Apple MacBook Air Clone from E-Stary Looks Almost Like the Real Thing

You know it, we know it and Apple certainly knows it too that China is the land where just about any electronic device can be copied (and sometimes, even improved) in a very short amount of time, the knock-offs coming from this part of the world becoming pretty famous, especially since the “source of inspiration” is a device that's managed to seriously keep itself in the spotlight, such as the MacBook Air from Apple. In fact, although the redesigned MacBook Air has only been around for a fairly limited amount of time, its first knock-offs have already appeared on the Chinese market, the latest being the HY118 portable computing system developed by a company called E-Stary and uncovered by the people over at Shanzaiben. The HY118, despite sharing the external design of the MacBook Air, has the core of a netbook inside, sporting a choice of Intel Atom N270/N450 CPUs and Intel 945GSE/NM10 chipsets, as well as 1GB of DDR2 memory and an 160GB HDD. Quite obviously, the clone sports a 11.6-inch display (1366x768 pixels resolution) powered by either integrated Intel GMA 950 or 3150 graphics chipsets. There are really no major surprises in terms of connectivity and networking options, since we're talking about 802.11b/g/n, 2xUSB, ports, as well as LAN interface, while the necessary power is provided by the built-in 2200mAh battery. As far as the pricing is concerned, it should come as no surprise that the device from E-Stary is a lot more affordable than its counterpart from Cupertino, selling in China for somewhere in the vicinity of 260 US dollars. What's quite funny, though, is that those people who actually want to turn the HY118 into a real carbon-copy of the famous 11.6-inch MacBook Air, complete with the original Apple logo, all you have to do is cough up a few extra dollars and you'll be all set.