MacBook Air (original)

Notes

Architecture details:

• CPU: 64-bit
• EFI: 64-bit
• Graphics: 32-bit
• Onboard RAM: 2 GB

OS Support:

• Shipped: Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.3
• Maximum: Current OS X Lion
• Windows: XP, Vista (Boot Camp 2.1-3.2), 7 (Boot Camp 3.1+) [32-bit only]

History:
The original "fits-in-an-office-envelope" notebook was introduced at a special event in 2008 as a last-second surprise. Measuring 0.16"-0.76" thick from head to tail and based upon aspects of both the MacBook and MacBook Pro, the Air was Apple's first "thin-and-light" since the PowerBook Duo of the mid-1990's. Its only significant custom option was its hard disk, selectable between a 1.8", 80 GB PATA HDD and a 64 GB SSD; the latter adding nearly US$1,000 to the build price at the time, which started at US$1,799. Built with wireless connectivity in mind, Apple eschewed the traditional optical disc drive, making it a US$99 external device and introducing Remote Disc in its place. Remote Disc allows the Air to "borrow" the optical device of an enabled Mac or Windows computer in a home or corporate network. Yet, even with these shortcomings, the Air proved popular for its full-size keyboard and screen as well as its big multitouch trackpad. Despite multitouch capability, however, the trackpad retained the single button common to Mac models since "the beginning of time".

The original Air is the only model in the Air series to have been disqualified for any OS upgrade while still within Apple's usual seven-year hardware support lifecycle