MacBook Air Knockoff Gets Real Close, But In Appearance Only

The folks at MIC Gadget have found a MacBook Air knockoff from China called the AirBook that looks near identical to the real thing upon first glance. Without having a side-by-side comparison and without booting up, those less familiar with Apple products could easily be duped into thinking it was the real deal.

The AirBook looks amazingly similar, but sports a slightly larger footprint and a profile that's a hair thicker. Instead of having an aluminum unibody design, the AirBook uses matte plastic made to look like aluminum. It has isolated black keys and a large multi-touch trackpad as well as a MagSafe-like power connector.

But, the overall fit and finish is noticeably lacking when compared side-by-side with the real MacBook Air and it boots up Windows with its 1.8GHz Atom dual-core processor and 4GB of RAM. It does, however, have an SD card slot, USB 2.0, and mini-HDMI port.

You can check out the similarities and differences for yourself in the video below. MIC Gadget also did an extensive review on the $499 knockoff but ultimately suggests that you save up and get the real thing!