Apple's new laptop, the MacBook Air, easily breaks new ground for small laptops. It’s only 19mm thick at its thickest part, and Apple calls it the "world's thinnest notebook". How you interpret that ("on the market today" or "ever") is up to you.

Some people say that a laptop from 1997 called the “Pedion” that was developed Mitsubishi and Hewlett Packard which was 0.72 inches thick compared to the Macbook Airs 0.76. Two of the Current Ultra portable laptops are the 11 inch Sony Vaio TZ series and the 12 inch Toshiba Portege R500. Both are slightly thicker, but do not taper to 4mm as the air does at the front edge.

The Biggest compromise the Macbook Air has suffered is connectivity. There is only one USB port and there is no optical drive, Firewire, Ethernet or mobile broadband. Apple refuses to outfit the Air with a media-card reader or an expansion card slot.

New features on the Macbook air include a new touchpad gesture controls and the ability to wirelessly “borrow” another systems optical drive.

Design

The design and engineering that went into the Macbook air is extraordinary and is defiantly a more specialised product than a standard 13 inch laptop.

Although it shares a desktop footprint with the standard black and white MacBooks, the first thing you notice about the Air is its aluminium chassis -- similar to the one found on the MacBook Pro, and much more fingerprint-resistant than the standard MacBooks. Picking it up, the MacBook Air feels a little heavier than you'd expect from looking at it, even though it's only 1.4kg.

At the same time, it also feels sturdy and solid. In comparison to the Sony Vaio TZ series, the Sony has a 11.1 inch screen and is 200g lighter than the air, and the Toshiba Portege R500 is 600g lighter with a 12.1 inch screen.

The MacBook Air includes an iSight camera and mic, and an LED backlit display that works with an ambient light sensor to adjust the screen brightness in response to the light in the room. And yes, as we have all heard the backlit keyboard. They are also controlled by the ambient light sensor, although you really have to adjust lighting a good deal to see any difference.

As is often the case when Apple introduces new MacBook models, the MacBook Air's trackpad offers some functionality that we haven't seen before. It supports new gestures that go way beyond the two-finger scroll and secondary click.

In a move that will be familiar to Iphone users, the MacBook air’s trackpad understands the same “pinch and spread” movement that is used to zoom images and web pages on the Iphone. For example, it allows you to zoom in or out on an image in Preview or iPhoto or indeed, switch between images by swiping your finger to the right.

Limited options

Take the hard drive. Its storage capacity is 80GB. Space is at such a premium in the MacBook Air that even the 120GB drive once used by the iPod is too thick to fit. As a result, 80GB is currently the only size of hard drive available for the Air.

There is a similar lack of options when it comes to the MacBook Air's RAM. It ships with 2GB, an excellent allotment, but the MacBook Air's RAM is built in to the computer, inaccessible and non-upgradeable. Fortunately, 2GB is a good amount.

In terms of the onboard Intel Core 2 Duo processor, Apple gives MacBook Air buyers two speed options: the standard 1.6GHz version for £1,199 and an 1.8GHz option for £1,389. Both speeds fall short of what's available on the MacBook (2.0GHz, 2.2GHz) and MacBook Pro (2.2GHz, 2.4GHz, 2.6Ghz) lines.

What it all boils down to is that one of the less obvious compromises built into the MacBook Air, at least for now, is a lack of customisability and serviceability.

Apple has exerted quite a bit of muscle in an attempt to make the Air's lack of an optical drive a non-issue. In addition to selling the external SuperDrive add-on for £65, Apple’s “Remote Disc” allows the MacBook Air to take over the optical drive of another computer (Mac or PC) on your local network.

Although Remote Disc is a nice addition, it has limitations. It's meant for installing programs and copying files, and doesn't work as a remote DVD player or CD ripper.

Another controversial feature of the MacBook Air is the battery. Not its 5-hours battery life, but the fact that the it's not replaceable.

There's no battery door and so no way to swap a dead battery out and replace it with a fresh one. Like an iPod or iPhone, the MacBook Air has a battery embedded inside and there's no official way to get it out other than giving your laptop back to Apple and asking the company to replace it for a fee.

More troubling, was the time it took to recharge the battery. It takes nearly five hours to recharge the battery with the MacBook Air's 45W power adaptor.

Verdict

The story of the MacBook Air is a story about compromise, the decision about whether the MacBook Air is a product worth having can be answered by one question: How much are you willing to compromise? It’s a thin and light 13” laptop with a multi touch pad. A revolutionary design, but a stripped down set of connectors and features will limit its appeal.