Apple unveiled MacBook Air, the world’s thinnest notebook at the MacWorld 2008 Conference and Expo in San Francisco today (15 Jan 2008). The jaw dropping MacBook Air measures an unprecedented 0.4 cm at its thinnest point, while its maximum height of 1.94 cm is less than the thinnest point on competing notebooks.




MacBook Air has a stunning 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display, a full-sized backlit keyboard, a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing, and a spacious trackpad with multi-touch gesture support so users can pinch, rotate and swipe. MacBook Air is powered by a 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache and features 2GB of memory, an 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive or a 64Gb SSD (Solid State Drive) and the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi technology.

Battery life will be up to approximately 5 hours. There is no optical drive built into the MacBook Air, but a SuperDrive accessory is available for £65. There is also new software being released that allows the portable to "borrow" a Mac or PC's optical drive. All models feature 2GB of memory as standard. Notably this memory cannot be upgraded because it is not socketed but soldered onto the logicboard.

The case is fully aluminum (good for recycling), the first fully mercury and lead free display, circuit boards are BFR free, and retail packaging are 56% less volume than a MacBook.

Prices for the new MacBook Air start at £1,199. Apple accepts pre-orders now, and is expecting to start shipping in two weeks.

Whilst this new model will not be useful for any processor, memory and storage hungry individuals the MacBook Air will be an excellent choice for anyone that needs to compute on the move. Even though Solid State Drive option currently costs £639 and even if the lower capacity of 64Gb is a compromise I would recommed SSD for superior performance every time if, of course, money is no object.

What a delightful and superb way to start the new year.
Well done Apple :-)