Other ultraportables should be ashamed.
By Mark SpoonauerFirst Impressions
It’s really, really thin. Like nano thin. And yet the Macbook Air packs in a full size keyboard and one of the biggest and most versatile touchpads we’ve ever used. We spent a few minutes with the thinnest notebook on earth and came away mighty impressed with its design and snappy performance. You do make a few trade-offs for the size, but we imagine most prospective buyers won’t care.
The MacBook Air is Lighter Than
The aluminum body feels rock solid and yet super light. There’s a lot of computer inside this 3-pound chassis. And the keyboard has plenty of depth despite the system’s 0.76-inch profile.
Touch, Pinch, Flick, Then Go
The touchpad is the coolest feature. We used three fingers to move forward and backward through pictures and slideshows, pinched our fingers together and apart to zoom in on photos, and successfully rotated some photos with just a twist of two fingers. And the touchpad is really big, which is nice compared to other ultraportables.
Peripheral Ports on the MacBook Air
On the right side of the system is a flip-down door that houses a headphone jack, single USB port, and a micro DVI connector. We would have preferred at least one more USB port and maybe a mini HDMI port for outputting audio and video with a single cable, but these are nitpicks when you consider how compact the Macbook Air is. On the left side is the Magsafe connector for power.
No Ethernet, but Substantial Wireless
That’s it. No Ethernet port. That’s what 802.11n Wi-Fi is for. (You can buy an Ethernet adapter for $30.) And, of course, there’s Bluetooth for syncing your gadgets or using a cell phone as a modem. That’s key because there’s no built-in mobile broadband connection. Oh well. Here’s hoping for a Mobile WiMax version come the fall.
Vibrant Display
The 13.3-inch LED display is positively brilliant. The viewing angles were superb, and photos looked very crisp. Another nice touch is the ambient light sensor, which adjusts the backlight both on the keyboard and the display.Air 5
MacBook Air Specifications
In terms of specs, the Macbook Air is certainly no slouch. The base $1,799 model ships with a 1.6-GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 1.8-inch 80GB hard drive. The 64GB solid state drive is $999 just by itself, so you’ll want to think twice before plunking down the extra cash. We’ll be asking Apple if its 5-hour battery life claim is for the SSD model only or the hard drive model, too.
The top-of-the-line configuration features a 1.8-GHz processor and the 64GB SSD. That brings the total to a whopping $3,098. That’s basically executives-only territory, but certainly in line with other lightweight machines with similar specs.
Photo Gallery
We've got more photos of this dream machine here. Looks like Apple has a serious hit on its hands.
Price: $1,799
Info: www.apple.com
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