Thin and light. Yet rock solid. That?s what the new MacBook Air is all about; it thinks and acts like a full-size Macintosh. American PC maker Apple has updated the MacBook Air with next generation processors, high-speed Thunderbolt I/O technology, a backlit keyboard and Mac OS X Lion, claimed to be the world?s most advanced operating system. With up to twice the performance of the previous generation, flash storage for instant-on responsiveness and a compact design so portable you can take it everywhere, good news is the MacBook Air is available for customers in India as well.

Gone are the days when the slimmest notebook weighed more than 2 kg. Now the slim is really slim, packed with stunning features and running anything you want, from games to video editing files. With just these features in mind, Apple launched their first ultra-book Macbook, couple of years ago. What was lacking in that device has now been replenished in the new Macbook Air, which sets a benchmark for the upcoming ultra-books with its thin and light form and prominent features.

Looks wise, nothing seems to have changed as this upgrade looks just like its former self, except for the back-lit keyboard which is a welcome change with black coloured and well-spaced keys. MacBook Air is available in 11-inch and 13-inch models that easily slip into a briefcase, purse or bag. We got the 13-inch for a product review. The MacBook Air?s durable aluminum unibody enclosure measures an incredibly thin 0.11-inches at its thinnest point and 0.68-inches at its thickest. Thanks to the unibody design, it is free of clutter on its aluminium body with matte finish, which makes it dust and smudge free. The few ports comprise of two USB ports, one thunderbolt port, one SD card slot, power port and a headphone jack. The keyboard is followed by a quick to respond big multi-touchpad with wide resting space on both sides.

Flash storage allows MacBook Air to turn on instantly and deliver fast data access, improved reliability and incredible energy efficiency. The 11-inch model provides up to five hours of battery life, while the 13-inch provides up to seven hours of battery life. With the latest Intel Core i5 and Core i7 dual-core processors, the new MacBook Air is up to twice as fast as the previous generation and has all the power you need for editing photos and movies, making FaceTime calls, playing games, and working with documents and presentations. MacBook Air also features Intel HD Graphics 3000 and offers up to 4 GB of faster 1333 MHz memory.

Thunderbolt I/O technology provides expansion possibilities never before available to MacBook Air users. Through a single cable, users can connect to high performance peripherals and the new Apple Thunderbolt Display, the ultimate docking station for your Mac notebook. Thunderbolt can easily be adapted to support legacy connections such as FireWire and Gigabit Ethernet. However, the device has missed on certain key features, like not having an optical drive and an Ethernet port.

MacBook Air comes with a full size backlit keyboard and an innovative glass Multi-Touch trackpad. Designed for comfort and ease of typing, the backlit keyboard uses a sensor to automatically detect a change in ambient lighting and adjusts the keyboard brightness for any environment. The Multi-Touch trackpad supports Lion?s new Multi-Touch gestures such as momentum scrolling, tapping or pinching your fingers to zoom in on a web page or image, and swiping left or right to turn a page or switch between full screen apps.

MacBook Air also features a brilliant, high resolution LED backlit display that is amazingly thin yet has the resolution of a much larger, bulkier screen. With ultra-fast Wi-Fi, you can wirelessly download apps from the Mac App Store, get music and movies from iTunes, back up data to Time Capsule and quickly and easily share files using AirDrop. MacBook Air includes Bluetooth for wireless peripherals and two USB ports for easy connectivity for the wired and wireless devices you use every day.

Without any doubt, the new MacBook is a thin and light notebook computer. It?s every bit is powerful and capable as twice its size.

? CyberMedia www.LD2.in

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