ABC News reviews Apple’s MacBook Air: Sexy and skinny as a supermodel

“Carrying around Apple’s MacBook Air is like dating a supermodel: She’s going to turn heads with her beauty, she’ll improve your self-confidence, and you can go everywhere together  from crowded nightclubs to cramped airplane flights. You’ll be happy in the end, but there’s sure to be a friend who just doesn’t approve,” Eric M. Strauss reports for ABC News.

“MacBook Air is a mega-desirable computer that blends aerodynamic styling with serious innovations in an itsy, bitsy three-pound package that is a blast to use. The $1,799 model comes with a generous 2 GB of RAM, an average capacity 80 GB hard drive and is already in short supply at Apple stores,” Strauss reports.

“Once the computer is open, even a mere mortal will feel secure balancing the lightweight computer in one hand. Users will notice that the MacBook Air is not your average scaled down sub-notebook that PC makers have been making for years with miniature 10-inch screens and inhumane cramped keypads that would give the most successful of hand models a complex,” Strauss reports.

“Inside the world’s thinnest notebook is a wide, glossy, bright 13.3-inch LED screen, and a full-sized keyboard with backlit responsive keys that light up when they know you’re in a dark room,” Strauss reports. “A tiny camera and microphone are placed at the top of the screen for free video chatting, along with a souped-up trackpad as wide as the space bar to help you move around the screen that is able to understand finger gestures like the iPhone to help in manipulating screens and documents.”

“The battery lasts a respectable four to five hours on a single charge and is sealed within the durable aluminum casing. Aluminum is a highly desirable material in the afterlife that will make it easily recyclable when you are ready for your next computer. Battery repairs will be available for $129 after several years of charging and recharging makes a replacement necessary,” Strauss reports.

“The MacBook Air is a major step forward in portable computing from the company that has been known to innovate and transform and transition the electronics industry kicking and screaming for years,” Strauss reports.

“If you are a student or worker-bee who is often on the go and wants your email, Internet, and access to your music, photos and movies, you’ll love MacBook Air,” Strauss reports.If you embrace the sheer elegance and portability you may be able to ignore the shortcomings of limited USB ports, relatively small storage space (80GB) and an extra cost for an external CD/DVD drive ($99) and/or Ethernet port ($49).”

Full review here.

25 Comments

  1. I read a review of the MBA from an English magazine on the Mac and the author stated that he had realy problems working on some programs like photoshop with the MBA.

    This is a niche product for people who want to do “light” work while on the road. In my week with the MBA I also experienced slow programs with iWeb and Radid Weaver. Considering that someone might want to use their MBA for blogging I found this troubling.

  2. According to what I read this weekend Steve Jobs has been using the corp jet a lot this year which they feel means that he is making deals with overseas suppliers. Keep buying the stock I am sure that Steve will surprise us all with some new stuff

  3. I thought the ethernet adapter was $29, not $49… have to check that out; if I am right, then this another example of terribly poor “professional” writing. As someone (MDN take?) said about another article here – anyone can get a job these days.

  4. I like my women, like my laptop, skinny.

    Real world battery life is 4 to 5 hours for wifi, email, websurfing, etc. Go to anandtech.com for a full battery of tests.

    @bichmacperson, speed is relative. The MBA has been tested to be as fast as a 1st-gen MBP from two years ago. Did people complain about PS speed on the MBP two years ago? Crap, I used PS 1.07 (i was a beta tester) on my Mac SE back in 1990. Now, THAT was slow!

  5. read a review of the MBA from an English magazine on the Mac and the author stated that he had realy problems working on some programs like photoshop with the MBA. –Rich Apple person

    Kinda hard to believe considering that my trusty 12-inch Powerbook G4 runs Photoshop like a champ. This allegation makes no sense at all.

Reader Feedback

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.