The Laptop review

Apple have launched the world's thinnest notebook, called the MacBook Air. It isn't a cheap laptop - but we thought you'd like to hear more.

The MacBook Air has a fresh, brand new ultra compact thin design. Accoding to Apple, the Air is the thinnest notebook computer available, and indeed it's remarkably sleek. At its widest point, it's a hair over three-quarters of an inch (that's 1.94cm) and it's very light, weighing in at exactly 1.36kg.

The new model Macs are equipped with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors, offer larger hard drives and ship with 2GB of memory as standard in most models. All MacBooks and MacBook Pros can now house up to 4GB of memory, making them ideal for the multimedia apps such as Photoshop and Cubase that have long made Macs the creative man's (and wo-man's) tool of choice.

A far cry from the modest little EEE PC we just brought up. But, if you need a powerful and reliable tool for multimedia on the road here's the lowdown.

MacBook Air

• Light, small and super thin.
  
• Base processor is a 1.6 Core 2 Duo.
  
• 2 Gb memory
  
• 80 Gb hard drive
  
• 5 hours batt
  
• 13 inch screen

£1,199

Needless to say at less than 2cm thick, the MacBook Air doesn't have a built in optical drive. Instead, you can use a remote optical drive which makes living without a built-in drive much easier than the traditional docking station alternatives (if you've had a docking station, you'll know what I mean).

Here comes the cheap bit. Education offers. Students and teachers can save up to 8% on Macs and up to 80% on Apple Software products!

Going on the experience of sales at Cheap Laptops and immediate colleagues, friends and family ACER are a real contender for affordable but capable laptops.

But why is that? Well, for just £352.49 (we musn't forget the obligatory 49p...) you can get your hands on an Acer Aspire 5051WLMi. Now, that's an ACER laptop with economy in mind - ie. you might "aspire" to upgrade to a Travelmate, Lamborghini etc.

What do you get?

For the price it is an impressive package powered by a powerful 2GHz AMD Turion 64 low power processor supported by 1 Gb RAM. Unusually for laptops it also has a 120 Gb hard drive and a built in DVD +/- RW. Not bad eh? Well, that's the one reason why ACER seem to be killing off Toshiba's long term domination of desktop replacement notebook PCs.

I like to call these laptops "tabletops" because they have quote high end processors and aren't ideal for travel / mobility but can still be popped away in the drawer once you've finished doing your online shopping from Tesco, ordered your wife (or partner!) some sexy lingerie to keep you out the doghouse and poked fun at friends on Facebook.

All of which moves us swiftly on to display.

Can I watch DVDS?

Well, this little laptop has a 14.1" WXGA monitor. That's Wide screen XGA in English and yes, good for personal DVD viewing but perhaps you would fork out for a 17" if you want to share. ACER laptops are alway fully featured and the cheaper models are no exception. The Acer Aspire 5051WLMi has a 5 in 1 card reader to make it easier to grab photos from a digital camera.

The laptop comes with Windows Vista home and a built in wireless interface.