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OK, forgive me for this cheesy analogy with the famous John Paul Young hit from the 80s, feel free to watch the clip on Youtube… .
There is a chance that I will not be the only one using it over the next few days and you will know the reason why.
Apple has just introduced a new laptop: the MacBook Air.

I will not go into a detailed review of the product. My colleagues, fellow bloggers, IT reviewers will do a detailed review of it sooner or later. Some early reviews can be found at Macworld.com . Gizmodo You will find some great pictures on the site.

In summary, this is a piece of beauty, ultra light, thin laptop, with a 13″ screen, 80GB hard disk storage (or 64MB flash), USB , mini DVI, Airport N, Bluetooth, lighted keyboard and new touchpad features. It weighs only 1.36kg and has a thickness of only 1.94cm.
Of course, it is extremely sexy and well designed. Price starts from $1799 USD.

So, let’s get away from the traditional ultra positive fan-oriented, Apple-geek- in-love review and be rational for a while (at least let’s try).

So, who is it for?

As usual, Mac and Apple fans are the core target audience. You can expect lots of pre orders (2-3 weeks in advance) from this core audience, who are dying to get their hands on the latest piece of Apple’s technology. Being lighter and thinner, it will cater to anyone who needs to travel and carry data around.

However, be aware of a couple of things.

Ultra portability always comes as a compromise. There is always a catch. Evaluate your needs and decide afterwards whether the MacBook Air is suitable to you.

Here are the limitations:
- Up to 1.8Ghz speed. Current models run at 2.16Ghz. You can expect a downgrade in performance if you are an heavy user.
- External drive. Not a big deal, no one really needs to use a drive for 24 hours per day. Just get (extra charges) the new external drive or use the new software to link it to your old Mac.
- USB to Ethernet/modem port. This means you might suffer from speed transfer loss , especially over the ethernet connection

What do I love :
- Design
I did not get the chance to look at it myself, however, the pictures and first shots look gorgeous.
- Weight and size
Extremely light and thin. Finally you can bring it with you all day long with ease. 1.36kg and less than 2cm thick is almost the thickness of your iPod!
- Illuminated keyboard
This is a must have for all those who want to work in dark places / planes / meetings etc.
- Touch Pad gesture control
Imagine you can do exactly the same control with your touch pad like your iPod Touch screen. Rotate, zoom in, and zoom out. Easy and time saving.
- SDD memory
You can decide to get the SSD memory version of the Mac Book Air instead of the internal memory version. Save some time and energy but there is the lost of capacity and huge cost increase!

Too bad for :
- Screen size:
This is a personal choice, but should I go for a thin and light laptop, I would have preferred to have a 10″ screen or 11″ screen to save space. In any cases, you connect it to your Flat Panel display when you go home, so you do not really need such a wide screen.
- Storage capacity:
This is always the catch. 80GB is large enough for students and workers. Should you decide to store all your life inside (photos, music etc) then you might run into a problem. How do I sync my 160GB iPod with a 80GB only laptop HDD?
The multi libraries or content sharing between different hard discs is currently very painful. This is one of the drawbacks of the convergence.
- SDD memory
Great, but I would have loved to see both – flash memory for fast boot up AND the HDD to store all the data.

From a specification point of view, evaluate what kind of work you are doing. If you are a heavy user of Parallel Desktop, or Photoshop, videos, pictures etc, be aware that the MacBook light will be “light” in performance. But this is not what is requested out of it is it? Chances are you might have to go for MacBook Pro in that case.

Back in the time when I used to work with Apple, I remember we used to always explain that there is only “One Pie” available when you buy a laptop. This is the overall performance one. Then it is up to you to balance it: ultra portable and powerful, or portable and more powerful, or transportable and ultra powerful.

There is one for everybody, make your choice. The Mac Book Air is definitively in the first category.

Mine is done: I will get them all..