Click to viewHere you have the first MacBook Air unboxing: iPhone-styled tiny packaging, minimalist and all smooth black. What's even more important, you'll see it compared to a Windows laptop: a Sony VAIO (fight!). Akiko Wada, a Japanese blogger, got invited to a special event hosted by Apple Japan, and she very kindly let us use her photos in Gizmodo. Her thoughts, complete mega-gallery, video and the Air vs. VAIO side-by-side after the jump.
Update: Akiko has shared with us her opinions about the Air, from the perspective of a thin PC user from Japan. Update 2: Inexplicably, Akiko was asked by Apple Japan to remove the old video. She replaced it with a new one.
Obviously, they allowed it because this particular model of VAIO is thick enough to make the MacBook Air look as thin as paper. The event was celebrated by Apple Japan on the 19th. Akiko, who is a PC notebook user, have shared her particular perspective on the MacBook Air:
Jesus Díaz: What do you think about the MacBook Air, from a point of view of someone used to thin and tiny PC laptops?
Akiko Wada: Wonderful! To tell you the truth, I was a little skeptical before the event. "Thin" is very important for a laptop and many Japanese people are looking for the smallest and thinnest and lightest laptop all the time.
But at the same time, the toughness is important for me. I thought: "The MacBook Air is thin, but may be not tough."
I was wrong. At the event, I felt the MacBook Air is tough enough.
Now I use three computers, Sony VAIO Type R master, MacBook, and Pansonic Let's Note R3. The Let's Note Series is a very popular mobile laptop in Japan.
I am a Windows user and I love my [Panasonic] Let's Note, but I have to say that I love the MacBook Air. It completely charmed me.
JD: So what do you think will be the reaction to this in Japan, a country obsessed with light and thin in consumer electronics?
AW: My guess is that many Japanese people will switch to Mac this year. Before, the Mac's laptops didn't appear in the popularity ranking. But now... I am very surprised. I think that many Japanese will accept it just the same as iPod (once I heard some young Japanese girls talking about a Sony Walkman. They said: "Wao! It's a Sony iPod!" Now, the iPod is something like General noun in Japan.)
The original video is no longer available at the request of Apple Japan to Ms. Awada. A new video has been published:
Head to her site to learn more about it and watch the video in high resolution. [WADA-blog — Thanks Akiko!]