Bingo, they just became available at the Cambridge Galeria and I was excited to give them a shot. My current setup - 15in MBP 2.4Ghz 2008 model doing mainly science research which means 2011 Office Word, Power Point, Excel, often opened in parallel, Sente for referencing, 10 or so PDF documents, 5-10 browser windows either Safari or Firefox, and sometimes Photoshop CS 5 for editing that figure. Of course, once in a blue moon, I push the CPU with Photoshop assembling large panoramas or combining multiple images to HDR. I also have a quad core desktop that I build running Windows and is now acting as a media PC that can also play Blue Ray and hulu videos, but also act as a backup with 2TB plus storage (it's really a secondary machine under the TV)... So...
I want to say that both the 11 and 13 in perform phenomenally: basic setup was about 10 browser windows, 10 PDF documents, 2-3 Word documents, Excel, Powerpoint, iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes in the background - both machines run that software without a glitch.
Now, the 11 in does it with the processor pegged at 50-60% while the 13 does it with 10-25% average... Bursts are common, but that's expected either way. Question - how do the fans perform long term with processor pegged at 50% - I know my MBP would start screaming after a bit... Now I know that the 11 is an ULV vs the 13 is a LV meaning that perhaps the 13 makes as much heat at 25% as the 11 makes at 50%, but wanted to get input from people.
Next, in terms of the screen... I was impressed... Practically, you loose very little work space - I did not feel that I had to do more scrolling or more work in general - you really loose only about 100 pixels vertically, which is solved by moving the Dock to the side... Things were about 5-10% smaller, but my eye did not really distinguish that difference, and only when I payed attention to the top bar, did I see that the fonts were just a bit smaller in the menues... Functionally, no difference...
So, the screen for all intensive purposes is practically equivalent as a work space, processor wise it is fully functional for my daily work protocols... Now - will the 13 just be quieter long term and provide a more future proof investment or is the 11 sufficient for say next 3-4 years... I would like the 11 because it looks more impressive - portability wise, they are both equivalent to me. They will both fit in my briefcase and the 300 grams is basically the weight of a notebook, nothing compared to my MBP. But then I feel scared of having the processor constantly running at 50% (or perhaps I'm too used to seeing just blips on the MBP activity monitor). Money is not an issue as the 2-300 dollars will water down over 3 years or so...
Perhaps, to make it short, what I'm asking is - will the 13 better suit me long term or should I get the 11 because I like it more now and it is way portable...
I want to say that both the 11 and 13 in perform phenomenally: basic setup was about 10 browser windows, 10 PDF documents, 2-3 Word documents, Excel, Powerpoint, iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes in the background - both machines run that software without a glitch.
Now, the 11 in does it with the processor pegged at 50-60% while the 13 does it with 10-25% average... Bursts are common, but that's expected either way. Question - how do the fans perform long term with processor pegged at 50% - I know my MBP would start screaming after a bit... Now I know that the 11 is an ULV vs the 13 is a LV meaning that perhaps the 13 makes as much heat at 25% as the 11 makes at 50%, but wanted to get input from people.
Next, in terms of the screen... I was impressed... Practically, you loose very little work space - I did not feel that I had to do more scrolling or more work in general - you really loose only about 100 pixels vertically, which is solved by moving the Dock to the side... Things were about 5-10% smaller, but my eye did not really distinguish that difference, and only when I payed attention to the top bar, did I see that the fonts were just a bit smaller in the menues... Functionally, no difference...
So, the screen for all intensive purposes is practically equivalent as a work space, processor wise it is fully functional for my daily work protocols... Now - will the 13 just be quieter long term and provide a more future proof investment or is the 11 sufficient for say next 3-4 years... I would like the 11 because it looks more impressive - portability wise, they are both equivalent to me. They will both fit in my briefcase and the 300 grams is basically the weight of a notebook, nothing compared to my MBP. But then I feel scared of having the processor constantly running at 50% (or perhaps I'm too used to seeing just blips on the MBP activity monitor). Money is not an issue as the 2-300 dollars will water down over 3 years or so...
Perhaps, to make it short, what I'm asking is - will the 13 better suit me long term or should I get the 11 because I like it more now and it is way portable...
Saves you the taxes.
