The MacBook Air is not a lightweight MacBook Pro. It was never intended to be and it's not marketed as such.
Features like 7-hour battery, are not feasible in a 3lb Mac that was focused on being lightweight and perform as powerful as a MacBook. The MBA is meant for those who don't need a professional grade computer for their daily workload. Will anyone here keep the same form factor and add another half pound to double the battery life? I will not. Three plus hours is more than enough for me; I can get four hours if I turn the display down. That's perfectly acceptable for an ultraportable.
I don't feel the MBA has badly placed vents, but I did alter how I work with the MBA to relieve the vents being placed underneath. I simply place a magazine under the MBA if it's on my lap or I place the underside of the MBA so not on my legs themselves and just corners touch my legs. Problem solved. Whether I am in bed, on the couch, or elsewhere, the MBA is far more portable and fun than the MBP. The MBP is far too heavy to be comfortable away from a desk anyways.
While some have had hinge problems being too flexible or breaking, it's not the norm of the product. I haven't had a single hinge problem, and I have used the MBA as my primary Mac basically since December 2008. The MBA focuses on being lightweight. A heavy lid to give it extra "support" would make the experience worse. It's all about providing MacBook powered experience at a 1.5 lb drop in weight.
I do some intensive stuff, and I have never had an overheating problem with my rev B/C v 2,1 MBAs. My original MBA overheated all the time. All it took was two minutes of basic video, and the MBA was done. The new MBA is NOT a MBP! It's not designed to do professional grade work in the sense of what's needed from a professional grade computer. It's not designed for intensive gaming. It's not designed for intensive graphics requirements. While it's not intended for "pro" like computing, it has the exact same GPU as the MBP running at 80% of the power/performance capabilities. That's a fair number given a 1.5 lb drop in weight and running within a tightly confined space at around .5" average thickness.
The speaker is extremely acceptable for an ultraportable. You are wrongly identifying the MBA as a MacBook Pro in Air form. It's NOT a PRO, this is an ultraportable NOTEBOOK performing EXTREMELY WELL in its ultraportable class. The MBA was the first ultraportable to provide notebook like experience/performance from an ultraportable sub-3lb computer. You need surround sound, leave your MBP at your desk and plug it into a Bose surround system.
The displays I have seen have had various line problems, but most of the problem there is solved with Gamma 2.2 over 1.8... which is the new standard in OS X 10.6. I agree, the MBA's display is not equivalent to the MacBook PRO... but then again this is NOT a PROfessional grade computer. It was never intended to be. At the same time, the display is far superior to the display that was found in the MacBook introduced at the same time. The original MBA had a gorgeous display. The newer MBA, when introduced in October 2008, has a display far superior than the aluminum MB introduced in October 2008. The viewing angle is definitely not the problem with the MBA's displays in my opinion. There is a problem, but it's due to reducing the power to the display thus sometime creating line artifacts on bright white backgrounds... rarely results in visual impairments during video playback. Even HD videos look and play perfect on the MBA. The MBA doesn't have the glass which means the display is far less glossy.
When Apple introduced the MBA it was lightyears ahead of the competition. In its first version, the MBA was a terrible performer not being able to cool within its confined space. In v 2,1, the MBA is incredibly capable. No matter what it doesn't have, it's an incredible technology in such a well designed computer that is an amazing ultraportable. It's not an amazing "PRO" notebook because it's not a pro notebook nor is it even a notebook.
Apple has let the competition catch up, and many competitors have ultraportables that are more powerful, with better hinges, thinner, have longer battery life, have more RAM, have better speakers, and etc... but the MBA is still extremely relevant and capable among ultraportables. Because the MBA still beats the competition when considering all capabilities. Some ultraportables weigh less, but they're not more powerful too. Some ultraportables have a better CPU or graphics (some of the PC ultraportables actually have more capable graphics than the MBP), but they aren't as lightweight as the MBA. When considering the complete MBA in its current form, it still competes extremely well versus other ultraportables. We don't know what Apple has in store for the MBA next, but I am sure it will continue to be better at being an ultraportable than the MacBook Pro is at being a professional grade computer.
On the other hand, the MacBook Pro is a joke. It has a Core 2 Duo CPU while all of the competitors have Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs. Competitors have had four cores when the MBP had two. While the MBP has a 9400m GPU, all of the competitors have dedicated graphics cards with their own up to 1 GB of dedicated memory. While the MBP in 15" and 17" versions have the 9600GT available, it's a rebranded 8600 which is nearly four years old! And with the dedicated graphics come less RAM than competitors. While competitors have autoswitching graphics on the fly, the MBP is stuck between reboots. While the MBP looks pretty, it's simply not a professional grade computer. We can go on and on about the MBP if we want. And in the 13" version, the MBP fares even worse... While the MBP has some nice features, it's a joke compared to its competition. About the last thing I would call the MacBook Pro is "Professional-grade."
So while you compare the MacBook Air to the MacBook Pro, the rest of the world compares the MacBook Air to other ultraportables on the market and perhaps the MacBook. While the MBA is still relevant in the ultraportable market, the MBP (especially in its 13" form) is completely irrelevant.
Why not go post your thread in the MBP section? You decide to be a troll and post it in the MBA section here at Mac Rumors. What's your point? That you cannot understand the fact that the MBA was never meant to compete with the MBP? The MacBook Air is a MacBook in Air form. The MacBook Pro is a MacBook that has a few extra features but is definitely not a "Pro."
Go play with your MacBook "Pro-less," because you certainly don't need a professional grade computer if you proclaim you use a "MacBook Pro." While Apple engineered the MBA to be revolutionary, it surely succeeded in providing a computer ahead of the competition. Whereas Apple engineered the MBP to sell to the suckers who will pay for a computer stamped "Pro" when even they understand there is nothing "professional" about the MacBook Pro. You have FireWire, and a seven-hour battery and that's a "Pro" computer in your book? Wow! They sure have you fooled!
