By Chris Chang, posted Mar 4, 2010 at 12:07 AM, 10,749 views,

Another Ultrathin MacBook Air Clone

Thin and cheap laptops are getting more common in Shenzhen’s knock-off markets. Here’s another great copy which looks like the MSI X340 and it may be as thin as the MacBook Air. One thing that thrilled me most is that this knockoff is a 13-inch ULV based system.

Alright, I’m sick of those Atom netbooks which bring low performance on gaming and watching HD movies. This laptop is equipped with 1.2GHz Intel ultra low voltage (ULV) processor, which is definitely stronger than the Atoms. Handling your everyday computing tasks (running a browser, checking for emails, listening to music, etc.) and 1080p high definition video (it has HDMI out) isn’t a problem for the CPU.

It’s a 13-inch (1366×768) laptop that weighs just 3 pounds with its 4-cell battery. It comes with 1GB of RAM, 160GB or 250GB hard drive, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

It’s slightly thicker than the MacBook Air and this may not satisfy Apple fanboys. However, it got Apple’s look and feel so who cares?

I’m pretty impressed with what the knockoff makers give you on this ultrathin laptop. Users get 3 USB ports, VGA & HDMI out, LAN, SD-card slot and audio in/out. Pretty enough for computer users nowadays.

One thing that I don’t like is the crappy keyboard. It looks pretty ugly in comparing with the chiclet keyboard on MacBooks. I believe PC users don’t mind about it.

The battery is big, it may last for 2 to 3 hours with Wi-Fi on. Not bad for a knockoff machine but I still hope it could last longer.

Everything looks good on this laptop since it gives you HDMI out. It’s thin and light, selling for just $2400 RMB (about $350). I just can’t wait to show this machine to my friend to get some satisfaction.