Experiences owning both the 11.6" and 13.3" -- Impressions and Review

[rower]

I went from MBP's to the MBA with the gen B. No regrets at all. I did get a couple of cinema displays though for when I need the real estate.

I just replaced the genB with a new 13", which I quite like except for the high resolution screen. I prefer the genB's screen as the system fonts are getting too small now.

I am also ordering an 11.6 for my ultra portable, and as a backup. I don't really need it of course, but it should be fun.

The ipad is getting less use - only for reading the NYT and WSJ and selected magazines, and movies. The kindle is a better book reader, btw.

 

[nicoplanet]

One question to MBA (13") owners:

One of my favorite feature on my mid 2009 MBP is the fast charging time. The 4 circuits system to charge battery allow it to be full really fast (this wasn't the case on my previous 2008 MB, white and unibody).

How that it work on the new 2010 MBA? Is the charging time as fast as the MBP (2009 and above)? Faster? Slower?

Thanks!

Bump

 

[flynz4]

Bump

It's been 3:37 since your post. Does that really justify a bump?

/Jim

 

[gwsat]

I love both the small form factor and remarkably light weight of the 11 inch MBA. I tried to figure a way to make one work for me but, finally, had to give up and got a maxed out 13 inch MBA, instead. The 11 inch model's limitations, which I couldn't ever figure a way around, were its storage limitation of 128GB and its small screen.

I needed an MBA that would do the same things in the same ways I had been doing on my old MBP. Unfortunately, to do that required 125GB of storage space, which seemed to me to be too tight a fit for me to take a chance on the 11 inch MBA.

The 11 inch MBA's other limitation, screen size, may have had more to do with my aging eyeballs than anything else. Nevertheless, there was simply no way I would have been able to accommodate to an 11 inch screen on a machine, which I planned to use all day every day. It's tough enough to do with a 13 inch screen. I still love the 11 inch MBA and am more than a little jealous of those of you whose needs were such that the 11 inch would work for you.

 

[BENJMNS]

I love both the small form factor and remarkably light weight of the 11 inch MBA. I tried to figure a way to make one work for me but, finally, had to give up and got a maxed out 13 inch MBA, instead. The 11 inch model's limitations, which I couldn't ever figure a way around, were its storage limitation of 128GB and its small screen.

I needed an MBA that would do the same things in the same ways I had been doing on my old MBP. Unfortunately, to do that required 125GB of storage space, which seemed to me to be too tight a fit for me to take a chance on the 11 inch MBA.

The 11 inch MBA's other limitation, screen size, may have had more to do with my aging eyeballs than anything else. Nevertheless, there was simply no way I would have been able to accommodate to an 11 inch screen on a machine, which I planned to use all day every day. It's tough enough to do with a 13 inch screen. I still love the 11 inch MBA and am more than a little jealous of those of you whose needs were such that the 11 inch would work for you.

very similar situation.

i don't mind more mobile, lighter, but the screen real estate afforded by the high res 13 simply trounced any advantages of the 11.

i do not like manipulating windows (resizing, moving). waste of time.

plus yea, with itunes and big excel/powerpoint docs, 128 is just not enough and being a minimalist, the idea of exterior drives and other data repositories was not an attractive option to me when weighed against the form factor.

good stuff all around.

 

[dmelgar]

One question to MBA (13") owners:

One of my favorite feature on my mid 2009 MBP is the fast charging time. The 4 circuits system to charge battery allow it to be full really fast (this wasn't the case on my previous 2008 MB, white and unibody).

How that it work on the new 2010 MBA? Is the charging time as fast as the MBP (2009 and above)? Faster? Slower?

Thanks!

I have a 11.6" MBA and a 2009 13" MBP.

I haven't done any specific timed tests, but the battery behavior generally seems similar to the 2009 MBP. It does seem to charge pretty fast. Battery life for me is excellent, even better than the MBP especially if the disk isn't being used. If its just the display and network, light surfing, it seems to last for a very long time. On the other hand, crank everything up, CPU, GPU, disk access and battery life plumets.

In my MBP, my battery reported 90% of capacity even when new. Now its down to 85% or less. My MBA is reporting 98% of design capacity.

 

[iRun26.2]

...If its just the display and network, light surfing, it seems to last for a very long time. On the other hand, crank everything up, CPU, GPU, disk access and battery life plumets.

Could you please give us specific information on how long the battery lasts on your 11.6" model?

Thanks in advance!

 

[WardC]

Like I was saying, if you try video chat in iChat for very long on the 11", the battery life will be cut in about half, maybe 2 hours max on video chat, it's not that long. The fans will also kick in after awhile too. Seems like it's really stressing the CPU when you use video chat on the MacBook Air. The fans also kick in on my 13" when in video chat, but this after about 15 to 20 minutes of use.

