If you have $1279 to spend on the 11" why not get the 13" with 8gb ram for $1239? Makes 0 sense to me to go with the 11".
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Help me decide: maxed out 11" or base model 13"
- Thread starter Neiche
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the only thing about that is then I'd be paying a similar amount, and not getting the i7 like I would with the 11.
For what you're doing it won't make any difference. I have a crappy Lenovo T420s with a dual core i5, 8gb ram an 160gb SSD and it screams through photoshop cs6 and such. I only notice slow downs when I do DVD ripping.
Yeah totally see what you're saying. Like i said though, I could get the 13" base model for $1,039 from best buy...if I were to get 8gb I would have to get from apple for $1,239. So it would be 200 bucks more for 8gb of ram..
I still would get the 13" but that's me. Why not 2011 13" refurb for $919 and save more money?
http://store.apple.com/us-hed/product/FC965LL/A
I just started college too. But I'm 50 years old and going into grad school. I looked at the 11" MBA and thought that if only my eyesight were better I'd get the 11". Weight and size are my #1 concern but I ha to go with the 13". If your eyes are good enough to see tiny fonts then get the smaller computer
CPU speed just does NOT matter at all. You will not be using this to play first person shooter games. Just taking notes and doing papers and so on even a slow 1GHz machine is over kill.
In fewer words: "Buy the smallest screen you can still read."
PS: So far EVERY and I mean EVERY notebook computer I've seen on campus has been an Apple Mac. There is no rule about computers. People bring what they want but so for it is 100% mac. The library has rows and rows of public use iMacs
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For your intended usage the CPU does not matter. Prove this to yourself by watching the "activity monitor" display CPU usage. You will almost never see it pegged at 100%.
Different story if you were to say you were a film major and wanted a notebook to edit video. Then go for the 15" MBP.
One more thing: the 11" MBA can drive a large LCD monitor. Keep a monitor on your desk
My laptop, and main machine that I do most of my work on, is the 11.6 Air. This is my second. I had the 2010 model and than upgraded to the 2011 model (mostly for the backlit keyboard) and it has been a great machine!
Previously, I had the 2009 model 13" and I did not notice a big difference other than weight. I carry this laptop everywhere I go and getting the smaller model was better for me.
I don't really notice any issues with the screen size. Also, it can handle being plugged into a larger monitor: using the 29.00 dollar adapter I have tried it with a 23" ASUS LCD and a 26" Visio monitor and it worked great. So, later, when you've saved more cash, you can always get a larger screen to keep in your dorm/apartment/house or whatever for when you are doing work that a larger screen might be beneficial for.
Just my two cents...
And again, I love the 11" Air!
Previously, I had the 2009 model 13" and I did not notice a big difference other than weight. I carry this laptop everywhere I go and getting the smaller model was better for me.
I don't really notice any issues with the screen size. Also, it can handle being plugged into a larger monitor: using the 29.00 dollar adapter I have tried it with a 23" ASUS LCD and a 26" Visio monitor and it worked great. So, later, when you've saved more cash, you can always get a larger screen to keep in your dorm/apartment/house or whatever for when you are doing work that a larger screen might be beneficial for.
Just my two cents...
And again, I love the 11" Air!
I have a maxed out (except SSD) 11 Inch Air, and it still does the promised 5 hours. Surprisingly, it goes up to 6 Hours and 30 minutes when doing small tasks.
If money is an issue - go for the slowest CPU spec 13" machine you can, and spend the money on upgrading RAM / storage as appropriate.
The difference in day to day use by jumping a speed grade will be minimal. The ram will help if you work with large data sets. Obviously an i7 will be faster at some things but the i5 is still fast and for most day to day stuff you won't notice.
However, you WILL notice things listed below:
In terms of 13" vs 11" display, the 11" is 16x9 and the 13" is 16x10 aspect.
16x9 looks way too short and wide, 16x10 is a much "nicer" size for actually using for work, imho. the 1440x900 screen res on the 13" will give you more space to work with as well.
In terms of physical size, there's not a hell of a lot in it.
The difference in day to day use by jumping a speed grade will be minimal. The ram will help if you work with large data sets. Obviously an i7 will be faster at some things but the i5 is still fast and for most day to day stuff you won't notice.
However, you WILL notice things listed below:
In terms of 13" vs 11" display, the 11" is 16x9 and the 13" is 16x10 aspect.
