Review by Alan Chang

MacBook Air (Starting at $999 at MacMall) is ultrathin, ultraportable, and ultra unlike anything else. But you dont lose inches and pounds overnight. Its the result of rethinking conventions. Of multiple wireless innovations. And of breakthrough design. With MacBook Air, mobile computing suddenly has a new standard.

What’s So Great About the Macbook Air?

Hold your potato-chip grabbin’ hand out in front of your face.  Now, gaze thoughtfully at your digits and marvel at the fact that the MacBook Air is nearly as thin as that greasy index finger you just had up your nose. Yet it has a 13.3-inch LED-backlit display, a full-size keyboard, and a large Multi-Touch trackpad. The Macbook Air is crazy portable — but without the ultraportable screen and keyboard compromises that most of today’s netbooks make.

In a nut-shell, the Macbook Air is what Netbooks should be – powerful, lightweight, long battery life, full-size keyboard, and an AMAZING, no holds barred, LED display.

–> Wanna get this for as low as $999, brand-new with full warranty? Click here.

Slick Features

CPU:

The MacBook Air’s performance is no slouch.   Most ultra-portables today (netbooks, etc.) come equipped with underwhelming Intel Atom processors.  Not this bad-boy.  The Macbook Air’s blistering performance is as impressive as its form, thanks to its 1.6GHz or 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. This chip was custom built to fit within the compact dimensions of MacBook Air. And now it’s faster than ever. The latest Macbook Air models feature a new 1066MHz frontside bus, additional L2 cache (6MB total), and 2GB of faster DDR3 RAM to provide plenty of speed and memory for working with your favorite applications.

That’s nerd-speak for "It’s freakin’ fast."

LED DISPLAY:

The dazzling LED-backlit display provides instant full screen in-your-face, slap upside the head brightness the moment you open MacBook Air. This latest LED technology also makes the display less power hungry than traditional screens, which correlates to long-ass battery life (4.5 hours, so says Apple). And since this display is mercury-free with arsenic-free glass, it’s as easy on the environment as it is on your peepers.

MULTI-TOUCH TRACKPAD:

MacBook Air includes an oversize trackpad with multi-touch technology. Did Apple super-size the trackpad to accomodate the less chic, fast-food nation demographic?  Who cares!  It’s pretty incredible, and way more user friendly than trackpads of yesteryear.  You can pinch, swipe, or rotate to zoom in on text, advance through a photo album, or adjust an image. This gesture-based input so successful on iPhone and iPod touch now comes to MacBook Air.

BIG FAT HARD DRIVE & SOLID STATE OPTION:

The latest MacBook Air hard drive is now bigger and meaner at 120GB. So there’s plenty of storage for work, play, and whatever happens in between (like picking up babes on Match.com?). Or choose a 128GB solid-state drive, which has no moving parts, for enhanced durability, longer battery life, and less heat on your junk.

SO, WHAT’S IT MISSIN’?

Dude, there is no flippin’ built-in DVD drive.  And for that, I gotta knock it down to a four out of five rating.

I give the Macbook Air’s Features a SOLID 4 out of 5 Beers Rating:

(4/5)

Coolness Factor

Let’s be honest guys, you’re researching the Macbook Air right now because the thing is plain ol’ silly-cool, and not because it’s chock full of the latest whirly gizmos and tera-blips (whirly gizmos and ter-blips copyright Alan Chang 2009 ).  Face it, when you slide this thing out of your attache case, and place it on your table at your favorite local coffee shop, you’re going to get looks.  Lots of looks – many from the gentler of the sexes.  The ladies LOVE the Macbook Air.  It’s undeniable that it is the sexiest computer on the market today.  If there was ever a time in human history that owning a computer could help a guy get some tail, it is now, with the Macbook Air.

I give the Mac’s Cool Factor an EXCELLENT 5 out of 5 Beers Rating:

(5/5)

Value

The Macbook Air ain’t cheap, my friends.  The basic no-frills version starts at $1800 plus tax and shipping on Apple’s website.  The better-equipped version costs a whopping $2500.  It’s pricey, but it looks the part.  Everyone (think ladies, here) knows it costs a small fortune.  I think there is some sort of mathmatic formula here though, dudes… it’s something like this:

VALUE = [price of thing / probability of getting laid] x [number of new partners]

At $1800 – $2500 I’d say that this thing still represents a pretty decent value.  But, right now over at MacMall, you can get your grubby paws on these for as low as $999.  How?  Shush, don’t question the awesomeness.

I give the MacBook Air’s Value an EXCELLENT 5 out of 5 Beers Rating:

(5/5)

Overall

This thing is pretty awesome.  The one drawback that stands out is the lack of a built-in DVD drive.  This kind of matters if you like installing software, watching movies, archiving your data, etc.  There are work-arounds, of course, as well as an external drive capability, so overall, it’s a 4.5 out of 5.

I give Macbook Air’s Overall Rating an SOLID 4.5 out of 5 Beers:

(4.5/5)