The machine weighs 2.96 pounds, though it isn’t as light as the others, especially the 2.47-pound Toshiba Portege Z835. While the Asus Zenbook UX31 and U300s came close to matching the unibody build, the Air feels more tightly constructed: the lid and base are solid to the core, the screen hinge exhibits zero wobble, and there’s no flex to the keyboard. (The Lenovo IdeaPad U300s, original Samsung Series 9, and Sony Vaio Z deserve honorable mentions for having unique designs with well-built chassis.) You’re almost certainly familiar with the Air, but I will say that in terms of build quality, the Air is the best thin-and-light machine on the market. In fact, it is so iconic and so deeply associated with how a thin-and-light laptop should look that nearly every ultrabook manufacturer has modeled their machines after the 0.68-inch thick aluminum unibody laptop. The MacBook Air’s design is beyond iconic at this point.
So, is it worth the extra cash? Are there any tradeoffs? Does Apple make the best Windows ultrabook? Let’s finally make this a fair comparison and find out. However, I’ve realized (thanks to a number of readers) that really isn’t an apples to apples comparison: the Air doesn’t run Windows 7, at least not out of the box, and many who are buying ultrabooks are likely looking for a very thin and light Windows PC, not a Mac OS X laptop.Ī MacBook Air running Windows 7 costs a minimum of $1,419 - if you go with the lowest end 13-inch Air ($1,299) and Windows Home Premium ($119.99) - which is quite a bit more than the average $1,000 ultrabook.
In fact, I’ve concluded in almost all of The Verge’s ultrabook reviews that it’s probably worth spending a bit more and buying an Air. However, while the ultrabooks on the market today have all tried to mimic and beat the Air on one thing or another - price, more storage, and so on - none have managed to pull it off.
Just take a look at a lot of the designs and the features: the influence (and in some places the outright imitation) is obvious. Let’s be honest: The ultrabook phenomenon is by and large Intel's and the rest of the PC industry's reaction to Apple’s MacBook Air.
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