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Acer, Asus, Lenovo Borrowing MacBook Air Design

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Thin is still in.

Apple's MacBook Air has always prided itself on being one of the slimmest laptop computers on the market. The new 2010 refresh of the MacBook Air made things even slimmer and more compact.

Part of that was thanks to neat tricks with the LCD assembly, by having the LCD makers finish only the cell portion of the LCD module and passing it off to the backlight manufacturer to finish the rest of it. This sort of process shaved off between 3 to 5 millimeters off of the thickness of the LCD.

While Apple was the first to put this into use, the same process is now available to Acer, Asus and Lenovo. Digitimes believes that this will mean that we'll see some thin 13.3- and 14-inch notebooks using Sandy Bridge chips by the end of the first quarter.

So, if you've been lusting after that sleek form factor of the MacBook Air, but you want a PC, there could be the answer in just a few months.

48 Comments Comment from the forums
  • gorillateets 22 December 2010 23:47
    I bet these slim laptops will be a major pain to work on. Count me out. I'd rather have more performance and sacrifice a tiny bit of convenience. This will be for morons.
    Reply
  • trnddwn33 23 December 2010 00:07
    gorillateetsI bet these slim laptops will be a major pain to work on. Count me out. I'd rather have more performance and sacrifice a tiny bit of convenience. This will be for morons.
    I would say the average consumer in the market for one of these doesn't really care if they're easy to work on or not. In fact, I'd say that's true of most laptop users. If you want easy to work on, get a desktop.
    Reply
  • woofster 23 December 2010 00:09
    gorillateetsI bet these slim laptops will be a major pain to work on. Count me out. I'd rather have more performance and sacrifice a tiny bit of convenience. This will be for morons.Thats a bit of a narrow minded point of view i think. There are lots of people out there who this will be ideal for. I've used a macbook air on Windows and i found it more or less as capable as my laptop. If you're doing video editing or something similar then clearly this is not for you.
    Reply
  • lamorpa 23 December 2010 01:02
    This sort off process shaved off between 3 off 5 millimeters off of the thickness off the LCD off.
    Reply
  • noblerabbit 23 December 2010 01:04
    I'm afraid I'd physically damage one of these Air prototypes, just my looking at it, and doing 2 minutes of my job functions.
    Reply
  • iceonfire 23 December 2010 01:11
    lamorpaThis sort off process shaved off between 3 off 5 millimeters off of the thickness off the LCD off.LOL got to love awkward sentences :)
    Reply
  • sunflier 23 December 2010 01:13
    I bet these slim laptops will be a major pain to work on. Count me out. I'd rather have more performance and sacrifice a tiny bit of convenience. Macs are for morons...

    Thats prolly what you meant to say.
    Reply
  • chickenhoagie 23 December 2010 01:20
    i may be looking into the Asus model..sounds like it could be one sexy laptop!
    Reply
  • dman3k 23 December 2010 01:29
    How is this copying Apple???
    Reply
  • ender21 23 December 2010 01:29
    How does having the LCD be thinner make a laptop (or desktop for that matter) easier or harder to work on? It's the monitor. I'm looking at it, not touching it (except to open it/turn it on).

    I can see how rugged use would put it to the test, but the first poster's closed-minded assertion is that the laptop will somehow actually be more difficult to work on as a result. I just don't see it being easier or harder to work on. Just more portable.

    Reply