An ode to the 11-inch MacBook Air
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Serenity Caldwell has been writing and talking about and tinkering with Apple products since she was old enough to double-click. Managing editor of iMore, she hosts a number of popular podcasts and speaks frequently at conferences. In past lives she worked at Macworld and Apple Retail.
I'll miss you, little buddy.
I just placed an order for a 13-inch MacBook Pro. It's the first Pro laptop I've purchased since 2009. For the last year, I've been using the iPad Pro, but before that, my Mac computer of choice — and perhaps my favorite Mac of all time — was the 11-inch MacBook Air.
After 6 years of faithful service, that 11-inch model is now dead, killed by Apple, the 12-inch MacBook, and increasingly thinner MacBook Pros. I'll miss it dearly. To add insult to injury, I don't even have a working model to add to my trove of past computers; my last 11-inch Air was horribly drowned by a spilled water bottle last year, so I have only its lifeless corpse to commemorate my all-time favorite laptop.
The 11-inch MacBook Air was too small of a computer for most everyone I knew; I had many friends who'd outright laugh or baffle at how I could read or type on such a teensy screen. But it was just right for me, especially going from the behemoth of a 15-inch MacBook Pro. Its lightweight and travel-sized body was the perfect fit for my changing lifestyle, especially when I began frequently traveling to tech events and visiting friends across the country.
True, it was often slow and painful to edit video on, and the lack of a Retina display saddened me as the years went on and the other Mac laptops got upgraded one by one. But it was a wonderful computer — a trooper and a good friend — and I'll miss it.
Perhaps the new 13-inch MacBook Pro, with its multitouch Touch Bar and Retina screen, will fill the gaping hole in my heart. The 9.7-inch iPad Pro and Logitech Create keyboard already has, to an extent; lacking a laptop, it's been my new travel computer for the last year, and while it's not a perfect substitute for a Mac, it's a great writing companion. (And it has both a better battery and supports the Apple Pencil, two things my Air certainly lacked.)
And I suppose if I really miss the form-factor, I could consider a 12-inch MacBook, or even look at Apple's refurbished Macs for ultra-low 11-inch deals.
More likely, however, the 11-inch will join my other past computer loves — the hinge-arm iMac, my PowerBook Duo, and the original Bondi iMac — in my memories and Photos library as we move forward into the next era of portable computing.
Enjoy your place in Mac history, old pal. I'll miss you.