Friday, February 8, 2008

MACBOOK AIR



Well, It actually is a laptop !!!

Though Macworld’07 was hard to top with the introduction of the iPhone, Steve Jobs has done it again at Macworld’08 with the introduction of the Macbook Air – a new slim 13.3 inch laptop that barely weighs about 3 pounds, sports a thickness of 0.16-0.76 inches, is 12.8 inches wide and 8.95 inches deep. These figures make for a phenomenally thin laptop that comes with a native display resolution of 1280x800.

It's super light, super fragile, and super small. If you just tap the screen lightly, the whole thing closes because it's so light. The keyboard looks a little weird because it's black on the aluminum, but the keyboard feels great. It feels just like a MacBook (normal) keyboard. The screen looks gorgeous—very bright and clear (and better than the Sony). It's even better looking than the MacBook's, most likely because of the LED backlit display.


The iSight webcam is a round hole instead of a square, the lid has a convex design, and slowly goes to a point on the sides. The MagSafe charger is slightly smaller, and it's silver. The MagSafe connector is also new, and connects at a 90-degree angle instead of just pulling out like the current ones. However that’s not where the fun ends. Like the existing Macbooks, it has a full size keyboard which is backlit and sports an ambient light sensor that can adjust brightness. In a move borrowed from its iPod and iPhone range, the new touchpad is capable of recognizing and using multi-touch. Another interesting option that the new Macbook Air offers is the option of using a 64 GB SSD as an option for storage. The standard HDD has been slimmed to a normal PATA 4200 RPM 1.8 inch laptop drive. For its processing power the new Macbook Air utilizes an Intel C2D processing running at 1.6 GHz (with 1.8 GHz being offered as an option), 2 GB of DDR 2 667 RAM on an 800 MHz FSB. The Macbook Air also sports USB 2.0 jacks, Micro-DVI support for external display connectivity and full support for both 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. In terms of battery life Apple has said that with the SSD option, the laptop is capable of easily introducing 5 hrs of battery. Now while this laptop seems to be beautifully designed in typical Apple fashion, on paper it seems to be bit of a mixed bag. Firstly it’s fairly watered down and does not offer much in the way of power. In comparison with other 13.3 inch laptops, its battery life seems to be a little better but it loses marks for offering such basic storage options. Another thing is its cost. Its base model retails at $1798 and for a full fledged machine climbs for over $3,200. In this space it’s directly competing with its own brothers which will of course leave it in the dust. Apple in its zealous effort to get the product out seems to have starved it of space and a few other essential options. A glaring mistake that apple have made is...NO OPTICAL DRIVE...you will need to buy an external macbook air super drive to play and burn optical media...but leaving out the optical drive was understandable , as apple were going for looks and "thinnest laptop" title and an optical drive would have increased the thickness. The macbook air will face stiff competition from its own apple siblings ...It'll appeal to the fashion conscious , but performance enthusiast might just give it the pass... But there's no denying that this is probably the most beautiful notebook i have ever seen (Sony sure has some catching up to do now)

Verdict? Ultra light, ultra awesome... a little expensive and impractical ....but gorgeous!!! Watch this page for further updates. cheers!!!

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