The second MacBook Air is a real, powerful computer. It has the same powerful 45nm Penryn Intel Core 2 Duo processor as the new MB and MBP. Although slightly slower, still mighty powerful and far less power consuming than the first MBA. MBA 2.0 has an Nvidia graphics card with darn near same power as the one they put in the new MBP (granted it's the integrated one). It has a Mini Display Port capable of driving a 30" HD Display. It already has a bigger trackpad but not quite as cool as the glass button trackpad. It has the faster 1067 MHz Memory.
I had an original Air and loved it, but it was a second computer I only used for surfing the web and writing. The new MBA is capable of all of the duties you would need unless you want gaming or intensive graphics requiring a dedicated graphics card. So while the original MBA was a NetBook, the new MBA is the real deal!
I bought the new MB with the new MBA in my sights as my potential main computer. I sold my original MBA before the new lineups were announced in October. I also sold my MBP. Now, I am running a one computer environment for the first time in many years. And, the MB is quite capable of everything I need it to do. When I bought it, I decided it would just be for a few months that I would see if I can get used to the screen size full-time. I also bought an external display.
But, the whole time my goal has been a new MBA. I am going to use my new MB as my backup Mac and my Windows computer. I need to run Windows one day per month for a client. I am going to wait for January to see if just maybe the future is already being changed for the MBA before I buy.
I think we could soon see an even better MBA. What could make it better?
2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (up from 1.86 GHz)
4 GB Memory
Glass Display
Glass Trackpad
maybe even a 256 GB SSD
I am not going to hold my breath, but since the MBP 17" was just revised with a few things, and we expect to see a new 17" Unibody MBP, I want to make sure they do not update the MBA again with the features I really want.
That being said, I think the MBA 2.0 is an amazing portable computer. I think you should go the MBA 2.0 and get rid of the MBP if you can do without gaming. The MBA will NOT have the overheating problems that the first MBA had. And, the first MBA would NOT be capable of being your only computer. But if you go with the MBA 2.0, I think you will be very surprised and pleased. Especially if you can put one of the new Apple Cinema Displays on your desk and drive the bigger monitor when at home. But, when needing portability, the new MBA has the others ALL beat. More than a NetBook by a LONNGGG shot. Whereas the first MBA was mostly a NetBook.
I know I am probably dreaming about more MBA updates, but I will wait til January just to make sure. Then I will definitely get my new MBA.
Please remember that the original MBA has overheating problems when watching videos. The thing will overheat doing things like video playback and intense graphics that uses the CPU.... The new MBA does NOT have any overheating problems.
Good luck with whichever MBA you buy.