The World's Thinnest Laptop will soon have competition. Macworld is reporting that (at least) two unnamed manufacturers intend to use the tiny Intel chip that powers the MacBook Air. Steve Jobs made a big deal about it at this month's Macworld Expo keynote address. The chip uses Intel's 965GMS chipset, and has a footprint 60% smaller than comparable Merom processors. The MacBook Air ships with either a 1.6Ghz or a 1.8GHz version.
While other manufacturers will target the MacBook Air's size, they'll have trouble beating its good looks. Sure, many have complained about its lack of Firewire or what have you, but no one denies its beauty. Johnny Ive knows what he's doing.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-31-2008 @ 5:23PM
mars said...
I don't think the AirBook is as beautiful as it could have been, Wired news posted a much nicer mockup the day before the real one was announced.
Check it out here:
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/01/breaking-macboo.html
Reply
1-31-2008 @ 5:38PM
Macfan said...
I like the air more than that mockup.
Although I did like the tablet mockup the most
Reply
1-31-2008 @ 5:40PM
Chris said...
As a laptop, its form does not excuse its failure of function.
Reply
1-31-2008 @ 5:59PM
Michaelsviews said...
Have to say that the air does not impress me, why? look at the processor speed , thats a joke, your going backwards.
Whats the life expectancy of the SSD on it ? If I had the money to throw away I mite mite buy it, but overall I would rather have a new MBP 17inch with LED screen and a 250 gig hd and 4 gig of ram and a battery that lasted 5 full hours and a processor that was blazing fast but and I mean BUT power smart also. The HD would have to be power smart also
Reply
1-31-2008 @ 6:19PM
Will said...
I don't have any exact numbers, but I do know that SSDs last considerably longer than hard drives do, mostly due to the lack of moving parts. They're also generally faster, especially when jumping between positions on a disk, because it doesn't have to wait for the a head to move. Reduced power consumption is another plus.
Unfortunately for those of us who aren't made of money, they're still damn expensive. 16 GB still costs a few hundred, and 128's somewhere around 2 or 3 grand. Much less space to the dollar than you'd get with a conventional drive.
1-31-2008 @ 6:08PM
James said...
Hopefully other manufacturers are smart enough to try and beat the Air's size. Not that it should be hard to do since the Air already loses to some laptops on size.
Reply
1-31-2008 @ 6:38PM
artifex said...
I still think it and iPhones and everything else would be much better if Apple would start using inductance instead of connected cords to charge. The MagSafe connector is cool, but something that doesn't stick at all would be cooler. Imagine setting your Air down on a table, either on a flat plastic sheet or next to a box, and having it automatically charge, without you having to connect it. Imagine, perhaps, it also being able to charge your iPhone when it's in position, either separately or at the same time. My electric toothbrush has done this for years, some electric razors do this, why can't laptops and cellphones and iPods do this?
Reply
2-01-2008 @ 8:04AM
Micah said...
the problem with that is that is makes it difficult to have plugged in while using it on your lap (we won't even think about the sterility problems that a would be caused by having product sending off 85 Watts of power into your lap.)
1-31-2008 @ 7:12PM
joe l. said...
Please, someone in the press needs to get a clue, or at least be honest about, the difference between a "chip" and a "package".
Even the picture you show above clearly shows that the "chip" is identical on both packages. The chip is just the little silver square. That's the silicon chip. All the green is simply a package - it does no processing or anything, all it does is connect the chip to the mobo.
The normal package is so big because the pins on the bottom of it are standardized to fit in a standard socket used by dozens of vendors. The small package used by the MB Air only changes the size of the packaging, not the actual chip. Therefore, there was no redesign or no huge chip-effort on the part of Intel.
Yes, the package is considerably smaller, but this isn't a huge feat of engineering for that, at least not when compared to the efforts of shrinking the actual chips. I have not seen or read about the connectors on the other side of the package, but I would not be surprised if the pins we normally see were replaced by solder balls, which would require the package to be soldered directly to the motherboard. Either that, or they've introduced a new, much smaller size for the pins. Either way, this going on and on about how Intel has "shrunk their chips" just for apple has got to stop.
Reply
1-31-2008 @ 7:34PM
Matt said...
Theres no need to argue semantics, you obviously know what the OP was talking about and I'm sure everyone else does too. CPU, chip, package, die, whatever. It's smaller.
Noone stated that it was a "huge feat of engineering" either. No need to get so testy.
1-31-2008 @ 8:18PM
joe l. said...
it's not semantics when the press use one word to describe a physical object when they should be using another word which mean something completely different.
The fact that the CEO of Intel made an appearance at Macworld and that all the Apple news sites in the world make posts like this whenever this stuff is announced does indicate that Apple and Intel want this to be "a big deal", and don't mind spreading disinformation along with it.
and no, "most people" don't know the difference or what it really means to shrink the chip. In fact, the AppleInsider.com article is the only one i've read that properly noted the MBAir chip is on a smaller package, not that it's a smaller chip
1-31-2008 @ 7:37PM
Dave said...
Can someone please explain all the Macbook Air complaints?
To me it means more choice in Apple's product line up. More choice is a great thing. Is it for everyone, no is it right for some people, yes.
Just like car makers, the offer everything form 4x4 to sports coups and family cars.
You don't hear people complaining that sports car x only seats 2 people compared to the 4x4 wagon. Different purposes & needs for different people.
Reply
1-31-2008 @ 8:44PM
geochick said...
The reason why people are complaining I think is that the MBA is Apple's first answer to the need for a modern "ultraportable" in the MacBook line and the functionality and price just doesn't justify the purchase for a lot of people. I think quite a lot of people were expecting a thin, light machine with the same spec say as a current Macbook or better and a cheaper price. I like all the complaints actually one of the cool things about Apple as a company is that they usually listen to their customer base and improve on the product over time as well as drop the price in subsequent releases. Look what happened with the iPhone. We moaned that it wasn't open enough now Apple is releasing an SDK, We moaned about the price, it got slashed in less than 3 months, remember the big deal with ringtones you can now do them using garageband for free! Keep those complaints going folks... Might want to send em to Apple feedback instead of just here though.
LOL
Reply
1-31-2008 @ 9:58PM
x999x said...
It doesn't matter how small PC ultra portables get now with the Macbook Air's innards, it's still gonna run XP/Vista.
A perfect example of one step forward, two big steps back.
Reply
2-01-2008 @ 11:42AM
Kevin K said...
Wow you guys are so biased!
"To use the Macbook Air's Tiny Intel Chip"
Wait a second... Whos chip is it, INTELS you fu0ck faces, not apples.
Get things straight.
Reply
2-01-2008 @ 11:53AM
Scott said...
Well this is good news. So long as other vendors are using this chip, it will mean fast future development.
Reply
2-01-2008 @ 3:31PM
Betty said...
my video? where is it
Reply
2-24-2008 @ 11:17AM
paz said...
I know function is #1 - and maybe portability in this case. But a black keyboard and plug? U G L Y!!!!! iMacs also coming with black frame around inside of screen. Horrible design changes!!!!!!
Reply
2-20-2008 @ 8:39AM
paz said...
I AGREE. WHAT'S WITH THE OLD FASHIONED BLACK DETAILS? WE WANT OUR WHITE APPLES BACK.