on my up-close vision. I only use my 13 at home where I am not wearing contacts. I seriously catch myself looking over my glasses all the time. That might have something to do with it, I dunno.
 
cshel24 said:
It might be an issue of my eyes... I am not as young as I used to be. I might be blaming the computer for something that is my own fault. The place where I use the MBA 11 is when I am in a public setting. In those situations I am wearing contacts, which does seem to have an adverse effect on my up-close vision. I only use my 13 at home where I am not wearing contacts. I seriously catch myself looking over my glasses all the time. That might have something to do with it, I dunno.
Click to expand...

Actually, your contacts may be the culprit. You're right. I have two pairs of glasses, neither of which I wear frequently. When I wear them, text on my seems to blur very, very slightly. It's like a slight chromatic aberration. It's barely perceptible unless you're looking for it, but it's definitely there.

Since I'm near-sighted like you are, I feel that I'm better off without glasses while I'm at work. I only wear my glasses when I'm watching presentations or need to watch a screen far away (e.g. at the cinema).

Personally, I don't believe that the 11.6" screen will make your eyes more tired than the 13" MBA's screen will. I understand if you WANT a 13" MBA, but I'm always highly suspect whenever I hear someone say their eyes get tired when viewing the 11.6" MBA's screen, considering the similarity of text size on the screen, and inconsequential difference in PPI in real-world use (evident when comparing text sizes).
 
I went the opposite way...

2010 11" to 2011 13" and back to 2013 11"

11" is the perfect Road Warrior business machine. I also have an iPad Air....and NO they are not substitutes.
 
The 11" MBA could be even smaller, but it's still the best laptop I've ever owned, and I've owned plenty. Anything bigger defeats the purpose.
 
rrl said:
The 11" MBA could be even smaller, but it's still the best laptop I've ever owned, and I've owned plenty. Anything bigger defeats the purpose.
Click to expand...

It would be great to keep the same form factor but increase the screen size - plenty of 'unused' boarder around it at the moment. Well let's wait for the often discussed 12"... ;)
 
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