MacBook Air Clone – Full Metal Jacket Edition

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Comments Posted on Aug 26, 2009 Posted by Yellow Tiger

The MacBook Air is positioned as the ultraportable in Apple’s MacBook family. While it’s super stylish in the looks department, it disappointed a lot of Apple fans with the sacrifices it had to make in order to keep so slim. The shanzhai guys have just come out with a MacBook Air-inspired device that stays true to the styling, while still offering many of the features the Apple product lacks. And all in a full metal chassis…

Here are a few of the drawbacks to the MacBook Air:

1.   No Ethernet port – in the interests of thinness it’s wireless only.
2.   Only one USB port, and it’s recessed to boot, which will hinder certain peripherals.
3.   No Firewire port. Forget uploading digital video from a camera, or using those spiffy Firewire external hard drives.
4.   No user-replacable battery. A bit of a hassle especially as your battery life drops to four hours, then three, then nothing. Shades of the iPhone battery issues here.

Earlier this year, the Shanzhai vendors released a 12-inch MacBook Air copy with very low pricing. It did well in the market but at the end of the day it was just that – a copy, without the performance and software slickness of the original.

Now, we have a new Apple-inspired device, but with innovations and extra add-in functionality that brings something new to the market. It takes advantage of Apple’s stylish design, combines it with Shanzhai’s practical feature set and good pricing to deliver a much better 2nd generation MacBook-inspired product.

MetalMac6

Here are some of the improvements and features:

1.   Full metal jacket for enhanced rigidity and better thermal sinking.
2.   It features a frameless 11-inch screen instead of the Mac Air’s 13-inch screen, for increased mobility.
3.   It has 2 USB ports and a removeab;e battery, plus a reserved PCIe slot inside for a 3G module (no 3G on the MacBook Air).
4.   The dimensions of the device are 277x187x25mm; slightly thicker than the Mac Air but also lighter at 1.33kg (MacBook Air is 1.36kg).

MetalMac1

Other specs include:
Processor: Intel Atom 1.6GHz
RAM: 1GB DDR2
HD: 2.5inch 160GB
Screen: 11.1 inch, 1366*768 resolution
Connectivity: Ports are mainly on left and right sides (as opposed to the back), 2 USB ports, earphone port, power, one RJ-45 port. A card-reader and status lights on the left side.
Battery: 3500mAh (removable)

Western Opportunity Analysis:

This unbranded device has huge potential in Western markets. Due out in September this year for around USD290, this good looking, functional product should sell extremely well. Obviously, the metal finish is a nice touch that gives it a high-end feel and look and separates it from the rest of the pack.

Conclusions:

The machine we had on hand and show in the photos was an engineering sample not the finished version so there might be some minor changes when it hits the market, but either way, look for this to make a splash when it comes out next month.

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Comments

0 # Guest 2009-10-09 18:17

I loved that movie and that picture is priceless!


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MacBook Air Clone – Full Metal Jacket Edition

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