Apple MacBook Air

Apple has released its much awaited laptop earlier this week, which is named as MacBook Air. Yes you got it right, I am talking about the second thinnest laptop of the world after Sony's X505 which was launched in December 2003. Earlier this week, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs have surprised everybody at MacWorld Expo by taking a laptop out of an interoffice mailing envelope. Air is all set to come in market within two weeks and the estimated price of this thinnest notebook will be $ 1,799. Presently it is launched only in Silver color, but Apple would definitely have plans to launch this product in other different colors as Dell did a few months ago. It is just 0.16 inches at its thinnest point and weighs about 3 pounds. Considering the design, this notebook is outfitted with 80GB hard disk.

Other features like a flip down door on side with connectors like, USB 2.0, Micro-DVI for external display, head phone jack and MagSafe connector for power which comes with 45 watt power adaptor existed on other MacBook laptops. It also has an 802.11n based wireless network support and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. Apple estimates that the battery life of MacBook Air with Bluetooth enabled is 5hrs.


Perhaps the thinnest MacBook ever, it is encased in a 0.16 to 0.76 inch of aluminum case. At just 3.0 pounds, MacBook Air becomes the most conveniently portable notebook computer. A 13.3 inch widescreen LED display is same as the other MacBook laptops. The 1280 X 800 resolution give you a polished display with rich colors. A full sized keyboard is just like the one used in MacBook, the additional feature in MacBook Air is the backlit key illumination making it easy to work even at the time to power failures in your place. The track pad is much bigger than the other models.


Compromises

Apart from all the above stunning features, there are few things where Apple had to compromise with space, I will mention few of them here. There is no internal optical drives (CD or DVD drives), a USB based add-on SuperDrive will be supplied on extra $99 cost. But as always, Apple had come up with a new software for the users who do no opt to get that extra optical add-on SuperDrive. They have developed “Remote Disk” which enables you to use the optical drive of another Mac or PC which is on the same network as MacBook Air. The battery is so compact and tightly placed, that a novice user will not be able to replace it with a new one. You have to take the laptop to the service center to get the battery replaced. There is no RJ-45 port, that’s again a $29 for additional USB based RJ-45 port.




Processor

There is a special Core 2 Duo processor designed by Intel for this product, it is based on Merom technology with clock speed ranging from 1.6GHz to 2.2 GHz. It is a Low Voltage Merom based Core 2 Duo instead of the traditional Ultra Low Voltage Merom. The only reason why Apple went with Low Voltage against Ultra Low Voltage is because of the lower clock speed ranges of Ultra Low voltage, however the advantage of Ultra Low voltage Merom based processors is that they operate on even less voltage when compared with their Low voltage competitors. The present processor is the older version of the current Intel’s processor. Apple used a 65nm Merom based processor whereas Intel has just launched its much smaller 45nm Hafnium based processor Apple would definitely have a plan to use the current 45nm Hafnium based Core 2 Duo Intel processor in its MacBook Air. Check more about the processor used in MacBook Air. Let me also mention about the processors which MacBook has been using in past. The MacBook Pro first used Intel’s Core Duo processor, which were replaced with Intel Core 2 Duo processors in mid 2006. The Core 2 Duo was a 64 bit processor designed by Intel corp. for laptop computers. This was developed under the code name “Merom”, it had a FSB speed of 667 MHz and supports the Virtual interrupt technology called as “Vanderpool Virtualization Technology”. This processor was upgraded last year with a FSB speed of 800 MHz






Eco Friendly

There were lots of speculations about the Apple’s strategy towards the ecosystem. Infact last year, Apple was in crosshairs of the environment group Greenpeace. But MacBook Air is truly eco friendly, it has fully recyclable aluminum case, and is the first to have a mercury-free display, the display is LED but not LCD. Even while packaging, the retail packaging of MacBook Air uses 56 percent less material than other MacBook packaging.


Specifications

In the end, lets see the specifications once again.

3 lbs
0.16” - 0.76” x 12.8” x 8.94” (H x W x D)
Full Size keyboard from the MacBook
13.3” 1280 x 800 LED backlit screen
2GB DDR2-667
Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz, 800MHz FSB, 4MB shared L2
80GB 1.8” 4200RPM HDD or optional 64GB SSD
802.11n/Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
Starting at $1799


My next post will be a true comparison between the Sony X505 Ultraslim and MacBook Air Ultraportal notebooks.