Apple debuts the ultra-thin MacBook Air

After many months filled with rumors of an ultra-thin notebook from Apple, Steve Jobs finally made the announcement we�ve all been expecting to hear. This new super-thin creature has been dubbed the MacBook Air, for several reasons no doubt. I would venture to guess that the �Air� was eluding to the fact that not only does it weigh very little (around 3lbs) but it also relies heavily on your wireless connection.

I have to say that I�m impressed and underwhelmed by this new 13-inch MacBook. The fact that they made these things between 0.16 and 0.76 inches thick (depending where you measure) is just incredible. Unfortunately, beyond its size, looks and multi-touch trackpad, that�s all that impresses me. You have to sacrifice a lot to get something this thin, most notably is the optical drive. Don�t worry, Apple has developed a way to actually use another computer�s optical drive over your wireless connection.

You�re also going to lose ports, as you only get a single USB port, a Micro-DVI connector and a headphone jack. Sure, you�re going to get 5 hours of battery life, but don�t even think about swapping that dead battery out for a new one, as they aren�t user-replaceable. You�re also going to only get 1.6GHz of processing power out of the Core 2 Duo chip, which really isn�t too bad for a machine this size. The 80GB drive and 2GB of RAM should be adequate for most of your needs.

Like most things Apple offers, there is a high-end model of the MacBook Air. You can bump the processor up to a 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo and switch out that boring old 4200-rpm hard drive with a shiny new 64GB SSD drive. That sounds more like a machine that I would want to get my hands on.

So does ultra-thin mean ultra-cheap? Of course not, it�s more like ultra-expensive. The base model will run you $1,799 while the high-end unit will set you back a whopping $3,098. That�s right, you�re going to pay $1,300 for a modest CPU increase and a SSD drive, not worth it. There�s one reason why I haven�t bought myself a new Mac (and consequently do all my work on a PC now) and that�s the high price. I guess I�ll just keep waiting for a new Mac desktop that doesn�t cost nearly $3,000 (or includes a monitor that I don�t need, or is underpowered like the mini).