No, there’s no DVD drive, but here’s why that shouldn’t put you off.
Message to anyone worrying about the lack of a DVD drive in the MacBook Air: stop worrying.
We think the tide has turned on DVD and they're a dying species in ultraportables. If you’re lugging a notebook it’s extra weight you can do without, not to mention the drain on the battery.
As for movies, portable USB hard drives have never looked handier, and with Apple now pushing movie rentals via iTunes (alas, not in Australia), the need for discs will be even less. If you simply must have a DVD drive then Apple has the USB-powered SuperDrive on the way ($139).
Here’s why you don’t want a DVD drive in an ultra-light notebook: they hog the battery like there’s no tomorrow. I’ve tested many sub 2Kg notebooks and they don’t have the juice – take Dell’s 13.3inch XPS M1330, which is a great machine, but run a DVD and you’ll be left with maybe 45 minutes of work time. That’s pointless if you’re on the road for the day.
I’m loathed to single out vendors, so here’s another example. One of the longest lasting portables on the market is the solid-state Toshiba Portege R500, but even it can only crank out about 3 hours or so of DVD playback before it runs out of power. That’s not exactly a full day’s work.
The other problem with DVD is that some smaller notebooks just don’t have the CPU grunt. It sounds hard to believe, but it’s a problem you occasionally see with ultra-low voltage chips, especially when paired with only 1GB RAM.
Apple isn’t the first to drop the DVD, and they’re likely to not be the last - it’s already happening in sub 1Kg machines like LG’s A1. If you want to use your laptop for something other than movies, then chances are you’ll get used to living without DVD.