 

[nicoplanet]

I have a 11.6" MBA and a 2009 13" MBP.

I haven't done any specific timed tests, but the battery behavior generally seems similar to the 2009 MBP. It does seem to charge pretty fast. Battery life for me is excellent, even better than the MBP especially if the disk isn't being used. If its just the display and network, light surfing, it seems to last for a very long time. On the other hand, crank everything up, CPU, GPU, disk access and battery life plumets.

In my MBP, my battery reported 90% of capacity even when new. Now its down to 85% or less. My MBA is reporting 98% of design capacity.

Thanks man! This make sense since the MBA battery design is almost identical to the MBP mid 2009 (and probably all post-2009 MacBooks).

 

[gwsat]

Like I was saying, if you try video chat in iChat for very long on the 11", the battery life will be cut in about half, maybe 2 hours max on video chat, it's not that long. The fans will also kick in after awhile too. Seems like it's really stressing the CPU when you use video chat on the MacBook Air. The fans also kick in on my 13" when in video chat, but this after about 15 to 20 minutes of use.

That's right. The dirty little secret of all laptops is that when doing anything graphic, from YouTube, to iChat, to Skype, or to any other site that involves moving pictures, battery longevity is going to get hammered. A notable exception seems to be the iPad. I used to regularly watch Netflix streaming videos on my iPad and its battery seemed to be fairly immune to them. I suspect that if I did the same thing with my 13 inch MBA, its battery's longevity would be dramatically shorter.

 

[treynolds]

I used to regularly watch Netflix streaming videos on my iPad and its battery seemed to be fairly immune to them...

This might be due to the all-in-one ARM chip that Apple uses for the iPad. Better integration = more available power?

 

[netdog]

i don't mind more mobile, lighter, but the screen real estate afforded by the high res 13 simply trounced any advantages of the 11.

Jobs essentially said this when he originally introduced the MacBook Air.

He was right then and he's still right.

 

[gwsat]

This might be due to the all-in-one ARM chip that Apple uses for the iPad. Better integration = more available power?

Could be. The iPad's architecture and operating system are a lot closer to the iPhone and iPad Touch than they are to any laptop in Apple's lineup.

 

[flynz4]

I love both the small form factor and remarkably light weight of the 11 inch MBA. I tried to figure a way to make one work for me but, finally, had to give up and got a maxed out 13 inch MBA, instead. The 11 inch model's limitations, which I couldn't ever figure a way around, were its storage limitation of 128GB and its small screen.

I needed an MBA that would do the same things in the same ways I had been doing on my old MBP. Unfortunately, to do that required 125GB of storage space, which seemed to me to be too tight a fit for me to take a chance on the 11 inch MBA.

The 11 inch MBA's other limitation, screen size, may have had more to do with my aging eyeballs than anything else. Nevertheless, there was simply no way I would have been able to accommodate to an 11 inch screen on a machine, which I planned to use all day every day. It's tough enough to do with a 13 inch screen. I still love the 11 inch MBA and am more than a little jealous of those of you whose needs were such that the 11 inch would work for you.

I am really glad to see you on the new MBA. You have wanted to be able to move for such a long time... and you finally have been able to.

I already had the 13.3" Rev C 2.13 w/SSD... and when I bought my new machine... I was 99.94% positive that I would stay with the 13.3". However, I wanted to try it in the store before I made my final decision. I surprised myself by deciding that I wanted the 11.6" MBA.

In my case... my decision was a bit easier given that my wife was going to get one of the two machines... and I felt that if I was not satisfied with the 11.6"... I would be able to keep my older 13.3 and give her the new MBA. It ended up that I wanted to keep the 11.6".

I have found that the higher screen resolution (in PPI) has made it easy enough even for my old eyes. The other thing is that when using it at home... I can connect it to my 30" monitor with dual link DVI... and my little 11.6" MBA is driving 2560X1600 pixels! That is incredible!

As a long time MBA user... I do appreciate the extra small size of the 11.6... but both are very nice machines.

/Jim

 

[bcaslis]

This discussion shows that both sizes are the correct answer depending on what you want to do with it. The screen, storage, and performance are big pluses for the 13", the form factor is the plus for the 11". My ideal would a mixture of the two, but I can't buy one of those.

I had the 13" and went to the 11". I have no idea if I will stick with it long term or not. I love the form factor and I think the screen is good enough to use as long as you can use something else sometimes. But I really miss the screen and storage on the 13" (as I knew I would). Worst case I'll sell the 11" if it doesn't work out and get the 13". I do think the 11" really personifies the idea of a "MacBook Air" since thin and light really need small to go along with that.

