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Macbook Air 11" -- wow, I'm reconsidering...

onthecouchagain

onthecouchagain

macrumors 604
Original poster
Mar 29, 2011
7,382
2
So I saw a girl today in class using an 11" Air... and I must say, it looked perfectly usable. My conceptions of it being unusable or less-usable, I should say, is being challenged.

It suddenly didn't seem too small at all. And in fact, it looked so compact and comfortable. Granted my 13" is still lovely; and I particularly enjoy the extra battery life, but I must say, my conception of the 11" has been changed.

I don't even have a real point to this post (so apologies). In some ways, I just want to pay tribute to the 11" and say, I may have been wrong about it all along.
 
Apology accepted! :)

I was in the same boat as you and decided to go to the nearest Mac store after the release and walked out with an 11 inch and have never looked back!
 
I also think a lot of people don't realise just how much you can do with the smaller screen on the 11" Air. I've mentioned it in other threads that I now find my wife's 13" MBA huge in comparison and my old 15" Dell is just a monster!

I do a variety of tasks on the 11" including UNIX administration and programming of C, Perl, and scripting without a drama. I don't miss the larger real estate for those tasks. I still use my desktop with 2 x 22" monitors for major photo work, but for quick and dirties the 11" is great.

I really am impressed with the 11" MBA and am so glad I did get it.
 
Love my 11" as well. I will say, though, that I don't think I could use this as my primary laptop unless I hooked it up to a larger monitor. The thing is so tiny that you'll find yourself hunched over a desk. Not good for the ol' back or eyes.
 
It depends what you want to do. If you're just looking at websites or taking notes, it would probably be fine.

I couldn't manage doing more serious stuff on the 11", especially because of the high DPI, I just found it too uncomfortable. I don't think the 13" is a bad choice if you spend more than an hour at a time working on the built-in screen.
 
I love my 11". I had one of the 2010's, now I have the new 2011 model. It gets more use than my 17" since I use this at the office a lot.

The screen resolution is higher than the 13" MacBook Pro, which I think many people don't realize. It IS a little limiting sometimes, but it's not that bad.

The best part of the 11 is how portable it is. Yeah the 13 is nice, but really, it's too big to stick into just any backpack, or the tailbag on my motorcycle, or whatever. Plus it's so neat when somebody comes up and comments on it... I close the lid and hand it to them. When they feel how small and light it is, they're ready to go get their own!

(btw I don't hand it to just anybody) :)

Rob
 
Yeah, I'm far too committed with my 13", and I'm not fully convinced the 11" is a fit for me.

Just wanted to share my POV of it changed though.
 
yeah the ssd's make a huge difference as well. They need to make a cheap smaller ssd option for the 13 inch pro. The pro is kind of a ripoff in comparison to the airs. The airs have the form factor and the sdd's as a good reason for the price. The 13 inch pros really don't have any excuse to be using 5400rpm drive at their price range. Should be atleast 7200rpm which isn't even an option. Its 250 to go from the hdd to a 128ssd. It should be more like 150 since your not keeping the hdd. Other than the sandy bridge low voltage cpu (probably costs more as well) theres very little makes the 13 inch pro more expensive that they couldn't afford to lower the price enough so that speccing it out with a SSD is comparable to the price of an air. That ssd far outweighs any gains from the faster cpu for almost anything but synthetic benchmarks. The specs of everything but the cpu and the storage are almost identical. The pro should fill in the 899-999 gap that the old macbook used to fill. At 900 I think apple would easily make any of the money back through the volume increase of sales.

Also what is there deal on the price of upgrades. Its 150 extra on the mini to get a 7200rpm drive. You could buy more than 3 7200rpm drives and keep the one you already have for that kinda money. Same with the macbook pro. 150 to go from a 320 5400rpm to a 750gb 5400rpm. 200 to go from 4gb to 8gb, there are sales on newegg for 8gb of ram for under 40 in the past few months. Beyond ridiculous.
 
Last edited:
summitRun said:
Are you sure your thoughts were focused on the 'usability' of a computer...just sayin :D
Click to expand...

