Yeah, I've considered a macbook air. It's definitely in my top choices. It's been so long since I've looked at laptops, but surely there are cheaper options with similar hardware right?
Keep in mind that with these custom designed laptops, price is determined by volume, and by logistics, and Apple sells a lot more of these class of machines, and has by far the best logistics -- you're not going to be able to get much cheaper than Apple in the same class of machine any longer.
Very good point. I guess the days of same-hardware laptops being 50% less in price are gone. I would love to just jump in and get the 13.3 macbook air, but $1200 for the 128GB SSD and 8 GB ram is just a bit above my budget.
Why would you choose a MacBook Air if your IDE of choice is Visual Studio? There are PC laptops that are also sexy, though I do think Apple's are the sexiest. Look into some of the thinner Lenovo products.