Apple MacBook Air

Apple MacBook Air

Sudeep Naik, Mar 28, 2008 1621 hrs IST

We've looked at it before, but here's looking at it again after a lot of hands-on

Great design, Light weight, Good battery life, Multi-touch Touchpad, Full-size Keyboard, Remote Disc.

No optical drive, Limited connectivity options, a bit under powered, Sealed battery, Sleek design comes at the cost of certain necessities, Expensive.

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Design and Features


MacBook Air Dimensions


Designing the MacBook Air must have been, I'm sure, like pushing a road-roller uphill with one arm, but the exercise wasn't futile What we have now is a notebook that measures 0.76 inches at the hinges and tapers to 0.16 inches towards the front. It has a full aluminum alloy body with a matte finish, and a metal-grayish color tone with a trademark white backlit Apple logo in the center.

Even with the same footprint as the MacBook, there isn't much space to stuff components into the MacBook Air; it has a 1.6 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, and an 80 GB 4200 rpm Parallel ATA hard disk. Of course everyone has heard of the concealed USB 2.0 port, micro DVI port, and the headphone jack as being the only visible means of interacting with the outside world, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi being the invisible ones.

The MacBook Air has a 13.3-inch glossy widescreen TFT LED backlit display that supports resolutions of up to 1280 x 800, and up to 1920 x 1200 on an external display, both at millions of colors. The display is mercury-free, with arsenic-free glass.


The Air's full size keyboard; just like the MacBook


Unlike most other compact or light-weight laptops that offer cramped keyboards, the MacBook Air sports a full-size keyboard, backlit with an ambient light sensor (there are small holes next to the iSight camera), which automatically adjusts keyboard illumination and screen brightness.


The flip down door conceals the ports and the new MagSafe power connector


But in the pursuit of this ace design, Apple has given up on the extra USB ports, Ethernet port, and optical drive, which could be its undoing -- since, unfortunately (in India), Wi-Fi hasn't penetrated more than a few homes and some workplaces, so most of our work here involves the use of CDs and DVDs, and wired LAN connections.

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USER COMMENTS

can I use MS-office on Macbook ? (Excel,Word,Powerpoint,MS outlook etc).Where can I buy it in Chennai ?

by Sandip Ahirrao, Chennai, on Apr 03, 2008 06:48 PM, Report abuse   Reply

hi sandip, microsoft has release MS-Office for mac also. jut google it. i also need a used macbook, forward me the details if u have one. regards

by arul, tuty, on May 03, 2008 10:52 AM, Report abuse

Its producing more heat when compare to other notebooks, Thanks , Saravana Kumar Karunanithi

by Saravana Kumar , Chennai, on Apr 28, 2008 04:23 PM, Report abuse   Reply

I wonder why one would spend such a crazy amount and also compromise with so many features for just 50 to 60 gms less? The person who could spend a lac on laptop is definitely going to be a rich brat and would be having chauffeurs for carrying his load.

by aashish agarwal, mumbai, on Apr 06, 2008 02:57 PM, Report abuse   Reply

Good Yaar.

by Vijendra, Mumbai, on Apr 01, 2008 03:09 PM, Report abuse   Reply

"In addition, unless you attach an external storage drive, you won't be able to use the Time Machine feature of the (bundled) Mac OS X Leopard (!) and given the fact that you've got just a single USB port you get the idea, I believe. " -- This holds true for ALL Apple Macintosh notebooks/machines. Let us not isolate this disability out to seem as if this is ONLY a disadvantage on the macbook air. The review left me wanting so much more...Most of the things said have already been covered in MUCH greater detail and variety on other websites that are traditionally known for running notebooks through benchmarks, tests, and great reviews. This is not techtree's forte...so we expected something completely different...However techtree tried to follow into the footsteps of these giants and fell flat on it's face. It would have made sense had techtree stuck to tryin to ascertain the macbook air's suitability, pricing, service and acceptability in Indian market.

by Sunny, Delhi, on Mar 29, 2008 11:06 AM, Report abuse   Reply

True.....I dont expect Techtree to provide a whole lot of details on benchmarking and other technical details...if Techtree misses them out - I don't care much (maybe other readers go into them to a great deal , but if they are so much into checking out benchmarks theywould have already gotten the information from other websites outside India). I expect you guys at Techtree to bring a human face to the reviews, especially with respect to India - where we have very few products in each category from the ultra-portables to the ultra-affordables. I would request you guys to write the reviews keeping in mind the alternatives as well and as Sunny mentions - the Indian perspective as well.

by Nishant, Hyderabad, on Mar 29, 2008 02:17 PM, Report abuse

hey sunny, good observation. i am planning to buy some stuff. can u point me to some of your user reviews.i would really like to read some of your practical reviews. can give me links to the gadgets you have reviewed on techtree. thanks in advance.

by jasbir, delhi, on Mar 31, 2008 11:05 AM, Report abuse

When will these so called 'reviewers' start writing something which is really a Review??? All that we get to read is copy paste of product features from various sites!!

by xotiq, blr, on Mar 31, 2008 12:20 AM, Report abuse   Reply

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