But what I really want to know is what has WardC decided? Are you keeping both or moving to one? And if so, which one?

 

[WardC]

I am starting to have second thoughts now after getting some time to use the 13.3" a bit more. The screen on the 13.3" model is absolutely incredible!! It feels huge, because of the 1440x900 resolution, it feels much larger than a 13.3" display, more like a 15" display. It's really a different experience than the 11" which seems a bit cramped compared to working with the 13" MBA. I like the keyboard on the 11" better, this keyboard on the 13" feels different, and it is hard getting used to. Maybe it is that it's just a new keyboard and takes some breaking in, it feels a bit tougher when pressing the keys than my Mac keyboard on my desktop (the standard white Apple keyboard). I think the best feature of the 13" model is the beautiful display. It is quite something to behold. The colors and constrast seem excellent, everything about this display is great. The PPI is a bit lower than the 11" so it is easier to read small text. I am typing this on the 13" MBA right now. The trackpad on the 13" model is also larger.

I have until November 18th to decide if I want to return it, so I think I will keep it another week and then make up my mind. It's alot of money, and I am not sure I wanted to spend this much in the first place. I am definitely keeping my 11" though, it has me won over 100% -- but the 13.3" MBA is starting to creep up on me.

 

[gwsat]

I am really glad to see you on the new MBA. You have wanted to be able to move for such a long time... and you finally have been able to.

I already had the 13.3" Rev C 2.13 w/SSD... and when I bought my new machine... I was 99.94% positive that I would stay with the 13.3". However, I wanted to try it in the store before I made my final decision. I surprised myself by deciding that I wanted the 11.6" MBA.

In my case... my decision was a bit easier given that my wife was going to get one of the two machines... and I felt that if I was not satisfied with the 11.6"... I would be able to keep my older 13.3 and give her the new MBA. It ended up that I wanted to keep the 11.6".

I have found that the higher screen resolution (in PPI) has made it easy enough even for my old eyes. The other thing is that when using it at home... I can connect it to my 30" monitor with dual link DVI... and my little 11.6" MBA is driving 2560X1600 pixels! That is incredible!

As a long time MBA user... I do appreciate the extra small size of the 11.6... but both are very nice machines.

Thanks for your kind words. As you and other longtime posters here know I have long lusted for an MBA that would do what I needed it to do. Thus, it was gratifying to discover that a maxed out 13 inch model would allow me to do everything my old MBP did, despite the MBP having 6GB of RAM.

Notwithstanding the limitations imposed by my aging eyes, I might have tried the 11 inch MBA anyway had it been available with the 256GB flash storage option. They really are slick. Unfortunately the 11 inch model's 128GB limitation on flash memory ended the inquiry. To help you understand why, I currently am using 128.5GB of my 13 inch MBA's 256GB of flash memory and I migrated most of that from my MBP's Time Capsule backup.

 

[macnerd123]

What would anyone suggest for a student who wants a macbook air to keep for three years as their primary computer and doesn't care about screen size?
Main Uses
- Microsoft Office/ iWork
- iTunes
- iChat
- Safari
- rarely ever iLife

I really cannot make a final decision.

 

[gwsat]

What would anyone suggest for a student who wants a macbook air to keep for three years as their primary computer and doesn't care about screen size?
Main Uses
- Microsoft Office/ iWork
- iTunes
- iChat
- Safari
- rarely ever iLife

I really cannot make a final decision.

It seems to me that you have needs that are modest enough for the $999.00 base 11 inch MBA to work for you. The most likely limitation of that configuration is its 64GB of flash storage. With a little planning though, you should be able to keep your iTunes library on a USB powered portable hard drive. I have a Toshiba USB drive, with 640GB that I got at Amazon for $89.99 delivered. I keep my iTunes library there.

 

[macnerd123]

It seems to me that you have needs that are modest enough for the $999.00 base 11 inch MBA to work for you. The most likely limitation of that configuration is its 64GB of flash storage. With a little planning though, you should be able to keep your iTunes library on a USB powered portable hard drive. I have a Toshiba USB drive, with 640GB that I got at Amazon for $89.99 delivered. I keep my iTunes library there.

Thanks, but maybe I would spring for the 128GB and the 4GB of memory since I do tend to run many apps at once.

 

[flynz4]

Thanks for your kind words. As you and other longtime posters here know I have long lusted for an MBA that would do what I needed it to do. Thus, it was gratifying to discover that a maxed out 13 inch model would allow me to do everything my old MBP did, despite the MBP having 6GB of RAM.

