Could I survive with an 11" MBA as my main computer?

Hxc

Hxc

Hxc

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I am currently looking to get me an Apple laptop for Uni later this year; I will likely be buying it late summer.

I have been playing in the apple store and the 11" macbook air really tickles my fancy. It's small enough to chuck in a bag, is nippy in OS X and will happily play 1080p video (not flash, but I don't care about that).

It would be hooked up to a 24" monitor, keyboard and mouse when not using it out and about but the portability is a big motivator for me.

All I do is light office processing, a bit of photoshop here and there, never anything too taxing. My uni course requires light use of Matlab and some climate simulation software but there is a decent sized computer room with Mac Pros if I need anything very taxing done. The department is also Apple based as it is so an apple laptop is a plus.

I love the form factor and weight of the 11"... but is it too slow to be usable day to day? I'd be going from a 1.8ghz Core 2 Duo with 3gb of ram and an X1950 pro. I know the graphics would suffer but that's unimportant... it's general usage, I can't 400mhz making that much difference?

If not it'll be a 13" MBA.
 
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11" MBA does look very attractive. Mainly because it's extremely portable. With a large screen and keyboard set up it would be a sweet setup.
 
On pure grunt I would expect the 320M in the MBA to match the desktop X1950. The earlier 9400M I've got in this MacBook is quicker in the games I have tried than the ATI X1600 I had in my earlier 15" MBP, and the 320M is twice a quick as the 9400M. 13" MBP users were reporting 3DMark06 scores of around 5300, which is a tad more than I got from an X1950 in my E6750 rig a few years back.

I wouldn't put it past Apple to downclock the 320M in the 11" to keep heat down though...
 
They're quality machines. Hard to believe they've only got a 1.4GHz processor in them. Best laptop I've used, and I work in IT.

It will be great for your needs.
 
I have the 1.86Ghz/4Gb/128Gb MBA and it's a joy to use. I use it connected up to a Bluetooth keyb/mouse and a Cinema screen when docked.

Quick, and capable.

It's not as scalable as the MBPs (certainly not the new ones that I'm enjoying right now...) in terms of multiple VMs, and big apps etc. but it's still an ace machine.
 
This is fab to know.. I will just hope for a refresh in summer coming up to uni... C2D stocks can't last forever....
 
Well thunderbolt kind of forces them to refresh all their product lines soon or they might not be able to utilise whatever accessories they plan to bring to market. I have an 11" air and will second what others have said. I barely touch my desktop except for gaming now.
 
I think you could. I have that setup with a 13 incher instead of the 11 and it's safe to say that I can't even consider going back to a desktop or full size laptop again. I take my laptop everywhere!
 
Alfie said:
Well thunderbolt kind of forces them to refresh all their product lines soon or they might not be able to utilise whatever accessories they plan to bring to market. I have an 11" air and will second what others have said. I barely touch my desktop except for gaming now.
Click to expand...

This, although my iMac is broken at the moment, I was primarily using my Air (11" 1.4ghz/128gb ssd), and haven't really missed my iMac.

I imagine MBA/remaining Mac's will be done around June time, similar to the iPhone etc.
 
If it ends up an october update I will be very sad as my course starts then and I will be wanting a laptop prior to that. Crossing fingers for a june iCore update with Thunderbolt and I'm sold :)
 
An update doesn't instantly make the previous generation rubbish, although I understand the desire to have the best.

....he says, after upgrading a 6 month i7 mbp to a new quad core yesterday :D
 
MacRS4 said:
An update doesn't instantly make the previous generation rubbish, although I understand the desire to have the best.

....he says, after upgrading a 6 month i7 mbp to a new quad core yesterday :D
Click to expand...

It's less that and more I would rather have the 3 years applecare going over my time at uni when I need a laptop, rather than when I am at home with a full size pc fine to use. :)
 
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