Apple's New Ultralight Is Neither Ultra Nor Light EnoughApple's New Ultralight Is Neither Ultra Nor Light Enough

The MacBook Air is a marvel, but it weighs three pounds. For something claiming to be an ultraportable, that's half a pound too much. It could also pack more of a punch in the processor, hard drive, and port departments.I know I am going to get flamed by Apple fanboys for this, but here goes...

The MacBook Air could be better. A lot better. That's not to say it isn't amazing. It certainly has some fantastic features. The LCD screen, the backlit, full-sized keyboard, the 802.11n, slim form factor, sexy aluminum design, the multi-touch trackpad. All good stuff.

My first complaint is the weight. After spending all last week walking the Las Vegas Convention Center around with a 5-pound computer (plus other blogging gear) slung on my back, I can say that weight matters. My shoulders are still sore. Sure, three pounds is great, but real ultralights weigh less than three. The MacBook Air may be light, but it is not as light as the competition. HP makes one that weighs in at 2.7 pounds.

Second, the ports. It has one USB port. That's ridiculous. The two on my existing computer aren't enough. One certainly isn't. Of course, this gives Apple's partners a license to go hog wild in creating "Designed for MacBook Air" accessories to expand the number of USB ports. The mini-DVI port is a nice touch. I don't care much about the loss of the Ethernet port. Who uses them anyway? No mic jack is an interesting move. Apples almost always have mic jacks. The competing Dell and HP models have more USB ports, Ethernet, modem, mic jacks, etc.

Third, the processor. Is 1.6 GHz really the best Apple could do? Is that a mobile-optimized processor from Intel that has the Wi-Fi built in? I can't find any specific info on the spec site to let us know. It appears that there's an optional 1.8 GHz processor ($300 option). It would have been nice to see 2 GHz coming out of the gate, though. To be fair, the competing Dell and HP models I looked at had 1.2 GHz and 1.06 GHz processors, respectively.

Fourth, the hard drive. This one shocks me. Apple doesn't say if the included 80GB hard drive is a 2.5-inch drive or a 1.8-inch drive. I would bet it is a 1.8-inch drive, which is also found in its current lineup of iPod Classics. We know that Apple also stuffs a 160GB 1.8-inch drive into its iPods, so the option for a 160GB drive would be nice. Alas, your only option is to go with a smaller 64GB solid state drive for an additional cost of $999. Seriously, there should be an in-between step here. I know SSDs are way expensive, but 80GB seems puny to me. (Or maybe I just store way too much stuff, I dunno). The Dell and HP in this class come with 60GB hard drives in comparison, but have many more upgrading options that just the SSD.

As for the optical drive, that's an interesting one. Most ultralights don't have optical drives, so this is not a surprise. The extra cost of the external one is, though. Apple wants another $99 to have a USB-powered optical drive. You might ask, how the heck are you going to load new software without a DVD drive? Well, Apple says you can hijack the optical drive of another computer (assuming you have one) and use that to install software and updates wirelessly. Some ultralights have an optical drive in the box, others don't. It would be nice if Apple's did.

Will I complain about the lack of built-in 3G, or WiMax? Nah. No one else is really building mass market laptops with WiMax yet, and built-in 3G is an enterprise play, which Apple is clearly not going for with this device. Its 802.11n is good enough for now.

What this all boils down to is a great little laptop that could have been a lot greater. Did Apple design a wonderfully appealing computer that I want to go out and buy right now? You betcha. But it has some serious detractors that remind me the thin-and-light category is not for everyone.