MacBook Air - World's Lightest Laptop

Notebooks from Apple featuring the fabled Mac Operating Systems are fast catching up with the present generation. MacBook Air is the latest addition to the ultra portable stable of Apple Computers. This notebook has been dubbed as the world’s thinnest notebook by Apple themselves as well the users who are accustomed to the product. It was introduced in January 2008. Getting the recognition of world’s thinnest notebook computer is a big feat and Apple had to sacrifice many traditional peripherals found in other notebooks of the same segment to attain such a title. The notebook comes without an optical drive. External USB drive can be connected to the computer using the free USB ports. The omission of Ethernet port, cardbus, express card slots and FireWire is also notable.   

This is one of the first notebooks to offer flash based storage, rather than the traditional hard drive based storage. Tests conducted by reputed hardware testing organizations found only a moderate performance boos due to the presence of the flash based storage. Although in the initial stages only 64GB of storage was provided, in the later models the capacity was upgraded to 128GB and 120GB. The notebooks also featured a standard 2GB RAM module integrated into it. Specially designed processor chips from Intel were initially found in the MacBook Air. It was a Core 2 Duo. Later a modified form the same, termed as Penryn which boasted of 6MB cache memory and 1066MHz FSB was introduced into the line. The lid of the notebook is fastened using a modified latch mechanism and it features a large track pad too. Aluminum metal casings are extensively used in the construction of the casing of the MacBook Air.  

There were major concerns about the notebook as soon as it was released. One of the main among them was that the user cannot disassemble the product by him. Even if he manages to do so, there is little scope for improvement, as the majority of the peripherals are soldered into the motherboard. Even the battery of the device isn’t interchangeable and requires a trip to the nearest Apple store for replacement. Replacement batteries are also short or virtually non existent for the MacBook Air. Overheating problems also marred the reputation of this gadget, as the notebook tended to lock up as a result of over heating. Software updates were released by Apple periodically to combat the situation by it has produced mixed results only. Another disadvantage of the product is its pricing itself. The product is considered a premium and many websites suggested not to invest on the product, as better products with higher configuration are easily available in the market.

The ports are also cramped into the device, which necessitates the presence of an extension cord to connect various peripherals into the device. As with products such as this, which is released and introduced into the world with much pomp and fanfare, parodies of the same can be found everywhere on the interwebs.