So, Steve Jobs did a fantastic job presenting the MacBook Air in a manila envelope. And MacBook Air stole the entire show at the MacWorld Conference last week. Thin is in. Of course. But while this whole hype about the MacBook Air is still flooding the headlines of gadgets blogs and newspaper, perhaps it’s a good time to now take a step back and look at this ultra thin laptop in microscope.

Design
Weigh at the lightest possible a laptop could weigh; at only 3-pound, MacBook Air earns its respect for being the thinnest laptop measuring at an astonishing 0.16 inches at its slimmest point and thickest at only three quarter of an inch.

The new aluminum-clad laptop could be slim and slender but it surprisingly features a 13.3 inch display and a full size keyboard without any compromise. The ultra thin laptop opens and closes with a magnetic latch. The wide backlit LED screen too is impressive considering the ‘thickness’ of the laptop. Just below the keyboard is a track-pad that applies almost all iPhone-like touch gestures; like ’squeezing’ the screen with your fingers to resize the photos.

Of course they are other small laptop in the market but none of them are as sexy. So in terms of design; slim and sleek, sexy and svelte, MacBook Air is no match. An absolute 5 star design.

Features
In terms of features, MacBook Air like all new Macs, has the latest virus-resistant OS X Leopard operating system. And it’s iLife multimedia suite includes iPhoto and iMovie for photo management and video editing purposes. MacBook Air includes Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled but it doesn’t come with the built-in ability to connect to a speedy wireless data network.

At the same time, Air does not come with an internal CD/DVD drive for installing software or watching movies. But software can always be downloaded from the Web. But at the coming digital swift, it is no longer necessarily to have a DVD drive to watch movies, either. Apple is now wirelessly renting flicks directly from iTunes.

MacBook Air has other compromises too in its feature. It is built with only three connectors, including just one USB port. A headphone jack allows the user to connect to stereo speakers and another to connect to an external display.

In addition, there is also no FireWire connector to connect up digital camcorders, or ethernet jack for tapping into the Internet when Wi-Fi is unavailable. Apple sells an ethernet accessory with a short cord that connects to the USB for about $29 but that defet the whole purpose of having a sleek and light laptop, having to have other bulkyy accessories on stand-by.

MacBook Air’s battery live is pretty decent with approximately 3-5 hours duration depending on what you use the device for. While the laptop doesn’t come with a bulky battery, an extra battery might not be of an emergency aid because the users unfortunately can’t replace a battery by themselves. Apple sells and installs batteries for an approximate price of $129.

Thus in terms of features, Apple might not have hit the jackpot this time.

Conclusion
MacBook Air could be the best friend of frequent travelers and Apple fans given its strong physique attraction; light and seamlessly sexy.

But MacBook Air is strongly not recommended for technical or other common use, especially when you can get other competitively light laptop with more functions and features.

Well one can own it but this is definitely can’t be the only computer that one has.

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