As many already know, Apple introduced a new notebook to their lineup on Tuesday. The MacBook Air is a sub-portable, very thin and light, and fills a niche that Apple has not yet competed in.  There has been a lot of text already on the unit, so I thought I would give both a quick overview and some links to other sites to make reading up on it a bit easier. 

Overview

• Thin thin thin, from .16-.76″ (40-194mm) – it slopes to thinness on all edges to make it look even thinner than it is
• Light, only 3 pounds (1.36kg)
• 13.3″ LED backlit screen with 1280 x 800 resolution – nice widescreen display, same as the current MacBooks
• 1.6Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor – shrunk down specially for the Air
• 80gb 1.8″ hard drive – same drive as in the iPod Classic
• Full size keyboard – backlit with ambient sensor, too!
• Large multi-touch trackpad – multi-touch gesturing a la iPhone, very interesting to see where this goes
• 802.11n wifi support
• Bluetooth 2.0
• Comes with Leopard and iLife ’08 (as do all MacBooks)
• $1899 CDN
• The “uber-Air”, 1.8Ghz with a 64gb SSD instead of a hard drive is available for $3248 CDN – ya, sure….;)

Pros

• Size and weight
• Style
• Multi-touch trackpad
• LED backlit screen
• Backlit keyboard

Cons

• Price – the curse of early adoption
• Performance – would have been nice to get more for the price, but still decent
• Battery not removable – not usually an issue as most people don’t carry spares, but it should be mentioned
• RAM not upgradable – again not a huge deal as it comes with 2gb
• Tiny mono speaker – this is kind of annoying but I can understand why they did it
• No built-in drive – thin costs, especially this thin.  At least there’s an external for $99

Unknowns

• Sturdiness – it is made of aluminum which will no doubt help, but it’s so thin I have to wonder about warping and how delicate it is
• Heat – there is a fan inside but metal does conduct, so I’m wondering about heat sitting on my lap
• Scratches/Scuffs – again, it’s aluminum so I’m curious.

Competitive Products 

• Dell XPS M1330
• Sony Vaio SZ series
• Apple MacBook Pro 15″
• Apple MacBook 13″
• ASUS (various models)

My Thoughts

Well, first off, I ordered one so that pretty much says what my final opinion is on it.  There are competitive products out there (see above) but the Macs themselves do have one thing going for them that the rest don’t – they can run OS X and XP (and Linux of course) if desired.  That leaves room for a lot of flexibility, to say the least.  When comparing the MacBook Air, Pro and standard with each other it basically comes down to size (and price in the case of the Pro).  The Air is considerably lighter than both the Macbook and the MacBook Pro, which for me is a major factor.  I expect to be carrying this thing around in a backpack frequently when taking pictures, being out and about, etc. and it’s funny how a few pounds can make a big difference.  Not to mention an inch or more of thickness when the pack already has a camera, lenses, and more.

Overall I am going with the Air because of its size and because it’s a Mac, it’s that simple.  I want convenience and flexibility and for that I’m willing to give up a few cycles on a processor and I guess a few hundred dollars.  A fringe benefit is that this thing is slick looking and sometimes that is justification as well since I probably won’t get tired of looking at it or showing it off for quite some time!

Linkage

• Apple – Specifications, overview and Guided Tour
• Macworld – Hands On With the MacBook Air
• Forbes – Into Thin (MacBook) Air
• Gizmodo – Hands On
• Inquirer – Apple launches MacBook Air
• ExtremeTech – Photo slideshow
• Crave – Photos: MacBook Air
• John Biehler’s post on his upcoming MacBook Air

I’ve been told my Air will ship on Feb. 6th and should arrive by the 13th.  As soon as I have it in my hands I’ll post my impressions, photos and whatever else I can think of ;).