![Should Apple Get Rid of Its 11-Inch MacBook Air for Good? [Poll]](https://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/MacBook-Air-3.jpg)
By now you’ve heard the rumor that Apple might finally get rid of its 11.6-inch MacBook Air and I say more power to them. In all honestly, smaller screen sized notebooks have been replaced by tablets and 2-in-1s and Apple will not gain much with a smaller notebook. Here is why we are in favor of seeing the 11.6-inch MacBook Air removed completely from the lineup.
Removal of the 11.6-Inch MacBook Air Could Reduce 12-Inch MacBook Price Tag – Smaller Form Factor Items Compromises on a Lot of Things
Similar to smartphones, manufacturers have slowly started to produce large screen devices because of their natural ability to accommodate larger cells for added battery life. If you head down to the Apple Store right away, the 11.6-inch MacBook is only able to deliver up to 9 hours, meaning that under an ideal set of conditions, you will be able to experience that battery life. Compare that to the 13.3-inch MacBook Air, and under those same ideal conditions, you get a whopping 12 hours of battery; that’s essentially an entire day.
Even Apple’s 12-inch MacBook is able to deliver more battery life and the difference of screen size is just 0.4 inches (if you measure it diagonally). Such a small size difference with reduced number of advantages does not add up to be a viable product for very long. You could argue that the 11.6-inch MacBook Air offers more connectivity ports in comparison to the 12-inch MacBook, but you can easily get those ports and more on the 13.3-inch MacBook. All it takes is a little extra cash and there is only a $100 difference between the base model of both MacBook Air models.
That $100 difference gives you more real estate to work with, which obviously gives you more room to carry out your tasks. The biggest differences are the battery life and of course the 8GB of RAM that you find in the 13.3-inch MacBook Air. The base model of the 11.6-inch model starts from 4GB RAM, so you’ll have to spend a little extra for that memory. If you want to see additional specification differences between both MacBooks and the 12-inch MacBook to see why Apple should get rid of it, those differences have been highlighted in the table below.
Remember that in order to provide a fair comparison between the three notebooks, we will be listing down the specifications of the base models only
| Specification differences | 11.6-inch MacBook Air | 13.3-inch MacBook Air | 12-inch MacBook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Display | 11.6-inch LED-backlit display with 1366 x 768 resolution | 13.3-inch LED-backlit display with 1440 x 900 resolution | 12-inch LED-backlit display with IPS technology and 2304 x 1440 resolution |
| Storage | PCIe 128GB flash memory | PCIe 128GB flash memory | PCIe 256GB flash memory |
| Amount of RAM | 4GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory | 8GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory | 8GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory |
| Processor clock speed | 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 2.7GHz) with 3MB shared L3 cache | 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 2.7GHz) with 3MB shared L3 cache | Intel Core m3 1.1GHz dual-core processor (Turbo Boost up to 2.2GHz) with 4MB L3 cache |
| Battery and other statistics | Up to 9 hours wireless web Up to 10 hours iTunes movie playback Up to 30 days standby time | Up to 12 hours wireless web Up to 12 hours iTunes movie playback Up to 30 days standby time | Up to 10 hours wireless web Up to 11 hours iTunes movie playback Up to 30 days standby time |
| Ports | Two USB 3 ports (up to 5Gbps) Thunderbolt 2 port (up to 20Gbps) MagSafe 2 power port 3.5mm headphone jack | Two USB 3 ports (up to 5Gbps) Thunderbolt 2 port (up to 20Gbps) MagSafe 2 power port SDXC card slot 3.5mm headphone jack | Single Type-C USB port (up to 5Gbps) |
| Price tag for base model | $899 | $999 | $1,299 |
Looking at these differences, we have also provided you guys with a poll, so give us your opinion if the 11.6-inch MacBook Air should stay, or become a thing of memory.