16x9 looks way too short and wide, 16x10 is a much "nicer" size for actually using for work, imho. the 1440x900 screen res on the 13" will give you more space to work with as well.
In terms of physical size, there's not a hell of a lot in it.
the 11.6" is a 16:9
the 13" is a 4:3
List your actual tasks to give a better suggestion. Most students I see have the 13.3" but then again that is cause they don't have any other laptop or pc.
It is portable enough and for the same money i'd rather have more screen than better procesor.
the 13" is a 4:3
List your actual tasks to give a better suggestion. Most students I see have the 13.3" but then again that is cause they don't have any other laptop or pc.
It is portable enough and for the same money i'd rather have more screen than better procesor.
Yes, I'd definitely recommend that over the base 13.
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What. The. Hell.
The 13 Inch is, in fact, 16:10. Where did you get that information?
I had a 13" 2010 MacBook Air before I switched to the 11.6 2012 MacBook Air, the exact computer configuration that you're looking at getting.
I'm also a College student. Let me tell you I regret nothing.
I'm also a College student. Let me tell you I regret nothing.
In your situation I would get a base 11" and use the remainder for a 2nd screen or food/rent. You don't even need to upgrade the RAM because you already have a dedicated work horse. And you probably don't use photoshop frequently enough to need 8Gb, just wait a few seconds more.
Hi Nick given the same scenario as you I would go for the 11” max macbook air, meaning the 11”/i7/8Gb/128Gb. Here’s why.
Coming for an old HP laptop to a new mac is going to offer you a couple of paradigm shifts, that will considerably change the way that you interact with your computer from now on. Mac OSX is a completely different animal from windows. Mac OSX is extremely intuitive in comparison to windows. The first few weeks is going to be quite difficult, concepts such as file management will be challenged as you embrace Mac OSX, interface interaction will be vastly improved as you swipe, zoom, slide you way around on the mac, it will be difficult to go back to windows once you get the hang of it.
Killer features on the macbook air will appeal to you, things like instant on, extreme portability, huge all glass trackpad, amazingly fast flash storage, build quality, the way that it interacts perfectly with the OS, will change the way that you expect a laptop to work. It will be very hard to go back to a hard disk based laptop, much less one with all the flaws that you stated.
In short everything that you do, you would probably want to do it on your new macbook air. Trust me, it is that good.
What it does mean is that you should not consider the HP laptop as a practical fallback, since it will most likely no longer produce a satisfying computing experience, in light of your involvement with the macbook air.
It also means that you want your mac to be able to do as much as possible, is the 8Gb ram upgrade important in this scenario? Most definitely Yes. Is the i7 also a worthwhile upgrade if it is your main and only computer? Depends, is a 21-25% increase in performance doing cpu intensive stuff important to you? For me it is and I have absolutely no regrets upgrading the processor. Does it matter much in day to day stuff? Not really. But when I need to do some heavy lifting, i.e. encoding videos, I am glad that I do have the fastest processor available in this tiny form factor.
The main thing that I notice you had issues with, on the HP Laptop, seems to have a lot to do with portability. As such, I am of the opinion that you are really looking for an ultraportable, and if that is the case, the 11” is as portable a mac as you can get. The difference between the 11” and 13” in portability is HUGE, not so much because of the weight but rather the form factor. The 11” just begs to be taken everywhere. It’s so easy to carry around and to use that sometimes i feel like, it treads the border of something more akin to an iPad while maintaining the full functionality of a laptop. It is the super hybrid, a chimera of portability, function and ergonomics.
Battery life is easily 5 hours with wifi on, basic web surfing at 3 to 4 bar brightness. Of course if you were streaming videos or gaming on the go you would experience a noticeable drop in battery life. At the same time if you had your wifi/bluetooth off, sound muted, brightness set at either 1 or 2 bars and basically typing, i.e. taking notes in a lecture hall, you could stretch your battery to anywhere from 7 to 8 hours on the 11”. Here is the thing, with the charger the 11” weights about as much as the 13” without the charger. So really it is a give and take on the battery issue. Are you able to survive with 5hrs of connected uptime? If yes, take the 11”. Can you perhaps manage your battery life by turning off/down functions that are not absolutely necessary on longer days and are those days constrained to about 8hrs? If yes, take the 11”. Do you by any chance have access to a charging point thereby giving you more uptime on an 11” with a charger than the 13” without a charger, for the same amount of weight? If yes, take the 11”.
