.... if it had a higher res screen :(

Oh and didn't come with an O/S (and especially not with Vista).

...will it fit in the manila, string-tie, slightly-bigger-than-A4, office envelope that I keep lying around for such a device?

Looks nice, to bad there is no commercial OS that is worthy of such a platform.

So little time.

but the specs are about 2x as good.

Sounds like a better choice.

Why is every thin laptop deemed a 'MacBook Air' beater?

It's just a thin laptop. The Air is in a different league.

Oh you thought Apple actually ENGINEERS and MAKES their ground breaking (no just their computer crap breaks) Macs?? Hardly, Apple hasn't engineered anything since the Apple ][ and hasn't made ANYTHING in the US since they moved the Apple ][e production to Canada and then Japan, then Taiwan. Apple draws cutsy pictures of discoloring plastic and pealing Titanium or Aluminum outsides. (Sony / IBM designed, ENGINEERED and Manufactured ALL Apple portables until 2000! Then it moved to Korea and Taiwan and now at Chinese Sweatshops.)

Samsung has had a loooong association with crAPPLE computers, designing them, MAKING THEM; so why shouldn't Samsung make a Air-knockoff that is at least as good??

Buy it AppleTards, it's a G3 iMacs sibling and at least it isn't made in a Commie Chinese Sweatshop by 13 year olds working for $50 a month minus living expenses (-$40).

Am I the only one who thinks it's got a big fat derrière ? It looked good until the side profile pictures. Maybe if I have a few pints she'll start to look better. Tends to work in the bars.

It takes a few pints to make Paris look good.

At 30mm at its thickest point, that makes it thicker than my plain ol' macbook, at 27mm. If they really are trying to compete with the air, they're doing it wrong.

My original Titanium Powerbook G4 of 6-7 years ago was only 1" (25mm) thick! It looks better than the Macbook Air from above, but it is not thin - which is the only reason you buy a 'thin' laptop.

I swear, is Mac the only company that knows how to make a laptop with smooth lines? I like using laptops.. on my lap.. and that shit digs in to my leg. The macbook air is nice, and doesn't hurt to have on your lap.

At least it doesn't look like a cavemans vision of futuristic like all the apple crap. Apple is so Mork & Mindy.

Give us a break, the Air's in the same sort of league as American Baseball.

Declare themselves the best in the world at it because noone else other than the Japanese bother.

The air isn't the smallest, it isn't the best, and it's frankly just another dire piece of Apple hardware for the Jobs bridage - under quality, over priced.

This samsung looks nice though, would certainly rather it found XP installed - Vista would munch half of a 64gb SSD once Office etc is installed :)

Hmmm...looks awfully like my own "Airbook beater" the Sony Vaio VGN-SZ61WN.

3.3cms thick so a little more portly, slighty smaller length and width wise, a touch heavier but with inbuilt optical drive, full array of ports, wi-fi and 3G integrated, 2Gb ram and a 2.2Ghz Intel dual core. Shame about the corporate Vista install which is a bit like hobbling Usain Bolt by making him run the 100mtrs as a 3 legged race - tied to me.

More on my blog - http://www.andypoulton.com/2008/01/whats-all-hot-air-about.html

Any more room on that 'El Reg Apple-Killer' pile, lads?..."

You're quite obviously a moron, Why do you insist on making your idiotic comments. Go away, gain some life experience, try being creative. its easy to knock others, but it's a lot harder to actually get off your ass and be creative. Apple are a hugely successful company that are making a lot of money. You can no longer put that down to Appletards. People buy their products because they like them, pure and simple.

I'm hoping you're about 15 years old, because if you're any older than that, there's no hope for you. The problem with teenagers is that they think they know everything, when in reality, they know jack shit!

ROFL

And of course the Toshiba Portege R500 has an optical drive integrated in the design but since flash memory prices are in free fall and the memory sticks storage capacity has increased massively as well so what price a choice for this conundrum ?

But most modern laptops are superior to imaginary and thinks it's a legend in its own right the somewhat limited by basic inherent design flaws the CrapBook Air .

Is being thin the new mobile computer holy greil ?

In the real world, the Vista will be replaced by XP. That should improve the power numbers somewhat.

Ignore all the Air nonsense and it looks quite a nice specced lappy, I like the maroon lid in one of the shots, very smart.

...is thin, light and as powerful as this "newest" pile of hyped cr@p like Asus, Mac thin, Samsung, Delila, etc...and the funny thing is that is already 5 years old, and easily runs a dual-boot of XP and Ubuntu.

Luverly! No hype, no bull, just buy a 4-5 year old latop and have the "latest" specs!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

I sounds nice. I hope the graphics chip isn't a slouch.

Is the hardware Linux compatible? Has anyone tried Linux and Blender on it by chance? Sorry but Vista is not an acceptable OS. I got work to get done while on the go.

and I'm saying that as a long-time Mac user. The Air has audio out, one USB 2.0 port, and a micro-DVI port. That's it. No wired ethernet, no firewire, only one peripheral unless you carry a USB hub, non-replaceable battery... That works for some people, but it's just not adequate for most users' needs. I'd take this instead. Only real drawback I see is the limited hard drive space.

I like vista, and with the 4 gig of ram option, It'll be more than adequate for anything I do on the road. (For the people saying that it isn't: What on earth do you DO whilst mobile that needs higher specs than that?)

6 hrs of real world use sounds pretty impressive... No pricing available yet though.

as someone once said, if your product gets described as "competitors-product"-beater, then you haven't really beaten them at all

As a long term Toshiba R500 fan I was a bit disapointed when I was asked to test drive a Lenovo X300 at work (it's what our parent company issue instead of the R500).

