MacBook Air SuperDrive

My SuperDrive finally arrived….three days behind the MBA and of course it was delivered just as I was boarding a flight to Victoria for a conference.

As you can see from the photos, it’s really small and thin but what you can’t see is that it’s actually about as tall as the MacBook Air.

It’s not much bigger than two stacked CD jewel cases. It’s also just as quiet (or loud) as my old PowerBook’s optical drive was.

There is really not much more to it. No power/read/burn indicator light. Just a block of aluminum with a slot in it and a USB tail.

Unfortunately, Apple decided to not include anything else with the drive. A simple slipcase would have been nice for something so obviously meant to travel. I suspect there will be no shortage of 3rd parties to fill this gap soon enough…possibly even MacBook Air cases with integrated SuperDrive pouches.

I’m not sure yet how it affects battery life on the MBA since it’s supposed to draw more power than a normal USB device would.

Update (Oct 2010): I still have this Superdrive and it works perfectly with the new 2010 MacBook Air – I bought the 11.6″ model.