Derrick
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Apart from the mindblowing technology that was used to produce this notebook, using it as your primary computer might not be advisable, simply because it is not geared towards high-end desktop use.
During his keynote at the 2008 Macworld Conference & Expo, which took place from 14 to 18 January this year, Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, laid to rest months of rumours surrounding a new Apple super-portable computer when he unveiled the MacBook Air.
You may have noticed the incredibly thin notebook on the cover of this issue, and while I can tell you that at its thinnest, the MacBook Air is a mere 0.4cm thick, one still cannot comprehend how thin this notebook is until you actually hold it in your hands.
While the rest of the industry seems to be fighting over the UMPC (Ultra- Mobile PC) market space, Apple realised that an ultra small form factor is not the way to go. Consumers in this space want a traditional notebook - just a lot more portable. UMPCs, while functional and technically superb, still have numerous limitations. Cleverly, Apple decided to go the other route. Instead of developing a UMPC, they opted to stick with the basics.
The MacBook Air is a notebook in every sense: it has a 13.3- inch widescreen LCD, a full keyboard and a track pad.
The screen is as good (if not better considering its thin frame) as my current MackBook Pro’s LCD. The quality of pictures displayed is crisp and its native resolution of 1,280 x 800 will suffice for any use. What few people realise, though, is that the MacBook Air’s screen features a new LED backlight, which results in instant, full-screen brightness as soon as you open the lid.
The keyboard is also a bit of a head turner and it was, surprisingly, the first thing most people commented on. Unlike traditional notebooks, the MacBook Air’s keyboard is made up of individual keys - much like the new Apple Keyboard. Not only does this mean that the keys have more space between them, but it also means that the overall keyboard is slightly larger than most notebook keyboards. The keys are also backlit, a surprisingly handy feature, especially when using your notebook in dim light.
Just below the keyboard, you will notice a significantly larger track pad than what you may be used to. It’s not just the larger track pad that is of significance here, but rather the fact that this track pad inherited some of the features of the iPhone and iPod touch. Apple’s Multi-Touch technology allows users to pinch, swipe, rotate or zoom into images and text using gestures on the track pad. For example, dragging your thumb and index finger together or apart on the track pad will zoom in or out of an image or text document.
Holding two fingers slightly apart on the track pad and rotating your hand will cause your image to rotate on the screen. At first, this may seem a little gimmicky, but I assure you, you will wonder how you lived without this feature once you start using it. When looking at the hardware hidden in the MacBook Air’s thin frame, you should notice that this notebook is the slowest MacBook in the family.
The model we received for review sports the new custom-designed Intel Core 2 Duo running at 1.6GHz. A 1.8GHz model is also available. The 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM is built onto the motherboard, which means that you won’t be able to upgrade it. But 2GB should be plenty of RAM for users of the MacBook Air though.
The MacBook Air ships with an 80GB, 1.8-inch hard drive, but you do have the option of having a 64GB SSD (Solid-State Drive) instead. Be warned though, the optional SSD configuration will set you back close on R30,000. Ideally, the MacBook Air should be used as a secondary notebook. It is especially handy when travelling and its thin size means that you can literally drop it into an A3 envelope.
But for Apple to be able to produce a notebook of this size, it had to part with a few features. The MacBook Air doesn’t feature an optical drive and it has only one USB 2.0 port, one Micro-DVI port and a headphone jack. If you need to access a CD or DVD, you can purchase the optional MacBook Air SuperDrive or you can use the new Remote Disc functionality to access the optical drive on another computer on your local network.
As a portable computer, I would choose the MacBook Air ove any UMPC (and most notebooks for that matter). It offers decent performance and has an incredibly sexy form factor. I would not be so eager to recommend this notebook to users looking for a new notebook though. There are simply too many shortcomings for the MacBook Air to be used as a desktop computer replacement.
