Sleek, sexy, and thin, but not exactly cheap. It's something that truly can't be appreciated until touched and held up close. No, it's not one's significant other. Rather, it's Apple's new MacBook Air.
The laptop was introduced in January, weighing only three pounds and is thinner than the width of two fingers side-by-side. The retail price stands at $1,799, according to Apple's Web site.
Laying eyes on the laptop, the size, or lack thereof, is stunning. According to official specifications from Apple, the height of the laptop ranges from 0.16 to 0.76 inches.
Picking it up it may feel like a heavy Frisbee instead of the usual feeling of a ton of bricks with the usual laptop notebook.
"I heard that an editor for Newsweek was doing a review of the MacBook Air. Apparently he put it with a pile of news papers and either he or his wife threw it out," said Matthew Gac, a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering. "I'm interested in trying new things out and am not a Mac person. So I'm thinking of switching over. But I usually don't get things right when they come out, because of bugs and such."
The MacBook Air's feature list is quite extensive considering its small size. It includes a built in video camera, 2 gigabytes (GB) of random access memory (RAM), a backlit 13-inch widescreen LED that improves battery life, built-in Bluetooth, and a full-size keyboard. It also features a customized Core 2 Duo Intel processor that is 60 percent smaller, but still packs the power of the standard size.
"It's so itty bitty," said Emily Eckert, a junior Spanish major. "Of course I want one. But at that cost, really can I afford it? No...all I can do is hope and dream."
One of the coolest features is called gestures. Gone are the days when a mouse just points, clicks, or double clicks. With the MacBook Air, a user can do all sorts of things, such as swiping through windows and applications, rotating, scrolling, and even resizing pictures using different finger motion combinations - sort of like what Tom Cruise was doing in Minority Report with the crazy hand motions shifting movie clips and images.
While there are many new features that the Air comes with, there are many standard things that it lacks. There is no optical drive, so don't expect to be able to play DVDs or rip music CDs. The standard hard drive isn't very big either and maxes out at 80 GB.
There also is no Ethernet port. To access the Internet, a user will have to do it wirelessly. Speed demons needing extensive bandwidth will be out of luck until wireless connections become faster.
The MacBook Air also has only one USB port; if you want to plug in a jump-drive and charge your iPod at the same time, forget it.
Since January, competitors to Apple have come out with their own thin notebooks. One noteworthy notebook is Lenovo's ThinkPad X300. While not nearly as cheap (starting at $2,476), it does include built-in Ethernet, a DVD burner, GPS and weighs only a little over 3.5 pounds, according to CNET.
Although the MacBook Air can currently claim the title as world's thinnest laptop, it is not for everyone. Its slim size, sexy look, and weight factor will surprise those who are used to laptops being a hassle and a burden when going from place to place. If you're frequently on the go and need a computer just to write papers, check e-mail, give presentations, and browse the Web, then this laptop is for you.
Otherwise, save yourself a few hundred dollars and get a cheaper laptop, which might weigh more and take up a bit more space, but will come with the standard set of features. Plus, it will be a lot less likely to go out with the trash.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
