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MBA 13 returned - 11 inch purchased

D

DogBreath99

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 23, 2014
13
0
I had the 13 inch for about a Day ...GREAT machine ....however @ 13 inch I couldn't rest knowing I could shop around for an open box MBP Retina for a little more ...a superior machine specs wise and screen wise ....

Don't get me wrong the MBA 13 is fabulous the keyboard alone is unreal ....

But the real reason I came to these forums and started thinking upgrade from my 08' White macbook 13 ...was portability ....was sleekness ....

I have an iPad which basically lets be honest is a toy and honestly not overly comfortable to use ....

I have a 27 inch Imac ....brand new just about ....I also bought that open box ...BTW I'm an open box master....almost every piece of tech I have is open box ....from TV's to Bose Cinemates to Macs....I have a tremendous shoppers eye and savvy when it comes to that ....Just got a PS4 btw OB ...brand spanking new....

Back to the chase..... I dumped the 13 ....thought about Retina ...but that 11 kept calling me ....I love that small notebook look ...I know I'm late to the game here ....

I called 4 Best Buys until I found an Open Box MB11....already had Yosemite on it ...not a smudge on it ...talked the manager into giving me the machine with an extra 15% off - he did .....

11 inch MBA in hand for under 7 hundy ....

So far awesome ...the KB is not as good as the 13 yet IMO ...but we'll see...
Tomorrow is the test as my go too work kit and I have to hope it connects to my projector ....Mini to VGA.... in fact that's the whole deal breaker - if it can't work with the projector - It goes back ...and I'll be sick....but I need it to sync.

:apple:
 
Trust me - you will love the 11-inch beast! So small, yet so powerful. Apparently a lot of people have gone from bigger (13-inch) to smaller (11-inch) and not regretting it.

I see no reason why it wouldn't work with your projector.
 
laudern said:
What the hell is an open box?
Click to expand...

Open box is life .....

You save hundreds of dollars ... I got my 27 inch iMac for 800 bucks .... Sitting on top of a best buy storage rack just collecting dust ....
They just wanted it gone, they'll give you a price but you can work it down ...

I just got a Bose Cinemate open box from Sears for almost half the price .... The exact model on the NFL commercials - an amazing completion to my home theater ..


People buy these things for less than a week and return & you get full warranty ....

I'm not cheap either and I make a good living , paying less for electronics is like a hobby for me .

Give it a shot....
 
I have the 11 inch and much prefer it to the 13. I love the portability of it and I think it's cool that is has a16:9 screen.
 
So far it's awesome ... Projector hook up fantastic - the HDTV look 16:9 is unique and the form factor and portability is outstanding ...

No more large laptop lugging ...

Now I need a good sleeve / bag.
 
Mechayoshi said:
Hmm, so it really is comfortable to use after a while? I was considering a 11" but was afraid it's a little too close to the size of my ipad.
Click to expand...

Isn't that a huge positive feature?

There's no reason why it wouldn't be comfortable. The keyboard is exactly the same size as the 13" model, the trackpad is only marginally smaller, and if anything the distance between the screen and your eyes is shorter. Why wouldn't it be comfortable?
 
motrek said:
Isn't that a huge positive feature?

There's no reason why it wouldn't be comfortable. The keyboard is exactly the same size as the 13" model, the trackpad is only marginally smaller, and if anything the distance between the screen and your eyes is shorter. Why wouldn't it be comfortable?
Click to expand...

I meant compared to the 13" not in general. Also I own a pc with a 27" screen and I would want something more in between the size of the ipad and the desktop but without sacrificing too much portability. But I guess this just one of the things you have to try for yourself.
 
I own a 27" imac and an 11 MBA and the combo is great, going from one to the other is very easy.

One thing i love is that you can have the MBA in front of the iMac and the screen isn't high enough to obstruct the iMac.
That way i can be watching a video in full screen on the 27" and checking out a forum or writing an email on the MBA.

Having two computers available t the same desk is so nice!
 
I'm tempted to go this route myself, but would be eying the 13" instead. I tried them both out a few times over the years and found the 11" a wee bit too small for me on-the-go.

The clincher for me is being able to run VMs. Can't do it on the MBA, but I think I'll try out remote access to the VMs running on my ESXi host at home. Maybe something like TeamViewer perhaps. The only problem I anticipate right now is poor performance due to WiFi bandwidth limits at coffee shops, coupled with fear of going over my 4GB/month on my cell phone plan (for access via Hotspot where free WiFi just isn't cutting it.) I'll try that setup out a bit for a while and see how it goes.