I have to say that although it's bigger and heavier than the R500 (although it's still a lot easier to cart around than a standard laptop) it's much better made. The R500 is far to flexible and it's low power processor really struggles. A real world test that The Gadget Show (Five) did just proves that and the Lenovo is a great performer in comparison.

It's sturdy and although it's quite square it does have smooth edges and a nice slightly rubbery finish. Anyone looking for a easy-to-cart-around laptop should consider one.

"Buy it AppleTards, it's a G3 iMacs sibling and at least it isn't made in a Commie Chinese Sweatshop by 13 year olds working for $50 a month minus living expenses (-$40)."

You're an idiot. Asus manufacturers Apple kit

Aye it's nice. It's shiny and black and all that, but the manufacturers have made one bug mistake.

It runs fecking windows!

When will people learn that windows is moribund?

People. Take a few minutes to try out Mac OS X, then you can forget about Windows and move on with your life. It's over. It's not you, its me. I love windows, but I'm not in-love with windows. There's someone else.

How many different ways do you want me to say it?

How about this:

"Windows Vista - it the OS for the 90s." (You can quote me on that.)

Get the picture? It's over. Windows is dying. Time to move to a proper OS.

And before you flame me. If you've never tried OS X then shut up because you cannot argue about things you don't know.

"The air isn't the smallest, it isn't the best, and it's frankly just another dire piece of Apple hardware for the Jobs bridage - under quality, over priced."

If you don't like Apple hardware, at least convey it with some meaningful words.

I don't think you get the point of the Air, or a lot of Apple's products by the sound of it.

Grow up you idiot, the days of companies manufacturing every component of their goods is long gone! If the entire machine is designed and engineered by someone like Samsung why wouldn't they manufacture and sell them under their own name? Surely they wouldn't want to give away a huge chunk of profits just to sell under the Apple brand?

I see this machine has the typical PC scroll section on the right hand side of the trackpad. Ugh. It's features like multi-touch that put the Air in a class above this kind of laptop.

Thats the ugliest laptop I ever seen*

*with the exception of anything made by IBM

It is quite a sleek bit o' kit, for sure but you neglected to mention any real specs beyond SDD size, screen size/res and wifi. Appears to be fairly similar to my M1330, if a bit thinner and 1 kg lighter, though my 1330 does include a slot-loading DVD burner.

Anti-bacterial coating fer-f*cks-sake! When will we stop catering to neurotics and start coating keyboards with dirt and used chewing gum. RIP the human immune system.

In the inward-looking cultural ecosystem of Anglo-Saxon US and UK, we tend to forget that just because something isn't a fashionable name here doesn't mean it's not successful. Samsung is actually the world's biggest consumer electronics company. For comparison, some prices on Amazon:

Basic Air: 1.6Ghz, 60Gb HDD, 2Gb RAM - £1090

Basic Q45: 1.83Gz, 320Gb HDD, 3Gb RAM - £549

Top Air: 1.8Ghz, 80Gb HDD, 2Gb RAM - £1475

Top Q45: 2.4Ghz, 320Gb HDD, 3Gb RAM - £830

Is a slightly bigger screen, a slightly smaller size, a few hundred grammes and the Apple logo are worth £500? OK, so we have Vista instead of MacOS - but knowing the quality of Samung, the HDD is probably quicker, the processor's quicker and it has more RAM. I bet it's actually faster than the Air, and the hardware is probably more reliable.

Only a Mac fanboy would buy the Air over the Samsung.

My dad's bigger than your dad ... nah nah nah!

Good grief .....

"IT'S A PUPPET"!

Damn! I've just quoted Brian Conley .... sigh .... hung from my own petard!

One might equally say that only a Windows fanboy would buy the Samsung over the Air.

"A real world test that The Gadget Show (Five) did just proves that and the Lenovo is a great performer in comparison."

My goodness, "real world test" and "Gadget Show" in the same sentence.

"Only a Mac fanboy would buy the Air over the Samsung."

What a pathetic comment.

There's no point in buying the Samsung if my OS of choice doesn't run on it.

I am a decadent Westerner, but I work for Samsung. We do make great laptops, as you say, but they are unfortunately hampered by the OS produced by that "inward-looking cultural ecosystem of Anglo-Saxon US" company - Microsoft.

I bought my daughter a Samsung laptop with Vista. It's a great laptop, but Vista makes it run like a snail. Now it's got a strange bug where Windows Update cannot update itself. When I Google the error codes that are emitted by the updater, all I find are a handful of desperate "fixes" that don't work and the plaintive cries of thousands of lost souls with the same problems.

That's why I have a Mac and why my kids are saving up for their own Macs. It'll teach them that value and price are not the same thing. I might even donate some money myself, in anticipation of my reduced home IT support role.

It reminds me of the old joke: you are trapped in a lift (elevator, for US people) with Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Bill Gates. You have a gun, but only 2 bullets. Who do you shoot?

The answer is Bill Gates, twice, just to make sure.

Pure class Philip, and amply demonstrated by the rest of you.

Best comment I've seen in months.

...engineers, or at least some of us are supposed to vaguely comprehend engineering type things. The number of cells in a laptop's battery has zero relation to its capacity in Wh or more importantly to how long the machine will actually last you between recharges. Why do you bother to quote these bits of pointless jargon off the press release, which just makes it look (incorrectly, I'm sure) like you don't really understand what you're copying and pasting?

Oh, the Samsung thingy: erm, (a) it's fatter, (b) it runs Windows. Next contestant please.

Hmm... should the baseline of thin laptops be soemthing else than the air?

Is the Sony Vaio X505, not the thinnest, lightest laptop... and it has a functioning OS, no?