First HDD-based MacBook Airs to land stateside on Feb 1st

Those fortunate enough say the Air's shipped out of China earlier this morning and are due to arrive on their doorsteps Friday, Feb. 1st via FedEx. Thus far, there have been no reports to indicate that Apple is also shipping units to its chain of retail stores.

Meanwhile, those customers waiting on the $3100 version of the super-slim notebook employing a solid-state flash drive (SSD) in place of a traditional hard drive continue to wait patiently for their orders. Checks with these customers indicate the first SSD MacBook Airs will ship sometime between Feb. 6th and Feb 8th.

Readers who may be considering a MacBook Air purchase may want to check out how it stacks up against other ultra-light notebook offerings, AppleInsider's first look at the Air, and an assortment of photo galleries (1, 2, 3).

Given that the HDD-based MacBook Air largely represents a compressed version of the company's existing MacBook line, AppleInsider in the coming weeks will be focusing the majority of its review efforts on the advancements put forth by the SSD model.

Those readers who don't mind waiting a little longer for their MacBook Air may want to look into purchasing from Amazon.com, which offers most customers an instant savings between $130 and $230 via a lack of sales tax.