Apple Macbook Air Hit or Miss?

Hit:
Size: If you are looking for something thin, this is the one. It might even be too thin but that remains to be seen.
Weight: Three pounds is more than light enough.
Screen: Thirteen inches is the sweet spot between size and weight. And it’s LED backlit.

Miss
CPU: I need something fast enough to run a video off of a DVD while at the same time providing access to presentation notes that go along with the video. Anything slower than 2.0GHz will likely pause the video.

Hard Drive: It’s a 4,200 RPM unit. This is way too slow and will probably cause additional pauses to video display. A minimum 5,400 is required and it would have been better yet to have a 7,200. Forget the SSD at $1,000.

USB Port: Only one USB port means having to add a more ports which means adding another accessory to the bag (see below)(And they gave Dell grief for having only two on the M1330).

No built-in optical disk drive. Yes, this makes it thinner, but this also means I need to pay another $100 and add the extra weight to the bag (see also above).

Weight: Yes, it’s three pounds. But that doesn’t include the weight of the accessories needed to do real work.

Conclusion.
Much as I would like owning something so thin and light, I need it to do a job, not look pretty. In the end, I don’t think this laptop can do the job I need it to do so I guess I’ll order a Dell XPS M1330.

UPDATE
So, I just ordered the Dell. It includes a Intel Core 2 Duo running at 2.0GHz, 3GB of RAM, LED backlit screen, 160Gb 7,200 RPM hard drive, CD/DVD burner, wireless-N card, 3 year warranty, including accidental damage and LoJack theft protection, additional 65 watt spare adapter, biometric fingerprint reader, Bluetooth, case, and USB hub. The price? Including overnight shipping and tax, at $1,773 is $26 dollars less than the entry level MacBook Air price of $1,799.
Aloha!

Update

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Apple Hot Air or Dell XPS M1330?

By the time you read this, I may have already ordered a new laptop. What kind of laptop will depend on what, if anything, Apple announces today.

What I’m looking for is something no more than four pounds (about 1.8 kg), no less than a 13 inch LED backlight screen, a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB of RAM, and at least 5,400 RPM hard drive (preferably a 7,200) all for less than $2,000USD.

Dell has the XPS M1330, configured as above, for less than $2,000. Although I am hopeful that Apple will announce something similar, I keep hearing rumors about a tablet laptop with a flash drive and smaller screen all for about $1,500. Since flash drives presently cost a lot of money, I have to wonder how Apple could sell a laptop with a flash drive for $1,500. Hence, I hope the part about it being a tablet laptop is also not true.

If it is a tablet, and if Dell does not refresh the M1330, which it may be planning to do given the $600 discount it is presently offering (or trying to combat sales of the Apple product), I will order the Dell.

Aloha!