MBA 11 or 13 to replace my MBP 15"

[dinesh89]

Hey guys,
I'm finally going to TRY live more cloud friendly. Im planning on selling my late 2008 MBP 15" and purchase either a high spec MBA 11" or low spec 13". Currently my setup has my MBP connected to a 24" Dell. While I might get a iMac later on to serve more intensive purposes, I was wondering if there are any differences in terms of performance between the MBA 13" and 11" besides the 0.1ghz diff in CPU. I believe that cant make that much of a difference?

Im in a fix between the ultra portable 11 inch and the 13 seeming the 13 reminds me of the un portable 15 MBP I had. Appreciate any thoughts

My primary use is:
-Lots of browsing
-HD movie playback
-basic apps
-photoshop
-light imovie

 

[Matthew9559]

Main difference would be screen size for sure.

I would try it out at a store for a bit and see what you think.

Personally, I would opt for 13" because it is still comapct enough for my use and the extra room in front of the trackpad is nice.

Performance wise, difference is nil.

 

[dinesh89]

Thanks guys, great idea actually on the 11 inch with my dell screen, I already do have ext keyboard and mouse. My worry on that was how well the 11 can power the 24. I guess it should be fine.

I will head over to the apple store again and really see how the 13 is. I trying to start taking my laptop everywhere the 13 seemed bit too big next to the 11. I guess I should look at them by themselves.

 

[T-bag]

Hi there!

I don't thing you'd regret investing in a new MBA. I got my 13" today and could not be any happier.

With that being said, I like to point out a few things about the 11" you might already be aware of.

- Worse battery. I've read about people (sorry for the lack of specifics) here, and they report that they decided to return their new 11" because of the battery life. I don't have any facts here, but you should look into it. If you get the 11" for increased portability you might have to bring your charger along more often than you'd think (ironically).

- Even though it is cheaper, the jump to 13" isn't mentionable unless you only need 64GB of storage.

- The 11" has a 16:9 screen ratio. It might be a glorious wet dream to you, but I can't stand it, especially on a screen so small. You lose a lot of hight pixels. The full screen mode integrated in Lion compensates a little, but still.

- Even though the 11" is the smaller mac laptop, the 13" is still very small. I'm typing on mine, having it on my lap now, and I don't think it would be comfortable if it was even slightly smaller. And seriously, why would you quarrel about two inches extra to carry?

Just my two cents.. Good luck deciding! I LOVE my new Air

 

[ArztMac]

Hey guys,
I'm finally going to TRY live more cloud friendly. Im planning on selling my late 2008 MBP 15" and purchase either a high spec MBA 11" or low spec 13". Currently my setup has my MBP connected to a 24" Dell. While I might get a iMac later on to serve more intensive purposes, I was wondering if there are any differences in terms of performance between the MBA 13" and 11" besides the 0.1ghz diff in CPU. I believe that cant make that much of a difference?

Im in a fix between the ultra portable 11 inch and the 13 seeming the 13 reminds me of the un portable 15 MBP I had. Appreciate any thoughts

My primary use is:
-Lots of browsing
-HD movie playback
-basic apps
-photoshop
-light imovie

For your use, it's EXTREMELY simple, actually. If you own an iPad for basic browsing, watching movies in bed , or being mobile, taking notes, etc., and so on, you need to go 13" for the higher productivity machine.

If you don't own anything else and hook your computer up to an external monitor, the 11" is the way to go by a long shot. It is still small enough that you can read on it everywhere. It's basically the same size as an iPad when closed.

So it baffles me why people cannot seem to make up their minds.

So in short:

Own an iPad? Go 13".
Don't own an iPad? Go 11".

 

[Vantage Point]

Better to have a little more area than a little less, so I would go for a 13", especially if that is my only computer.

 

[dinesh89]

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Thanks guys, good note on the batt issue on the 11". I currently do not have an iPad so the MBA will be going everywhere. I also forgot to mention I will be doing frequent Xcode work. I'm leaning on 11" now except the fact the 13 has better batt life

 

[dinesh89]

Alright I think I might do the MBA and ACD setup. Does anyone know if the !!" can handle the ACD perfectly? I mean HD content and what else? Thanks!