Apple’s Sleek MacBook Air – substance or all air?

Well, well… Apple seems to have done it again, what with launching a sleek new beast for 2008. The initial images of the MacBook Air are very appealing and sexy, but might look rather flimsy for the average American – maybe us Asians will have a better shot and keeping them alive longer? (Sorry my American compadres, don’t shoot me!)

Here’s some stats about the new machine – it’ll sport a 13.3″ LED-backlit widescreen display, have an 80GB hard drive (not very large, these days) and have an estimated 5 hours of battery life. Size-wise, it’s a mere 0.18 inches, and it weighs in at about 3 pounds! As for crunch, it embodies regular Intel Core 2 Duo chips with 2GB of RAM. Price? It’s slated to retail at USD1,799.

Pretty impressive, but what’s missing? Looks like they can’t fit in any optical drives at all. WHAT? I can’t burn my data to disc? Urgh… not impressive. You’ll have to buy an external optical drive for USD99, or use the software bundled that allows you to “take control” of another drive on the network and use it as if it were your own. Wellll… might work for some, if you are in constant proximity of other machines, but that won’t work for me.

Other plus points of this machine are the fact that it is very green-friendly (perhaps Steve Jobs has joined the Greenpeace movement?). To begin with, the aluminum case is completely recyclable, the screen uses no mercury and the glass has no arsenic in it. Even the packaging has shrunk to match the notebook – makes sense though, huh?

I’m impressed at the initiatives of Apple to save the environment, but not very impressed with the concept. Initial feedback from average Mac users is not particularly encouraging as the price point doesn’t seem too sweet as compared to the MacBook Pros. Oh well, let’s see what happens. At least we’re seeing more green apples around…