Replica Macbook Air

China's knockoff makers clone the MacBook Air unibody almost to perfection.

It looks like a MacBook Air unit, right? Shenzhen' s Evil Confederacy of Mad Scientist Scioners have succeeded in breaking off the feeling of Apple's best-selling MacBook Air, complete with solid body chassis, for less than half the cost of Apple's ultra-portable, almost perfect. And for a bit of a $%@! nnetbook put into a MacBook Air-like shell, it's not a poor bike for the sub-$500 cost.

These are the specifications we look at: a 1.86GHz Intel Atom N2800 processor with built-in GMA3600 graphics processor, 13.3-inch 1366×768 LEDs LED screen, 2GB random access memory, 32GB SSD, two 2.0-USB ports, a 3-in-1 memory cartridge slot, tiny HDMI port, and a 4100mAh non-removable rechargeable cell that gives you up to 3.5 hour power.

MacBook Air knockoff weighs just a few ounces more than the genuine MacBook Air and is just 0.1 inches thinner. Accumulator performance isn't that great, but apart from that I'm quite amazed at the specifications they achieved in this thing, especially the shape factor: without turning it on, the only way to tell it apart from a true MacBook Air is the lack of the Apple emblem!

By chance, if you wander through the Shenzhen exchange lanes, you should see this Air Cluster Nettbook sometime in November, for a few dollars under 500 dollars. And if you're still not sure that laptops are bullshit, that's a good value for a nice one.