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What is the point of the 13" mba?
- Thread starter Funkymonk
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I have the 13" Air and my wife has the 13" MBP. When I have to pick up her MBP, it feels like a cement block to me now. I can't imagine having to lug that much weight around for a tiny potential increase in performance.
And there are some of us out there that appreciate that little bit more. I can definitely see the allure of the 11" Air, but I would probably never get one.
Coming from a 2.4GHz 15" MBP, I'm absolutely loving my 13" MBA. I get the same screen resolution, as good or better performance, I can actually use it in a coach airline seat and I almost forget I'm carrying it through the airport.
I get why people like the 11" MBA, but the screen was just a bit too small for me and I'm not crazy about the disproportionately large bezel.
The 13" MBP definitely needs an update, at the very least it needs the higher resolution screen and a bump up from the c2d processor. For me, in its current state, the 13" MBP is caught in no-mans-land between desktop replacement (15" MBP) and ultra-portable (MBA).
I get why people like the 11" MBA, but the screen was just a bit too small for me and I'm not crazy about the disproportionately large bezel.
The 13" MBP definitely needs an update, at the very least it needs the higher resolution screen and a bump up from the c2d processor. For me, in its current state, the 13" MBP is caught in no-mans-land between desktop replacement (15" MBP) and ultra-portable (MBA).
Look at the Mac Geekbenchs: http://www.primatelabs.ca/geekbench/mac-benchmarks/
The best 13" MacBook Pro 13 gets 3655.
MacBook Air 13" gets 3003. It's not great, but it's middle-of-the-pack.
MacBook Air 11" gets 2280, making it virtually the slowest Intel Mac ever made.
The SSD can make the 11" feel snappy, but it's really underpowered. The 13" MBA is reasonable. The 13" MBP is a little better than the MBA 13", but it wouldn't be that noticiable.
The MBA 11" is a toy, an untraportable second computer, or a main computer for people who don't need performance.
The MBA 13" can almost replace a MBP 13", and it's a great choice for people who need to tote it around.
The best 13" MacBook Pro 13 gets 3655.
MacBook Air 13" gets 3003. It's not great, but it's middle-of-the-pack.
MacBook Air 11" gets 2280, making it virtually the slowest Intel Mac ever made.
The SSD can make the 11" feel snappy, but it's really underpowered. The 13" MBA is reasonable. The 13" MBP is a little better than the MBA 13", but it wouldn't be that noticiable.
The MBA 11" is a toy, an untraportable second computer, or a main computer for people who don't need performance.
The MBA 13" can almost replace a MBP 13", and it's a great choice for people who need to tote it around.
I've just switched from a 13" MacBook Pro to a 13" MacBook Air, and I've tried to summarize all my thoughts in the thread MacBook Air 13" 4GB review... a la bilbaína.
I can understand that the 13" Air doesn't make sense to you, but if you read my review and many others opinion in this thread, you can see that the 13" Air makes a lot of sense to others and has a market on its own. That's why Apple sell them.
I've also switched from a 13" MBP (2.26) to a 13" MBA ultimate. I carry the MBA everywhere (along with the iPad), whereas I'd decide on a case by case basis on the MBP. End result the MBP cost less, but I also used it less, so value for money is an important point.
Besides if you are deeply worried about how much things cost then a MBP probably doesn't make sense against a 13" PC...
I hate the MBA 13" I truly utterly hate it!
Why? I got one, and it will force me to buy thin laptops for the rest of my life. I refuse to buy anything fat like the MBP again. Ever.
Funny thing also is that during a lecture I gave earlier I saw 6 MBA 13" among 28 students (about 15 use laptops). I found this curious so I asked them (a nice bridge to talk about Apple marketing strategies). The general consensus was that they bought it because it was so thin and so comfortable to work on. 4 had switched from the 13" MBP, 1 came from a windows laptop and 1 from a netbook.
They considered it powerful enough for their needs (business students, no hardcore computing needed, data analysis is done on faculty servers).
(In essence, I, and many others love it more than any laptop we've ever had before).
Why? I got one, and it will force me to buy thin laptops for the rest of my life. I refuse to buy anything fat like the MBP again. Ever.
Funny thing also is that during a lecture I gave earlier I saw 6 MBA 13" among 28 students (about 15 use laptops). I found this curious so I asked them (a nice bridge to talk about Apple marketing strategies). The general consensus was that they bought it because it was so thin and so comfortable to work on. 4 had switched from the 13" MBP, 1 came from a windows laptop and 1 from a netbook.
They considered it powerful enough for their needs (business students, no hardcore computing needed, data analysis is done on faculty servers).
(In essence, I, and many others love it more than any laptop we've ever had before).
If there was no 13" it wouldnt have been Air. Then it would have been Macbook Net. Like in Netbook. The 13" was a must. Steve always said that Netbooks sucks. So if he solely offer the 11 inch he is going to bite himself. Now its just a little Air. The base was always the 13".
But I use the 13" as a main station and I really like it. Can play little games on it and the F1 button is of normal size. The keyboard on the 11" looks like an calculator. If there was an 15" Air I would ahve consider it too. Its just the looks that i want to pay more money for.
But I use the 13" as a main station and I really like it. Can play little games on it and the F1 button is of normal size. The keyboard on the 11" looks like an calculator. If there was an 15" Air I would ahve consider it too. Its just the looks that i want to pay more money for.
I've just noticed that in the majority of these threads, people are switching from the 13 inch MBP to the MBA. The ones that switch from the 15/17 inch models are few and far between. I have a 15 inch i5 with 128gb SSD and 8gb ram. I use it for school mostly and while I have thought about getting rid of it for the 13 inch MBA, I think that it would not be a good decision performance wise. My wife on the other hand loves the 11 inch although she just uses it for internet browsing and word documents.
I can add to that.
A couple of years ago I went from a chunky, heavy Asus-laptop to a small, light MacBook alu (predecessor of the MBP 13"). The difference was huge in screen quality, pixel density and snappiness. I felt that I could suddenly bring the computer with me anywhere. It would easily slide in and out of the sleeve which I just kept in my backpack, it would wake up quickly from standby/sleep, battery life was twice as high as I was used to and the entire computer gave me a real WOW-feeling. There was no way I would go back.
Now I have the exact same experience again, going from the MB-alu to the MB Air.
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For me it's all about the weight!
Battery life is expectable, but would like longer. There is a big difference between the 11" air and 13" air. I have had the ultimate in both, and by far the 13" blows anything away. It's faster than my 13" MBP 2.66. That SSD really helps.
I also feel if you look how many computers apple was selling 10 years ago verses today, it's more than doubled, if not tripled. That being said, more choices lead to more sales. People need options. Having more choices will help Apple get to that 25% market share. That's pretty incredible.
Battery life is expectable, but would like longer. There is a big difference between the 11" air and 13" air. I have had the ultimate in both, and by far the 13" blows anything away. It's faster than my 13" MBP 2.66. That SSD really helps.
I also feel if you look how many computers apple was selling 10 years ago verses today, it's more than doubled, if not tripled. That being said, more choices lead to more sales. People need options. Having more choices will help Apple get to that 25% market share. That's pretty incredible.
Are you zooming in on everything then? The pixel pitch is about the same so fonts will appear the same size on both machines.
I purchased the mba 13" top-spec about 2 weeks ago new for a good price.
I've always been on desktops, this is my first portable and I honestly LOVE IT.
I have not seen any performance issues, i run a lot of stuff at the same time and it doesn't even flinch. The 13" pros are too heavy to throw in my bag comfortably, the screens are terrible comparatively and they run way too hot on my lap. the mba also has the SSD which is lightning fast (to put it in a pro would cost way too much for me). boot time is about 10 seconds, compared to a minute on a friend's whitebook. its such a lovely machine. light, fast, easy.
I have not used a cd drive in about 5 years, i love this machine.
I've always been on desktops, this is my first portable and I honestly LOVE IT.
I have not seen any performance issues, i run a lot of stuff at the same time and it doesn't even flinch. The 13" pros are too heavy to throw in my bag comfortably, the screens are terrible comparatively and they run way too hot on my lap. the mba also has the SSD which is lightning fast (to put it in a pro would cost way too much for me). boot time is about 10 seconds, compared to a minute on a friend's whitebook. its such a lovely machine. light, fast, easy.
I have not used a cd drive in about 5 years, i love this machine.
Oddly enough, this "lower spec" machine outperforms my 15" i7 MBP.
Turns out that the stuff I do daily (Mail.app, Firefox, iTunes, Aperture, Quicken, VMWare Fusion) has been held back because of disk speed, **not** processor speed.
So now, for me, any notebook without SSD is a lower spec'ed notebook.
The MBA is more snappy than my 17" MBP. For most people the MBA is faster due to SSD.
Yes, I do some zooming, and when things are zoomed a bit, the extra screen real estate helps to avoid having to slide around the screen so much.
The 11.6" Ultimate is still where it's at in my opinion. The smaller footprint makes a huge difference (especially if you travel a lot). Still has 4GB; still has 128GB SSD (good enough); still has a fast enough processor for 90% of what the average person does. ...AND it's small and weighs almost nothing.
The 13" MBA has the same screen ratio as the 15" MBP and I have replaced carrying a thicker, heavier 15" MBP with me. The 11" can't replace the 15" as its screen is too small and it's underpowered for business. Maybe it's ok as a note taking computer, but if that was all I needed I would simply travel with an iPad. To me the 11" is the unit that Apple shouldn't have made.
I think the majority of folks that buy the 15" and 17" MBP are buying a desktop replacement... I know that is why I bought my 15" MBP and if I hadn't bought an iMac in the interim, I would have probably bought another 15" MBP rather than the 13" MBA.