I used a 13" MBA (i7) for almost 3 years... and it was such a joy to travel with (i used to fly coast-to-coast every week for work). Definitely has plenty of oomph. That said, I think the weight cost savings going down to an 11" versus the 13" isn't worth the tradeoff IMHO. The 13" is $100 more, but has a battery life rated 3 hours longer and offers you more sanity if you will be designing on the go - the resolution is a more useable 1440x900. The 13" is only a half-pound heavier and 1" wider... it's still insanely portable.

I dunno, just looking back on the past, there is no way I'd scale down for 100 bucks and sacrifice so much battery AND have less pixels to work with.

I used an 11-inch Air for design for a while without a monitor. I had an iMac back at home, but liked to get out into the world.

On the one hand, doing a full project on it is almost impossible. At best, it's just inefficient and will make your hands hurt.

On the other hand, you can make it work if you plan ahead for what you'll have to do at home and what you can do on the go.

Examples of things that I would do on the go without problem:

• Work on short, wide elements like navigation
• Code the site (if you do that), making generous use of OS X's fullscreen mode
• Design the mobile and maybe small tablet views (because so skinny)!
• Do my business-side work (invoicing, support, documentation, etc.).

If you have a display at home and have enough of these small screen-friendly tasks, it's a great machine. I loved mine!

I sometimes get frustrated at the small size of my 13" Air, particularly with web/screen design, where true-to-size zoom levels matter. So undoubtedly the 11" will be limiting for that kind of work. The 11" does look almost comically small, but there's no denying you'd get used to it, and I definitely sometimes wish my 13" was smaller and lighter.

If portability is important to you, and it's not going to be your primary work machine, I'd say go for it. If there's any danger of it becoming a machine you use regularly for design, then you'll probably find it frustrating.

It's difficult if you don't have an external screen. Get ready to squint something fierce!

It's a great little machine. The screen quality is a bit sucky though (OLED?) and without glass, it feels quite fragile compared to the Macbook Pros.

I'd wait it out for a retina Air, or only grab an existing Air if it's on sale somewhere. I got mine from JB Hifi for $980 - bargain!

I know this post is 2 years old but it ranks in Google, so other people might get some value.

I own an 11" Macbook Air, Early 2015 model. (I bought it early 2015 at JB HIFI, Sydney, Au). The specs are the most basic you can get.

My work is 30% design for the web, 50% coding and the rest emails and other admin tasks. I use Sketch App, Photoshop and Illustrator for design.

I have been travelling and working (digital nomading) for 9 months now and it is great. Sure you will have days where you feel like you need a bigger screen but you get used to it.

On paper, the 11" has a smaller battery than the Pro or any 13" but because of the basic screen and basic processing power it actually lasts longer.

I use an app called SwitchResX to scale the display when I want to see a big file and I use Control - + to zoom in and out.

This laptop is cheap(er), light and I am very sad that Apple decided to discontinue the model.

I think my next one is going to be the 12". When I travel, I go to work in co-working spaces and some of them have monitors that you can rent, just buy an HDMI adapter and you good to go.

I used to work on an 11" air long ago. It was my secondary machine to my 27" iMac, but quickly became my only machine as I changed jobs and was working remote a lot. Without an external screen it was doable, but a pain in the ass.

I work on a 15" MBPr attached to a screen and on its' own when I'm out. I couldn't fathom going back to a 11", I'd consider a 13" though.

I always think my 13" MBA is small, not sure I could cope with designing on 11". I already put off doing much design work until I get back to the office so I can do it on my iMac.

I debated between the 11" and 13" when I bought my Air. I ultimately decided on the 13". I thought about it, and the 11" was a little too close to netbook size for my liking. I haven't regretted it yet - it's a great laptop.

I've used exactly that setup for UI design (Sketch) before, and it worked well for me. No problems at all when external screen attached, and still works well enough to do some basic work on, say, a train or plane. For portability the 2" difference is real - I've had the Air in my bag and forgot it was there.

Can't comment on more detail-heavy design (Photoshop), but suspect a retina 13" (pro, or Air when they release it) would be a better compromise there.

I freelanced for various clients on an 11 inch MacBook air for over 2 years, as long as I had an external display I never had a problem, was constantly impressed with how much I could do with that tiny machine, it's like an iPad but you can run normal apps on it :)

I've used one as my sole machine for about 18 months and it's been absolutely fine for my needs. I don't do illustrator work but it's been no problem using PS/Fireworks etc and of course writing code.

Bought mine because I run-commute a lot and to take to conferences to do talks etc so wanted something small and it's been a good machine.

My friend has a 11" Air and from what I can see, he has no problem designing and doing front-end work on his laptop. Personally, I have a "13 Air and I wouldn't upgrade to a 15" simply because I love its portability. It also helps that I have a cinema display at home to test my designs on a larger screen.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Ended up going with the 13".