Well Steve Jobs just finished his keynote speech announcing the much rumored Macbook Air. Which measures 0.16-inches at its thinnest point, while its maximum height of 0.76-inches! Impressive huh?? Apple are touting the MBA as the thinnest laptop in the world. Or is it?

Steve Jobs Unvieling the Macbook Air in CES 2008

Steve Jobs Unvieling the Macbook Air in CES 2008

Actually Sony produced the Vaio PCG-X505 back in 2004. This laptop boasted a .38″ to .8″ thickness! Pretty much comparable to the 2008 Apple wonder eh? And that was 4 years back!

Vaio PCG-X505

The Toshiba Portege r200 measures 11.3 inches wide, 9 inches deep, and 0.8 inch thick:

Toshibe Portege r200

The Asus U3S-A1B is also worthy of a mention, it is around 1.26 inches thick also:

Asus U3S-A1B

And for the grand finale, Sharp had an ultranotebook (PC-UM20) back in 2002 boasting an impressive .65 inch thickness! That’s .13 inches less than Macbook Air! At what cost? only $1700 only! (Thanks AdRy from digg)

Sharp PC-UM20

Hmmm, so whats all the fuss about? So we have a 6 year old laptop that’s already thinner, and around two thirds of the price. Sony had an almost identically slim model 4 years ago, Toshiba already offers a .8 inch model, and Asus has a model thats a 1/3 of an inch thicker. I am sure there are some others out there. Apple haven’t brought anything new to the world, perhaps just sensational marketing.

Macbook Air will probably fly off the shelves, which I have no beef with, however I have beef with people thinking it’s the best thing since sliced bread! Trust me people, nothing to see here, move along.