Thin is in...

Welcome to the aluminum generation
For those new to the Apple notebook line, the MacBook Air was introduced in early 2008 as the 'thinnest notebook in the world'. This particular model is also the most expensive laptop in Apple's line up, due mostly to the 64GB SSD (solid state device) drive. Apple hardware in general is a premium price over comparable PC-based hardware - is the MacBook Air worth it?

Unique features
All laptops are portable to some degree. The larger and super-powerful models might only run an hour unplugged, but they do run away from a plug-in. The MacBook Air is just 3/4" thick at it's thickest part, and uses a sleek tapered design to the edges that makes it seem a lot thinner. You will find other portables close to this thickness, but none that look as nice.

What is more unique is that Air weighs a scant 3lbs. The average consumer laptop is in the 6 to 7lb range, which is still fairly light. The difference when you pick up a MacBook Air is incredible though - the illusion the case design creates coupled with the light weight is very nice. The case itself is extremely sturdy, using the same aluminum skin as the new iMacs. For it's light weight, it feels very sturdy.

The LCD panel brings a new feature to laptops - LED back lighting. In traditional LCD panels, laptop or desktop, the screen lighting is from a series of fluorescent tubes placed behind the panel. In most panels, there are subtle variances in the light pattern as it is not perfectly diffused. In the MacBook Air panel, the fluorescent tubes have been replaced with LED lighting. LED's have the benefit of providing a more consistent light pattern, use less power, are more durable, and last longer. If you travel with a notebook, you may have experienced having 1/2 your laptop screen go 'dead' when 1 tube goes out. Even with rough use, the LED's will not fail. In cooler conditions, the LED lighting will provide instant full brightness... even in warm conditions, fluorescent lit LCD's take a while to warm up to full brightness. The LCD panel in the Air is 1280 x 800 on a 13.3 inch display. This is a nice ratio and about as many dots as you want on a panel this size. It looks great.

Another interesting feature is the backlit keyboard. If you are familiar with the MacBook keyboards, the feel is still the same - but you've got the option of lighting it up when working in low light situations. The Air includes an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust the keyboard lighting. I myself find this useful as my line of work requires using a notebook in a vehicle at night. I've grown accustomed to the Mac keyboards and wouldn't have any other keyboard. They are a bit different in their feel though, and take a day or two to get used to.

The Air is the first laptop to provide an SSD 'hard drive' option. SSD - or solid state device - is essentially a giant flash-based memory card inside the computer. Rather than a small spinning disk to store your data, the SSD is a series of memory chips that don't loose their memory when the power goes off. In the case of the Air, the SSD is 64GB... slightly smaller than the 80GB hard drive available on the cheaper model. More money for less storage? Unfortunately... yes. It gets worse... the performance of the SSD is not significantly better than the hard drive, and doesn't add much to the life of the battery. As this is the first generation of laptop SSD, expect bigger, faster, and cheaper options in the near future.

For now, if you want the extra reliability of having no spinning disk in your laptop, it will cost you about $1000 more than the base Air.

Speaking of disks... another unique 'feature' on the MacBook Air is the lack of any built in optical drive. That's right - no CD or DVD drive. The external drive is $100 from Apple, or you can use a neat feature to wirelessly connect to a host DVD drive on a nearby computer. This is a neat thing if you've already got a PC or iMac on your desk at home or office... not so neat if this is your only computer. If you plan on using your notebook as a DVD player on long trips, you'll need to copy the DVD's to the internal drive - a time consuming and space consuming issue. However, if you are mostly doing work, listening to music and such, the Air is like a giant iPod in terms of portability.

Another missing feature is a Firewire port. For non-Apple users, this won't mean much, as the included USB port is standard equipment on all PC's. For someone with a backup solution on their home Mac that uses Firewire, you will be stuck finding a USB based solution (or hopefully your drive at home is both Firewire and USB, as most are). Again, not as big a deal if you invest in Apple's new TimeCapsule, which combines a wireless N router and backup drive in one handy box. TimeCapsule starts at $350, and if you don't have a backup solution at home, it is an excellent product.

The trackpad uses a new technology called 'multi-touch'. This allows you to use certain gestures in applications to do special things. In iPhoto, you can twist your fingers to rotate a picture. In Safari, you can 'pinch' the touch pad to zoom in and out. This technology was introduced on the iPhone and iPod Touch, and once you start using it, it is really quite nice. The touch pad is quite large and minimizes the constant lifting and repositioning that is sometimes an issue on smaller pads.

The Air includes iSight, the web-camera housed in the top lid. It is so small it's hard to notice, but works quite well as far as built-in web-cams go.

Also standard is 802.11N wireless support. This is standard stuff on most laptops now, and will allow you to connect to any wireless hotspots or your home WiFi network. Unfortunately, if you are looking for 3G, EVDO or other long-range wireless options, there is no PC-card slot for such a device. If it isn't available as a USB device, you won't be able to use it.

Battery Life
Under fairly heavy use, most folks are getting 3-4 hours off a single charge. There is no swappable battery on the Air, so you can't carry and extra one for long trips. This isn't as big a deal as it used to be, as more and more airplanes, airports, busses, and even coffee shops have plug-ins for laptop users. Many other laptops get similar run time, but allow you to put in a spare battery. However, most laptop batteries are expensive - in the $200 range - so being long-range portable is expensive. All MacBooks use the 'magsafe' power connector - a system where the power cord can be easily disconnected if someone trips on the cord so your laptop doesn't get destroyed. If this sounds like a good feature - it is. Many, many a laptop have gone to computer heaven via power cord accidents.

Powerful
The MacBook Air uses the 1.8Ghz Core 2 mobile processor. This is pretty standard fare in the laptop world. Both models have 2GB of RAM standard, which is plenty when combined with the fast and efficient OSX operating system. The feel of applications on the Air is very comparable to the speed they run at on a typical iMac desktop.

Expansion
Most notebooks are limited in their expansion options. In the case of the Air, you can't expand anything. You've got one USB port, one Ethernet port, and one external video output (which requires a special cable). That's it. Clearly, this is the trade off for super-light and handy-portable.

Software
All Mac's come with OSX and iLife 08. I could write a novel on OSX, and how much better it is than Windows, but if you are reading this, you already know that. If you must run Windows programs, OSX includes 'BootCamp' which let's you install Windows XP or Vista, or you can use a program like VMWare Fusion or Parallels to run OSX and Windows applications at the same time.

Environmental considerations
Apple has taken the lead in environmental friendly design. Their packaging is minimal and highly recyclable. The MacBook air uses a mercury and arsenic free display. The case itself is recyclable aluminum. The average Apple computer uses less than 1/2 the packaging material than the average PC. Something to think about.

+ Features +
+ Very portable
+ Sturdy case design
+ Full-size back-lit keyboard
+ LED lit LCD display
+ Environmentally conscious
+ Respectable battery life
+ Available SSD drive
+ 2GB RAM standard
+ Built-in webcam and wireless-N
+ OS X 10 and iLife '08 standard

- Shortcomings -
- 64GB SSD or 80GB hard drive are relatively small
- Single USB port
- No FireWire
- No internal CD/DVD drive

Summary
This version of the MacBook Air is the latest and greatest. If you can forgo the SSD drive, the $1800 80GB hard drive Air gives you the same skinny package and great performance.