Apple Macbook Air

Screen Size: 13.3”
Battery Life: 2.5 Hours
Operating System: Mac OS X
Weight: 4.5lbs

The Air is alone on this list for being a small laptop of slightly different dimensions. It's actually a 13" system making it the biggest we've looked at so far. What makes it still qualify as a small laptop? It's incredibly thin and light, ideal for people that travel often. You may well have seen the high profile Mac adverts which involve putting the laptop into envelopes and other such small spaces. It's also incredibly sexy compared to just about every other 13" laptop around. Do the looks justify the price, though?

The 13" screen on the Air is a real head turner. Combined with its full sized and spacious keyboard it's got none of the problems of mistyped words or lack of screen real estate as many of its competitors do. It's also uses an Intel Core 2 Duo rather than the much slower Atom CPUs used in other small laptops.

The Air has been hailed by Apple as a 'no compromise' portable machine, although it's clear that have been a fair amount of compromises in apples quest to provide a 13" system that isn't much more difficult to carry around than a standard netbook. Power will be definite issue for some with the laptop lasting just over 2 hours on heavy use. Luckily, the power adapter doesn't add much more weight to the laptop. Providing you aren't going to be away from a power source for long it's fine. It does limit the systems portability somewhat though.

There's also rather limited audio capacity, awkward USB ports and no DVD drive. Netbooks might not include DVD drives either but it's worth noting that an equivalent netbook would be far, far cheaper than that Air. Shortcomings aside however, what most people are looking for in the Air isn't a long list of technical specifications - they're looking for a Mac that offers them a similar level of functionality as the rest of the small laptop world but with software they are familiar with.

The Air uses Leopard as its primary operating system and it's just as usable and attractive as it is on a full size Mac. There are no significant changes to the system except for a gesture based control system using the Air's generously sized touch pad. The gestures allow you to move your hand in a certain way to complete a task and could save a lot of time once you've properly learned them all. Also included is a 'remote disk' application which allows you to use a limited form of DVD sharing from a host computer. This is a good option for those not willing to pay the extra $100 for the DVD drive attachment. The software is intelligent and useful for installing applications or reinstalling the operating system, but it can’t be used for streaming content like DVD movies.

The best and worst thing you can say about the Air is simple; it's a Mac. Most people will instantly love or hate the machine just because of this. Its price and hardware offer little to make PC fans consider the Air as an option. However, its sleek design and use of Leopard as its primary operating system will entice Mac users who are looking for a more portable option the larger and heavier Macbook Pro range. Prices range from $1400 - $2000 depending on the model.