The MacBook Air is Finally Here! Thin, Powerful and Elegant

Undoubtedly, the existence of an ultra-mobile version of Macintosh notebook was hardly a secret since alleged details about its features have emerged since early December. Although we knew about it, we could not help an exclamation sigh as the king of all notebooks, the MacBook Air, was first unveiled to the public.

Apple has continually improved the design of its existing products, while focusing on miniaturization. This is exactly what happened to the MacBook Air, world's thinnest notebook. The laptop measures only 0.16 inches (4 millimeters) at its thinnest point and weighs 1.3 kilograms – a normal weight for a sub-notebook, and not for a fully-fledged laptop PC.

"We've built the world's thinnest notebook - without sacrificing a full-size keyboard or a full-size 13-inch display," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "When you first see MacBook Air, it's hard to believe it's a high-performance notebook with a full-size keyboard and display. But it is."

The notebook integrates a 13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, and, according to its technical specifications, comes with a 65-nanometer Core 2 Duo processor featuring 4 MB of L2 cache, an 80 GB 1.8" hard drive as well as 802.11n Wi-Fi connectivity. What the Apple guys "forgot" to mention is that the Air appears to be powered by a new breed of processors, the low-voltage Merom-based Core 2 Duo, and not an Ultra Low Voltage Merom like the vast majority of notebook vendors use.

While a standard Merom Core 2 Duo processor sucks up about 1.0375 - 1.3000V core voltage under normal operating conditions (from 1.8GHz all the way up to 2.6GHz), the Low Voltage Core 2 Duo processors run at 0.9V - 1.2000V under the same conditions. Of course, since they are not as common as the regular parts, Intel makes sure to charge a little extra money.

The notebook comes with a full-sized keyboard framed in an aluminum enclosure. It is backlit, so dimly-lit environments are not a problem anymore when it comes to typing. Moreover, a built-in ambient light sensor makes sure to perfectly calibrate the brightness of the keys and of the display for optimal visibility.

The energy efficient CPU and LCD display allow the MacBook Air to deliver up to five hours of battery life. The only drawback is the fact that the notebook comes without an internal optical unit, but the MacBook includes AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi networking. However, Apple introduced a new feature called Remote Drive that enables you to use the SuperDrive (a normal CD/DVD of another computer, accessed via the wireless network)

The MacBook Air will arrive on the market in two weeks' time, at an estimated retail price of $1800. Apple will also offer a SSD-enabled version of the notebook that will come with 64GB of solid-state storage, for as much as $3100.