Apple's latest notebook, the MacBook Air, is the latest and perhaps the greatest ultraportable notebook on the market. It has been much anticipated and now since its unveiling at MacWorld 2008 it has been talked about all over the Internet. It is amazingly thin and light weight, measuring 0.76" thick and about 14 x 11 x 2- inches in dimensions. Apple calls it the "world's thinnest notebook," but some may disagree, but we can definitely say that it is very thin...maybe a little too thin for some. The design of the MacBook Air by Apple is so amazing and well-though out that the thickness of the laptop actually was designed quite well. It is tapered on its edges, so it is actually as thin as 0.16-inches at its edges and thicker in the center of the body. It weighs just about 3 pounds, but when you pick it up, it actually feels a little heavy, but that is probably due to its tapered design that gives the illusion of more weight in the middle of the body.
Apple outfitted it with a 13-inch LCD screen that is backlit with LED's instead of florescent lights, so that increases the battery life by quite a bit. The quality of the screen is magnificent; it's certainly one of the best screen's out there on a laptop. It also has a built-in ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts the screen backlighting as well as the keyboard's backlight. There is also a mini iSight camera and mic built into the MacBook Air right above the LCD screen.
The new trackpad on the MacBook Air is certainly worth mentioning as well considering its new extra large size (5" diagonally) and multi-touch capabilities. Now you can do two-to-three finger gestures to perform certain tasks and functions within certain applications and the Mac OS itself.
Some may not like that Apple removed pretty much every port on the computer and kept only one USB port, VGA, mono speaker, headphone, and power plug. That's right ....there is no FireWire, Ethernet, or built-in optical drive. It does have wireless 802.11b/g/n (and Bluetooth) connectivity, which is essential for using Apple's remote disc feature, which allows you to use another computer's (PC or Mac) optical drive to access from the MacBook Air. Both computers simply have to be on the same network. Streaming video/music from a remote disc isn't allowed, but you can buy an external Apple SuperDrive (that works with and only with the MacBook Air) for $99. The one built-in USB port is neatly hidden away on a little hinged door on the side of the Macbook Air's body, which pops down for easy and convenient use.
The MacBook Air does come with 2GB of RAM, which is plenty enough, but its processor runs at a much slower speed (1.6GHz) than the standard MacBook's (2.2GHz). It does come with a (slower) 4,200rpm 80GB hard drive. You can get a solid state 64GB hard drive with no moving parts and it has the advantage of using less power and such, but it will cost you an extra $1000. Until prices on SSD hard drives come down, there really isn't any point to upgrade it. People are also a little puzzled as to why Apple didn't include a user-replaceable battery, instead it is a permanent rechargeable battery, meaning you cannot buy extra batteries for it to have extra on hand. Apple claims that it lasts 5 hours, but it may be less if you are doing processor/hard drive intensive tasks.
Overall, Apple has certainly surprised us once again. This time they took portable computing to the next level, certainly setting the bar for future products from other companies in the near future. There is no doubt that there is a strong demand for ultraportable laptops, but the Apple MacBook Air probably isn't the one to get for some people. Some people say that they think it is too thin and they "feel like they would snap it in half" and I can certainly say that it does feel very thin. We think it is a safe bet to say that version 2 of Apple's MacBook Air will probably be the one to buy, but if you have money to spend to get the latest gadget from Apple, we certainly are not telling you not to buy it. It is still a great product that will suit a large number of people very nicely.
