If you're of the belief that you don't have to be thin to be gorgeous, then the MacBook Air, will do nothing to help your case. It's super model good looking and, as Apple's marketing machine makes perfectly clear, it's the world's thinnest notebook, coming in at only 19.4mm at its thickest point, slimmer than most laptops at their thinnest. It looks, quite literally, cutting edge.
This uber svelteness, helps the MacBook weigh in at no more than 1.36Kg. I'll say at this point that this is a huge factor in the Air's appeal. The day before I got this review sample I had to take my standard issue work laptop home with me, and at 2.4Kg, it certainly made its presence felt. Doing the same journey the next day with the MacBook Air was a literal relief for my shoulder. It's so light you hardly notice it, and it doesn't cause your notebook bag to bulge.
However, to get to this, Apple has been forced to make several omissions. First of all, there is no integrated optical drive, which places it at a disadvantage to the likes of the SonyVaio SZ series, which manages to fit in an optical drive and at 1.24Kg actually weighs less than the Air.
Moving a step back, even the design of the packaging is a typically special Apple experience, and once you've freed it from its deliberately snug box, you'll find a thin slab of anodized with a surface that's completely smooth save for the white Apple logo in the middle. There's no clip to attach the lid to the base, it's all newfangled magnetic, and thanks to the smooth featureless surface I've even seen a couple of people try to open it the wrong way round.
Once you do manage to scythe it open you'll find that remarkable the lid is about the same thickness as the base, which when you think about the components that are packed in is quite amazing.
Naturally, the design abounds with stylish touches. When you close the lid MacOS X instantly goes into standby in a way that still seems to elude Windows. To indicate this you get a tiny glowing oblong along the front edge. Apple introduced its MagSafe power plug with the MacBooks and it's present again here, only with an even tinier connector. It's designed to come away easily so the notebook doesn't get wrenched, though sometimes it disconnects too easily.
Inside you'll find something that you won't find on most of the ultra portable's out there - a nearly full sized keyboard and a large 13.3in display. This is down to the simple fact that the MacBook Air might be thin and light, but it's not small. Its dimensions; 12.74in wide and 8.9in deep, give it enough scope to avoid cramped keys and having to squint at a small screen - no bad thing. It also means it nestles nicely on the lap, especially as it's not heavy. In that sense it's possibly the most appropriately named laptop computer ever.
Beneath the display is the fetching MacBookAir logo, while above this is a tiny iSight camera - Apple's name for its webcam and a small green light illuminates when it's active. Despite it size, it gave acceptable results in PhotoBooth and Skype.
Considering the need to keep the screen thin, there's no surprise that the display employs an LED backlight, and at maximum levels it's way too bright. However, once you tone it down a few notches it's perfectly usable with none of the patchiness that plagues some screens. The native resolution is a rather modest 1,280 x 800, merely the same as that on the smaller 11in display of the Sony TZ series.
The keyboard is essentially the same one you'll find on the regular MacBook. The keys have a fairly short amount of travel to them, and as long as you don't bash away it's a fine keyboard. Access to the F-keys is only via the Function key as by default they are mapped to shortcut functions, such as brightness, volume and iTunes control. One is also mapped to the excellent Expose, which lets you see all your open windows at once. One of these keys is mapped to the eject key, even though there is no integrated optical drive.
