Today Apple released “The World’s Thinnest Notebook”, the MacBook Air, positioned between the MacBook and MacBook Pro. 0.4 to 1.93 cm (0.16 to 0.76 inches). The thickest part of the MacBook Air is thinner than the Sony TZ. It fits in an envelope and has a 13.3″ widescreen display with an LED backlight, iSight built in, MacBook keyboard (with black keys) but with an ambient light sensor, multi-touch trackpad which uses multi-touch input (to pivot photos, zoom etc.).1.6GHz (US$1799) to 1.8GHz (+US$300) Intel Core 2 Duo Otellini CPU (60% reduced in size!), 1.8 inch 80Gb Hard drive with a 64Gb solid state disk as an option (+US$999). 45W MagSafe power adapter, 1 USB 2 port, Micro-DVI, Audio Out, 802.11n, BlueTooth 2.1/EDR. An external SuperDrive is available. “Remote Disc” software allows the MacBook Air to “borrow” optical drives on a Mac or PC. 5 hours of battery life and 2Gb of memory standard. Shipping in 2 weeks time.
From an environmental perspective the display is mercury and lead free, and the circuit boards are free of BFR (Brominated Fire Retardant), and the retail packaging is 56% smaller than the MacBook.
Their world’s smallest claim is a bit funny. One end is certainly thinner than my 3yo Portege R200, the other is not. It weighs more than my 3yo R200.
For the same price you can now get a Portege R500 with solid state drive and no optical that weighs 800g. The best thing about this laptop is that it still has an ethernet port and you can change the battery.