However, if you simply need an ultra-portable notebook computer that can access Wi-Fi hotspots and allow you to work almost anywhere, the MacBook Air is ideal.
During his keynote at the 2008 Macworld Conference & Expo, which took place from 14 to 18 January this year, Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, laid to rest months of rumours surrounding a new Apple super-portable computer when he unveiled the MacBook Air.
You may have noticed the incredibly thin notebook on the cover of this issue, and while I can tell you that at its thinnest, the MacBook Air is a mere 0.4cm thick, one still cannot comprehend how thin this notebook is until you actually hold it in your hands.
While the rest of the industry seems to be fighting over the UMPC (Ultra- Mobile PC) market space, Apple realised that an ultra small form factor is not the way to go. Consumers in this space want a traditional notebook - just a lot more portable. UMPCs, while functional and technically superb, still have numerous limitations. Cleverly, Apple decided to go the other route. Instead of developing a UMPC, they opted to stick with the basics.
The MacBook Air is a notebook in every sense: it has a 13.3- inch widescreen LCD, a full keyboard and a track pad.
The screen is as good (if not better considering its thin frame) as my current MackBook Pro’s LCD. The quality of pictures displayed is crisp and its native resolution of 1,280 x 800 will suffice for any use. What few people realise, though, is that the MacBook Air’s screen features a new LED backlight, which results in instant, full-screen brightness as soon as you open the lid.
The keyboard is also a bit of a head turner and it was, surprisingly, the first thing most people commented on. Unlike traditional notebooks, the MacBook Air’s keyboard is made up of individual keys - much like the new Apple Keyboard. Not only does this mean that the keys have more space between them, but it also means that the overall keyboard is slightly larger than most notebook keyboards. The keys are also backlit, a surprisingly handy feature, especially when using your notebook in dim light.
Just below the keyboard, you will notice a significantly larger track pad than what you may be used to. It’s not just the larger track pad that is of significance here, but rather the fact that this track pad inherited some of the features of the iPhone and iPod touch. Apple’s Multi-Touch technology allows users to pinch, swipe, rotate or zoom into images and text using gestures on the track pad. For example, dragging your thumb and index finger together or apart on the track pad will zoom in or out of an image or text document.
Holding two fingers slightly apart on the track pad and rotating your hand will cause your image to rotate on the screen. At first, this may seem a little gimmicky, but I assure you, you will wonder how you lived without this feature once you start using it. When looking at the hardware hidden in the MacBook Air’s thin frame, you should notice that this notebook is the slowest MacBook in the family.
The model we received for review sports the new custom-designed Intel Core 2 Duo running at 1.6GHz. A 1.8GHz model is also available. The 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM is built onto the motherboard, which means that you won’t be able to upgrade it. But 2GB should be plenty of RAM for users of the MacBook Air though.
The MacBook Air ships with an 80GB, 1.8-inch hard drive, but you do have the option of having a 64GB SSD (Solid-State Drive) instead. Be warned though, the optional SSD configuration will set you back close on R30,000. Ideally, the MacBook Air should be used as a secondary notebook. It is especially handy when travelling and its thin size means that you can literally drop it into an A3 envelope.
But for Apple to be able to produce a notebook of this size, it had to part with a few features. The MacBook Air doesn’t feature an optical drive and it has only one USB 2.0 port, one Micro-DVI port and a headphone jack. If you need to access a CD or DVD, you can purchase the optional MacBook Air SuperDrive or you can use the new Remote Disc functionality to access the optical drive on another computer on your local network.
As a portable computer, I would choose the MacBook Air ove any UMPC (and most notebooks for that matter). It offers decent performance and has an incredibly sexy form factor. I would not be so eager to recommend this notebook to users looking for a new notebook though. There are simply too many shortcomings for the MacBook Air to be used as a desktop computer replacement.
However, if you simply need an ultra-portable notebook computer that can access Wi-Fi hotspots and allow you to work almost anywhere, the MacBook Air is ideal.