Originally I intended to keep my 2012 MBA 11" as long as it lasted. However, when my grandson graduated and needed a portable Mac, I gave mine to him as present and look for a replacement for my needs.
I decided to chose between a maxed out 2016 11"MBA or a maxed out 2016 rMB. The most important parameter for me is the size and weight. For that reason, I don't even consider the 13" MBA in the same league.
Quality and the difference in size between the screens, lack of ports, not owning any device with a USB-C connector, performance difference between i7 and m7, the new short travel keyboard, Mag Safe etc are all the issues that concerns me like everybody.
In the end, I made a bold decision and bought the 1.3 m7 - 500GB version of the rMB.
After a month of use, my impressions are as follows:
1) Streaming live media to Apple TV from my Mac was one of the most taxing jobs for my MBA. It made its fan kick in, made it hot as hell. The same thing with the rMB is handled without a problem. Yes, it gets hot but no more than the MBA. For all other regular tasks like MS Office, Mail, Google Earth etc, I cannot feel any loss in performance.
2) I bought a $60 HooToo USB-C hub to solve the port problem. It has a power-pass port, 3 USB 3.0 ports and an SD Card reader. I also bought couple of small nonda USB-C to USB 3.0 adapters to use with the thumb drives. End of the single port problem!
3) I don't miss the MagSafe 2 as it continually disconnected when I moved my Mac and annoyed me to no end, though I miss the charge light. I use my Mac with the charge cable connected at all times, but the charger is behind where I sit and the cord cannot be tripped. I also don't have animals or kids in the house, so lack of MagSafe is not an issue for me.
4) While I never complained about the display of my MBA, after using the retina display and going back to the 11" MBA display for comparison made the difference obvious. Once you use the retina display, it is a painful experience to use the old display.
5) The new keyboard is weird! I cannot say that I'm used to it yet. No doubt that I will adapt to it eventually, but it is not a pleasant experience at first.
6) The force sensitive trackpad and the "fake" click is absolutely amazing and I love it.
7) The SSD (flash storage) is twice as fast compared to the 2012 MBA and no doubt contributes to the quick and responsive feel of the rMB.
8) In real life I never got anything more than 4 hours of use from my MBA's battery. This rMB gets an honest 8 hours. So, the battery life is at least twice as much as the 11" MBA.
9) The maxed-out 11" MBA configured is $1649 and the rMB 1.3 - 512GB is $1749. So, the price difference is $100. If you add the $60 HooToo hub to make it complete, the difference is $160. I do not consider this to be a "huge" difference and certainly not enough to sway me towards the cheaper alternative.
Conclusion: This Mac did not turned out to be as much of a compromise as I feared initially and in fact it turned out to be much better than I expected.
I decided to chose between a maxed out 2016 11"MBA or a maxed out 2016 rMB. The most important parameter for me is the size and weight. For that reason, I don't even consider the 13" MBA in the same league.
Quality and the difference in size between the screens, lack of ports, not owning any device with a USB-C connector, performance difference between i7 and m7, the new short travel keyboard, Mag Safe etc are all the issues that concerns me like everybody.
In the end, I made a bold decision and bought the 1.3 m7 - 500GB version of the rMB.
After a month of use, my impressions are as follows:
1) Streaming live media to Apple TV from my Mac was one of the most taxing jobs for my MBA. It made its fan kick in, made it hot as hell. The same thing with the rMB is handled without a problem. Yes, it gets hot but no more than the MBA. For all other regular tasks like MS Office, Mail, Google Earth etc, I cannot feel any loss in performance.
2) I bought a $60 HooToo USB-C hub to solve the port problem. It has a power-pass port, 3 USB 3.0 ports and an SD Card reader. I also bought couple of small nonda USB-C to USB 3.0 adapters to use with the thumb drives. End of the single port problem!
3) I don't miss the MagSafe 2 as it continually disconnected when I moved my Mac and annoyed me to no end, though I miss the charge light. I use my Mac with the charge cable connected at all times, but the charger is behind where I sit and the cord cannot be tripped. I also don't have animals or kids in the house, so lack of MagSafe is not an issue for me.
4) While I never complained about the display of my MBA, after using the retina display and going back to the 11" MBA display for comparison made the difference obvious. Once you use the retina display, it is a painful experience to use the old display.
5) The new keyboard is weird! I cannot say that I'm used to it yet. No doubt that I will adapt to it eventually, but it is not a pleasant experience at first.
6) The force sensitive trackpad and the "fake" click is absolutely amazing and I love it.
7) The SSD (flash storage) is twice as fast compared to the 2012 MBA and no doubt contributes to the quick and responsive feel of the rMB.
8) In real life I never got anything more than 4 hours of use from my MBA's battery. This rMB gets an honest 8 hours. So, the battery life is at least twice as much as the 11" MBA.
9) The maxed-out 11" MBA configured is $1649 and the rMB 1.3 - 512GB is $1749. So, the price difference is $100. If you add the $60 HooToo hub to make it complete, the difference is $160. I do not consider this to be a "huge" difference and certainly not enough to sway me towards the cheaper alternative.
Conclusion: This Mac did not turned out to be as much of a compromise as I feared initially and in fact it turned out to be much better than I expected.
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