At the beginning of 2008 Apple introduced the spectacular MacBook Air. Even their own computers, notebooks and other gadgets didn't offer such an elegant design and such compact measures. This is undisputed. When it comes to Apples pricing, this is where opinions differ somewhat.

The small version with Intel's Core 2 Duo P7500 CPU, 2 GByte memory and a 80-GB HDD, (which you can replace for a proud 900 Dollars with a 64-GByte-SSD) goes for around $ 2000. This Solid State Disk and a1.8-GHz-CPU can be found in the bigger MacBook Air. Price tag: $ 2.900

The power of the smaller model should be sufficient for most tasks at the office, surfing the net and playback movies, pictures and music. Even elderly and undemanding games will run. For everything else there is not enough power.

Features: Not too many.Due to the very low weight and the thin body, the list of features resembles the menu of a fancy french cuisine restaurant: short and to the point. The version tested here came with Webcam, Bluetooth, 300-MBit-WLAN and a Micro-DVI-Port, where you can attach an external monitor via the enclosed adapter.

You would expect a little more than just one USB-Port. Buying an additional USB Hub seems highly recommendable, so you can attach the -optional- DVD burner and some other devices at the same time, like memory sticks, mouse or a printer, for that matter. The m.o. burner will only work on your MacBook Air, neither on any PC nor another Apple-Notebook. In order to work the device needs about four times as much power as the USB standard allows. The widely spread Firewire and a LAN-Port are missing, also.

What you hear through the build in mono speakers is rather mediocre and can't be compared with any ordinary MP3 Player. Some say this does not suit the MacBook's otherwise very fancy and expensive appearance.

The elegant look and the smooth aluminum surface do not make for easy servicing. Only Apple technicians can change your hard drive or replace the power unit. The only thing that breaks the smooth surface is the excellent keyboard, the hidden air vents and the cover over the external jacks. Some users have found a way to at least change the battery pack, but waive the 12 month warranty by doing so.

Keypad and Touchpad: Well done and inventive. Apple doesn't imbed the keyboard into the notebooks housing, but inserts it from underneath through prefab cuts. This doesn't only look great, but also prevents these tiny cracks that catch crumbs and dust. The MacBook Air's keyboard comes with its own backlight illumination, which adapts to the surrounding light. The intensity can be regulated regardless of the one of the screen. You'll get used to it after several days and in fact the keyboard of the MacBook Air turnes out to be very pleasant.

The very large Touchpad knows some tricks it learned from the iPhone: By spreading two fingers while looking at a picture, it increases the size. With three fingers, you can use the Safari browser, but this doesn't work with the Firefox. Most of these small functionalities do not radically transform the user experience, but are part of the charm of the Apple products.

The Display, considered the best in its league, is very bright and ideal fort he outside use.

The mirrored 13.3-inch display is supported by a backlight illumination. This makes it extremely bright (410.1 cd/m²) and makes for very good contrast (973:1). No other notebook features a better display.

Windows OS: Not recommended.If you buy a MacBook Air and try to install Windows XP or Vista via the "Boot Camp" menu, you'll bound to be disappointed. The vents are running fulltime, your sound doesn't work or the display looses its sharpness. The touchpad won't work properly and there's no support for your Webcam and the SuperDrive. So it's highly recommended to run the MacBook Air with its native MacOS only.

Mobility and Battery Life: Extremely light and very good autonomy time.There is no thinner or lighter 13.3-inch Notebook around. Using the preinstalled MacOS 10.5 Leopard the 37-Watt-batterypack runs for five hours, doing a Word-Test, and 2 hours using its full CPU power. While selecting the eco mode proposed by Mac OS X and the screen luminosity set to 75% of his capacity, the MacBook Air was able to work for 3h15 before the low battery warning showed up. This are very good results and again make for excellent usage.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, Apples MacBook Air is a great designer piece. But the design cost quite a few compromises in regard to functionality: there's only one USB-Port, no optical drives and a Mono-Speaker, to name a few. The performance of the MacBook Air will suffice for light traveller users i.e. bloggers, connected fanatics, journalists, and other sales representatives. They will have no difficulty working with photos, compose bills or prepare a presentation, all profiting from his excellent flagstone LCD screen. So, the MacBook Air is a fascinating and very beautiful Notebook, that guaranties its owner a lot of greedy looks, but the same owner needs to make do with a few downsides, too.