Don’t get me wrong. I’m getting the Macbook Air. But due to what else is out there, I’ll likely be getting the base model, which is about as powerful as my year-and-a-half-old $650-ish Dell laptop, except with more memory, no optical drive, three times the price and a hard drive that is smaller than my Dell’s current one but bigger than what it had when I bought it. I love ultraportables, and the Air is no exception…again I’m buying it once it really comes out…but here are some pros, cons and other options.

Pro: It’s the tiniest 13.3-inch widescreen laptop out there. Sort of like how the Macbook Pro series is the tiniest bunch of 15- and 17-inch widescreen laptops out there. Apple is just good at making things thin.

Pro: It’s the thinnest laptop out there. Even the old Sharp Actius MM10 was thicker than the Air for most of its length. The Air is a tad thicker than my current (bad hard disk’d) Toshiba R100 at one edge, but only for a teeny part of its body. The rest of the roundish laptop is much, much thinner.

Pro: It has a decent-sized screen. Personally, I can’t stand WXGA-sized 12.1″ screens, let alone anything smaller. 13.3 inches is the smallest I’d lie to go at that resolution. Surprise: Apple delivers. Note that my current ultraportable has a 12.1″ screen but it is vertical-aspect (you know, like regular monitors on older computers) and lower-resolution, at XGA. Perfectly readable, nicely sized. I like it. The 13.3″ widescreen is darn close to that experience. Except it’ll fit easier in coach class than the rather vertical 12.1″ 4:3 job.

Pro: It has 5 hours of real battery life, built-in. No extra, extended, heavy batteries needed for this one. We’re talking web browsing battery life, without the need for an extended battery that places the laptop a bit away from the ultraportable range it is supposed to be in. It’d be awesome to ditch the extended battery on my R100, but then I’d have maybe two hours of battery life. Maybe. Whereas the Air will likely get six hours if you’re word processing on the plane, or four hours watching an on-drive movie.

Pro:  Accessories aren’t overpriced. The external optical drive is $100, much less than everyone else sells the darn things for. Ethernet can be had for $30, through USB. Not fast gigabit, but it works. Oh, and if you need external display connectors, they’re included. $40 value right there.

Pro: It uses the newest technology available. A 1.8-GHz processor is unheard-of in such a thin machine. Also, the Intel x3100 graphics chipset, while not the greatest, is a good bit better then the GMA 950 that came before it. And the GMA 950 is no slouch for integrated graphics. The only thing missing is the 160-GB 1.8″ hard disk option that is in the iPod classic. After all, you have the iPod classic eighty gigger in the Air to start with, why not offer the extra capacity for another C-note?

Pros: If you’re adventurou, only ten regular phillips-head screws separate you from Macbook modding madness. Don’t let Apple tell you that you can’t switch out your hard disk by yourself…which can probably happen…though you can probably bet on voiding your warranty to do this madness.

Now to the cons…

Con: One. USB. Port. No upgrade connectivity above 480 megabits per second. None. Not even a microphone jack. Not eevn a mini-Firewire 400 jack. Yay USB hubs. I also expect a FireWire adapter to come soon. Though with a 4200-rpm hard disk maybe this thing can’t keep up with uncompressed DV video. Doubt that though.

Con: No upgrades without opening the thing up, either yourself (voiding the varranty) or Apple (which they probably won’t let you do). Yeah I know, it’s to save weight, but…

Con: No user-replaceable battery (except the above). That means, unless you have a special MagSafe power pack, when your battery (singular) is dead, it’s dead. At least it lasts awhile.

Con: Apple charges $300 to up the processor 200 MHz. IBM, who looks to have the same proc, but might not (who knows, looks the same to me) gives it for free if you pay fifty bucks to upgrade your laptop screen. I’m not complaining about the SSD ‘cuz those are expensive, but I will complain about the processor. I’ve decided against paying 17% more for 12.5% more performance on one component. At least, that’s what I feel right now.

Con: There are other alternatives that are a good bit cheaper.

Those alternatives are the IBM ThinkPad x61s (s as in model number, not plural) and the Toshiba Portege R500 (which isn’t cheaper but still in the running). See below for why to get them, or ot get them, over the Air:

R500

Pros:  It has a built-in optical drive, if you want it. It also looks to boast better battery life, by a fair margin, and has enough ports on it that you can actually do something meaningful in terms of extensability. You know, like hook up a video camera. The hard drive is also bigger…and the battery is removable. All this in a chassis that is actually lighter than that of the Macbook Air.

Cons: It’s thicker. Not to say it’s thik…it’s the same height as a dime’s larger dimensions. But still, it’s thicker. The screen is also that annoying 12.1″ model. The processor tops out at 1.2 GHz, quite a bt lower than the one in the Air, and it uses the older GMA 950 graphics system. Oh, and if you want similar specs memory-wise you’re paying more for the system. Which will weigh more than the Air by virtue of its integrated optical drive. Also, no webcam.

Conclusion: If you want dimension-wise smallness rather than sheer thin-ness, the R500 bests the Air. You can also add stuff to the R500…the Air is a closed box unless you void the warranty. The hard disk is bigger on the R500, and you get a decent aount of ports to play with. Then again, the Air has a bigger screen, that fancy schmancy full-size backlit keyboard, a freakin’ huge touchpad, and generally speaking a good bit more processing ower than the R500 It’s also marginally cheaper for what you get.

Thinkpad x61s (Lenovo fka IBM Computers)

Pros: Expandable like crazy…a docking base gives you desktop-like connectivity (as in six USB ports…SIX!). It uses “full size” 2.5″ hard drives so you can get a lot more capacity in there. Upgrade-ability  shouldn’t be a problem either. The battery can last longer, if you opt for a large one. It has a trackpoint,if you’re into that sorta thing. It’s actually lighter than the Air with the standard battery, and has Thinkpad-class quality, aka World Class. Oh, and it’s freaking cheap compared with the Air…similar in price to the Macbook except with no optical drive and a slower processor.

Cons: Larger thickness-wise than the Air, particularly with the extended battery. Which reminds me: with all those full-size components you’re not going to get as good battery life with the smaller battery…think three or four hours. You also pay an arm and a leg for the docking station. There’s also that darn trackpoint…there is no touchpad.

Conclusion: Want an ultralight, not something necessarily ultra-thin? The x61s packs similar specs to the Macbook Air, with probably a better, albeit less stylish, keyboard, for a much, much lower price. Until you add the external optical drive, that is. Then it’s just much lower. You know all that ranting about the processor in the Macbook Air? Looks like it may just be the low-voltage part that the x61s shares…for a lower price. Or maybe not. One thing I know is the Thinkpad is much more “full size” than the Macbook Air in certain components, aka everything but the screen and keyboard. Another thing: what you lose in price you lose in thin-ness, a big deal for people who want to send their laptop through interoffice mail, or shove it into a backpack along with textbooks and other such junk. But then again, you can expand on the x61s. Air? Nope.

So for my needs the Air triumphs. Whether I’ll pony up $300 for a processor upgrade is to be seen in a few weeks. But take a look at the above comparisons…the Air may not be for you.