Apple MacBook Air Announced at MacWorld '08

As the rumors suggested, Apple today announced the ultraportable MacBook Air notebook. The MacBook Air is being dubbed the "world's thinnest notebook", and at 0.16" to 0.76" they aren't kidding!

Image courtesy of Gizmodo (view large image)

The Apple MacBook Air has the following specs:

• 13.3" Widescreen LED Backlit (1280 x 800)
• Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz (4MB L2 cache, 800MHz frontside bus)
• 1.8" 80GB HD (same type in iPod) or 64GB SSD option
• Multi-touch trackpad
• 2GB RAM (667MHz DDR2 SDRAM)
• Intel X3100 graphics
• Magnetic latch
• 1 USB 2.0 port, Micro-DVI, Audio out (analog)
• 802.11n wireless
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• iSight camera built-in
• 37 watt-hour lithium-polymer battery
• No optical drive built-in, but SuperDrive accessory available for $99
• Dimensions: 12.8" wide, 8.94" deep, and 0.16" to 0.76" thin
• Weight: 3.0 lbs (1.36 kg)
• $1,799 price point

Apple MacBook Air image courtesy of MacRumors (view large image)

With only one USB port you're limited on what you can attach, but Apple obviously was space challenged with the notebook being so thin. At least you can use BlueTooth for wireless devices since that is built-in. The claimed battery life is 5 hours, no indication under what usage you get that though. The availability will be within the next couple of weeks, you can pre-order from Apple for $1,799 starting price.

More information can be found on the MacBook Air product page at Apple.com.

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Engadget is locked up! OH NOES!

 

lol i noticed that too paul...i want to see a drop durability test!

 

sounds cool, shame it's way too far out of my price range

 

Wow... $1799 for the worlds thinnest ultraportable that gets 5 hours of battery life? I expected the price to be much higher. Surely the prices will skyrocket when you add the SSD though, and I would be concerned about the iPod hard drive's performance in this thing.

 

Now, will the Sony TZ price plunge to a compete?

 

andrew mentioned two different widths. does this mean the new macbook is wedge shaped like the xps 1330`

 

I bet this would not be a good laptop to overclock and open the case to mod. I cannot fathom what the inside must look like (or lack of insides).

 

Meh its ok, just not worth the ridiculous price tag.

 

Here's a closer look.

 

Wow, the price tag kind of shocked me, but the more I learn about it the more it sounds worth it.

 

I want one with an SSD!
But it's 3200$ CDN :'(

I wonder if they do financing

 

$1799?!

Pffffffffft!

They do in the US, but I think they're partnered with Barclays Bank Delaware (Juniper Credit Cards), so it may only be in the United States.

 

Paper Thin.. razor sharp...

 

Name one other *competing* notebook in that price range? There is none! The price is fair.

I wonder if the 1.8 inch HDD could be swapped out later for a SSD as the prices drop? Also, why not a 32GB SSD option?

 

Asus U1, U3.

 

Drop that thing one time and it's done.

Case closed.

 

Now see though, you can ship it back to them in an envelope

 

Amen, my thinkpad will outlive that thin little laptop many times over since, i drop it on the ground just for the fun to showoff how durable it is, with that?..lmao..drop it and it will snap in half..not to mention it has no buffer room for shock even a small drop would probably break something loose inside..lol...i dont care if it has the coolest features, i rather carry a extra 3 pounds than a laptop that has no durability..

 

And somehow, ur macbook air turns into a thin hardcover book...
Edit: Correction, i doubt it'll be in 1 piece when it comes...

 

If apple has ever made a product i like besides the IPod, this is it. But this is my huge concern, what happens when you have 20 lbs of books bouncing against it in your backpack, or its bumped of a table?

Besides the durability questions some of the software they've included looks pretty cool assuming your able to turn off those quick touch things. Those hidden ports should be a requirement for all future laptops now

 

Hrm, I don't think any reasonable person with a $2k laptop would stuff it naked in a backpack full of books. Even if I had a toughbook, I'd still use a sleeve (assuming I could get one that fit it) instead a backpack

Besides the durability issue though, how's the heat?

 

Well, i guess im a not so reasonable person..my thinkpad is worth a little over $2k..but of course thinkpads are as tough as a tank tho.. As far as heat, with the shrunk die, there probably wont be at much heat as before, though with such a thin base, there is bearly room for any ventilation.

 

this thing has low specs, although they are about the same as the current macbook, only slower cpu and no optical drive. the only real thing it has going for it is its size and weight. I thought everyone wanted a suped up macbook, not a super slimmed down one that is less capable then the current macbook?

 

looks nice, but what's up with the HUGE margin around the screen?

can we PLEASE get a 14.1 WXGA+ in there and shrink that space around the LCD down.

 

Interesting choice of sacrificing optical drive for thinness in a 13.3" machine.

 

I think most of you guys are grasping at straws - not durable enough? too thin?? goodness, it's not like five hundred accessory makers are not going to flood the market with overpriced macbookair cases and accessories.

give credit where it's worth - this is the sexiest ultraportable out there - the one issue(for me) being that I just can't get used to MacOS for nuts (had a ibook for 6 months and eventually gave up on it - had a decent resale value vs. my pc laptops though ).

Boot camp then? I want another button on that touchpad too, please!

 

The 5 hour battery life is with wifi on and surfing and web. No mention of screen brightness though.

Its a nice product and it goes well with the supporting products that apple already has or has just introduced.

 

The die wasn't shrunk, the circuitry around it was which means that the heat it produce wasn't reduced by as much as you think. Awesome looking device. But no user replacable battery, one usb port, no internal optical drive and the most important thing: no friggin ethernet port, I won't be getting this device... But it's sexy.

