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Thinnovation. One of the many new tag lines being used when referencing Apple’s new MacBook Air. It’s Apple’s new ultra-portable laptop, coming in at 3lbs but boasting a 13.3″ glossy widescreen. One way the new ‘Book saves weight is by eliminating the optical drive, and using a smaller version of the Intel Core 2 Duo processor. It also has very few ports–one audio port, one USB 2.0 port, and one mini-DVI port. The unit is thin in fact that these ports slide out from a small hidden enclosure when you need them, and a custom MagSafe adapter was created.Engadget has some great photos comparing the size of the MacBook Air to a 15″ MacBook Pro here. The footprint is not that much smaller than the MBP, but it’s clearly significantly thinner. However, Engadget is also reporting that the MB Air does not have a user-servicable battery, which seems to be confirmed on Apple’s tech-specs page. This seems like yet another class-action lawsuit waiting to happen.Some things I like about the MacBook Air:

  • Ultra thin
  • Ultra light-weight
  • Slick Apple industrial design
  • Beautiful screen (1280×800 native)
  • Multi-touch trackpad
  • Long battery life
  • Ability to use a new Solid State Drive instead of a standard HDD
  • Improved environmental standards

However, the lack of an optical drive and ports is somewhat troublesome. Here are some things I don’t care for:

  • No optical drive built-in
  • You have to pay for an external optical drive
  • Lack of integrated Ethernet port (additional paid upgrade)
  • Only one single USB port
  • No touch-screen
  • Built-in battery

Apple’s come up with some software which will let you share out an optical drive from a PC or Mac…but I can’t imagine trying to install any software that comes on a DVD over a wireless network. Perhaps if you had the new 802.11n standard, but even then I can imagine this would take a long time. And what about if you need to use the Restore DVD–and you didn’t buy the external drive? Perhaps they’ve solved how to re-install the OS across the wireless network but this seems sketchy to me. And personally if an Ethernet port is available I often opt to use that, since the connection is faster and less likely to be dropped.I’m not sure who their target market is, as while you’d imagine the power traveler would use it, those people often have a second battery. And Power Users are going to want an optical drive to make backups, install software, etc. And what about playing a DVD on a plane or even listening to a CD? It seems like the lack of a drive might make these simple tasks annoyingly complex. This computer might be best for someone who has a desktop unit at home, but is really looking for a powerful but not so full-featured machine for traveling.At least for now I think I’ll be waiting for a rev of the MacBook Pro lineup before making a new laptop purchase.


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