I've tried TeamViewer with the iPad, but it's a pain using a desktop OS via remote access on an iPad. Once you bring up the iPad keyboard you lose half the screen of the remote session. Need a physical keyboard to do it "properly", but at that point if I'm going to be carrying around a wireless keyboard with my iPad, I may as well go the MBA route.
 
Mechayoshi said:
Hmm, so it really is comfortable to use after a while? I was considering a 11" but was afraid it's a little too close to the size of my ipad.
Click to expand...

I hate the iPad , I gave it to my kids ...and work gave me that sits in my bag.

I have an iPhone6 and I'm not an apps guy or gamer ... Sports apps News apps yes but not crazy birds or any of that nonsense.
 
OP sounds just like me. I've been kicking around getting a MBA for some time now. I currently have a 2011 iMac 21.5 with 12GB ram and a 2010 MBP 13 with 8GB ram. I have all the iOS goodies (iPhone 6, iPad Air 2) but miss having a real computer when traveling as the MBP weighs a ton.

So yesterday I bought a 13 MBA as a secondary travel computer. I was convinced it was what I wanted. Once I got it home and sat it on my lap it just felt bigger than what I truly wanted. Very nice but still has a good size footprint. I never really looked at the 11 because I was so convinced I wanted the 13. Needless to say once I went back to the store I got the 11. To me its the iPad with real computing power. That's what I truly wanted for portability. I just thought the screen would be to small. Glad I switched.
 
EdMan said:
OP sounds just like me. I've been kicking around getting a MBA for some time now. I currently have a 2011 iMac 21.5 with 12GB ram and a 2010 MBP 13 with 8GB ram. I have all the iOS goodies (iPhone 6, iPad Air 2) but miss having a real computer when traveling as the MBP weighs a ton.

So yesterday I bought a 13 MBA as a secondary travel computer. I was convinced it was what I wanted. Once I got it home and sat it on my lap it just felt bigger than what I truly wanted. Very nice but still has a good size footprint. I never really looked at the 11 because I was so convinced I wanted the 13. Needless to say once I went back to the store I'm getting the 11. To me its the iPad with real computing power. That's what I truly wanted for portability. I just thought the screen would be to small. Glad I switched.
Click to expand...

Yes, I think it's valuable to realize that the 11" MBA has the same screen real estate as the old 13" MBP. It's 1366x768 which is basically the same as 1280x800 ... just put the dock on the side and then all of your windows effectively end up the same size.

It is a somewhat smaller screen physically but the pixels-per-inch count is basically the same as the 13" MBA so it's not like the 13" is going to be any more comfortable to read text on...
 
Last edited:
EdMan said:
OP sounds just like me. I've been kicking around getting a MBA for some time now. I currently have a 2011 iMac 21.5 with 12GB ram and a 2010 MBP 13 with 8GB ram. I have all the iOS goodies (iPhone 6, iPad Air 2) but miss having a real computer when traveling as the MBP weighs a ton.

So yesterday I bought a 13 MBA as a secondary travel computer. I was convinced it was what I wanted. Once I got it home and sat it on my lap it just felt bigger than what I truly wanted. Very nice but still has a good size footprint. I never really looked at the 11 because I was so convinced I wanted the 13. Needless to say once I went back to the store I got the 11. To me its the iPad with real computing power. That's what I truly wanted for portability. I just thought the screen would be to small. Glad I switched.
Click to expand...
I've had my 4/128 11" MBA since June and I'm still amazed at this device. And as others have discovered, there is a significant size difference between the 11" and 13" (more than one would think in the 2" difference)
 
duervo said:
I'm tempted to go this route myself, but would be eying the 13" instead. I tried them both out a few times over the years and found the 11" a wee bit too small for me on-the-go.

The clincher for me is being able to run VMs. Can't do it on the MBA, but I think I'll try out remote access to the VMs running on my ESXi host at home. Maybe something like TeamViewer perhaps. The only problem I anticipate right now is poor performance due to WiFi bandwidth limits at coffee shops, coupled with fear of going over my 4GB/month on my cell phone plan (for access via Hotspot where free WiFi just isn't cutting it.) I'll try that setup out a bit for a while and see how it goes.

I've tried TeamViewer with the iPad, but it's a pain using a desktop OS via remote access on an iPad. Once you bring up the iPad keyboard you lose half the screen of the remote session. Need a physical keyboard to do it "properly", but at that point if I'm going to be carrying around a wireless keyboard with my iPad, I may as well go the MBA route.
Click to expand...


Why do you think you can't run virtual machines. I normally have two or three on the go on my 13" MBA and they run perfectly well. I do a lot of software development on and it is fine.
 
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