Stephen Chinnadorai

I went to the Apple Store in Regent Street, London recently, to see Apple’s new notebook in my own eyes. My first impression was: “Wow, that’s the thinnest laptop I’ve ever seen.” However, the MacBook Air doesn’t have a SuperDrive or much hard disk space - the processor is slower than a regular MacBook, too. I’m going to summarise the good and bad things about the MacBook Air, and this will hopefully help you to decide whether you really need to buy one.

Pros

• Thin, light and ultra-portable
• Solid-state hard drive option
• Full resolution (1280×800) 13-inch screen
• Excellent build quality
• It fits in a Manilla envelope

Cons

• Expensive
• Relatively low-spec, 80GB 4200rpm max, only 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo processor
• Solid-state drive costs as much as buying another MacBook Air (almost)

Who is it for?

People that travel a lot, or feel the need to buy the world’s thinnest notebook. The MacBook Air is definitely not a primary computer - it’s designed as a companion to your desktop. My MacBook is my only computer, and if I buy a new one, I plan to make that my primary computer. The MacBook Air definitely isn’t for me - no matter how thin and beautifully designed it is. I just can’t compromise for any less speed, storage or graphics power than I currently have. Although, saying that, I did buy a 16GB iPod Touch - coming down from a 30GB iPod Video (5G) - and I don’t regret it at all.

Conclusion

The MacBook Air is definitely a step in the right direction, from a design point of view at least. The aluminium casing feels far better than my MacBook’s plastic enclosure - but I guess that’s what you get for buying a “low-end” Apple product. But the technology under the hood has a long way to go before the majority of consumers will buy this product. Hopefully with flash memory prices decreasing, and capacity increasing, we can see higher-spec MacBook Airs later this year. Even though the speed is perfectly bearable for average use (web browsing, word processing, e.t.c.) - it’s still far too expensive for a device that only does that sort of thing.

I would definitely buy a MacBook Air if I had the extra cash to buy a desktop machine with it, but right now I’m saving for a next-generation MacBook Pro.