Comprehensive Review of Apple MacBook Air – The World’s Thinnest Notebook

Apple has introduced the all new MacBook Air in the 2008 MacWorld. The ultrathin and ultraportable design makes it the world’s thinnest notebook. How thin is it? It’s only 0.4-1.94 cm in height and weights only 1.36 kg. If you can’t imagine how thin 0.4-1.94 cm really is, let’s put it in Apple terms. The depth of the latest 160GB iPod Classic is 1.35 cm. So the thickest part of MacBook Air is only 0.59 cm more than an iPod. With the sturdy anodised aluminium body, it looks really stirring.

Before we go into any detail, let’s have a quick look of what we can get for the price of NZ$2,999 (US$1,799), the starting price of MacBook Air.

• Display: 13.3”
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz
• Memory: 2GB
• Hard Drive: 80GB 4200-rpm PATA
• Wireless: Built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Operating System: Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard
• Applications: iLife ’08 suite, Front Row, Photo Booth

OK, now it’s time to dig into the thinnest laptop on the planet and find out if it really worth the investment. I’ll also assign a points out of ten rating to each of the following areas which reflects my personal thinking which hopefully will help you a little bit when deciding if you want one or not.

Display

The MacBook Air uses 13.3” widescreen LED backlit display with 1280x800 resolution. It also includes a built-in iSight camera that is handy. 13.3” is my personal favourite screen size, because it’s not too big to carry and also not too small to use. As we know, Apple’s display always looks good. So I’m giving this a 10/10 point.

Keyboard

The MacBook Air uses full-size keyboard which is great. They keyboard also comes with backlit key illumination, making it easy to work in low-light settings such as airplanes and conference halls. In addition, a built-in ambient light sensor automatically adjusts keyboard and display brightness for optimal visibility. Of course, 10/10 point for the keyword.

Trackpad

The MacBook Air includes an oversize Trackpad with multi-touch technology. You can pinch, swipe or rotate to zoom in on text, advance through a photo album or adjust an image. It uses the similar technology as iPod touch. Although it’s innovative enough, not everyone will value this feature as top of the list due to personal preferences. I give the Trackpad 8/10.

Wireless

802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR...what else can we expect? 10/10.

Wireless Migration Assistant

You can transfer your files from your old Mac to the new MacBook Air wirelessly and easily using the Wireless Migration Assistant. It’s a good to have feature, but not essential for everyone. 8/10.

Remote Disc

For a notebook this thin, we can't expect a built-in optical drive. Although you can buy the external DVD writer called Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive for NZ$159 (US$99), Apple provides an alternative solution. A new feature called Remote Disc lets you wirelessly use or borrow the optical drive of a Mac or PC in the vicinity. How does it work? Firstly, you set up Remote Disc on a nearby Mac or PC. And then insert the software disc you want to install into the Mac or PC. Finally, you’ll find the remote drive on your MacBook Air and install the software. It's as if you’re using a local drive. Good eh? I’ll give Apple 10/10 for this feature.

Ports

For a super thin laptop, we don’t expect a lot of ports. But can it be this few? The MacBook Air only has one USB 2.0 port, a headphone jack and a micro-DVI port that supports DVI, VGA, composite and S-video output. But wait a minute, where is the Ethernet port? Sorry, if you don’t have a wireless network, you have to buy the extra Apple USB Ethernet Adapter at the price of NZ$48 (US$29) in order to connect to wired networks. No more than 5/10 for the ports.

Performance

Last but not least, the performance issue, which is the part I care most about. MacBook Air comes with a 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor at the starting price (NZ$2,999 or US$1,799). You can also choose the 1.8GHz processer by spending extra NZ$500 (US$300). One thing to note, the chip was custom-built to fit within the compact dimensions of MacBook Air. It’s much smaller than the standard Intel Core 2 Due chip.

It has 2GB of RAM built in. It is kind of OK but it would be good to have 4GB though. However, because of the size there’s no chance to upgrade.

The standard model uses 80GB 1.8” hard drive, the same hard drive used by iPod classic. At 4,200 rpm, it’s really slow. You can upgrade to the 64GB Solid State Drive at the price of NZ$1,640 (US$999). If I was a millionaire, I’ll definitely upgrade. But unfortunately I’m not...yet.

In terms of video performance, I’m not too happy about it. It uses Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with the main memory.

The battery life is five hours which isn't bad. Overall, I’m a little bit disappointed about the MacBook Air’s performance. But considering its size, I won’t go so low as it 4/10, 6/10 point is my final thought.

Shall we buy it?

It depends on how we define “we”. If we’re millionaires, we’ll definitely buy the ultimate configuration at the price of NZ$5,139 (US$3,098) with no qualms and use it as the third, fourth or fifth computers. If we’re super-Mac-fans or rich-gadget-lovers, we’ll buy it, because the starting price is not that bad for such a cool toy. If we’re normal users who are looking for a laptop right now and can afford several thousand dollars and aren't that fussed about the performance too much and use it outside of home or office most of the time, then the MacBook Air is a good choice. On the other hand if we’re a power user of computers and use the laptop a lot at home and in the office, I certainly won’t recommend the MacBook Air, unless it's your second computer. Of course, it doesn’t matter what kind of user you are, you have to be familiar with the Mac OS X or you're willing to learn.

Check out more Apple MacBook Air photos.