 

It appears that the MacBook Air does NOT have a user-replaceable battery. Meaning that Apple is doing the same thing with the MacBook Air that they did with the iPods.

There's no extended life battery option and you can't replace the battery without sending it to a Apple service center.

 

To be fair, the U3 is not nearly as think and light as the MB air.

The price is very reasonable. Similiar notebooks from Fujitsu, Panasonic, or Sony cost as much or more.

 

Kudos for their ingenuity. They have the slimmest laptop with LED and keyboard backlighting when other manufactures have yet to release LED screens to all their laptops, even their high end models. I was watching the remote disk demo and they used a HP desktop

I still see this laptop as a novelty more than a functional everyday unit.

 

I can't believe that Apple are sticking with a 13.3" screen for this. If they had scaled the screen down to 11.1" then I could see it being an attractive possibility however at a screen size such as that I simply consider it to be too big to be an ultraportable. The Sony TZ is thicker for a reason - it has a far more "pocketable" footprint. When an 11.1" Macbook Air comes out I'm sold but until then I'll favour proper ultraportables.

 

With that footprint the Macbook Air is NOT an ultraportable. Its a very light "thin and light" notebook.

 

Along with the non-removable topic, i just read a rumor that memory is the same, non removable(tho with such a slow cpu i doubt more than 2gb would be useless, tho if a stick happens to go bad, have to ship it off to apple lol) Pretty much nothing is changable on your own, unless maybe you are like some of us and are DIYish..but would void warranty anyways probably since it is supposed to be "non-changable" so opening the case would void it lol

 

the vanilla macbook will still be Apple's bread and butter notebook, but this sure is a sexy alternative!

not sure what all the pooh-pooh-ing is about. reminds me of Fark when they post a picture of a hot chick and someone says "meh, but she's got sharp knees, i could do better." uhh, no no you couldn't!

face it, Apple's changed the game AGAIN, this time in the notebook industry instead of the smartphone one. and once again, Sony, Asus, Toshiba, Dell engineers are running scrambling to teh drawingboards just like Nokia, Motorola and Sony did last year when the iPhone came out.

 

Seems like a very unique product from Apple, as they have been known to release in the past. Personally, I don't see the appeal of having the laptop so thin, getting that thin is bound to have an excessive price premium and a LOT of compromises (such as the lack of DVD drives and only one USB port) to achieve this thinness.

I guess if people are more concerned for the style of the notebook, this would be ideal...though personally I'd find a laptop with a bit more function.

 

Well I think the point is that the screen is still large enough to view comfortably despite the extremely light weight and thickness. Most 13.3" laptops are 4+ lbs. Kudos to Apple for innovating a new subclass (I guess you could call it that) of laptops with reasonably sized screens and ultra light weight. However, ONE USB PORT? If you don't have a wireless mouse then you're screwed if you want to hook up any other peripherals (unless you don't mind touchpad).

 

I wonder why they still call it a Mac book when it's so thin.

 

Aznofazns, you can always get a USB Hub, but other than that, who wants to carry one around? 2 should have been enough but I guess they couldn't fit it in that little slick case.

 

You can use a USB-hub. At some place else you wouldn't need more USB-ports I think. Only occassion I can think of when an additional USB-port might come in handy, is when you want to copy files from a USB-stick. You can stick with the touch-pad while copying, not too much of a biggy.

 

For practical reasons, I'd rather save $600 and get a similarly spec'ed X61. Its a bit heavier and thicker, but still ultraportable and is probably more durable.

Toshiba and Panasonic makes even lighter (2lbs) 12.1-inch notebooks. Panasonic's Toughbook series are especially well built. They cost around $1700-2000.

IMHO, the MB Air is between an ultraportable and a thin and light. As usual, the design is marvelous. I like it

 

Anyone else besides me thinking palm folio. Every time i see a new ultra portable i think of it.

 

Sorry... but what?!

Because thin notebooks are so 2008. People get worked up over things just because it has an Apple logo on it...

 

This seemed like an intriguing notebook, until I read up that the battery is non-replaceable. That's BS.

Although it may be ultra thin, the MacBook Air has made too many sacrifices for the thinness. I would much prefer a thicker notebook that had better performance, more ports, an optical drive, and a user-replaceable battery over a notebook that's suffering from Anorexia.

EDIT: I was just thinking of the VAIO X505 when I posted this, and wouldn't you know it, the person before me (Sub-D) posts pics of an X505. And, if I'm not mistaken, doesn't the X505 have a user-replaceable battery and more ports.

Looks like Apple is trying to rip off Sony again (they did it the first time with the MacBook keyboard), only they can't do as well as the original! Then again, the Macbook air is much cheaper than the X505 was ($1799 for the air vs. $2999 for the X505 back in 2004) and has a larger screen and a huge touchpad, compared to the pointstick that the X505 had. I still prefer the X505, though.

 

I got a couple friends who are just macbook junkies, one was sooo excited to get this, though i hope he isnt dum enough too, if he does, ima bring my laptop to his and take my thinkpad T61 completely apart and he cant even open the cover on his...hehe

 

Now we'll see how many of the 'give an Apple sub-notebook' pleaders will actually buy one. Looks neat.

I would prefer a bigger iPod Touch though.

 

YES. YES. YES. I know I've said this many times, but this is mine. Waiting has paid off.

 

Beautiful lappy!

How much more will cost with the SSD configuration? And X3100 graphic card? Too bad, no extended battery,though. Seems like Sony TZ has a real competitor now...maybe they will consider their prices also.