The MacBook Air has landed

Alright, our MacBook Air just arrived. We'll be putting up tests and posts as we go -- anything in particular you want to see? Please note, the unit we received is the base config (1.6GHz, no SSD).

Gallery: The MacBook Air has landed

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[gibber9583 @ Jan 24th 2008 12:30PM]

what you didnt want to splurge for that nearly $1,000 option?

[sarnzzle @ Jan 24th 2008 12:32PM]

Solid State HD's are (currently) expensive technology. $1,000 seems about right to me.

[gibber9583 @ Jan 24th 2008 12:36PM]

I never said anything about it being overpriced by apple, just poking fun for not getting the option...dont be quick to come to apple's aid. down fanboy, down

[imacmatt09 @ Jan 24th 2008 12:50PM]

Get that touchpad driver/preference pain uploaded :D

[Jason @ Jan 24th 2008 12:52PM]

newegg has a 32GB Sansung 1.8" SSD for $313, RETAIL.

[carter evans @ Jan 24th 2008 1:05PM]

I'd love to see how the air works wit Final Cut Pro... Can it handle some basic editing and render on the fly?

[jakem @ Jan 24th 2008 1:07PM]

The SSD in the MBA is 64Gb (not 32Gb) and $1000 is a fairly average price for them at the moment.

[Ty @ Jan 24th 2008 1:09PM]

The near-$1000 SSD option is actually more of a price gouge than the $800 RAID card option in the Mac Pro, which I previously thought to be impossible.

[chinhster @ Jan 24th 2008 1:40PM]

Jason,

So what, newegg.com also has a 128GB drive for $3,219.99, RETAIL.

[Ryan Block @ Jan 24th 2008 1:55PM]

Nothing to do with splurging. This is a review unit.

[Tony C @ Jan 24th 2008 2:02PM]

You go and try to buy a 64GB 1.8" SSD right now and you'll find a nice little $1600 price tag attached to it. Just because a 32GB is $300 and change doesn't mean the 64GB models are going to be exactly twice the price or cheaper.

Hopefully you've seen enough of the PC component industry to know that the latest and greatest hardware *always* costs more, usually on something like a logarithmic scale.

[tits @ Jan 24th 2008 7:33PM]

you dont wanna do final cut pro editing on a 4200rpm disk... really! the slow processor forbid use of HD too... but I guess some basic dv editing with 1 or 2 track would be ok... but again, there is no firewire!!!

[Saad Rabia @ Jan 24th 2008 9:37PM]

@ tits

Final Cut Pro editing on a MacBook Air?!? Not possible my friend.

[able @ Jan 25th 2008 5:15PM]

LOL, forget smashing the new HDTV with a Wii Mote, let's take the high end "MacSaber" into combat! One or two good hits and we'll get headlines for sure! (would the SSD model Air have the Sudden Motion Sensor?)

Able

[tony @ Jan 25th 2008 12:32PM]

Regardless of whether or not this 64GB add-on SSD is inflated in price or not, it's not worth it. While this may ruin the point of a MacBook Air somewhat and not be as functional, I'd rather carry my portable external hard drive with me and get 320GB out of it for less than $200.

[Jeydeep @ Jan 24th 2008 12:32PM]

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!!!! I WANT ONE TOO!!

[bob @ Jan 24th 2008 1:34PM]

"more of a price gouge than the $800 RAID card option in the Mac Pro"
the raid card WITH sas drive controller. thats why it costs that much.

[tpp @ Jan 24th 2008 12:32PM]

I want to see:

1. Pantsu
2. Will it blend

[Jeremy... @ Mar 12th 2008 5:41PM]

I second that (Will it blend?) motion.

[Michelle @ Jan 24th 2008 12:32PM]

sexy! I want to play with it.

[nd @ Jan 24th 2008 2:04PM]

that's what she said.

couldn't resist...been watching the office too much lately :)

[jalapeno @ Jan 24th 2008 12:32PM]

So the main point of contention seems to be the battery life, how is it performing for you guys?

[Matt @ Jan 24th 2008 12:34PM]

Eh, it's just not my thing.

[Datacide @ Jan 24th 2008 12:36PM]

Also, how long is the charging time?

[graham frazier @ Jan 24th 2008 12:33PM]

.............and that's the sound of nobody caring...

[jess @ Jan 24th 2008 12:37PM]

sounds a lot like a hungry troll to me

[Tony C @ Jan 24th 2008 12:53PM]

Don't feed the trolls... ;o)

[ark_v2 @ Jan 24th 2008 7:53PM]

It's in fact mono sound. Even the Eee beats that mediocre OVERPRICED "ultraportable" wannabe in speakers.

[jess @ Jan 24th 2008 12:34PM]

1)take a picture of the keyboard with the lights off

2)try plugging a hub into the usb port (non-powered hub)

3)benchmark the hard drive

[jus10 @ Jan 24th 2008 4:16PM]

I echo all of jess's statements. I'd like to see what the ambient light sensor does (I have a Macbook not a Pro so I'm curious at how well they work).

