74
Macworld
April 2008
A SILVER MACBOOK
The MacBook Air’s appearance isan interesting hybrid of Apple’sother two laptops. It has the shinyaluminum shell of the MacBook Pro(
mmmmh
;
macworld.com/2907
), alongwith a backlit keyboard—a new fea-ture for Apple’s small laptop offerings.In all other ways, though, the Airmost closely resembles the MacBook:in two of its three dimensions, it dif-fers only in thickness. (And that differ-ence is striking—the MacBook is 1.08inches thick, while the Air is 0.76inches thick at its hinge, tapering to0.16 inches at its front edge.)The MacBook Air’s keyboard hasthe same square-key-capped design asthat on the MacBook. And its 13.3-inch,1,280-by-800-pixel display is identicalin size to the one on the MacBook.However, the Air’s screen is notablydifferent because of what’s lighting itfrom behind: a light-emitting diode(LED). The LED backlighting isextremely bright and immediatelyturns on at full brightness. The Mac-Book’s screen backlighting, in con-trast, starts out somewhat dim andgradually increases in brightness.Like the MacBook Pro, the MacBookAir uses a tiny light sensor, locatedbehind a set of microperforations to theleft of its iSight camera, to automaticallyadjust the brightness of the display andto control the keyboard’s backlighting.Despite its ultrathin profile, the Mac-Book Air doesn’t feel fragile. The key-board feels solid, as does the Air’sentire bottom half. There is a bit of flex-ion on the top of the laptop—the por-tion behind its screen—but even therethe MacBook Air still feels sturdy.
THIN AND LIGHT
It’s clear that Apple’s engineers followeda specific set of design constraints for theMacBook Air. By retaining the dimen-sions of the regular MacBook, the Mac-Book Air can offer a full-size keyboardand a generous wide-screen display.With the keyboard and displaydimensions set, the MacBook Air hasonly two other ways to distinguish itself from its cousins: thickness and weight.Let’s start with weight, as this is onemeasurement where the MacBook Airtruly excels. Prior to the Air’s release,Apple’s lightest laptop was the MacBook,which weighs five pounds.If your laptop lives most of its life ona desk, weight isn’t an issue. If you carry
FEATURE
Weighing the MacBook Air
it with you at all times, weight can bethe crucial characteristic. Most people’slaptop use falls somewhere in between.My laptop is my primary Mac athome and at work, and I carry it on myback for at least 20 minutes every week-day, to and from work. The lighter mybackpack, the better. Shedding twopounds out of my backpack noticeablylightens my load.The MacBook Air takes that easy feel-ing to an extreme. Though it doesn’tfeel quite as solid in my hand as the12-inch PowerBook (owing to the lat-ter’s additional thickness), it feels asthin and light as a loaded manila folderor a couple of magazines.That brings us to the MacBook Air’sthinness. This product seems to havebeen designed specifically to be as thinas possible, with an eye toward makingthe marketing claim that the MacBookis “the world’s thinnest notebook.”There is no denying that the Mac-Book Air’s thinness makes it visuallystriking. But I’m not convinced of theutility of that thinness. It seems that theAir has slimmed down in the leastimportant dimension.I don’t believe the extra thinness isgoing to gain me much working roomwhen I’m wedged in a coach airline seatbehind someone whose seat is fully
MacBook Air
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PROS:
Weighs three pounds; bright LED-backlit 13.3-inch screen; full-size keyboard.
CONS:
Slow processor; slow and small-capacity hard drive; limited configurationoptions; unswappable battery.
PRICE:
$1,799
COMPANY:
Apple,www.apple.com
FULL REVIEW:
macworld.com/3388
Backlit Keyboard
The Mac-Book Air’s keyboard featuresbacklighting, something notseen before on Apple’ssmall laptops.
BY RETAINING THE DIMENSIONS OF THEREGULAR MACBOOK, THE MACBOOK AIRCAN OFFER A FULL-SIZE KEYBOARD AND AGENEROUS WIDE-SCREEN DISPLAY.
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