Actually, she was quite pretty. -__-'


Not to side track my own thread, but is anyone else keeping a careful eye on the Kindle Fire? I think it would be a good, affordable, supplement to Air owners. Thoughts?
 
I have the first gen MBA 13" and the first time that I saw the 11" there was no brainer, and just knew I would buy it straight up without any regrets. I love how portable it is, and I don't mind for the battery life since I bring the charger with me.
 
Yeah I'm in my first year of University and so far I have only seen 2 other people with 11" MacBook Airs and maybe 3 13" models. Most of my class has 13" MacBook Pros, with the rare 15" and I don't think I've seen any 17".
 
I have found the 11" Air to be much more useable with the new Lion features of full-screen applications and the 2-finger double click automatic zoom features.

I have both 11" and 13", and I find I actually prefer to use the 11" due to the size and weight. Yes, the absolute weight isn't much different, but if you hold it at the edge with one hand, the weight difference leveraged out on the larger size makes a noticeable difference.



-howard
 
wickoo said:
Two of them? How does that make any sense? :)
Click to expand...

I quite often like to do 2 things at once - I used to play a two level keyboard/organ, from that I went onto typing 2 projects simultaneously as a dare at University and then from then on I've enjoyed typing 2 things simultaneously [it helps as now I work as a production writer] The Air or should I say the Airs are my favourite computers of all time, Apple got the size to productivity ratio just right.

Besides all of that If I have one Air needing to be repaired I have a perfect backup machine :)
 
mrwonkers said:
I quite often like to do 2 things at once - I used to play a two level keyboard/organ, from that I went onto typing 2 projects simultaneously as a dare at University and then from then on I've enjoyed typing 2 things simultaneously [it helps as now I work as a production writer] The Air or should I say the Airs are my favourite computers of all time, Apple got the size to productivity ratio just right.

Besides all of that If I have one Air needing to be repaired I have a perfect backup machine :)
Click to expand...


Ha, there's always a method to the madness! :p

Also, I just got an 11" and it really is the ultimate in portability. I'm still having a bit of trouble adjusting when moving to the Air from my iMac but my eyes are not very good to begin with. I did just get it a few days ago though and haven't actually used it for more than an hour at once yet so hopefully that will go away.
 
13 MBA is perfect for me since I can use it at home without eye stream and anywhere I go as wel. It does not feel very heavy, especially compared to my old Dell. And when I put it on a desk or somewhere, it's just a perfect work machine.
So glad I did not buy an iPad. The MBA is a perfect mobile companion and it can life more productive (or distracted :D )
 
mrwonkers said:
I quite often like to do 2 things at once - I used to play a two level keyboard/organ, from that I went onto typing 2 projects simultaneously as a dare at University and then from then on I've enjoyed typing 2 things simultaneously [it helps as now I work as a production writer] The Air or should I say the Airs are my favourite computers of all time, Apple got the size to productivity ratio just right.

Besides all of that If I have one Air needing to be repaired I have a perfect backup machine :)
Click to expand...

LOL...I thought I was the only one:) I bought my wife a 2010 MBA last year when they came out. We fell in love with it...however, I needed power, so I bought the new 17" MBP when they popped earlier this year...when the new Airs were released, I bought the 13"...Love it!!! So much so, I went out and bought the 11" Air as well...the core i7/256gig Ultimate. My 17" rarely comes out of the house with me any more!! I am infatuated with these Airs...they do everything I need them to...and I pay my mortgage doing sound and video production:)

Jer
 
It's indeed very usable. If you need a laptop, and have no special needs (high graphics processing power or an optical drive), go for it!!!!

Over the last years, I've had the first 13" MacBook, a 15,4" MacBook Pro, several Mac Pros, with 20", 23" and 30" cinema Displays, and I still have an iMac and a high end PC hooked to the ACDs. I could be picky –and I am– but this last 11" Air is near perfect... It's my girlfriend's, and I'm always borrowing it. When I find a good used deal for the current gen, I'll be getting one for myself.
 
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