Apple released the MacBook Air today. It is the world's thinnest laptop. At it's thickest, it is thinner than any other laptop's thinnest. It is a nice boon for the executive traveller who is tired of lugging around extra batteries and a heavy laptop. The MacBook Air weighs only 3 lbs. and has a battery that lasts 5 hours. That's a long battery life, really. My work laptop (not a Mac) has a 30 minute battery life and weighs 10 lbs. The MacBook Air has a full-size keyboard and a bright, clear 13.4" LCD screen.
The downside: it has no Ethernet port, the battery is internal and not user-changeable, and the laptop does not have a DVD or CD-ROM drive. Let's look at each of these "shortcomings" and how they might affect a road warrior:
- The lack of DVD drive is not a big deal. The road warrior can leave home his stack of movies. Instead, simply download or rent (yes, rent) any movies to watch directly to the laptop via iTunes. Watching movies from the hard drive is more battery-conserving than watching a DVD.
But other than that, it's outstanding. I could almost stick it into my coat pocket...