Thin

Apple Insider posted pictures of the Japanese unveiling of the new Macbook Air. The picture compares the Sony VAIO SZ with the Air. The Sony starts out with an 80 Gig drive and one gig or ram. It weighs a third more than the Air. It also comes with the equivalent of a super drive. You can also get a faster rated chip - and for additional cost you can get more ram. The two devices sell for about the same price in their standard configuration. The Air has double the memory but its only drive option is one size - 80 gigs. (Unless you go for the solid state device). One small addition I have discovered is a USB-Ethernet connector - which looks like the Apple USB modem - very small. I ordered that for mine - because there are times when Wireless is not available of practical. Both claim 5 hours of battery life.

The Vaio can also add hard disk space - probably degrading the amount of time that the machine can be used without power. And if you want the solid state device on the Mac - add about $1000 to the price. I am still struck with how the Apple engineer got me to think about a laptop - use the "cloud" - and so all that extra stuff on the Vaio is just a) more cost and b) not necessary.

The photo here says it all. But the comparison is interesting. I would choose the lighter machine (I did) but it will take a bit of conceptual changing from the way I have used laptops for the last 10 years.