Colorware attacks MacBook Air with crayons, comes out with 35 flavors

It was absolutely inevitable, and now it's arrived: you can get a MacBook Air in any color you choose thanks to those paint huffers over at Colorware. The big draw here is probably going to be the all black version -- for rugby fans and those PowerBook 2400c users out there that never stopped believing -- but not only do you have 34 other color options, you can also customize the laptop part by part with whatever combination of colors you choose. The bad news is that the base cost is $500, plus $50 per customization, so you're going to have to take a long hard look at you child's college fund.

[blehh @ Feb 18th 2008 12:11PM]

500 for a coat of paint?!

[LegendZ28 @ Feb 18th 2008 12:32PM]

You try repainting a laptop in any manner that people would actually pay for, then let us know how much you'd like to charge.

[Mile @ Feb 18th 2008 1:13PM]

I'll paint any laptop any color $59.99 - No ups and no extras!

I toss in painting the screen and keyboard the same color for free on each order (mandatory addition).

[Nick @ Feb 18th 2008 12:11PM]

$500 to change the color of an already expensive product? o.0

[Jimmy Jones @ Feb 18th 2008 1:25PM]

you can call it sexy -- since sex appeals to pple like u when it comes to tech...not performance and how much productivity you can get done with close to 3K bang...how about that?

[Jeff Lewis @ Feb 18th 2008 12:17PM]

It's not about the money - it's about the design. You lamers just don't get why this is so amazingly innovative. This isn't just a new computer, it's a whole new way of looking at computing - and now people will not only go wow at the laptop, but I can have it in the colour that best expresses my inner style!

This is awesome!

[/sarcasm]

[David Becker @ Feb 18th 2008 4:49PM]

Oh yeah it is, I had them color my i-Touch and new i Mac . Quality paint job, that is flawless, they'll be doing my MBA as well. Colorware is top notch!

[Jimmy Jones @ Feb 18th 2008 12:20PM]

Everything in life comes with a price huh?

1. After paying close to 3K for some "world's thinnest" piece of technology,
2. You get only 1 yr Apple manufacturer warranty
3. You can choose to make that 3 grand piece look amazing by paying a base price $500 for it
4. JUST say screw Apple and their way to rip buyers off and get the nice blackness from the X300 Lenovo's.

End of conversation

[Jonhimslf @ Feb 18th 2008 12:25PM]

1. What kind of warranty comes with the lenovo?
2. The 500$ paint has nothing to do with Apple really.
3. It should be Lenovo's X300, not X300 Lenovo's (unless you meant more than one lenovo)

[Jimmy Jones @ Feb 18th 2008 12:34PM]

Sure you can get a part time job with engadget comment department to proof-read our comments...lol just j/k. Still If I'm spending that much on the "world's thinnest" tech, it better come with some free customizatio or are you kidding me

[Bloobie @ Feb 18th 2008 12:53PM]

You do know that the Air starts at $1800, and $250 extends that warranty to 3 years, right?

[Matt @ Feb 18th 2008 1:07PM]

Also, if i correctly remember the info i have read, the X300 is much more expensive then the MBA.

[matt @ Feb 18th 2008 1:09PM]

by more expensive, i mean starting at the base model.

[Jesse S @ Feb 18th 2008 1:20PM]

The X300 is actually less than the MBA with the SSD option, and there will probably be an HDD version that will probably cost less than the MBA.

[Zak @ Feb 18th 2008 1:43PM]

The X300 is also thicker, heavier and slower, with less RAM. So you're probably getting what you pay for, considering the Air is all aluminum and very solid, where the X300 is plastic and not that solidly built.

Also, the color change is from Colorware, not Apple. It has nothing to do with Apple. I assume $500 is just what it costs to paint an aluminum laptop well enough so that it doesn't look like a hack job.

[snife @ Feb 18th 2008 2:43PM]

Oh dear Zak,

The X300 is made out of plastic and will be less 'solidly built' than the Macbook Air???? Utter nonsense, please dont comment when you obviously know nothing about the X300 nor have seen one, the X300 has stainless steel hinges, a magnesium rollcage and a patented top cover mixing carbon fibre reinforced plastic and glass fibre; the X300 may break rather than dent in the face of high impact but the X300 is sturdier than the Macbook Air no doubts.

[Jonny2hats @ Feb 18th 2008 12:24PM]

I think its a good idea, if you've got the cash to spare who cares, but the big question is will it blend? (with pretty colors?)

[sinai @ Feb 18th 2008 12:26PM]

@Nick @blehh

people have already been paying an extra $200 for the black macbook.

[Bloobie @ Feb 18th 2008 12:52PM]

Actually, it's $125 more.

[sinai @ Feb 18th 2008 1:23PM]

last i checked it was $1299 for white, $1499 for black.

and you're a complete idiot if you think 40GB of space is worth $75.

