January 15, 2008: Steve Jobs exhibits off the primary MacBook Air on the Macworld convention in San Francisco, calling the revolutionary laptop the “world’s thinnest pocket book.”
The 13.3-inch laptop computer measures solely 0.76 inches at its thickest level and 0.16 inches at its tapered thinnest. It additionally boasts a unibody aluminum design, because of an Apple engineering breakthrough that permits the crafting of a sophisticated laptop case from a single block of finely machined metallic.
In a superb piece of showmanship in the course of the MacBook Air launch, Jobs pulls the super-slim laptop computer out of a normal interoffice envelope. (You possibly can watch his keynote introducing the MacBook Air under).
First MacBook Air: World’s thinnest laptop computer?
“We’ve constructed the world’s thinnest pocket book — with out sacrificing a full-size keyboard or a full-size 13-inch show,” mentioned Jobs in a press launch saying the MacBook Air launch. “Whenever you first see MacBook Air, it’s laborious to consider it’s a high-performance pocket book with a full-size keyboard and show. However it’s.”
Whether or not the primary MacBook Air genuinely was the thinnest laptop computer of its age was open to argument. The 2003 Sharp Actius MM10 Muramasas, for example, measured thinner in some locations than the MacBook Air, however thicker at its minimal level.
One factor no person may argue with: In a single fell swoop, Apple modified the sport with this radical new laptop computer design.
For an illustration, evaluate the primary 3-pound MacBook Air with the a lot bulkier 4.4-pound PowerBook 2400c laptop computer hailed as Apple’s lightest laptop computer only a decade earlier. The MacBook Air was simply a rare piece of engineering.
Unibody aluminum design turns into Apple’s go-to
The revolutionary unibody manufacturing course of used within the first MacBook Air primarily reversed the way in which Apple constructed its laptops. As a substitute of layering a number of sheets of metallic, the method let Apple begin with a strong block of aluminum. Then, materials was faraway from the slab till solely a single completed piece remained — a literal “unibody.”
The design proved so profitable that it migrated to the MacBook, after which on to the bigger iMac. The times of Apple’s use of plastic as a major materials (except for the later iPhone 5c) had come to an finish.
For Apple, the long run was aluminum.
First MacBook Air: Dimension over specs
Apple designed the MacBook Air to enchantment to prospects who didn’t concentrate on computing energy. With just one USB port and no built-in optical drive, the ultraportable laptop computer was supposed for individuals who wished minimal weight and most display screen dimension. It delivered “as much as 5 hours of battery life for wi-fi productiveness,” in accordance with Apple.
Jobs pitched the product as a very wi-fi machine — it lacked each Ethernet and FireWire connections. Apple constructed the super-thin laptop computer to enchantment to these whose on-the-go existence meant heavier reliance on Wi-Fi than on wired connectivity. The pc’s AirPort Excessive 802.11n Wi-Fi networking delivered “as much as 5 instances the efficiency and twice the vary of 802.11g,” Apple mentioned.
Unique MacBook Air specs
The featherweight laptop computer boasted a 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. And it packed 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM and an 80GB laborious drive. It additionally got here with an iSight digital camera and microphone, an LED-backlit show that tailored to the brightness of the room, and the identical full-size keyboard present in different MacBooks. Costs began at $1,799.
A decade and a half later, the MacBook Air lives on. In 2022, powered by Apple’s proprietary M3 chip, Apple deserted the primary unique mannequin’s traditional wedge form. The brand new design seems to be “strikingly skinny from each angle,” in accordance with the corporate.
“Utterly redesigned round M2, MacBook Air is thinner, lighter, and sooner with a much bigger show, higher digital camera, and all-day battery life, in 4 lovely finishes,” mentioned Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice chairman of worldwide advertising and marketing, in a June 2022 press launch saying the brand new laptops.
Apple launched its first 15-inch MacBook Air, additionally powered by the M2 chip, in June 2023. MacBook Airs powered by Apple’s M3 chip arrived in 2024. And fashions operating on the most recent M4 chip reportedly will ship in early 2025.
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