13" Macbook air as main machine ?

tomkbucks

tomkbucks

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thomas
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Ive currently got a Dell XPS 15" with the high res screen and it does a nice job for editing my pictures , im tempted though to change to a 13" macbook air as its so much more portable ! does anyone edit on a 13" screen ? is it going to be a massive letdown to the screen on the dell ? or should i just get the 11" one for a bit of portable power... ?? hum answers on a postcard !
 
I had the 11" until very recently. The power is good by the screen is too small for any useful editing. I cannot image that 13" is much better.

What processing do you need to do away from base?
 
thats the point it would need to be my main machine.. i think i 'may' get the 11" and carry on using my main desktop machine too...
 
Resize the window of your editing software to 13" and see how you get on with it. You'll lose some pixels, of course, but that will probably keep the overall pixel count more in line with the Air in any case. Just use a black desktop wallpaper around the windowed editor and ignore it.
 
I used a 13" MacBook as my main machine for a few years, but I did hook it up to an external monitor for editing. Aside from the size of the laptop screen there's the fact that laptop screens aren't as good external monitors.
 
why use a 13 inch mba? you get more for your money with the 13 inch mbp.
 
I've always been happy with my 15 screen I suppose you get used to what ur used to , I have a 22" dell desk monitor and never end up using it,
 
I used to have a 15" laptop as my "main" machine and then moved to a separate PC with 21.5" screen and the difference was like night and day.
If I really needed the portability of a laptop then I would definitely hook up to a separate screen for home use and probably use a separate keyboard & mouse as well otherwise the laptop's own screen would get in the way.
 
What is the resolution of your 15" laptop? You mentioned it has the hires option, if that is 1920x1080 you'll find 1440x900 lacking I would have thought.

I have an air, I edit on it sometimes...But that is not my primary purpose, I would find it frustrating and too small compared to my 30" external monitor :)

However this is all subjective, only your own opinion counts.
 
dejongj said:
compared to my 30" external monitor :)
Click to expand...

BULLY!!!

:D:p

Seriously considering the 13" MBP as I am lately just having too much hassles with Windoze machines.

I must agree that even 15" screens are useless for editing and I have yet to see a decent, let alone good pc laptop screen.

Planning to hook up my 23" Samsung as I have seen guys doing this on Macs...
 
Lol no problems attaching a non apple external screen, although you may need an adapter for that. Next to my 30" screen I also have a hp 22" in portrait mode :p
 
My main machine is the 11" MBA. I love the portability, thinness and lightness especially when travelling. I get about 2 - 3.5 hours battery use on the 11". I do normally use a 24" monitor on my desktop but whilst I am on the road, the 11" makes do.

I originally got the MBA 11" for portability with just 64Gb disk. But as Im using it as my main machine, I wish I did get a bigger drive so make sure you max out the RAM and storage space if you do go down the MBA path. Other than that, I would say the MBA is good for a main machine, especially when you are travelling.
 
On heck......

Reading some of these comments....

I've just purchased a brand new MBP 13" retina to use mainly for photo editing!!!! Now your all saying 13" screens are useless for this purpose!!!!!

I don't possess a desktop PC at all and haven't done for many years!

I travel a lot so don't have the want or luxury of carrying anything bigger, the MBP is light and ideal and less weight then my other laptop a Toshiba satellite that was my workhorse
 
The retina display will help as it can run higher resolutions than most, so should be fine. You could always hook it up to an external monitor as well for when physical screen dimensions is more important than resolution.
 
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