My honest answer on what I want to see is: an engadget contest for one.

What? You knew that was coming. Very few can justify buying one of these but winning one ...

[FrisbeeBen @ Jan 24th 2008 12:34PM]

I second tpp's request, namely, will it blend?

[Zak @ Jan 24th 2008 12:36PM]

I'd like to know what your opinion is regarding who the Air would be most useful for, and in what capacity. Obviously it's not going to be for everybody, but who do you think might get the most use out of it? Frequent travelers maybe?

[KaRmAChAnG @ Jan 24th 2008 12:54PM]

Seems like this is aimed as a secondary computer for road warriors who want too carry a lighter load. A very expensive secondary computer that is. No one would get this as their primary computer because of the lack of an integrated optical drive and minimal hard drive space. As nice as it looks, its just too expensive right now, you can get a macbook with better specs or pay a little bit more for a more powerful macbook pro. I'm using a top of the line 24" iMac with all the bells and whistles and that cost nearly the same as the top of the line macbook air. Fine for those with a huge bank account.

[strider_mt2k @ Jan 24th 2008 12:36PM]

Enjoy!

[Nathan @ Jan 24th 2008 12:37PM]

Will the external dvd drive work on other devices? I don't want to carry a DVD drive just for the macbook air....

[Tony C @ Jan 24th 2008 12:52PM]

The Air's external SuperDrive is supposed to have additional power requirements -- more than your every day USB port can supply, anyway. Supposedly the Air's USB port has a little more juice available just for running their optional optical drive.

$99 is actually a really great price for an external USB SuperDrive, just too bad that it probably won't work on any other computer without some physical hacking.

[Malina @ Jan 24th 2008 3:05PM]

Might be able to use a powered USB hub to circumvent that issue. You'd have to find the right one... what a pain.

[Scott Weiss @ Jan 24th 2008 12:37PM]

There is one thing that has been bugging me, that I haven't seen asked anywhere else... Why is there an eject key on a computer that doesn't have an optical drive?! Just wondering what it might do, maybe it's just for Remote Disc or something :P

[Jason @ Jan 24th 2008 1:26PM]

You still need a way to eject the disc if you're using the external drive.

[Tony C @ Jan 24th 2008 12:43PM]

I'm sure it works with the external SuperDrive, which AFAIK is buttonless... Otherwise, how else would you eject a disc...?

[able @ Jan 25th 2008 5:14PM]

There are special keyboard shortcuts that use the Eject button.

[Thomas @ Jan 24th 2008 12:38PM]

Please do a serious test. Do a real life test on installing programs with no CD/DVD drive, battery life, and the things that were sacrificed in order to make the computer so thin. Please don't get all caught up with how beautiful it is.

Ryan I am curious to hear if you would want the Air to be thicker and have maybe a CD/DVD drive or a longer battery, ect...

[able @ Jan 25th 2008 5:14PM]

It seems obvious there is a vocal group who wanted a new high performance MacBook/Pro model. That's not what this MacBook Air is. It's definitely for Road Warriors. For that type of user, it's worth the money to shave off a few pounds, and they don't tend be willing to sacrifice most features that external devices can be used for. Only a tiny minority of Road Warriors would ever take power user equipment on the road. Their kind need to do presentations, and a large screen is the only thing they'd pay extra for. They just do presentations, scheduling, web browsing, and emailing. Most of them don't even watch DVDs because of the hassle of packing them.

The one connection I haven't heard anyone make is that this puppy is light enough to hold in one hand and read like a book. It's only a 3G dongle away from having all the functionality of a kindle on top of everything else.

[Jason @ Jan 24th 2008 12:38PM]

can it fly? I heard it can fly

[ethana2 @ Jan 24th 2008 2:16PM]

As usual, if you're looking for distance over price, you're best looking at a non-Apple product; in this case, a boomerang or javelin will do nicely.

[Itchy Pajamas @ Jan 24th 2008 3:38PM]

I'm sure it can, but it would fly much better if the bottom were concave. For all Apple's aesthetic design considerations, obviously that wasn't one of them.

[Mobius_1 @ Jan 24th 2008 9:11PM]

Only when it's on Michael Jordan's feet

[John @ Jan 25th 2008 1:06AM]

Fling it like a frisbee and tell us how far it goes.

[hotfstop @ Jan 24th 2008 12:38PM]

please try connecting it to an external monitor...say a 23 inch cinema display.

[kaiswil2 @ Jan 24th 2008 12:39PM]

Ok is it just me or the fact that you will probably have three dongles and a Superdrive piggybacked via one of the mentioned dongles to have the full functionality of a laptop that might weight 1 lb more elsewhere enough to go nuts over? I'll admit I'm not a Mac User, do not own ANY sort of Ipod device and currently is not in the market to purchase an Ipod. And with a price tag of $2000? Yeah, keep feeding that beast of burden we call Apple. And yes I'm aware that it is trying to go green but what are going to do with the old computer that is still working fine.