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Mac users walking on Air

By Mark Kellner
March 11, 2008

Let's concede the first and most important point: The $1,799 MacBook Air from Apple Inc. is really thin and really light. At its thickest, the computer is 0.76 inches, slimming down to an amazing 0.16 inches. It weighs only 3 pounds, and that's less than half the heft of the 17-inch MacBook Pro that's in my office.

If you travel frequently, or if you have any care for your shoulders and back, the MacBook Air is as close to a must-have as any computer can be.

This was most plainly evident when I wandered the halls of a convention in Nashville, Tenn., toting the MacBook Air in a briefcase. The computer itself was almost negligible in terms of its presence: I didn't really feel it in the bag. Yet, when I needed to check e-mail or do some writing, the power of the MacBook Air was there, ready to respond in an instant.

As you might imagine, there are trade-offs for any "downsizing" of a notebook computer, and the MacBook Air, announced in January, is no exception. Most obvious among the "omissions" is the lack of a disk drive: You can get an external one for $99 extra. The built-in speaker is mono; if you want to have stereo sound, headphones are required.

You can connect the computer to an ethernet network, but it will require a $29 adapter and the "sacrifice" of the computer's one and only USB port. The battery is not user-accessible; Apple stores can replace a worn-out battery for you. There's no express card slot for add-ins such as a broadband wireless card.

Those are the negatives, if you elect to view them as such.

On the plus side, the MacBook Air's built-in 802.11n wireless networking, the top level of Wi-Fi at present, is available, as is the latest version of Bluetooth. At my hotel, the Wi-Fi worked quite well. At the trade show, I used a Sierra Wireless broadband adapter and AT&T's 3G data network with good results, even deep within the Gaylord Opryland Convention Center.

In operation, the MacBook Air performs as well as any portable Mac I have used. It comes with 2 gigabytes of RAM; no more can be added. The $1,799 model ships with an 80 gigabyte hard disk drive. Add $1,299 to the price tag, and you get a MacBook Air with a "solid state," or flash-memory chip, 64 gigabyte hard drive, the advantage being no moving parts in the hard drive.

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