Apple seems to have turned the monitor into the dock... all your peripherals plug in to your display, which you in turn plug in to your laptop.

The Thunderbolt display is awesome. I have the 11" MBA and the 27" Thunderbolt for the home office. I find that the simplicity of the "pinch" to expand / contract the screen image makes the 11" a perfect travel companion. I do recommend getting a loaded model to max out the ram and hard drive then there is no loss of performance either.

Are there hardware differences on the internals between the 11 and the 13? For example, does the 11 have only integrated graphics and not discrete? I liked the Air, but seem to recall that you had to go Retina to get discrete graphics.

http://www.imore.com/macbook-air-11-...should-you-get

Pretty good article.

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Right. I sometimes hook a MB to an external monitor but not really a docking station. The external keyboard and mouse are either USB to the Mac or more recently Bluetooth.

I have a docking station, a Thunderbolt docking station, for my MBA 11" and it is really nice. I have gigabit wired ethernet and a large USB3 hard drive connected to it now, when I am not out and about. (My MBA is from 2012 and is USB2).

It is probably my most-used computer these days even with the small screen.

It's so easy to carry around the house even.

I wouldn't go any smaller than a 13inch. Once you get down that small and Mac's in general anyway are so slim and lightweight its worth investing the extra weight and getting a useable screen.

Re thunderbolt screen discussion all good at home or in the office, but anywhere else good luck. Need HDMI.

I have a Thunderbolt to HDMI connector for anywhere else.

Get to an Apple store or other retailer, and try both in person. Ergonomics and screen size preferences are entirely personal, and what's alright for one person will be intolerably small for another.

If you really can't check one out in person, the size of the 13" is a safer choice.

BTW I doubt you are looking at machiness that old even as refurbs, but the first-generation (pre-Core-i5 aka "Late 2010") MacBook Air 11" was awfully slow -- uselessly so for some people even when new. The mid-2011 models and newer fix that, and the overall performance difference between the newer models has converged to where there's not really a difference worth worrying about in that sense.

I love my 13" MBA. But then again, I've never tried switching to the 11" to see if I could live with the smaller screen. I guess I usually end up in first class, but I don't have any problem with the 13" on regional jets with only economy.

I've had an 11" MBA since late 2011. While I had some challenges with the OS (it isn't windows!), the size of the machine was perfect for me. But then again I went from one of those Dell mini things to this :p

I use mine for travel and as a laptop around the house. I have a separate desktop (Windows machine), and work computer.

I really like the size/weight of the machine and would highly recommend it--I'll probably replace it with another eventually.

13" all the way.

I've traveled all over the world with my 13" and I barely even know its there.

The 2013 models are nearly exactly the same as the new 2014 models. Since they really don't have any moving parts (no hard drive because its SSD), there really isn't anything to break. So I'd go ahead and get a used one. They're selling 2013 13" MBA's on Amazon starting at $600. That's silly cheap.

If size is all you care about, go for the 11" but here's my reasons for going with the 13"

• Battery Life Battery Life Battery Life: Two hours more battery: The 13" battery life is two hours longer (8'ish hours vs 6'ish hours, more they "claim" on the new ones). I don't even carry my charger around with me during the day on my 13" anymore.
• SD Card. The 11" doesn't have an SD card slot. Want to transfer photos from your camera? Good luck. I use the SD card slot for more HD storage. I have an $75 StorEDGE 128gb flash drive that fits flush in my MacbookAir giving me another 128GB of space at half the price Apple charges.
• The 13" weighs .5 pounds (8 oz) less than the 11". If you can tell the difference, I won't believe u.
• 30% bigger Screen size: 13" is not just 15% bigger its more like 30% bigger because its an area relationship.
• 13" fits perfectly into the padded laptop slot of what I think are the world's best laptop bags, the North Face Surge and Mainframe. If my bag is otherwise empty, I have to check to make sure my 13" MBA is in there, because it's that light! Even lighter because you don't need to carry that charger around all day.

I have a 2013 MBA. This machine screams. It reboots so fast that I can hold my breath from when I hit reset to when I can open finder again! You'll love it.

The other thing to consider is resale value. You can usually sell your Macbook for a reasonable value, while a used PC laptop is mostly worthless.

Check on Ebay for what they sell for. I looked really quick and the prices for the 11" looked about the same as the 13" which implies the resale value might be higher for the 11". Maybe buy an 13" or 11" and if it feels too big or small you could resell it and get the other one.

Either way you'll be happy!

Looks like these are individual sales (so basically like ebay). But <30m after your post, the cheapest one available is now $750.

Thank you for all the great input. I just realized the MBAs don't have retina display (presumably for battery preservation?).... I love the retina display on my ipad, but since I'm using the MBA primarily for writing, maybe it's okay? Haven't heard any complaints about that here on FT.

I'm thinking 13" with the extra flash storage. This one:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FD...-intel-core-i5

The retina display does nice things for the sharpness of text, but if you tolerate a regular cheap PC laptop screen, the non-retina screens on the MBA (or on premium PCs with IPS or similar screens) will be significantly better than the regular cheap PC laptop screen.