Without a doubt, this is one of the niftiest-looking laptops we’ve ever tested. At 3 pounds and just one inch thick, it’s slightly smaller than Toshiba’s R500 (reviewed November 2007). But while the R500 was a capable, fully-featured portable PC, the MacBook Air makes serious compromises to maintain its petite profile.

The most obvious sacrifice is the Air’s lack of an optical drive—something other ultraportables, including the similarly svelte R500, manage to include. To compensate for this lack, Apple provides a utility that lets you use an optical drive on another PC or Mac across a network. Performance left something to be desired, but we were impressed that the feature worked at all.

Unfortunately, the optical drive isn’t the Air’s biggest omission. We’re even more put off by this portable’s dearth of external ports—it includes just a single USB port, a multi-format video-out, and a headphone jack. No mic, no PC Card, no modem, no Ethernet—enjoy waiting for a multi-gigabyte file transfer using the Air’s 802.11n Wi-Fi.

The Air doesn’t, however, compromise in terms of performance. While the Air came in last in most of our benchmarks, it’s more than fast enough for typical desktop-application use. We wouldn’t want to convert 5GB of photos from RAW with it, but for browsing the web, watching movies, and checking email, it’s plenty sufficient.

With an Ethernet port and a couple more USB ports, this would be a killer laptop.

Next: Sony Vaio SZ Premium

Apple MacBook Air

Airtight

Amazingly small; killer design; 802.11n support. Decently-powered.

Airheaded

Only one USB port; no mic, no PC Card, no modem, no Ethernet, no optical drive.

www.apple.com

Specifications

	Apple MacBook Air
CPU	Intel Core 2 Duo (1.60GHz)
RAM	2GB DDR2/667
Hard Drive	80GB, 4,200rpm
Screen	13.3-inch LED-backlit LCD (1280x800)
Lap/Carry Weight	3 lbs. / 3lbs. 6 oz.

Benchmarks

	Apple MacBook Air	Sony Vaio SZ Premium	Lenovo ThinkPad X300
Premiere Pro CS3 (min:sec)	59:21	47:22	59:01
Photoshop CS3 (min:sec)	6:07	3:08	5:36
ProShow (min:sec)	95:11	35:44	63:25
MainConcept (min:sec)	174:11	59:52	119:36
Fear (fps)	WNR	WNR	WNR
Quake 4 (fps)	WNR	WNR	WNR
Battery Rundown (hrs:min)	2:39	3:02	3:01

Best scores are bolded.