When Steve Jobs first pulled the Apple MacBook Air out of a manila envelope, the laptop Apple touted as the world's thinnest instantly turned media pundits into starry-eyed zealots. At that point, no one knew what features it had, what parts it ran, or even its price—just that, suddenly, the Air was a must-have. Yet the limitations that came to light after the Air's announcement tarnished its luster. After all, it was the only laptop in its class with a single USB port and a non-removable battery, and many features found in other laptops were absent. One only assumed that better things were yet to come. Earlier this year, the Apple MacBook Air (Nvidia 9400M GT) ($1,799 direct) rolled out silently behind the MacBook 13-inch (Aluminum) and the MacBook Pro 15-inch (Dual Graphics). The only worthwhile improvements to the Air came from within the svelte chassis—a new integrated Nvidia chipset and a boost in hard drive capacity. While Apple did right by not raising the price, the Air's upgrades didn't improve performance by much, and users are still faced with the same limitations.