Pinoy Tech Guy

Written on Wednesday, 16th of Jan 2008 – 8:38 am | by sylv3rblade | 467 views

Apple new Macbook is a shiny, yet so thin piece of art.  With dimensions going for 12.8 inches by 8.94 inches and thickness from .16 to .76, the notebook can’t have a more deserving name, Air (yeah it sounds like a piece of footwear but hey, it’s a Mac).  Weighing in at 3 lbs, it’s almost like carrying a UMPC yet it’s slim, sleek and shiny.

 

The MacBook Air carries an 80GB hard drive as opposed to the usual 160GB but you can swap it to an optional 64GB SSD (Solid State Drive) if want a faster system (and willing to spend $3000+).  Now for the main question, how fast can it go?

MacBook Air carries a 1.6GHz (or 1.8GHz) Intel Core 2 Duo processor that Intel re-engineered to fit a smaller die (hence a lighter notebook). This new processor is 60 percent smaller than the standard Core 2 Duo used for portables and for obvious reason is a bit slower than the older models which typically run at 2.0GHz and 2.2GHz (the Macbook Pro runs at 2.4GHz).  To set this off, Apple has generously upped the DDR2 RAM to 2GB.

One major concern, if you look at the dimensions of this notebook is cooling—as the new MacBook Air appears to have no room for a real heatsink (much less a fan), and all of the components are very tightly packed so things MIGHT get warm during operation.

Technical Specifications

• .16 to .75-inch thickness on top
• 12.8 x 8.94 inches
• weighs 3 pounds
• 5 hours of battery life
• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor at 1.6 or 1.8GHz, motherboard the length of a pencil.
• 800MHz frontside bus.
• Comes with 2GB DDR2 RAM 667MHz.
• 13.3-inch screen with 1,280 x 800 resolution, LED backlit.
• Micro-DVI adapter (for DVI, VGA, composite and S-Video output)
• Intel GMA X3100 Graphics processor with 144MB RAM shared
• 1.8-inch 80GB HD or 64GB Solid State Drive (no moving pieces, but for a stunning $1,300 price increase!)
• Multitouch trackpad with gestures (Pans, zooms, rotates, etc.)
• Wifi 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1.
• Optional Superdrive for $99, USB-bus powered.
• Full backlit keyboard.
• One USB 2.0, one audio port, one Micro-DVI

There’s an issue of missing standard ports, only one of each: DVI port, USB port and audio port. LAN and modem ports are also missing.  It has Bluetooth 2.0 and WiFi 80.211n though.  Now if you manage to read the Technical Specs, you’d also not that there’s no built-in optical drive, It’s offered as an optional peripheral for $99.

Prices start at $1799.

[Apple]

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