Now that Apple has rejoined the ultra-portable arena with their new Macbook Air, it is but fair to have a short comparison between the Air, the Eee PC and the Classmate PC. Just to give you a clear idea as to major differences between the three, each one has a different market in mind.



The Macbook Air is intended for the high-end road warrior. The Eee PC is for the uber-geeks and the Classmate PC is intended for students. Now that we have cleared that up, let's proceed to the comparison.

Form Factor

Both Classmate PC and Eee PC beats the Macbook Air in terms of size. However, don't be deceived by this since the Macbook Air compensates by giving you a full 13.3" screen and full-sized keyboard instead of a 7" display with small keyboard. In terms of ease of use, the Air has an edge.

Whilst the Air might have a slight advantage, the weight, on the other hand, adds to its disadvantage. At 3lbs, it may look only 1lb heavier than the other two but that can take its toll when you have it on your messenger bag or backpack for a full day.

Power

Of the three, the Air has the more powerful processor clocking at 1.6 (or 1.8) GHz with full 64-bit support (Core 2 Duo). Both Classmate PC and Eee PC only sports a Celeron 900Mhz. A more powerful processor may be ideal but it can also be a bit warmer to the touch when in use. The Eee PC gets a bit warm specially when surfing via wireless. I am quite sure that the Air will also be warm.

Storage

The Eee PC has the least storage space of the three. The Classmate PC I have has a 30GB HDD and the Air comes with 80GB (with a 64GB SSD option). However, of the three, the Eee PC can be extended via SD cards. Something which may or may not be an advantage. The HDD also adds a little more weight, of course. And oh, mechanical HDDs are more sensitive to falls than SSDs. :)

Memory

The Classmate PC and Eee PC comes with 512MB RAM as standard compared to the Air's non-upgradable 2GB option. My Eee PC comes with 2GB RAM and it flies! :) Anyway, I am not sure if the Classmate PC has the support for more RAM.

Connectivity

All three ultra-portables support WiFi. However, the Air does not have a separate Ethernet port. This may not be a big deal to some who lives in a city with lots of hotspots. However, there are still areas where an Ethernet port is the only means of connectivity. Besides, for network and system administrators, the Ethernet port is the fastest way to access the network (and not to mention, more secure!).

Ports

The Air has 1 USB port, mono speaker port and a micro-DVI. The Classmate PC comes with a separate speaker and mic port and 2 USB ports. The Eee PC, however, comes with 3 USB ports, speaker and mic ports and a VGA port. For such a "big" ultra-portable, the Air skimped on ports.

Cost

For one Macbook Air, you can buy 3-4 Eee PCs! That may be too high a premium to pay. However, as I have stated earlier, each one is intended for a different market. Frankly, the Air might benefit from a slight price decrease, perhaps to somewhere around USD1500.

AS for the Classmate PC, the price is still undetermined but I have heard that it is around USD500.

Opinion

My take on this is that the Classmate PC is at the short end of the stick here. Of the three, it does not even have a feature that makes it ahead of the pack. It is a toss-up between the Air and the Eee PC with cost and number of ports as the prime factors to consider. I have the Eee PC and I am still trying to justify the purchase of the Macbook Air. Both cannot be your primary computer - you need another desktop or more powerful laptop to complement it.

So what do you think?