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macbook air on bed?

P

padlee

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 24, 2009
19
0
hey guys,

i would like to know if any of you experience using your mba at night on the bed, without any lightings. do you have any difficulties typing or finding the keys?

i will be using mba mostly on bed, for web surfing, watching movies and football manager 2011, which i think will be replacing my ipad.

would 13" mba with 1.86GHz CPU 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD sufficient for my needs or should i go for the ultimate?

I've also read on this forum that 256GB SSD are abit slower and noisier than 128GB SSD. Is this true?

Appreciate your feedbacks.

Thanks.
 
Fuzzy14

Fuzzy14

macrumors 65816
Nov 19, 2006
1,357
1
Renfrew, Scotland
There should be a bump on the letters F and J, this allows your index fingers to find the home keys so you can touch type. Or are you a hunt and poke type of typist?
 
BlackMax

BlackMax

macrumors 6502a
Jan 14, 2007
901
0
North Carolina
I use my 11.6" MBA on the bed all the time. Answering email, browsing the web, watching TV shows and movies. If I'm typing, I usually have a little light in the room. Not so much for the seeing the keys (once my index fingers are lined up on the "F" and "J" keys I'm good), but for my eyes. I need a little ambient light so my eyes don't get fried looking at the bright 11.6" LCD screen. Even with the brightness turned down, but eyes are sensitive to the LCD display.

I love the 16:9 display for watching movies and TV shows on the 11.6" MBA.

For your needs... if all your are doing is web surfing, watching movies and football manager 2011, then the 1.86GHz CPU 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD will more than meet your needs.

As for the two SSD options, I think both the 256 and 128 are sufficiently fast that you won't notice a difference between them speed wise. Not sure where the noise factor comes into play as SSD drives do not make any noise as far as I know. So... If you need the extra storage space or want to be as future proofed as possible, get the 256. Otherwise, save a little money and get the 128.
 
torbjoern

torbjoern

macrumors 65816
Jun 9, 2009
1,204
6
The Black Lodge
Even though I have been a habile touch-typist for 15-20 years, I still miss the backlighting of the keyboard on my MBA. But just a little. The strong light from the screen illuminates the keyboard by itself.
 
P

padlee

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 24, 2009
19
0
Fuzzy14 said:
There should be a bump on the letters F and J, this allows your index fingers to find the home keys so you can touch type. Or are you a hunt and poke type of typist?
Click to expand...

i'm a hunt typist ;)

BlackMax said:
I use my 11.6" MBA on the bed all the time. Answering email, browsing the web, watching TV shows and movies. If I'm typing, I usually have a little light in the room. Not so much for the seeing the keys (once my index fingers are lined up on the "F" and "J" keys I'm good), but for my eyes. I need a little ambient light so my eyes don't get fried looking at the bright 11.6" LCD screen. Even with the brightness turned down, but eyes are sensitive to the LCD display.

I love the 16:9 display for watching movies and TV shows on the 11.6" MBA.

For your needs... if all your are doing is web surfing, watching movies and football manager 2011, then the 1.86GHz CPU 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD will more than meet your needs.

As for the two SSD options, I think both the 256 and 128 are sufficiently fast that you won't notice a difference between them speed wise. Not sure where the noise factor comes into play as SSD drives do not make any noise as far as I know. So... If you need the extra storage space or want to be as future proofed as possible, get the 256. Otherwise, save a little money and get the 128.
Click to expand...

i guess the noise have to come from the fan then, with some saying the 11" is quieter.

after all you said, now i'm leaning towards 11" ultimate, but would there be any noticable difference between 1.6GHz and 1.86GHz? Do you not find 11" too small?
 
bigjnyc

bigjnyc

macrumors G3
Apr 10, 2008
8,300
7,665
I have a backlit Keyboard on my 15" MBP but never use it. I guess for 2 reasons one to preserve battery even though I know that little light uses up almost no battery life, and two because once I line up my fingers on the home keys I never look at the keyboard anyway.

As for the SSD... I thought SSD's were all quiet regardless of the size?
 
P

padlee

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 24, 2009
19
0
bigjnyc said:
I have a backlit Keyboard on my 15" MBP but never use it. I guess for 2 reasons one to preserve battery even though I know that little light uses up almost no battery life, and two because once I line up my fingers on the home keys I never look at the keyboard anyway.

As for the SSD... I thought SSD's were all quiet regardless of the size?
Click to expand...

i guess it's the fan, some said 13" is much noiseir...
 
F

flynz4

macrumors 68040
Aug 9, 2009
3,275
133
Portland, OR
I'll upgrade to the next MBA if it has a backlit keyboard. I am a great touch typist, but I still miss the backlight a lot. The illumination from the screen is very dependent upon the screen angle, and also the angle of your eyesight to the plane of the keyboard. So for example, it is not the same experience with your knees raised and the MBA on your lap, vs. laying on your side with your head on a pillow and the MBA on the bed.

I suspect the primary reason they omitted it from the MBA was to keep the BOM as low as possible to hit the $999 price point. At some point, I am pretty sure they will re-introduce it... if for no other reason to drive upgrade sales.