So here is where I conclude this stupendously long post. Get the 11”. Get the 8Gb upgrade. Get the i7 upgrade. If you need more space, get a usb 3.0 external hard disk drive. If you need more desktop space, get an external monitor. Yes you will love your new 11” macbook air. No I don’t hate the 13”. I still have both my 13”s the late 2010 and mid 2011 base models. Both 11” and 13’ are fantastic, I just like the 11” that much more.
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Hi Nick given the same scenario as you I would go for the 11 max macbook air, meaning the 11/i7/8Gb/128Gb. Heres why.
Coming for an old HP laptop to a new mac is going to offer you a couple of paradigm shifts, that will considerably change the way that you interact with your computer from now on. Mac OSX is a completely different animal from windows. Mac OSX is extremely intuitive in comparison to windows. The first few weeks is going to be quite difficult, concepts such as file management will be challenged as you embrace Mac OSX, interface interaction will be vastly improved as you swipe, zoom, slide you way around on the mac, it will be difficult to go back to windows once you get the hang of it.
Killer features on the macbook air will appeal to you, things like instant on, extreme portability, huge all glass trackpad, amazingly fast flash storage, build quality, the way that it interacts perfectly with the OS, will change the way that you expect a laptop to work. It will be very hard to go back to a hard disk based laptop, much less one with all the flaws that you stated.
In short everything that you do, you would probably want to do it on your new macbook air. Trust me, it is that good.
What it does mean is that you should not consider the HP laptop as a practical fallback, since it will most likely no longer produce a satisfying computing experience, in light of your involvement with the macbook air.
It also means that you want your mac to be able to do as much as possible, is the 8Gb ram upgrade important in this scenario? Most definitely Yes. Is the i7 also a worthwhile upgrade if it is your main and only computer? Depends, is a 21-25% increase in performance doing cpu intensive stuff important to you? For me it is and I have absolutely no regrets upgrading the processor. Does it matter much in day to day stuff? Not really. But when I need to do some heavy lifting, i.e. encoding videos, I am glad that I do have the fastest processor available in this tiny form factor.
The main thing that I notice you had issues with, on the HP Laptop, seems to have a lot to do with portability. As such, I am of the opinion that you are really looking for an ultraportable, and if that is the case, the 11 is as portable a mac as you can get. The difference between the 11 and 13 in portability is HUGE, not so much because of the weight but rather the form factor. The 11 just begs to be taken everywhere. Its so easy to carry around and to use that sometimes i feel like, it treads the border of something more akin to an iPad while maintaining the full functionality of a laptop. It is the super hybrid, a chimera of portability, function and ergonomics.
Battery life is easily 5 hours with wifi on, basic web surfing at 3 to 4 bar brightness. Of course if you were streaming videos or gaming on the go you would experience a noticeable drop in battery life. At the same time if you had your wifi/bluetooth off, sound muted, brightness set at either 1 or 2 bars and basically typing, i.e. taking notes in a lecture hall, you could stretch your battery to anywhere from 7 to 8 hours on the 11. Here is the thing, with the charger the 11 weights about as much as the 13 without the charger. So really it is a give and take on the battery issue. Are you able to survive with 5hrs of connected uptime? If yes, take the 11. Can you perhaps manage your battery life by turning off/down functions that are not absolutely necessary on longer days and are those days constrained to about 8hrs? If yes, take the 11. Do you by any chance have access to a charging point thereby giving you more uptime on an 11 with a charger than the 13 without a charger, for the same amount of weight? If yes, take the 11.
So here is where I conclude this stupendously long post. Get the 11. Get the 8Gb upgrade. Get the i7 upgrade. If you need more space, get a usb 3.0 external hard disk drive. If you need more desktop space, get an external monitor. Yes you will love your new 11 macbook air. No I dont hate the 13. I still have both my 13s the late 2010 and mid 2011 base models. Both 11 and 13 are fantastic, I just like the 11 that much more.
fantastic reply, thanks so much. I bought a base 13" for a thousand bucks, have 30 days, I'm gonna see how I like it, speed wise and portability wise. Maybe will get the 11" in a couple weeks but trying this out for now
Thanks!!
