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PRODUCT SHOOTOUT
Laptops to consider if you're too smart to buy a MacBook Air
By Joe Dolittle
In this all-new product review shootout, we put five products to the test. Read on to learn how Apple MacBook Air with 80GB hard drive from Apple Computer, Apple MacBook Air with solid-state drive from Apple Computer, Apple MacBook Pro from Apple Computer, Asus U6SA1 from Asus, and Sony VAIO VGN-TZ170 from Sony stand up to our editorial review.
Apple MacBook Air with 80GB hard drive
 Apple claims the MacBook Air is the thinnest notebook in the world.
At 0.16 inch at its thinnest point just 0.76 inch at its thickest point and a mere 3.0 pounds MacBook Air is so compact and light that you can take it everywhere. MacBook Air includes a bright 13.3-inch widescreen LED display built-in iSight camera 2GB of RAM 80GB hard drive and a powerful Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 Cache.
Computing Unplugged's evaluation
Unfortunately it compromises on features and performance and most serious computer users won't be able to tolerate this machine. Our biggest complaint is the lack of a removable battery. First this means there's no way you'll have enough juice for a flight across country -- and where would you want an ultra-portable more than a cross-country flight?
It also sacrifices on most of the ports you'll need including limiting the machine to a single (that's only one) USB port. Of course, you could take a USB hub with you but, hey, if you're going to start carrying hubs and other add-on doodads you might as well carry a real computer with you instead of this hot Air.
Apple MacBook Air with 80GB hard drive, produced by Apple Computer, has a retail price of $1,799.00. We give Apple MacBook Air with 80GB hard drive a rating of 2 out of 5.
OUR RATING: 2 of 5
Apple MacBook Air with solid-state drive
For storage, this MacBook Air comes with a 64 GB solid-state hard drive. Faster and more reliable solid memory provides a rapid boot-up and quicker access to applications while improving battery life. It's also more reliable than a hard disk drive because there are no moving parts. Since data is written to stationary memory instead of a spinning hard disk, you have less risk of hardware problems than with the hard disk when you're on the move.
Computing Unplugged's evaluation
If you've got more money than sense, this is definitely the computer for you. But if you actually want to get much done, we recommend you buy a computer that actually has some more of the basic features most users will need. We give this a slightly higher rating than the original MacBook Air above, simply because the solid-state drive is cool. Overpriced and definitely not worth it, but cool.
Apple MacBook Air with solid-state drive, produced by Apple Computer, has a retail price of $3,098.00. We give Apple MacBook Air with solid-state drive a rating of 3 out of 5.
OUR RATING: 3 of 5
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