MBA 11 is BIG to use

[Kachadurian]

A few years ago my daughter killed my 12" PB with a glass of Coke.

Since then I've had a 13" MacBook and a Dell Mini 9 I hackintoshed for portability. (do also have a loaded MacPro on my desk so these are just my portables.)

When I saw the MBA11 it was like finding my long lost 12", only better.

What I didn't understand until I brought it home and started using it is that the MBA11 has a bigger, better, more usable screen than the 13" MB or MBP.

They are close in terms of total pixels, but having the additional width creates the illusion of a bigger screen, and there's more room to work.

All these threads about 13MBA v 13MBP have got it wrong. The 11MBA is more like a 13mbp and the 13 mba is more like a 15mbp.

Until you close it up and put it away, then the 11MBA is smaller than a magazine.

I'm in love.

Tom

 

[Dalton63841]

I sincerely hate you for making me want one...J/K I am holding out for the next-gen MBP, so I can pass my current MBP on to my GF, but the more I hear about these MBA's, the more I consider it.

 

[size100]

11.6" just seems a little small for everyday use. Most mac users like vertical space because of how they have everything aligned.

 

[Dalton63841]

11.6" just seems a little small for everyday use.

My first experience with Mac was a hackintoshed MSI Wind U100. It was my "everyday computer" for about 6 months and it has a 10" screen at 1024x600. Although I will admit, you probably would need pretty good eyes for 1440x900 on an 11" screen.

 

[Hellishness]

11.6" just seems a little small for everyday use. Most mac users like vertical space because of how they have everything aligned.

...Can you elaborate?

 

[leerocks01]

Thinking... Thinking... Hmm... Post more positive feed back on MBA 11 and you will lure me in choosing this bad ass super lightweight than MBP 13 incher. Come on... Keep it going. Need more feedback here.

 

[deedas]

Pretty sure the 11" has something like 1366x768 not 1440x900 Dalton. Also it's closer to 12" than 11" so 1366x768 no longer sounds like you'd need super eye sight.

 

[Dalton63841]

Pretty sure the 11" has something like 1366x768 not 1440x900 Dalton. Also it's closer to 12" than 11" so 1366x768 no longer sounds like you'd need super eye sight.

Hmm...it's only the 13" model with 1440x900 res isn't it? Please tell me I didn't just pull that resolution out of no where.

 

[zen]

The 11.6" has a res of 1366 x 768.

I agree totally with the original poster. The 11.6" Macbook Air is tiny, and yet the screen is so high res and sharp you really feel like you're using something much bigger. I've had mine for a couple of days now, and when I switch back to my 20" iMac or my iPad, I get a bit of a surprise at how soft and low-res the screens of these two machines look in comparison. The Macbook Air is so pin-sharp.

I think Apple got it spot-on with the screen on the 11.6" model.

 

[size100]

...Can you elaborate?

The menu bar and dock both take up a considerable amount of space at the top and the bottom. Even if the dock is hidden a lot of people do not use that extra space up. Combine that with the huge menu bars on some of the web browsers, i think chrome is still the only browser with semi-small top bar, and there ends up being a lot of excess space on the sides and not enough vertical space. Lots of 11.6" are putting the dock on the side though. Also with 11.6" inch you usually won't use two windows side-by-side, which is a great way to use a larger 16:9 monitor, especially students.

I really don't care 16:10 or 16:9. For a notebook i'd actually go with 16:9 most of the time if the footprint aspect ratio changes with the screen aspect ratio.

 

[Shasta McNasty]

I can attest to this but on the 13" air. I went from using a uMBP and then traded it for the higher end 13" and i must say it feels like the screen is much bigger than the pros. It feels like its a 15" screen or something. Then i remember this is the highest res macbook screen in the lineup

 

[flatfoot]

The menu bar and dock both take up a considerable amount of space at the top and the bottom. Even if the dock is hidden a lot of people do not use that extra space up. Combine that with the huge menu bars on some of the web browsers, i think chrome is still the only browser with semi-small top bar, and there ends up being a lot of excess space on the sides and not enough vertical space. Lots of 11.6" are putting the dock on the side though. Also with 11.6" inch you usually won't use two windows side-by-side, which is a great way to use a larger 16:9 monitor, especially students.

I really don't care 16:10 or 16:9. For a notebook i'd actually go with 16:9 most of the time if the footprint aspect ratio changes with the screen aspect ratio.

Who is "a lot of people", and "most Mac users" and "a lot of 11.6"" for that matter? If you're a student, you should know that such vague arguments don't contribute to making a point. Do you actually have a MBA 11.6"?
I am (a) a 20 years Mac user who hides the dock at the bottom and uses that extra space and (b) a student who uses two windows side by side on the MBA 11.6" (LaTeX).

 

[St. G]

Between the fullsize keyboard and the 1366x768 screen, the 11.6" MBA feels every bit like a perfectly acceptable everyday machine to me. It wouldn't suit me as my ONLY computer, as I do video editing and need lots of storage that can be accessed faster than USB will allow, but my fiancee is using hers as her only machine and it seems to be working out pretty well. She's coming from a 13" white plastic MB, and so far, I haven't heard her complain about any size constraints.

 

[Kachadurian]

My first experience with Mac was a hackintoshed MSI Wind U100. It was my "everyday computer" for about 6 months and it has a 10" screen at 1024x600. Although I will admit, you probably would need pretty good eyes for 1440x900 on an 11" screen.

it's amazing to me the difference between 1024x600 (dell mini 9) and 1366x768 in the mba11. 600 was always too short and 768 isn't.

for the record I'm 52 and have terrible eyes. 5 different glasses/contacts combinations for different things.

tom

 

[flatfoot]

Between the fullsize keyboard and the 1366x768 screen, the 11.6" MBA feels every bit like a perfectly acceptable everyday machine to me. It wouldn't suit me as my ONLY computer, as I do video editing and need lots of storage that can be accessed faster than USB will allow, but my fiancee is using hers as her only machine and it seems to be working out pretty well. She's coming from a 13" white plastic MB, and so far, I haven't heard her complain about any size constraints.