Nick
The 13" model for sure! The screen real estate, battery life and nicer form factor is the deal for me atleast
fantastic reply, thanks so much. I bought a base 13" for a thousand bucks, have 30 days, I'm gonna see how I like it, speed wise and portability wise. Maybe will get the 11" in a couple weeks but trying this out for now
Thanks!!
Nick
Congrats, you will love it.
If you are on a tight budget, like you have said, and already have a powerful laptop, just get the base line 11 inch. Word processing and casual browsing will be perfectly fine on it. Photoshop should be too, unless you go crazy intense with it.
With a 2011 model you don't get USB 3.0 or Ivy Bridge processor.
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Hi Nick given the same scenario as you I would go for the 11 max macbook air, meaning the 11/i7/8Gb/128Gb. Heres why.
Coming for an old HP laptop to a new mac is going to offer you a couple of paradigm shifts, that will considerably change the way that you interact with your computer from now on. Mac OSX is a completely different animal from windows. Mac OSX is extremely intuitive in comparison to windows. The first few weeks is going to be quite difficult, concepts such as file management will be challenged as you embrace Mac OSX, interface interaction will be vastly improved as you swipe, zoom, slide you way around on the mac, it will be difficult to go back to windows once you get the hang of it.
Killer features on the macbook air will appeal to you, things like instant on, extreme portability, huge all glass trackpad, amazingly fast flash storage, build quality, the way that it interacts perfectly with the OS, will change the way that you expect a laptop to work. It will be very hard to go back to a hard disk based laptop, much less one with all the flaws that you stated.
In short everything that you do, you would probably want to do it on your new macbook air. Trust me, it is that good.
What it does mean is that you should not consider the HP laptop as a practical fallback, since it will most likely no longer produce a satisfying computing experience, in light of your involvement with the macbook air.
It also means that you want your mac to be able to do as much as possible, is the 8Gb ram upgrade important in this scenario? Most definitely Yes. Is the i7 also a worthwhile upgrade if it is your main and only computer? Depends, is a 21-25% increase in performance doing cpu intensive stuff important to you? For me it is and I have absolutely no regrets upgrading the processor. Does it matter much in day to day stuff? Not really. But when I need to do some heavy lifting, i.e. encoding videos, I am glad that I do have the fastest processor available in this tiny form factor.
The main thing that I notice you had issues with, on the HP Laptop, seems to have a lot to do with portability. As such, I am of the opinion that you are really looking for an ultraportable, and if that is the case, the 11 is as portable a mac as you can get. The difference between the 11 and 13 in portability is HUGE, not so much because of the weight but rather the form factor. The 11 just begs to be taken everywhere. Its so easy to carry around and to use that sometimes i feel like, it treads the border of something more akin to an iPad while maintaining the full functionality of a laptop. It is the super hybrid, a chimera of portability, function and ergonomics.
Battery life is easily 5 hours with wifi on, basic web surfing at 3 to 4 bar brightness. Of course if you were streaming videos or gaming on the go you would experience a noticeable drop in battery life. At the same time if you had your wifi/bluetooth off, sound muted, brightness set at either 1 or 2 bars and basically typing, i.e. taking notes in a lecture hall, you could stretch your battery to anywhere from 7 to 8 hours on the 11. Here is the thing, with the charger the 11 weights about as much as the 13 without the charger. So really it is a give and take on the battery issue. Are you able to survive with 5hrs of connected uptime? If yes, take the 11. Can you perhaps manage your battery life by turning off/down functions that are not absolutely necessary on longer days and are those days constrained to about 8hrs? If yes, take the 11. Do you by any chance have access to a charging point thereby giving you more uptime on an 11 with a charger than the 13 without a charger, for the same amount of weight? If yes, take the 11.
So here is where I conclude this stupendously long post. Get the 11. Get the 8Gb upgrade. Get the i7 upgrade. If you need more space, get a usb 3.0 external hard disk drive. If you need more desktop space, get an external monitor. Yes you will love your new 11 macbook air. No I dont hate the 13. I still have both my 13s the late 2010 and mid 2011 base models. Both 11 and 13 are fantastic, I just like the 11 that much more.
While I do agree that Apple makes a better laptop from a build quality standpoint, OS X is not the computing nirvana you claim it to be.
OS X has its faults, Finder sucks badly, no SSH integration into Finder, archive management pretty much sucks as well. Only saving grace is that you have the command line.