Notwithstanding the limitations imposed by my aging eyes, I might have tried the 11 inch MBA anyway had it been available with the 256GB flash storage option. They really are slick. Unfortunately the 11 inch model's 128GB limitation on flash memory ended the inquiry. To help you understand why, I currently am using 128.5GB of my 13 inch MBA's 256GB of flash memory and I migrated most of that from my MBP's Time Capsule backup.

You are certainly welcome. I think you had set a record for number of posts in the MBA forum... of anyone who didn't own an MBA!!!

It really made me smile when I saw that you a) bought one, and b) love it. Your reasons for waiting were justified because of your specific needs.

I agree with your decision to get the 13.3" due to your need's. Besides, coming from a 17" your MBA must already feel tiny (in a great way). Now in a few years when a future 11" meets your needs... you can repeat that "great feeling" offered by thiner, smaller, lighter laptops. You've left yourself room to grow!

/Jim

 

[carnfek]

Hi All,

Thanks for all the useful information and photos is this thread.

I was hoping some of you who have pulled the trigger and bought the new MBA would be able to answer some questions I had as I am still tossing up between the 11" and 13" models.

Has anybody with the base 11" (or 4GB) able to confirm how HD content (720p/1080p mkv and flash videos etc) plays? I have found a couple of threads that seem to have mixed results. Some users are saying that the videos run fine without any skipping or artifacts whilst others have been having issues.

Another query I had was in regards to the 11" screen. I know some users have had problems using the 11" for extended periods of time resulting in eye strain etc. Is this a major problem that people have been experiencing with the 11" or a select few?

There is a $400-500 difference between the base 11" and the 13" (depending on if i upgrade to 4GB RAM) and am still trying to ascertain whether the 11" will happily suit my needs or whether I should go with the 13". I am really liking the size and weight of the 11" but want to be sure that it will can handle HD and the screen is suitable for light-medium use (i wouldn't be using this for any CPU intensive tasks like photo or video editing).

 

[timeslip]

I've been tossing back and forth about returning the 11" for the 13" only because of the 256GB SSD.

The 1.6ghz, 4gb 11" runs just fine as a portable machine as a business laptop (Windows 7 VM with Office suites, some custom .net apps, and several internal intranet pages) along with Safari web browser, IM chat on the physical side.

However, I am finding it very difficult to fit everything into the 128GB drive. I wish photofast would hurry up and release pricing on the 256GB SSD upgrade for the 11". This will help me determine if I am willing to sacrifice size for capacity.

 

[koobcamuk]

I think I would go for the 11" MBA, regardless of whether it's for a daily computer or as a secondary.

I would be working with an external monitor if it was my main computer - I'll never go below 24" for daily use now; I've become rather accustomed to it!

Just unplug the little baby and go travelling - most awesome. I am stuck with an iPad, it seems nobody wants to buy it (32GB 3G) and so can't afford the MBA.

 

[billy baxton]

720p/1080p movies have no problem running. I have the 11.6/4gram/1.6ghz model. I have yet to try hd flash content. only thing I noticed.

I played a 1080p HD movie, it was about 3 gigs in size. through VLC, it took about 10 seconds to load. after it started to play, it was flawless. no eye strain. so far.

if I wanted a 13 inch, I would go mb pro. (if I wanted that size, cheaper, more powerfull) but as a secondary travel, business, meeting, showing off work to client, coffee shop, couch, portable gaming, net, movie, coding, etc computer. the 11 inch is the perfect size. any smaller and its pretty much unusable, any bigger and its no longer all that portable.

as a former viao p user, I can say that anything under 10 inches become impractical for anything other than net surfing and chatting, its not even fun watching movies on a screen smaller than 10 inches.

Hi All,

Thanks for all the useful information and photos is this thread.

I was hoping some of you who have pulled the trigger and bought the new MBA would be able to answer some questions I had as I am still tossing up between the 11" and 13" models.

Has anybody with the base 11" (or 4GB) able to confirm how HD content (720p/1080p mkv and flash videos etc) plays? I have found a couple of threads that seem to have mixed results. Some users are saying that the videos run fine without any skipping or artifacts whilst others have been having issues.

Another query I had was in regards to the 11" screen. I know some users have had problems using the 11" for extended periods of time resulting in eye strain etc. Is this a major problem that people have been experiencing with the 11" or a select few?

There is a $400-500 difference between the base 11" and the 13" (depending on if i upgrade to 4GB RAM) and am still trying to ascertain whether the 11" will happily suit my needs or whether I should go with the 13". I am really liking the size and weight of the 11" but want to be sure that it will can handle HD and the screen is suitable for light-medium use (i wouldn't be using this for any CPU intensive tasks like photo or video editing).