Apple MacBook Air
It’s a challenge to begin a sentence about Apple’s MacBook Air without first mentioning it’s impossibly thin size. So here we go: it’s impossibly thin. Almost ludicrously so. It was first presented to an expectant public at Apple’s MacWorld Keynote in 2008 by being slid out of a manila envelope, such is it’s thinness. Apple’s MacBook Air has been designed to compete with netbooks, rather than full blown laptops – Apple have described this before as their ultra-portable offering.
The problem with this, though, is that it’s one of the most expensive ultra-portables around. You’re paying for Apple’s sleek, aesthetic design, rather than it’s functionality. Compared to the 15 inch MacBook Pro, or Apple’s regular 13 inch MacBook, a huge number of features are missing, most notably a CD drive. For a laptop to get to as thin as this, Apple needed to cut down on ports, including cutting out FireWire ports, no ethernet port and no line-in. It’s also not possible to upgrade the RAM, as it’s soldered directly onto the motherboard, and that lack of CD drive can make installation of some things…difficult.
But for all the loss of features, and the high-end price, it’s still (arguably) one of the nicest looking, most beautifully designed ultra-portable laptop that has ever been designed. Ever. And it doesn’t mean it’s lost all of the features that make a Mac a Mac. It still has a built in webcam, it still connects easily to an Apple Cinema Display (which are always lovely) and it still uses Apple’s incredible multi-touch trackpad. You can pinch to zoom in, rotate images with two fingers and even use the four finger swipe to invoke the ever useful Exposé.
The keyboard has that satisfying “click” with each button press, not quite a full functioning keyboard but not as small as many netbooks. Tapping away on the typical, Mac style backlit keyboard is a pleasure. The MacBook Air (like the MacBook Pros) is built from one solid sheet of aluminium, so despite it’s incredibly thin size it still feels solid and unbreakable.
The tiny laptop also benefits from using a solid-state drive, which uses no moveable-parts at all (which, apparantly, uses less energy and is more durable). I’ve found the solid-state drives to be slightly quieter, but then that might just be me.
The MacBook Air is definitely recommended if you want a laptop that you can take with you, as long as you’re not hoping to do anything that requires a lot of processing power. It’s not ideal if you’re a heavy user of graphically intensive programmes, like PhotoShop, but if you just want a laptop that you can sling in your bag and use when you’re out and about, the MacBook Air is a serious contender.
