Apple Announces MacBook Air, The World’s Thinnest Notebook

by Scott Beale on January 15, 2008 · 12 comments

MacBook Air

At today’s Macworld 2008 keynote, Steve Jobs announced the new MacBook Air, calling it the world’s thinnest notebook. It’s so slim that it can fit inside an envelope.

- 13.3″ widescreen LED display

- 1.6 GHz Standard, 1.8 GHz Option (Intel Core 2 Duo, 60% smaller than standard processor)

- 80 GB hard disk standard (1.8″ similar to iPod HD), 64 GB solid state disk (SSD) as an option

- 2 GB memory standard

- 5 hours of battery life

- no optical drive, $99 external Superdrive option

- multi-touch trackpad

- built-in iSight

- full-size keyboard

- 45 Watt MagSafe, 1 USB 2.0 port, Micro-DVI, Audio Out

- 802.11n + Bluetooth 2.1/EDR

- recyclable aluminum case & mercury and lead free display

- pricing starts at $1799, available in two weeks, you can pre-order now

photo via Apple

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MacBook Pro

filed under Apple

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Udayan January 15, 2008 at 11:04 am

After the disappointing Showtime event last year and the decidedly un-sexy MacBook Pro (too thick, too big, too similar to the PowerBook) Apple has really got us drooling again.

I don’t know if it is the price tag or the svelte design… something about the MacBook Air just astonishes even the most jaded of news reporters. Just look at famously unimpressed Ryan Block’s coverage.

I for one totally enjoyed following CNET and Engadget’s coverage. Tom Krazit at CNET did a great job while Engadget’s servers collapsed and Engadget as usual doled out gorgeous pictures.

Blogging about it at breakneck pace also got the adrenaline flowing! Oh to be a geek, there really is nothing better in the world than the Apple Kool-Aid :)

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2 Justin(Pusha) January 15, 2008 at 1:08 pm

Me Likey!! I think opting away from the internal superdrive was a good idea. How much do we really use it anymore? We will use it even less in the future.

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3 Nicholas January 15, 2008 at 3:59 pm

They got rid of Firewire??
As someone who uses Macs intensively in editorial on feature films and television, I don’t think I’d want to rely on wireless technology for getting data in and out of my laptop. When the network is buggy, it’s essential to have other ways to move files from one computer to another, from flash drives to FW drives to CDs and DVDs. I think the external drive is a pain. But I guess Apple was right when they moved floppy drives out of computers and available only as externals. But are DVDs and CDs truly as obsolete now as floppies were in the late 1990s?

And saying that you’ll watch movies by downloading them from iTunes instead of putting a DVD into your computer is rather self-serving, isn’t it?

Apple, Google, Microsoft, AOL Time Warner, Viacom, Disney, and Halliburton will soon rule the world….

N

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4 Roy Sencio January 16, 2008 at 4:34 am

The biggest issue about this product is the battery. No user replaceable spare batteries for this baby.

http://www.roysencio.com/apple-air-expensive-air/

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5 gyula csocsan January 16, 2008 at 1:32 pm

4 to 20 mm is a wide range, and 1,4 kg is nothing special at all

my LG is perhaps 2 mm thicker, but only 1 kg (which is 30 %)

the weight is more important I think than the thickness

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6 paul January 17, 2008 at 10:12 am

apple has gone the route of sacrificing things for the lighter weight and slimmer profile. i was actually surprised at what they didn’t sacrifice. in the long run, i think it’s a win for apple and the mobile crowd. plus, the thing just looks cool.

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