Flash storage is not an Apple exclusive either, other devices have them.
All this being said I still like Apple laptops and think that their build qualty is excellent.
I'd go for the 11", mostly for the 8 GB of ram. It's really a relief not having your memory constantly maxed out (which is not unusual with 4 GB, especially if you're using CS6 apps and surfing a lot).
I use an 11" myself and love it. Much better than the 13" for bringing to school / friends / trips and whatnot. The only problem is the battery life though - you get 5:ish hours of not-that-active surfing (add some flash and youtube on that and you get maybe 3 hours). If you use it a lot by day, I'd recommend bringing a charger. You usually have access to a power outlet no matter where you are anyway.
I use the 11" a lot on the road, but at home (when sitting for hours at a desk) I have a keyboard, mouse and external screen that I plug it in to. That really helps, feels like working on an iMac instead of an ultrabook
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I agree, OS X has some weak points, especially Finder. There are however nice options - I myself use Path Finder, a finder replacement with a lot of features missing from normal finder (dual view, tabs, subversion support, hex view and tons of other stuff). And for SSH, I usually mount FTP/SFTP connections as disks with Transmission. There are several other similar nice-to-haves too. I like the "base" of OS X, but once you add some small tweaks to get those small annoyances away it's, in my personal opinion, better than the alternatives out there.
I use an 11" myself and love it. Much better than the 13" for bringing to school / friends / trips and whatnot. The only problem is the battery life though - you get 5:ish hours of not-that-active surfing (add some flash and youtube on that and you get maybe 3 hours). If you use it a lot by day, I'd recommend bringing a charger. You usually have access to a power outlet no matter where you are anyway.
I use the 11" a lot on the road, but at home (when sitting for hours at a desk) I have a keyboard, mouse and external screen that I plug it in to. That really helps, feels like working on an iMac instead of an ultrabook
----------
I agree, OS X has some weak points, especially Finder. There are however nice options - I myself use Path Finder, a finder replacement with a lot of features missing from normal finder (dual view, tabs, subversion support, hex view and tons of other stuff). And for SSH, I usually mount FTP/SFTP connections as disks with Transmission. There are several other similar nice-to-haves too. I like the "base" of OS X, but once you add some small tweaks to get those small annoyances away it's, in my personal opinion, better than the alternatives out there.
I'd go for the 11", mostly for the 8 GB of ram. It's really a relief not having your memory constantly maxed out (which is not unusual with 4 GB, especially if you're using CS6 apps and surfing a lot).
I use an 11" myself and love it. Much better than the 13" for bringing to school / friends / trips and whatnot. The only problem is the battery life though - you get 5:ish hours of not-that-active surfing (add some flash and youtube on that and you get maybe 3 hours). If you use it a lot by day, I'd recommend bringing a charger. You usually have access to a power outlet no matter where you are anyway.
I use the 11" a lot on the road, but at home (when sitting for hours at a desk) I have a keyboard, mouse and external screen that I plug it in to. That really helps, feels like working on an iMac instead of an ultrabook
----------
I agree, OS X has some weak points, especially Finder. There are however nice options - I myself use Path Finder, a finder replacement with a lot of features missing from normal finder (dual view, tabs, subversion support, hex view and tons of other stuff). And for SSH, I usually mount FTP/SFTP connections as disks with Transmission. There are several other similar nice-to-haves too. I like the "base" of OS X, but once you add some small tweaks to get those small annoyances away it's, in my personal opinion, better than the alternatives out there.
thanks, great answer! I'm liking this 13", I'm still thinking though about getting the upgraded 11". 8gb of ram would be nice, and it's very portable. The only reason I'm hesitating is battery life. 5 hours might be alright though...the time I would need it to last the longest would be word processing, and I wouldn't even need wifi on for that
I have spent a long time pondering this myself. Then I tried a 11" for a few moments and discovered that my hands could not "fit" on the space below the keyboard. So, half of my hands was below they keyboard when typing.
This fact plus that I am not getting any younger led me to the 13 ", no experience with it yet as it is still underway...
So, go to a apple store (or similar) and try them out, cpu is not so much an issue as it used to be...
This fact plus that I am not getting any younger led me to the 13 ", no experience with it yet as it is still underway...
So, go to a apple store (or similar) and try them out, cpu is not so much an issue as it used to be...