Heavier: True, but only by 0.24 lbs, an 8% increase. Thicker: I'll give you this - that said I've always wondered why this feature matters. Sure it looks nice

Heavier: True, but only by 0.24 lbs, an 8% increase. Thicker: I'll give you this - that said I've always wondered why this feature matters. Sure it looks nice, but from a usability standpoint - well, in my entire life of using laptops, I have found laptops too heavy, but never too thick. Honest question: why is it worth the premium - and loss of user customization - to be so thin? Design: Magsafe: Agreed. Bluetooth: Agreed, but dongles are extremely cheap Thunderbolt: An issue, but so few devices use it currently that there is a good chance it won't be that much of a problem over the life of the laptop. Unibody: Debatable if that is even a good thing. I searched in vain for studies that show a unibody laptop is sturdier or more durable; do you know of any? I am guessing that any fall strong enough to start making a difference would already be enough to crack the screen. The huge downside is the difficulty of opening the thing up (no replaceable battery?!!) Multi-touch: The toshiba site claims "multi touch control". I have no idea what that means, though I doubt it is to the level of what os/x offers. Crapware: This really isn't that much - most of those are useful programs. That said, I'll admit I completely ignore such lists, as I just reformat and install Linux anyway. :) That said, one can fault the air as well when comparing it: -Shorter battery life -No replaceable battery (making shorter battery life even worse) -Significantly slower processor (1.7 versus 2.4 ghz) -Less RAM (4GB versus 6) -Impossible to swap hard-drives -No dvd drive -Based on amazon's current pricing, costs $500 more. ($800 vs. $1300). (http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Portege-R835-P81-13-3-Inch-Laptop/dp/tech-data/B005KP070I/ http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Portege-R835-P81-13-3-Inch-Lap... versus http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MacBook-MC965LL-13-3-Inch-VERSION/dp/B005CWHZP4/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1319446070&sr=1-2 http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MacBook-MC965LL-13-3-Inch-VERSIO...) While they aren't the same laptop, they are closely spec'd with different trade-offs. In reviews, Toshiba's is often compared to the Air. (http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/toshiba-portege-r835-p56x/4505-3121_7-34449812.html http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/toshiba-portege-r835-p56x/45... http://www.pcmag.com/article/print/263220 http://www.pcmag.com/article/print/263220). The R835 is certainly an example of a company producing a competing product to Apple without much quality loss but at a vastly lower (40% cheaper w/out SSD; 27% w/ SSD) price.