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I thought I would find the 11" too small, but after using it for about a week, I'm finding myself very happy with it.

Qualify that with an external monitor in the office (21"), bluetooth keyboard and using my magic mouse (borrowed from my MBP 17" at home). Already flown with it and my shoulder is very happy for the decreased weight while walking through airports.
 
I have both an MBP 13 and an MBA 11.

The MBA does not seem too small. In fact, after using the MBA 11 for awhile, the MBP 13 now seems too big.
 
I have both an MBP 13 and an MBA 11.

The MBA does not seem too small. In fact, after using the MBA 11 for awhile, the MBP 13 now seems too big.

...I felt the same, got an 11" for $854 from our base PX and thought it wasn't powerful enough so I returned it and got a 13" for $1160 = after the 11", the 13" MBA feels like its way to big for the portability I got used to in 2 weeks with the 11" so the 13 will get returned and I'll see if I can find another "deal" on an 11" MBA...
 
I thought I would find the 11" too small, but after using it for about a week, I'm finding myself very happy with it.

Qualify that with an external monitor in the office (21"), bluetooth keyboard and using my magic mouse (borrowed from my MBP 17" at home). Already flown with it and my shoulder is very happy for the decreased weight while walking through airports.

Having the 17" MBP and the 11" MBA which one gets the most use?

Does the 17" MBP still play an important role in your set up?
 
Love my 13" MBA. I don't mind the missing backlit feature that much; however, I'm not sure the direction they traded it for. Now, they do have a very nice sounding speaker system under that keyboard making some spacial sound that's way better than my previous mac laptops. However, for the purpose of the Air, that's the last machine I'd expect big audio sound from the built-in speakers.

For the purpose of it's use, (which is usually a little more silent (that is, personal and not for everybody to hear)), I'd think the backlit would've been a feature more in demand instead of the sound system they kind of replaced it with. You generally don't buy an ultra-portable for the purpose of great spacial sound for the room to hear. You usually stick with headphones. Just an observation about why they decided to put such effort into laptop speaker audio, on the thing. Still, it is impressive. My old Gateway laptop, with full visible stereo speakers doesn't even compete with the sound out of the 13" MBA, and that machine was *made* with the intention of making loud noises as a desktop replacement and Crysis-playing machine.
 
I have the same problem problem with my MacBook 13" late 2006. (I know its way older than yours). I searched for a solution but none worked for me. Last night I tried to fix this myself. I wrote a little java program that does nothing else than x++ every x miliseconds (you can pass x as an argument so you can adjust the cpu load). For me 1 milisecond works great (no fan rotation increasement, cpu whine is nearly gone (it still makes (another) sound but you can only hear it if you listen to it explicitly and its very quiet), while 0 milisecond makes the fans go crazy after a while.

Sorry, I was referring to the whining by the posters on this thread, not the sound made by the cooling fans. Seems like you should take your MacBook Air to a repair center to have it checked.
 
Yes. I am also impressed with the speakers quality. I mean, they are pretty loud and clear! Sometimes when you play some mkv movie it is even louder. Just wow.
 
i have the same machine as the OP just i got the 4gb ram , and this is my first ever mac and belive me iam just enjoying it i agree 100% with other posters who suggest of returning this if possible and getting one with a 4gb ram. i transfered many pics and songs and i dint have any problems.

my wife does skype everyday with her parents but we dont ever notice it getting hot at all.

with the backlit keyboard thing since i never used any laptop with tht feature i just dont know the advantage of it .

since iam not a heavy duty user anyway this machine is just more then enough for me.

i had 13 inch dell vostro was good looking machine but i sold tht because it used to get too hot and then battery life was horrible and though it was slim it was still akward for me to carry since i travel a lot. so for me the 11inch was the right one . i saw many 11 inches windows laptops and the latest sony vaio yb series all were abt 500$ cheaper and maybe more powerfull specs wise but after watching the 11 inch air in a apple store it was decided that only the macbook air will come home no matter what.

so far iam super happy with practically everything abt this bad boy the software the hardware just everything.

the next thing i will buy is a imac for sure and with the magic track pad.

but 1 thing is fore sure 11 or 13 both are just awesome machines no doubt about that.
 
If you install iStatPro you can check your CPU temp during Skype. I get 80C when using Skype.
 
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