I think I'll just highlight some of my pet peeves with my MBA...
For one, I use 8Gb thumb drives that are pretty fat cos I record all my lectures. These thumb drives CANNOT fit into the MBA USB port comfortably because they're too thick. With an MBA you either have to buy the really expensive, thinner Sony thumb drives (where I'm from the max those come in is 4Gb - way too small for me). The Imation 4Gb ones are slightly too thick and keep disconnecting. I got around that by getting a USB hub, but bah, the MBA doesn't look pretty with the USB Hub sticking out of it.
Two, if you get the 64Gb SSD one like I did, you don't really have much space to play around with - especially if you need to run stuff like GarageBand that take up quite a bit of space. I opted not to partition the disk - I take up about 25Gb of disk space and my MBA gets a little senile when I have Safari, iTunes, GarageBand and Photo Booth open at the same time. With a few Microsoft apps thrown in. Why is partitioning the disk important? Because if you don't partition, then Time Machine is completely obsolete. =p At present my Time Machine backup disk is a thumb drive, and because I refuse to plug it in in school (for the sake of pretty. haha. bimbotic yes i know.), I only get to back up my stuff back home, which is rather pathetic since I'm in school 80% of the day.
Three, the trackpad is unusually sensitive and I have to turn off the tap to click function because I always touch it inadvertently when typing notes - which usually moves my typing cursor thingy back a few sentences so I'm suddenly typing in the middle of nowhere -.-
Four, living with one USB port is quite the pain in the ass, especially when my previous lappie had four. However, if you don't need a mouse (i'm currently learning to live without one), print wirelessly, and don't need thumb drives, then it should be all fine and dandy for u. And if the Mac salesmen tell you that you can't use a USB multiport hub because it won't supply enough power (they told that to me, sheesh!), they're LYING!!! My hub copes just fine even with all 4 ports plugged in!
Five, I never go anywhere without my laptop; that includes travelling. In some countries hotels don't have wireless networks, only firewires - the MBA clearly doesn't have that port. If you're the kind that can't live without checking your email even for a day (like me) - the MBA may not be for you, unless you have a spare lappie that you can lug around the world. Then again, there're always Blackberries for that.
Otherwise, I love my MBA.
Living without a disk drive really isn't all that difficult, though Microsoft Office did take 1 and a half hours to install via the Remote Disk utility -.-
It might've been easier for me though - my previous lappie didn't have a disk drive anyway.
Other perks about the MBA
1. The backlit keyboard - very very useful in lecture theatres where the professor is showing a useless video, has dimmed the lights and you want to IM :x
2. Using three-finger swipe etc (the new trackpad features) is sooo convenient.
3. The fact that it's really light and easy to carry around.
4. It's the most gorgeous lappie the world has ever seen! (okay sorry very superficial.)
hope that helps
