[dangrossman]

The MBA 11" is 0.68" thick. The Surface Pro is 0.53" thick. The Type Cover adds .23"; the Touch Cover only .08".

It gets the same run time per charge.

It weighs less, not more; less than 2 pounds versus 2.38.

The difference is that you can snap off the optional keyboard in a split second if you really care about thickness -- well, that and the fact that it's a tablet with a touch digitizer behind the glass too.

[Samuel_Michon]

> The MBA 11" is 19.2mm thick

No, it’s not: “Height: 0.11-0.68 inch (0.3-1.7 cm)” http://www.apple.com/macbookair/specs.html

The body has a wedge shape, on average 10mm thick: http://imgur.com/Ung7IQ3

> It gets the same run time per charge.

No, it doesn’t. The Surface Pro gets 3,75 hours of battery life. http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/05/microsoft-surface-pro-rev...

[dangrossman]

For what conceivable purpose would you want to compare average thickness? I own an SP; it does not get 3.75 hours of battery life no matter what I do with it, and I could pull out a dozen review links to say that as well. Why are you trying so hard to make it look worse than it is?

[Samuel_Michon]

“For what conceivable purpose would you want to compare average thickness?”

Along with length, width and depth, that’s what determines the volume of the object (=portability). The Surface Pro has 60% more volume as a MacBook Air 11". And yet, it gets hot, has loud fans, and has less battery life. That’s just bad engineering. As a replacement for a notebook and a tablet, it really should have at least as much battery life as an iPad. Given its volume, that would’ve been possible.

Surface Pro: 10.81 x 6.81 x 0.76" = 55.95 cubic inches

MacBook Air 11": 11.8 x 7.56 x 0.39" = 34.79 cubic inches

EDIT: in an earlier version I mistakenly wrote 'mass' where I meant 'volume'.

[dangrossman]

Weight and size are what determine portability for everyone else, not how much water it could hold if it were doubling as a canteen. That's not mass, it's volume, by the way. The MBA is longer, wider, taller and heavier -- yet you've contrived a way to label that as "more portable"... ridiculous on its face.

I'm not going to make this valueless discussion thread any longer, so to your reply: those numbers are made up. Larger screens make things less portable, not more.

[Samuel_Michon]

The MBA is less than an inch longer and wider (because of the larger screen). It’s not as thick (‘tall’?) as the Surface Pro and it weighs less (2.38lbs) than a Surface Pro with TypeCover (2.55lbs).

[WayneDB]

That's 3.75 hours with a video continuously looping.

I get 6 - 7 hours on a low brightness with normal usage (web, email, visual studio, sql server, etc.)

[Samuel_Michon]

When they performed the same test on a 13" MacBook Air, it held on for 6.5 hours. That jibes with Apple’s stated battery life of ‘Up to 7 hours wireless web’. Apple states the MBA 11" has battery life of ‘Up to 5 hours wireless web’, so it’s definitely more than 3.75 hours.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/18/macbook-air-review/