Introducing a laptop as light as air

[W1nTry]

Well its' a figure of speech so sue me, but its still quite something:

Apple launches MacBook Air

Thin and airy fairy

By Dean Pullen: Tuesday, 15 January 2008, 7:53 PM

STEVE JOBS IS usually full of hot air, but this time it might be of use.

Jobs revealed the aluminum-bodied MacBook Air is 0.16 inches at its thinnest point, 0.76 inches at its thickest point and weighs just 3.0 pounds.



"When you first see MacBook Air, it's hard to believe it's a high-performance notebook with a full-size keyboard and display. But it is," said Jobs.

Oddly we fully believed it.

The MacBook Air features Intel Core 2 Duo power (1.6GHz standard, 1.8GHz optional), 2GB of memory, Intel GMA X3100 graphics, a 13.3" LED-backlit display and an 80GB, 1.8" HDD for storage.

A 64GB SSD (Solid-State Disk) is also an option on the MacBook Air.

The screen has a standard resolution of 1280 by 800, running on an Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory.

To keep its thin form-factor, the MacBook Air contains only one USB 2.0 port, a micro-DVI port and an audio-out jack, choosing to remove the usual optical drive and ethernet ports.

Other features include the usual iSight web-camera and backlit keyboard. Apple includes 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 as standard.

As rumours suggested, the new MacBook also comes with a multi-touch trackpad, allowing owners to use the same gestures that iPhone and iPod touch users have grown accustomed to. µ

[daniboy79]

lol... how the **** are you gonna 'look at a movie' without an optcal drive

...i customized one of these out of curiosity, and price quickly jumped to over $3G's US ...i think i'll just get a gym subscription, and pay a LOT less for a mcahine a lil heavier, and i can watch my movies too

[W1nTry]

Tsk tsk daniboy, it's called USB meng. That aside, alot of movies are moving to the internet as their distribution media, get with the times man... (though we live in a country that believes itself on track for 1st world in just over 10years whereas I see it not quite the same way) but with the bandwidth ppl have in the US and the fact that a DVD collection as nice as it takes up space, this laptop will suit MANY ppl.

[Beomagi]

I just see A lack of upgradability.  If I need something that portable, there's the eee pc.

The msi s271/s272 laptops were 2cm for some time now.

The dell xps 1330 is not AS slim, but slim nonetheless, with far more capability.

They should have found a way for optical. Without the option for larger  capacity disks, it's necessary. Panasonic's toughbook ultraportable, has been a favorite for some time to many reviewers, including pc world. Their implementation of the optical drive was the side of the keyboard rises up to let it in  very slick, and they've been doing it for some time now, in  very slender form.


Don't get me wrong, It LOOKS nice, and there's appleites that just don't care. I doubt it would be a tough sell.

[W1nTry]

What about OS? it does have OS X which is a selling point.

[TheApprentice]

I personally think Apple lead innovation here...

They have again simplified something we use everyday, the notebook,
and it has appealed to their market...

Heck i want one, its the future..... forget optical drives.... I actually never used my optical drive in my hp just only to burn those recovery discs off the hard drive..

This is a nice simple system, what I would expect from apple.... But the price point is definitely wrong...
In comparison to current notebooks.... as much as I want it, I won't put down a minumum of $1800USD on it..

If this notebook was say, $800.... it would sell like the Wii...(proabbably exaggerated)
And I would buy at that price..

Its for the die hard apple fans....and those die hard fans will be buying..



As for me, Alienware just stuck a 8800gtx into a 15.4" laptop.. 

[Arcmanov]

Macbook Air CPU details.
Apparently its using a much smaller (physically) Core 2 Duo based Merom CPU.

Interesting.....


As Beo said, for the price, too much has been compromised.  So you trying to tell me Apple couldn't include a slot-loading optical drive in the thing?  sttteeeuuupppssssss...........
The Asus EEE PC fills that 'ultraportable' gap real well, and for LESS THAN ONE QUARTER of the price.  As usual though, 'looks' and 'hype' will win the day for Apple. 
REAL tech enthusiasts will be like '...pffft. Now where did I put my actual laptop again?'

[Arcmanov]

The Macbook Air dissected.