Concerning the MBA.

 

[Kachadurian]

The menu bar and dock both take up a considerable amount of space at the top and the bottom. Even if the dock is hidden a lot of people do not use that extra space up. Combine that with the huge menu bars on some of the web browsers, i think chrome is still the only browser with semi-small top bar, and there ends up being a lot of excess space on the sides and not enough vertical space. Lots of 11.6" are putting the dock on the side though. Also with 11.6" inch you usually won't use two windows side-by-side, which is a great way to use a larger 16:9 monitor, especially students.

I really don't care 16:10 or 16:9. For a notebook i'd actually go with 16:9 most of the time if the footprint aspect ratio changes with the screen aspect ratio.

you keep talking of 11.6, but that's my point. This is not what you expect and is in fact bigger than a traditional 13" screen. That said, i have always used a hidden dock on the left side.

tom

 

[St. G]

Nice.

Concerning the MBA.

 

[gwsat]

I agree that the 11 inch MBA is a wonderful computer. Although I had been waiting to buy a 13 inch MBA, if its RAM was ever increased to 4GB, when that finally happened, I almost changed my mind and bought the 11 inch model, instead. The only reason I stuck with the 13 inch MBA was that I needed it to become my primary machine, which meant that the maximum 128GB of flash storage available on the 11 inch MBA wouldn't have been enough. For example, my two month old 13 inch Ultimate MBA is using 135GB of storage.

Both the 11 inch MBA and 13 inch model are great little computers. No wonder so many prospective buyers are having a hard time making up their minds which to choose.

 

[St. G]

I can't help but wonder if a lot of the "11.6" is too small/underpowered" stuff comes from people either a) comparing specs rather than actual experience or b) only looking at the models side by side in a store.

It's like when you look at TVs at Best Buy. A 50" Plasma looks small and dim sitting next to a 55" LCD in the the giant, brightly lit store, but if you take it home, it's pretty big (and has better black levels, smoother representation of motion without weird anti-judder effects, etc) and plenty bright. Yes, a bigger laptop is bigger, but when you're shopping for an ultraportable, imo, 1366x768 is big enough.

And, as others have already pointed out, roughly equivalent to the pre-MBA 13" screens on other Macs.

 

[hcho3]

11.6" just seems a little small for everyday use. Most mac users like vertical space because of how they have everything aligned.

...

Most mac users... hmmm.

Hmm.... Can you show me a data that proves this?

 

[Mac32]

I agree that the MBA 11' is a fantastic machine, but I think the trend now to use 16:9 screens in netbooks AND larger laptops is a very bad one. It's very unpractical in every single way (internet browsing, office, composing music, you name it), except for watching movies. Not to mention the fact that ergonomically a 16:9 screen is bad for your neck. Of course a 16:9 screen makes the MBA 11' smaller and more portable, but Apple could rather make the bezel thinner, and have used a 16:10 screen instead IMO.
It's just plain stupid to have these low and wide screens for laptops. PC-companies: If people wanna watch movies - let them buy a television, stop messing up a working design by putting movie screens in our laptops!

 

[silverblack]

I love my 16:9 screens. It allows me to open two windows side by side, or multiple windows with minimal overlap, like a real desktop with thing laid out in front of me.

 

[fs454]

As a power-hungry owner of an 8-core Mac Pro constantly working with 1080p 5D Mark II footage, gaming, audio postproduction, graphic design/web development, etc....I've oddly been considering the MBA 11 since the day it came out. I was turned way off by the dated CPU and the general lack of power, and couldn't fathom paying $1000+ for something that's, on paper, slower than my late 07 MBP. I have an iPad as well, which, since my MBP is on its death bed from 3.5 years of very heavy use, was being used for my mobile stuff. Still, I persisted to be interested, the size and weight seeming perfect. I hate low resolution glossy displays (cough 13" MBP cough), but this one doesn't have a clunky glass pane affixed to it, and the resolution is quite nice for an 11" panel.


I broke down and bought an Ultimate MBA 11" two days ago and let me tell you this notebook is the best thing I've ever bought. It's lightning fast, tiny as hell, and just as powerful as it needs to be. I've installed Final Cut, Adobe CS5 suite, Steam, and all my usual stuff and it takes everything I throw at it like a champ. Sure if I were to render/export 1080p prores video in Final Cut, it would take forever, but i've found it great in my testing to throw a cut together of footage, throw the FCP final to the Mac Pro and do all the hard video processing on that. Steam for Mac is great, I tried Garry's Mod, Portal, and TF2 and they all run maxed out at the native resolution with seemingly way over 30-40fps.

And the battery life, also great. I used Coolbook to undervolt the CPU and it runs stable at the lowest selectable voltage(.875v?) at all processor speeds. I believe I got around 6 hours and 15 minutes of battery doing a little bit of everything.

If you're doubting the power, forget it and go buy one, you won't be disappointed. Even if you don't like it, I think the restocking fee would be worth the few days you spend with it, haha.



Oh, and it runs Minecraft like a charm, heh.

 

[MikePA]

...

Most mac users... hmmm.

Hmm.... Can you show me a data that proves this?

He has no data, even anecdotal.

 

[fswmacguy]

IIRC, The new 2010 MBAs have a higher pixel density than the MBs or MBPs, so it's able to provide more screen real estate without increasing the physical size of the screen.