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Comment by exit | Hacker News Reader

4gb seems sufficient for me, but i'm hoping there will be a 15" model

I recently got an 11" air, and honestly can't see the need for a 13 or a 15". The latter would, in my opinion, stop being an "Air" and be more of a "brick" in terms of weight and size. The beauty of the MBA (ok, one of the beauties) is its portability.

I have to admit, though, choosing the 11" didn't come easily. I knew I wanted it for its compactness, but I was convinced the screen would be too small.

Do yourself the favor and challenge your assumptions. Go play with it. Especially play with it using Lion and its full-screen mode for apps like Safari and Mail. This is where the Air really shines.

To me the only benefit to the 13" is the larger battery. Otherwise the 11" is perfect.

Contrasting opinion: I _despise_ Lion fullscreen for built-in applications. It's hard to describe, but I just find it to be a waste of time. I really find that full-screen applications become harder to use, not easier. That said, Mission Control is great on the Air; I tend to have one desktop with Adium, IRC, and my mail client, and others as-needed for other stuff. (Mission Control is emphatically terrible on a dual-monitor Mini at all, but the Air makes it work brilliantly. On the desktop, MC is so bad that I wish I still had Spaces for the Mini. Fullscreen on multi-monitor desktops is likewise putrid; it full-screens on one desktop and your others are left blank.)

The 11" screen isn't really a hindrance for me at all, IMO - either in Xcode or Photoshop or IntelliJ OS X or when in Visual Studio on Windows.

my reason is specifically for split view coding. you really feel comfortable in xcode with 11"? hmm.. i think i'll go to the mall now and try that out.

I spend relatively little time in Xcode, but it never really bothers me. I don't use split-view much if at all, though.

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