Negative MacBook Air Reviews Focus on the Wrong Shortcoming

The MacWorld dust has settled and the first round of MacBook Air reviews are in. Oddly enough, however, some of the negative comments nit-pick to find short coming rather than site the one major flaw with the new MacBook Air – the price.

Common negative nit-picks

CrunchGear sees the new Apple MacBook as basically useless. Wired magazine sees the MacBook Air as a secondary notebook for travelers. PC Magazine sites the lack of an ExpressCard or card-reader option as a “con.”

One USB port, one mini-DVI port, and no DVD player are a few of the favorite nit-picks among reviews across the net. While these complaints may be valid, they are only shortcomings if you personally have different laptop requirements than what the MacBook Air has to offer.

The real flaw of the MacBook Air – the price

Ignore what the MacBook Air doesn’t have, and focus on the base features. Consider the base price for those features and MacBook Air’s single flaw becomes obvious:

• Screen: 13.3 inches
• Harddrive: 80 GB
• RAM: 2 GB
• CPU: Intel Core Duo2 1.6 Ghz

All of that in a ultra slim silver exterior for $1799. Yes, that’s not a typo. Those base features cost $1799. In short, you’re buying sheik rather than top of the line features.

It’s a cool looking laptop.  It’s just not $1799 worth of cool.