“We’ve been messin’ with the ultimate version and make no mistake; this is true engineering genius,” Luke Peters reports for T3.
“Apple has worked architectural wonders by shoehorning in 2GB RAM, a 64Gb solid-state hard drive, 802.11n wifi, Bluetooth and blisteringly bright 13.3-inch LED screen. A new multi-gesture touchpad mimics the type of finger control seen with the iPhone and iPod touch, too,” Peters reports.
“Flip down a secret panel on the curved edge to discover a USB port, Micro-DVI and headphone socket. There’s even an iSight worked into the lid, flanked by an omnidirectional microphone and light-sensor for activating the fantastic backlit keyboard, which is by far the most responsive Apple has ever made,” Peters reports. “Considering this notebook measures just 40mm at its thinnest point [sic. It’s 0.4-1.94 cm] and weighs under 1.5kg [1.36 kg to be precise], it’s a miracle this thing actually made it off the design table.”
Peters reports, “It’s a show-off’s dream and the shape of things to come…”
Full review, including MacBook Air’s potential drawbacks, here.
Aaah, but if you read all the Microsoft Windows fanboy comments all over the web you’ll see why the Air is really quite useless and that no-one at all will buy it.
I do see how some people must hate Apple, and us.
The 40mm should be 4mm?
@RC
Yes, 1.57 inches does seem a little thick.
Good catch!
I think Apple stores should loan then out or rent MacBook Air laptops. This way those of us who think they are WAY cool, but aren’t going to buy one can still take one to our friends and show it off, resulting in additional migration to Apple, if not to the MacBook Air directly.
Or maybe a bunch of us can buy one jointly, like a time-share condo– to use during the two weeks/year that we travel.
Its funny how redmond fanboys say no one will buy it… because they don’t buy it themselves
but already know two people whom have bought macbook airs already… which is not bad considering I still don’t know a good friend that owns a mac pro, only power macs
Re: timeshare
excellent idea!! Let’s rent zune tang’s!! Where is that horny little whore anyways? ‘me so horny!!!’
I got a chance to actually use and HOLD a MacBook Air last night.
I don’t really want one, but I WANT one! It’s that amazing an object.
The case is beautiful and it feels almost weightless. It must be portable Reality Distortion Field! The keyboard is VERY nice. I like the multi-touch trackpad. I was even able to make text smaller and larger in Safari! The MBA is just pure cool!
The only real deficiency I see is the lack of a FireWire port for connecting an external drive or using it in FireWire Target Disk Mode. And NO kiddies, USB2 is for peripherals NOT for file transfers. It can do it in a pinch, but USB2 suffers from slow sustained read/writ speed, vs. even FireWire 400.
I bet Apple shoehorns a FireWire 400 port into Rev.B. By then the price and capacity of solid state drives should move in our favor, too. A 128GB SS drive was announced just the other day.
Dennis Miller was gushing about his new MBA on his show the other day. I haven’t even seen one yet. Time to get to the Apple Store!
The MacBook Air is mostly useless to the road warrior who needs full functionality in a compact design — my MacBook with 4 GB of RAM and VMWare/XP + a SuperDrive is the machine to have if you want “it all” in a compact form factor.
Niffy
Well done Niffy. Thank you very much for telling us the bleeding obvious.
So, just DON’T BUY IT if it doesn’t have what YOU need…. because I doubt we care frankly.
In a related story…T3 still wiping brown stains off their lips after hyping grossly underpowered MBA.
Just my $0.02
T3 Girls!
Underpowered, maybe…..but it would sure beat my aging iBook G4 in both size and speed!
I got mine!. . .
. . . and LOVING IT!
😀
I played with one at the apple store over the weekend. while I don’t really need one it is impressive. the edges thin out yet are still strong. The design is deceptive. it is thicker than it feels if you pick it up, but damn it is one sweet arse machine.
I am happy with my 12″powerbook but damn that’s a nice laptop. It does make me wonder though who will put that machine into a tablet first.
@Niff,
You would think a roadwarrior who needed it all would get a MBP and not a MB, seeing as it has vampire vid. I mean, how else are you going to play your video games?
I don’t like laptops. So no MBA for me.
Let’s get some balance here.
Yes, it is most likely necessary to purchase the external DVD drive to get full optical functionality. No, it is not necessary to carry the drive around with you all the time.
Yes, MacBook Air users will probably learn to deal without heavy reliance on optical media [like original iMac owners learned to live without the floppy]. No, let’s not pretend in any way that optical media is dead.
Yes, the MacBook Air is slow when compared to other models in Apple’s portable line-up. No, I think we can safely assume that anyone doing high-end video, graphics or audio production is going to do that on their MacPro and use the Air as an email/web/sketch client. [That’s me, by the way].
Yes, the MacBook Air lacks ports [specifically FireWire] which will potentially temporarily frustrate users, especially if this is the only Mac they’ve got as the center of their digital life. No, lack of ports are not a long-term problem because there’ll be different ways of achieving the same goal. Specifically with FireWire [or lack thereof] the latest [pro]sumer cameras are HDD-based and you just plug ’em in over USB anyway.
’nuff said.
The combination of “multi-touch” and “cover-flow” redefines computing! What a great way to view your content. It can also double as an TV. I’m waiting for Time Capsule!
Any one of these alone is worth the price of the MacBook Air.
“The combination of “multi-touch” and “cover-flow” redefines computing!”
@ Wun Dum Gai
Definitely not enough! People wanted the screen to be multi-touch. People wanted this to be more somekind of tablet.
Personaly, I don’t care. I don’t like laptops. So no MBA for me.
“let’s not pretend in any way that optical media is dead”
@ Alasdair Scott
If floppy died, and audio and video tapes too, then CD will one day. It’s more a matter of “when” that “if”.
5 years from now, the standard laptop will be based on MBA specs.
@ Mac+
How will software be sold? Only thru downloads? There will be no stores selling software? So you can’t buy software if you have a dial-up or cell connection to the internet?
You have to replace one medium with another for the former to die. Optical media is not being replaced in 5 years.
Attention all MDN posters, Mac+ doesn’t like laptops. OK, now you can quit telling us.
“Attention all MDN posters, Mac+ doesn’t like laptops.”
And I’ve alerted the media.