My MBA13" Ultimate, and its limitation

[Buckeyes1995]

Never having owned a laptop before (always used my Dell laptop at work), I bought an Ultimate 13' MBA two months ago.. I am in love with it.. amazing machine. I opted for the 13" over the 11" as I wanted more powerful graphics and a bigger screen...

This weekend I was flying on personal travel (coach class) and lo and behold.. the MBA was really not that useful in a coach seat.. The height of the display was just large enough that to open the clamshell at a decent viewing angle required me to basically put the screen into the little recess that holds the table tray.. I could just imagine the person in front of me leaning his seat back quickly and breaking the MBA.

No real point to this post, other than it got me thinking that I may opt for a new MBA 11" if they do a refresh soon.

I normally fly business class for work travel, so not too big of an issue.. but I was slightly dissapointed that I had to sit awkwardly to use my MBA in coach class (Delta).

 

[stockscalper]

Slide the tray toward you and you won't have that problem. I used to fit a 15" laptop that way without any problem.

 

[entatlrg]

Is it worth the sacrifice in screen real estate and power for the few times you travel coach?

 

[fs454]

Never having owned a laptop before (always used my Dell laptop at work), I bought an Ultimate 13' MBA two months ago.. I am in love with it.. amazing machine. I opted for the 13" over the 11" as I wanted more powerful graphics and a bigger screen...

This weekend I was flying on personal travel (coach class) and lo and behold.. the MBA was really not that useful in a coach seat.. The height of the display was just large enough that to open the clamshell at a decent viewing angle required me to basically put the screen into the little recess that holds the table tray.. I could just imagine the person in front of me leaning his seat back quickly and breaking the MBA.

No real point to this post, other than it got me thinking that I may opt for a new MBA 11" if they do a refresh soon.

I normally fly business class for work travel, so not too big of an issue.. but I was slightly dissapointed that I had to sit awkwardly to use my MBA in coach class (Delta).

You know the 11 and the 13 are identical in graphics performance, right?

I run Portal 2 on my 11" at completely maxed settings, 2xAF at native resolution at like 60fps.

 

[GreyMatta]

You know the 11 and the 13 are identical in graphics performance, right?

I run Portal 2 on my 11" at completely maxed settings, 2xAF at native resolution at like 60fps.

plus the native res of the 11" is lower which of sets against the slower CPU

 

[bc008]

you could just ask the person infront of you to tell you before they put their seat back because you have your laptop out

 

[jvmxtra]

I would love to get mba 13

 

[glen e]

Compute with an MBA - do jet travel with an Ipad....works very well

 

[Jaro65]

Also, make sure you spend some time with MBA 11 (at least in the store) to see if you could live with its screen size and resolution. I love the size of those machines, but I don't think I would be too happy with the screen real estate if I were to use the machine on a full time basis.

 

[christophermdia]

while bigger for an airplane seat, like another poster said I tend to use the ipad more on plane travel. having the extra screen of the 13" is very helpful when im doing heavy computing tasks. plus most flights are what? 2-3 hours? you probably spend more time in an airport than you do in the actual plane. For that the ipad works perfectly. Not to mention helps save you battery life on your laptop. people say that the ipad is just a toy but to me it is a productive tool in my apple arsenal...

 

[Consultant]

Slide the tray toward you and you won't have that problem. I used to fit a 15" laptop that way without any problem.

Exactly. I can fit 17" MBP in coach and I am over 6' tall.

 

[Sugadaddy]

Exactly. I can fit 17" MBP in coach and I am over 6' tall.

Not on a Delta flight. My 11.6" Acer 1410 (basically the same size as a 11" MBA) was a tight fit with the seat in front in its upright position. On another flight, the person in front leaned back all the way and I had to hold my laptop at an angle to watch a movie.

Made me want to get an iPad.

 

[striker33]

Not on a Delta flight. My 11.6" Acer 1410 (basically the same size as a 11" MBA) was a tight fit with the seat in front in its upright position. On another flight, the person in front leaned back all the way and I had to hold my laptop at an angle to watch a movie.

Made me want to get an iPad.

Try putting your own seat back to offset the angle?

 

[striatedglutes]

#firstworldproblems