Part and parcel to the lithe form factor is the dearth of ports. The Air has only one USB2 port, a power connection utilizing Apple's magnificent MagSafe power connector, a headphone jack, and a mini-DVI (Digital Visual Interface) port for connecting to an external monitor or projector. The Air comes with adapters for both a standard 15-pin SVGA connection and a full-size DVI connection.

The Bottom Line Apple MacBook Air Apple, apple.com Very Good  8.5 criteria score weight Configuration 7 20% Ease-of-use 9 20% Portability 10 20% Battery life 8 15% Performance 8 15% Value 9 10% Cost: $2,028 as tested with 80GB PATA drive, 2GB of RAM, 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo CPU Platforms: Mac OS X, Windows XP/Vista Bottom Line: There's really nothing like the MacBook Air on the market today. It’s ultrathin, ultralight, and ultrasmall, yet provides solid performance and usability. There are sacrifices, to be sure, such as the single USB port and the lack of an internal optical drive, but they're minor when the Air's size and weight are taken into consideration. You might not choose the Air as your only computer, but as a traveling companion, it's simply stellar. About our Reviews and Scoring Methodology

The ports themselves are cleverly hidden behind a panel on the right-hand side of the system. It's not easy to access these ports without picking up the side of the Air, but it's not really a problem. The MagSafe adapter on the left-hand side of the system is built into the beveled edge and, thus, faces downward at a roughly 45-degree angle. It's the same connector that other MacBooks use, but at that angle, the other power adapters will not be viable if the Air is on a flat surface. The Air's power connector is turned at a right angle, so it fits nicely between the desk and the beveled edge. (You can see a close-up of the MacBook Air's power adapter, and photos of a dismantled Air’s internals, at iFixit.)

The Air is obviously designed to be a traveling companion, and as such, it’s geared for wireless communications using the built-in 802.1b/g/draft-n Airport, though the optional USB Ethernet adapter can tie it to a wired network. Somewhat odd is the lack of a 3G interface. I suppose that the extreme design left little or no room for a 3G chipset, and there are USB 3G interfaces to be had – hopefully with a USB connection that will fit the drop-door USB jack on the side of the Air. Given the propensity of third-party vendors to produce all manner of accessories for Apple products, I’d bet that there will be a USB hub/headphone passthrough, possibly even with a 3G interface, appearing at some point in the near future.

The display is a glossy 13.3-inch LCD similar to that found on the current MacBook line, though it seems brighter – so bright, in fact, that I found myself turning it down a few notches, which is far better than not being able to make it bright enough. At 1,280 by 800, the resolution isn't as high as I'd like, but I've been spoiled by my 17-inch MacBook Pro with the spacious HD screen. In the bezel right above the display is a 640x480 iSight camera, a staple of Apple laptops. For the stated purpose of the Air, the screen’s 13.3 inches is sufficient, but it almost demands the use of Leopard's Spaces multiple-desktop feature. I generally have lots of apps open, and being able to assign them to specific desktops when they launch, and use Command-Tab to flip through them, makes a huge difference.

The trackpad is odd. First off, it's enormous. It's nearly 50 percent larger than the trackpad on the 17-inch MacBook Pro, though the single button at the bottom is shorter. This has led to more than a few misclicks, as my thumbs hit the trackpad and not the button. But the capabilities of the trackpad are substantial.

It's designed to be used much like the touchscreen on the iPhone and iPod Touch: You can use two fingers to zoom in and out on images, for instance, and use left-to-right swiping to page through iTunes' album view. In fact, when you view the Trackpad preferences panel, a handy looping video shows these actions clearly. In the right hands, so to speak, this is a killer feature. For some, however, the benefit will be lost. No matter, because it still functions well as a normal trackpad. As with other Apple trackpads, you can scroll using two fingers, and right-click with a two-finger tap. I've always been a fan of the single-finger scroll on the right-hand side of the trackpad, a function that the third-party SideTrack applet can provide, but the current version of SideTrack doesn't support this touchpad yet, so two fingers it is.

The keyboard is more in line with the new external keyboards Apple is shipping with iMacs and Mac Pros, with each key a separate entity against the brushed-metal underlayer. At first glance, I wasn't so thrilled with this layout, but I've found it to be perfectly usable, with solid positive key travel. All considered, it's possibly even better than the current MacBook Pro keyboards, which seem to collect detritus at an alarming rate, a trait they share with almost every other laptop on Earth. Apple has reorganized the Exposé keys at the top, moving certain functions around and adding Play/Pause, Forward, and Back buttons. It's a minor quibble, but the changes can be a bit annoying. The F12 key no longer shows the Dashboard, for instance.