You chose the wrong example for comparison. You should have used the 11in Acer Timeline models(either with the SU7300 cpu pretty much the same cpu as the SU9400, or the ULV core I model), or the Sony Vaio TT another 11in with the SU9x00 cpu. Neither have the nice gpu of the Air, but they do get at least 6 hours of battery life and weighs about the same as the Air. That would be a fair comparison not a netbook with lower res screen, less power, and is smaller 10in machine.
Agreed on bad choice of comparison
My other half has a Timeline 1810TZ, 1.3GHz SU4100, 4GB Ram 250GB HDD, 11.6" display. HDMI out, 3x USB, wired ethernet. It regularly turns in 7 hours on wireless with display brightness at a decent level. Bought a year ago for £449 quid, versus 11" MBA 4GB/64 I ordered earlier this week at £930
She gets on fine with it, though with a usage pattern that sees it treated as a souped up netbook with a larger display (and with a bit of a price hike for the privilege) not as a primary computer replacement.
With a sub £500 price tag I'd reckon its a lot easier to justify a machine of this level as a secondary purchase, whereas at just under £1000 more folks seem to be swithering over every megahertz and megabyte in an attempt to convince themselves it can be their primary machine (and for a lot of those doing that its going to turn out more in hope than realistic expectation).
Where it falls down for me is in the weight difference - the 1810 is half as much again as the 11/4BG/64GB MBA. That makes one a practical proposition for all day long hand carrying, whilst the other one is not and would be living in a backpack. By going for the cheaper option I'd effectively be paying myself £490 to put up with the hassle of having a backpack with me at all times, thats less than a tenner a week in my pocket over the course of a year, and for the sake of a tenner a week Id rather give that particular 'pleasure' a miss
🙂
In saying that I don't need access to wired ethernet and don't need access to any more than 2 or 3 hours of battery powered up-time on any given call out which gives it a good margin of leeway.
If I did then it would be a much more difficult choice - grabbing the 1810tz on its own every morning as I go out the door, or grabbing an MBA and a power supply and an ethernet dongle (by which point the MBA would be getting stuffed into a backpack anyway regardless of its weight).