laptop computers reviewed

As soon as Mr. Jobs pulled that MacBook Air out of the manilla envelope, gadget geeks everywhere started swooning. This ridiculously thin ultra-portable laptop has attracted an enormous amount of attention from everyone – Mac fan, or not.

But is all the fuss worth it? Here’s an overview of the basic features:

- Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 1.6GHz
- 2GB DDR2 SDRAM
- 80GB 42000rpm hard drive
- 13.3” TFT widescreen (1280×800)
- Intel GMA X3100 graphics with 144MB of shared RAM
- AirPort Extreme WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
- iSight webcam
- USB 2.0 port – micro DVI
- Lithium-polymer battery
- MagSafe power adaptor

Weighing in at a hair over 3lbs., it is probably every traveler’s dream. The sleek, clean design with its rounded corners and polished surfaces is hard to resist. It seems so paper-thin and fragile, although it is supposed to be durable (too chicken to do the drop test) and it feels very much so.

The display is excellent – nice vibrant colors and great backlighting. Absolutely nothing to complain about there. The keyboard is a little funky, although relatively comfortable, it misses some of the usual keys like ‘Home’ and ‘End’ which have to be accessed through the function key.

The touchpad is huge and has the cool multi-touch capabilities of the iPhone and iPod Touch – you know, the finger pinching, spreading, circling motions for zooming and rotating items. Once a novelty, this feature is now available on the 2008 edition of the MacBook Pro and will probably become standard on every Apple computer before long.

There’s not much in the way of Ports, but what could you expect? Only one USB port, no Ethernet port, no FireWire, no Mic port, no SD card slot and no Express-Card slot. Apple is far ahead of average consumers here - they need to keep in mind that not everyone can afford WiFi enabled cameras and devices just yet.

What there is – AC power port, one USB port and a micro DVI-out port. The one (yes, one) speaker is hardly worth mentioning, but obviously not intended to be a stellar feature and frankly something most travelers don’t care about – noise-canceling headphones are the thing.

Having no optical drive is something that could be hard to get used to even though it has the ability to transfer data wirelessly - but keep in mind that you will always need to have another computer, or external device, to access.

Battery life claims as any regular laptop user knows, are all relative. You might be able to squeak 4+ hours out of it, with all the extras (Bluetooth, WiFi) off and the screen brightness decreased substantially, but who uses their laptop that way?

The fact that you cannot access the battery is a major drawback. It is sealed into the unit much like the iPod, so there’s no ability to swap out a spare battery. Personally, the battery is the one thing replaced most on just about every laptop.

Prices start at a little over $1700 – it seems a bit steep, since it realistically cannot be the sole computer for many. But if you are in the market for an ultra-portable laptop, if its looks mean everything to you, and you’ve got money to burn - this is your baby. If you take a few minutes to compare what you get for you money in either the MacBook or MacBook Pro vs. MacBook Air, the novelty may wear off quickly.

Tags: Small Laptop Computers //