MacBook Air

Finally revealed, Apple’s new MacBook Air is all about portability, wireless connectivity and cable-free computing. It is ultra-thin and lightweight. One particular reason for this is the absence of an optical drive. Users are meant to get all they need wirelessly, from connecting to another Mac to “borrow” its optical drive (if or when required); to renting movies virtually via the iTunes Store and backing up data to a Time Capsule - Apple’s new external hard drive + Wi-Fi base station.

The MacBook Air is no doubt a stylish and forward thinking subnotebook. But as the initial buzz began to settle, it became apparent that users would have to be content with quite a few compromises - from the non-user replacable battery to the lacking of sufficient (and conventional) I/O ports. Also, the built-in speaker is in mono only, so headphones or external speakers would be needed for more satisfactory audio.

The MacBook Air sports a 13.3-inch glossy widescreen TFT LED backlit display, a full-size full feature keyboard, large trackpad with multi-touch gesture support (much like the touchscreen on the iPhone/iPod Touch) and is powered by either a 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor.