Odds of refresh 11 being better than current 13?

[DonkiestOfKongs]

What are the odds of the next refresh 11 inch having more power than the current 13 inch model?

I ask because I want the portability of the 11 inch, but I would like the processor to be a bit better.

I don't plan on playing any graphics-intense games, just word processing for notes and the occasional browser game.

 

[Oppressed]

If thats all you do and you wanted the 11 then why didn't you just get the current 11 inch? It can run loops around those needs.

But to answer your question it would be technically better, but at the same time you more than likely wouldn't notice the difference. If you were to say edit photos in photoshop you would see seconds shaved off rendering.

 

[KylePowers]

I'm pretty sure a Pentium 4 / Celeron / Atom could solidly fill those needs. I'd say go for a current 11 if you really need it. Or just wait for the update and get the new one if you like it better or old one at a cheaper price. I'm currently waiting on the new 13in myself.

 

[nebulos]

if those were my goals, i probably wouldn't wait, but to be fair, Flash, for example, can be rough on the CPU, no? i can see even a 'casual user' being wary of the 11" processor, even if for that reason alone.

if indeed the Airs go Sandy Bridge, the weakest CPU will be better than the current 13 MBA's. The new 13" Samsung Series 9 uses the slowest (i believe) Sandy Bridge CPU, so you can use that as a lower bound (for the 11"). Just look up the reviews.

 

[brand]

I can see even a 'casual user' being wary of the 11" processor

I completely agree with you. Can you imagine how big a laptop would be with an 11" processor? Definitely not very portable.

 

[DonkiestOfKongs]

Thanks for the opinions. I'll be doing some coding on it for my Computer Science classes. Hence I wanted a unix system that wasn't linux. This will actually be my first mac. I think I will go ahead and wait to see what the refresh brings, so I can get the best deal. Any chance of this being revealed at the WWDC? I have heard a lot of people talking about it being software-only but I am still hoping.

Thanks again.

 

[torbjoern]

There will very likely be a refresh of the MBA on WWDC. Since you're going to use it for coding, note that the current 11-inch has no more than 768 pixels vertically - which is even less than the MB and the 13-inch MBP. I'm in Comp.Sci. myself (coding a lot), and even 800 px was a bit too little for me.

 

[DonkiestOfKongs]

There will very likely be a refresh of the MBA on WWDC. Since you're going to use it for coding, note that the current 11-inch has no more than 768 pixels vertically - which is even less than the MB and the 13-inch MBP. I'm in Comp.Sci. myself (coding a lot), and even 800 px was a bit too little for me.

I do have an external monitor in my dorm that I plan on using for longer projects and such (this will only be my second year of CS) though the size escapes me. 20+" I know that.

Anyways, you raise an interesting point about the vertical height. The 13 MBA has 900, which makes me want to consider it more (as this is something I plan on using for 5+ years). By the time of the refresh, I might have enough money saved up for an ultimate 13, which would be quite nice.

 

[fyrefly]

There will very likely be a refresh of the MBA on WWDC. Since you're going to use it for coding, note that the current 11-inch has no more than 768 pixels vertically - which is even less than the MB and the 13-inch MBP. I'm in Comp.Sci. myself (coding a lot), and even 800 px was a bit too little for me.

WWDC = No new hardware. Apple's said this themselves.

Other rumours are pointing to a June/July timeframe for a MBA update. That makes sense.

I know you're not saying it, but just in case others get it in their heads, I really doubt that the screen resolutions are going to change on the MBAs. 768 on an 11" machine is the same as the 12" PBG4 but with more width (due to the 16x9 nature of the 11" screen).

The 11" also already has the highest PPI of the Mac Lineup, and any higher resolution (w/o resolution independence in OSX) would make the UI smaller - and far less usable.