I still like my 2010 MBA better than my 2009 Rev C... but I do miss this feature a lot.

/Jim
 
aleni

aleni

macrumors 68030
Jun 2, 2006
2,583
910
it's not problem at all for me, thing i noticed that my early 17" mbp has white paint on the keyboard, but the 11" macbook air has a silver paint on the keyboard. so the screen's light is really making the keyboard on the air much visible in the dark than the mbp. so i didn't miss the backlight at all.
 
B

Bakari45

macrumors regular
Jun 17, 2010
227
2
Personally I‘m glad the backlighting is not there. It obtrusive to me. I can touch type pretty well, and when I have to do lots of typing in bed, I just cut the lamp on or go back to my off. I don’t much need the keyboard to navigate the Finder.
 
rjphoto

rjphoto

macrumors 6502a
Mar 7, 2005
822
0
padlee said:
i guess it's the fan, some said 13" is much noiseir...
Click to expand...

If you are using it on sitting on the bed covers, it will heat up and the fan will kick in (and suck in link and hair and other junk...).

It needs to be on a solid surface with a little breathing room so that the bottom can dissipate the heat. A lap tray or a cooling pad would help, too.

I had my first PowerBook for several months when one day I was home sick surfing the internet with it on top of the comforter on my lap... and the fans kicked in. I had never heard the ramp up that high before and it scared me to death. I thought the machine was going to blow up...
 
aleni

aleni

macrumors 68030
Jun 2, 2006
2,583
910
rjphoto said:
If you are using it on sitting on the bed covers, it will heat up and the fan will kick in (and suck in link and hair and other junk...).

It needs to be on a solid surface with a little breathing room so that the bottom can dissipate the heat. A lap tray or a cooling pad would help, too.

I had my first PowerBook for several months when one day I was home sick surfing the internet with it on top of the comforter on my lap... and the fans kicked in. I had never heard the ramp up that high before and it scared me to death. I thought the machine was going to blow up...
Click to expand...

i use my 11" air on my bed all the time. believe me, it's so silent and cold. very different than my 17" mbp because it's like a jet booster.
 
impulse462

impulse462

macrumors 68020
Jun 3, 2009
2,097
2,878
rjphoto said:
If you are using it on sitting on the bed covers, it will heat up and the fan will kick in (and suck in link and hair and other junk...).

It needs to be on a solid surface with a little breathing room so that the bottom can dissipate the heat. A lap tray or a cooling pad would help, too.

I had my first PowerBook for several months when one day I was home sick surfing the internet with it on top of the comforter on my lap... and the fans kicked in. I had never heard the ramp up that high before and it scared me to death. I thought the machine was going to blow up...
Click to expand...

The fan's wont kick in necessarily but you do have a point, it will run hotter (not that much)at idle than if it was sitting on a solid, flat surface.

Thats my experience at least.
 
rjphoto

rjphoto

macrumors 6502a
Mar 7, 2005
822
0
aleni said:
i use my 11" air on my bed all the time. believe me, it's so silent and cold. very different than my 17" mbp because it's like a jet booster.
Click to expand...

Pull some high res video and measure the temps and fan speed with iStat nano or something.

My MacBook fans kick in anytime I watch high res videos.

Just curious how a MBA does.
 
aleni

aleni

macrumors 68030
Jun 2, 2006
2,583
910
rjphoto said:
Pull some high res video and measure the temps and fan speed with iStat nano or something.

My MacBook fans kick in anytime I watch high res videos.

Just curious how a MBA does.
Click to expand...

never tried with HD videos. but i tried playing a game called "Hotel's Collector", it's silent on my MBA on bed, while it's noisy with my 17" mbp on table.

i'll try HD video later. anyway i don't see the point watching a full HD video on my air.
 
BlackMax

BlackMax

macrumors 6502a
Jan 14, 2007
901
0
North Carolina
padlee said:
i guess the noise have to come from the fan then, with some saying the 11" is quieter.

after all you said, now i'm leaning towards 11" ultimate, but would there be any noticable difference between 1.6GHz and 1.86GHz? Do you not find 11" too small?
Click to expand...

The fan on my 11.6" MBA is VERY quiet. 80% of the time I can't hear anything. Even when I'm watching NetFlix or Hulu+ and the fan kicks up a bit, it is much quieter than the fan on my BlackBook which sounds like a jet engine once it gets going.

There will be a small difference in performance between the 1.6GHz and the 1.86GHz. The question is what form factor (11.6" or 13") works best for you.

I bought the 11.6" specifically for its form factor. I went to my local Apple store on several occasions and compared the two before I purchased. I finally came to the conclusion that the 13" was not that much different in size that my 13" BlackBook and I decided the 11.6" was the size I wanted for an everyday carry along notebook. I have not regretted my decision one bit. I do not find it too small, but that is my preference. I also have an external monitor to connect it to when I am at home and want a little more screen real estate to work with.

If you have a local Apple store I highly recommend you go compare the two MBAs side by side and see what you think.
 
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