That is why I don't understand why Apple doesn't give it a retina screen! My only guess is that it would decrease battery life too much for them to consider it worthwhile. I have been using Eclipse on the surface pro 3 since I got it and have no issue with it on the 12 inch screen. It is actually better to work on than my 15.6 inch work laptop that has a max resolution of 1600 by 900.
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Should I get a MBA 11 or 13 inch?
- Thread starter kalel1993
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That is why I don't understand why Apple doesn't give it a retina screen! My only guess is that it would decrease battery life too much for them to consider it worthwhile. I have been using Eclipse on the surface pro 3 since I got it and have no issue with it on the 12 inch screen. It is actually better to work on than my 15.6 inch work laptop that has a max resolution of 1600 by 900.
I have the 11" and I find that it's not too small. Safari was a little small, but that was easily remedied by going in and setting the minimum font size to something a little larger.
Office documents can be zoomed a little bit, if you find it too small, but the 11" screen is wider than an 8.5x11" sheet of paper. Vertical space is lost when compared to a larger screen, but that's not a deal breaker, in my opinion.
As far as coding, I'd say that neither the 11" nor the 13" will be optimal. Passable, probably, but having more screen space seems useful. As others have suggested, an external monitor (and keyboard) would be useful. If money is an issue, look into buying a used monitor from craigslist or other classified ads in your area. You could almost certainly find a decent, used monitor for less than the price difference between the two models. Then, you have the best of both worlds, a large screen and great portability.
Office documents can be zoomed a little bit, if you find it too small, but the 11" screen is wider than an 8.5x11" sheet of paper. Vertical space is lost when compared to a larger screen, but that's not a deal breaker, in my opinion.
As far as coding, I'd say that neither the 11" nor the 13" will be optimal. Passable, probably, but having more screen space seems useful. As others have suggested, an external monitor (and keyboard) would be useful. If money is an issue, look into buying a used monitor from craigslist or other classified ads in your area. You could almost certainly find a decent, used monitor for less than the price difference between the two models. Then, you have the best of both worlds, a large screen and great portability.
Meister
Suspended
Meister
Suspended
halledise
Suspended
I agree with this. There's quite a bit of vertical space lost when working on docs and surfing the web. I like the 13" quite a bit more.
Kaylor
Contributor
Yeah. My love for the tiny footprint of the 11" was trumped by the increased vertical resolution of the 13". The (back then) jump between 5 hours and 7 hours of battery was also a deciding factor. That's much less of a concern with today's models.
11"
Had an 11" for two years and love it. Those that say it is too small will have more than likely never owned one. It is not to small.🙂
Had an 11" for two years and love it. Those that say it is too small will have more than likely never owned one. It is not to small.🙂
Kaylor
Contributor
It's all personal preference and how it fits into the user's workflow. For my needs personally, yeah it was too small. Even the 13 inch's 900 pixel vertical resolution is too cramped for me sometimes. My other choice when I got my MBA two years ago was a 15" rMBP, but I didn't want to jump on a first-generation product, and I was also looking to downgrade in size to reduce the footprint of whatever I was going to use. Some of the desks at my school are so tiny, standard letter sized paper doesn't even fit on them. Had the 13" rMBP been released by the time I got my MBA I would've strongly considered it even though it would force me to get a first-gen product, simply for the smaller footprint (even smaller than the 13" MBA) and ability to scale up the resolution.
Ronnoco
macrumors 68030
I owned one...too small. 😎
Seriously, though, I really loved the 11" for traveling. I was doing a lot of flying at the time and the 11" was perfect for working in a cramped airplane environment and running through airport terminals. Now that I'm not flying or traveling much, I prefer the larger screen and the card reader of my 13". Both are amazingly thin and light full functioning OSX computers with more than enough processing power to do what most people need...the addition of the PCIe SSD puts the speed of the machines on par with the fastest I've ever owned.
Can't go wrong with either.
(If I were a student having to tote my computer from class to class and the library every day, I'd FOR SURE opt for the 11").
See I rarely work on "office" documents on my Mac. It's really a personal machine, so videos, web browsing and movies comprise more than 90% of my use. Most of the "work" I do on the Air is CAD, 3D modeling/ render and post graphics in Photoshop. It's cramped sometimes, but it works for me.
Originally, I had a 13" Air (2012 model). That one was defective so it went back. I wanted to wait and see about the 13" retina. In the mean time, the 11" snuck up on me, and I began to seriously consider the 11" over the 13". In then end, I obviously went for the 11", and I really truly have no regrets about doing so. It really is helpful that there's no loss in performance when choosing between the 11" and 13".
ioannis2005gr
macrumors 6502
When did you buy your eye correction glasses? in the second or first year? ...😎
Maybe you should stick to the tech because you will never make it as a comedian lol
ioannis2005gr
macrumors 6502
Besides, there is a'life-style' approach, I mean would you go to a beach with a short-flat woman or a tall-curvy one? ...come on Alex, it costs only $100 plus to buy the bigger...will you stick to the smaller one?....both are portable ...(do you insist?)🙄
Besides, there is a'life-style' approach, I mean would you go to a beach with a short-flat woman or a tall-curvy one? ...come on Alex, it costs only $100 plus to buy the bigger...will you stick to the smaller one?....both are portable ...(do you insist?)🙄
I like small things they are an artform to be honest I mean it bemuses me why anyone wants to take the brilliance of the iPhone ANC make it 5.5 inches another couple of inches and it will be an iPad mini. Although with an iPad pro we could have iOS devises at 4, 4.7, 5.5, 7.9, 9,7 and 12.9 so basically everyone can happy. And to top it all we look to be getting a MBA at 12 inch. That should in fact make it much easier for those that can't decide between 11 and 13 #
ioannis2005gr
macrumors 6502
I'll be fine as long as it's a small 12". I guess for Apple the cutoff is around .6", because the 11" is actually 11.6", but the 10" iPad is 9.7". Honestly, I'd be happy if Apple put a 12.2" retina screen in the same form factor as the 11" Air, though I'm less sure about the form factor change.
ioannis2005gr
macrumors 6502
New retina panel along with new processor generation....that means 2015! Let's hope Apple will think it over and make it faster....😎
I agree.
I've had both and while I love the portability of the 11, it always felt just a tiny bit cramped for me. Usually my brain just adapts to whatever I'm using but for some reason it just wouldn't on the 11.
The 13 was much more of a comfortable viewing experience for browsing the web and working on documents. The fact that you get 3+ hours of battery life over the 11 is just plain gravy.
Ronnoco
macrumors 68030
I concur that the extra battery life on the 13 is a definite advantage. Like most of us have stated in many of these same "should I get an 11 or 13 inch Air" threads, if portability is your main concern, the 11" is a no brainier. If battery life is your main objective, the 13 wins by a large margin. Both fantastic computers.
Newtons Apple
Suspended
Get the 13". For the small difference in price and slightly larger size the screen real estate is worth it to me.
If the 13" is too big to carry, the 11" will be too!
If the 13" is too big to carry, the 11" will be too!
flowrider
macrumors 604
