Is the Macbook Air comparison really necessary, or is this site now taking a leaf out of Engadget's book?

Besides, the MBA blows.

it's certainly moving towards the price of a macbook!

But will it run osx I wonder?

Looks bugger all like the Mac Book Air. It has an optical drive, for starters.

It can't be a MacBook Air beater if it doesn't run OS X.

And yes, the MBA blows.

Surely the whole point of the MBA is that it's anorexic-thin. It's features are secondary.

So until another manufacturer releases a notebook 1mm thinner, it's impossible for there to be a 'MBA beater' I would have thought.

The MacBook Air's gimmick is 'thin'. How can it be a MacBook Air beater when it is twice as fat?

Like it or not, the Air is the benchmark by which other light laptops are judged.

Similarly, why do you think other devices are often described as iPod- or iPhone beaters? (and then fail miserably in the process).

Apple sets the standard. Design matters.

It will still come with Windows Vista, the computer operating system designed to weigh computers down like a stone, from the 10 death marks of Windows; CE, ME & NT

Cement

from blimp.tv

pwns the MBA on features, having wired ethernet and more than one USB slot.

The Register scraping the barrel again, and failing to come up with anything plausible.

"MBA Beater" and "The R600 still has the same dangerously bendy 12.1in, 1280 x 800 screen found on the R500". So let me see if I get this right, making something inferior to the MBA qualifies it as an MBA Beater? Is that in the same way as people on Benefit are Captains of Industry?

Perhaps it would be simpler, better, and less painful if El Reg got back to simply reporting facts and left out the personal prejudices and opinions. This old crank of yours is getting tiresome and making you like one of our daily Red Tops. What next, Page Three pictures?

IT? - Because this article has bugger all to do with IT and more to do with airing prejudices.

Gimme a break. The MBA is crap! Beating it isn't exactly difficult.

No, it isn't. The MBA is a gimmick, loved only by those who don't need to actually DO stuff; the benchmark is the Lenovo X300, in comparison to which, both this Tosh AND the MBA score a massive fail.

"Gimme a break. The MBA is crap! Beating it isn't exactly difficult."

What's the point of posting without actually explaining why?

....how exactly is the MBA crap?

Sure it doesn't have many ports, only has 100Mb ethernet and has no on board DVD, but it utterly destroys any of the other super thin and light machines where it matters, on performance.... the only one that really bugs me is the ethernet speed, but that's only an issue when moving large files around on a network, otherwise none of the supposed "MBA Beaters" even come close to beating it... but people will always profess how much greater it is because of all the unnecessary features that are used so infrequently... buy a £4 USB hub and you're done.

I have only limited experience with MBAs as intimate as this, and no, she doesn't.

Paris, she's got no MBA but ...

:-)

I'll concede your point when a machine is described as a 'Lenovo X300-beater'.

"Why do you keep saying that word? I don't think it means what you think it does."