[Brent @ Feb 18th 2008 1:49PM]

I don't care how much the added 40 gb of HD is in the MB. I would have bought the 250 gb internal if it was available.

back on topic, you can paint your car for cheaper than that.

wonder if MAACO would paint an Air?

[Chris @ Feb 18th 2008 12:39PM]

Don't complain, you already know that the Air is for people who care way to much about looks and not about performance so this isn't any different.

[Zak @ Feb 18th 2008 2:11PM]

Colorware paints a lot more than Apple laptops. Have you been to their site? Obviously if they're painting things like Thinkpads and Zunes, then Thinkpads and Zunes are for people who care way too much about looks than performance too, right?

Hint: It's not an Apple thing. Colorware paints lots of things.

[stunta @ Feb 18th 2008 1:07PM]

Wouldn't the coloring add a significant percentage to the thickness (or the lack of it) of the Air?

Heh, now people get to shell out more money to get something they can't upgrade. If I had enough money that I didn't know what to do with, I'd surely go for it though. I am not going for it.

[Joshua Walters @ Feb 18th 2008 1:18PM]

If you have an Air, money is no object anyways.

[Gromit @ Feb 18th 2008 1:24PM]

I know the MBA is a popular target and it's hardly the best laptop for a lot of, if not most, people. But after another barrage of "the only people who buy a MBA are petty vain people who only want to impress others", I just wanted to chime in on why I bought one.

My wife and are sharing a laptop. Neither of us needs one full time, just for occasional use here and there. OS X was an absolute requirement. I was about to buy a MacBook when the MacBook Air was announced. My wife's biggest concern was that she wanted the thinnest laptop possible, in order to carry it in her bag without adding to the bulk. Light weight was a bonus and we didn't want a cramped screen or keyboard. We looked at the MacBook and she thought it was thicker than what she had in mind.

She went to a conference today and this morning she showed me how the MBA fit perfectly in a small slot in her bag. There's no way a MacBook would have fit in this slot, it would have had to go in another area of the bag which was already occupied by other things (notebook, folders, etc).

So I looked at the options and decided that the MacBook Air seemed like the best fit for what we needed. So far, it's been perfect. I have no interest in paying $500 to turn it lemon yellow though.

[tom @ Feb 18th 2008 1:32PM]

x300

[OneLove @ Feb 18th 2008 1:43PM]

can they do candy paint?

[kal326 @ Feb 18th 2008 1:53PM]

Meh, $500 is cheaper then a trophy wife boob job and your basically getting the same result. Dressing up something that isn't intended to do much more then look good.

[jablammo @ Feb 18th 2008 7:37PM]

but can she do it on the kitchen table FOR HOURS?!! is the real question in both cases;)

[kal326 @ Feb 18th 2008 1:54PM]

Meh, $500 is cheaper then a trophy wife boob job and your basically getting the same result. Dressing up something that isn't intended to do much more then look good.

[kakapo @ Feb 18th 2008 1:56PM]

Someone must like it - their servers are jammed!

I use an electrostatic painting process where the positive charge holds a polymer paint on the metallic surface until it is heated and then the paint looks like glass... and it isn't an inexpensive process. Maybe this is what they are doing!

As for me - I like my 17" MBP - played with a MBA at the Meyer Centre here in Brissie and I prefer my MBP. I am sure there are squillions of people who feel the MBA works for them but I am not one of them. Great idea but needs some tweaking.

[Miles @ Feb 18th 2008 1:58PM]

IMO Painted Black that is the best looking laptop there is.

[michael @ Feb 18th 2008 3:07PM]

Honestly wondering, do they do Sony Vaios? I would love to get a new color on it.

Really just wondering. I know they also do Zunes and other stuff, but they don't just do Apple computers, right?

[Xtopher Robin @ Feb 18th 2008 4:13PM]

Makes that black keyboard look a whole helluva lot better, that's for sure.

[sehomoho @ Feb 18th 2008 7:43PM]

can somebody enter this business and compete with colorware please?

[timfy @ Feb 18th 2008 7:48PM]

oh Apple are starting to suck badly, and its just getting worse over time.. I'm sick of them and that's bad :-(

[happy_penguin @ Feb 18th 2008 10:42PM]

A fool and his money .......

[Billg8s @ Feb 18th 2008 11:12PM]

Interesting technical stat from the ColorWare website :

64GB solid-state drive @4200rpm

Wow - Can't they spin those NAND chips any faster ?

[diem @ Feb 19th 2008 3:39PM]

$500? Are you freaking kidding? For $40, get a color case from Speck. Not only does my new aqua MBP case look awesome, and get compliments all the time, it also protects.

Hell, for $500 you can buy all the colors and a six-pack to boot.