MacBook Air Prices Discounted by $500!

Although the base model for Macbook Air with a slower processor and a traditional optical disk drive instead of the solid state drive, remains $1,799 - to everyone's surprise the high-end version supermodel-thin MacBook Air laptop is now, to $2,598 from $3,098. That $500 is about 16% off the retail price! Great for bargain hunters looking to buy a Macbook

And why is the sudden $500 discount on the high-end Macbook just 6 months after its release? Well according to Apple spokesperson Bill Evans, apparently the options to upgrade a MacBook Air to a faster Core 2 Duo processor and a 64 gigabyte solid-state drive are now more affordable. Falling NAND flash memory prices is certainly benefiting customers then or maybe Apple just wants to sell more of their units - who knows.

Apply did right by their already loyal customers though, those who purchased the unit at full price will actually get a $500 refund! Isn't the just nice? I truly appreciate a company who wouldn't rip people off like that. That's absolutely outstanding of Apple.

I personally think a Macbook is sexy. But I went with Lenovo on my unit, because I thought the Mac was too expensive for me and my usage.

Voodoo Envy 133 laptop

Voodoo Envy 133 laptop weighing less than 3 1/2 pounds sits on the red corner to battle Apple's MacBook Air. Being only half an inch thick I think makes it a worthy contender with carbon fiber shell. Hewlett Packard (HP) I guess has been trying to be more competitive in this market

Highlights:

• 133 stands for 13.3” display
• 0.7” thick
• Carbon Fiber casing
• WiFi N (100+ Mbps)
• Starts at $2099

The New Lenovo Ultrathin ThinkPad X300 Laptop To Challenge Apple's MacBook Air

Lenovo today launched the much-anticipated ThinkPad X300 ultraportable, challenging Apple's MacBook Air (read a Marketing Critic's Review of MacBook Air) as the lightest and thinnest notebook available today, as announced on PCWorld.com

Weighing started at 2.93 pounds. Lenovo claims ThinkPad X300 is more feature-rich than Apple's 3-pound MacBook Air. Lenovo has included three USB drives and an ultrathin DVD burner, while MacBook Air has only one USB drive and no optical drive. With a DVD-RW drive, the X300 weighs 3.13 pounds, Lenovo said.

The laptop measures 0.73 inches at its thinnest point by 0.92 inches at its thickest point, bigger in comparison to MacBook Air, which measures 0.16 inches at its thinnest part and 0.76 inches at its thickest part.

Targeted at business users and consumers, the laptop uses 25 percent less power than previous ThinkPad models with a 64G-byte solid-state storage drive for data storage, a 13.3-inch LED-backlit display and use of a lithium-polymer battery, Lenovo said.

The lithium-polymer chemistry provides better battery life than standard lithium-ion batteries found in most laptops today, said Tom Ribble, director of Thinkpad product marketing at Lenovo. The system supports up to 4G bytes of memory and includes integrated graphics, a digital camera, and wired and wireless networking. It includes both touchpad and trackpoint scrolling capabilities.

The system will come with WiMax capabilities later this year with Intel's updated Centrino platform, according to Lenovo. The buyer may choose that the machine come preloaded either with Windows XP Professional or Windows Vista.
The ThinkPad 300's Processor

The X300 is powered by Intel's Core 2 Duo SL7100 LV low-voltage chip, operating at 1.2GHz. Like the Core 2 Duo processor specially developed for Apple's MacBook Air, Intel shrunk the SL7100 LV processor to make it 60 percent smaller than standard-sized processors belonging to Intel's Merom family. The chip is manufactured using the 65-nanometer process, like other Merom processors.

Although the size is the same, the SL7100 LV chip consumes less power. It uses 12 watts of power, according to processor details provided by Intel. The Core 2 Duo processor for MacBook Air uses 20 watts of power, while operating at 1.6GHz to 1.8GHz. Fujitsu also uses the SL7100 LV chip in its ultraportable LifeBook P8010 laptop, which started shipping in the U.S. this month.

Lenovo has pumped the latest technology into its laptop that both consumers and business users will appreciate, Ribble said.

Prices for the X300 start at $2,799, and it is available through Lenovo's Web site and through retail partners.

(image from Slashgear.com; article via PC World)