Plan A, MacBook Air, is just about the classiest, most stylish sub-notebook you can carry. It's three-quarters of an inch thick and weighs just 3 pounds -- but still has room for a 13.3-inch screen and full-size keyboard. And it just looks so darn good.
But talk about putting on airs! The MacBook Air starts at a hefty $1,800! For a notebook without an optical drive! And the version with the 128-GB solid-state drive costs a whopping $2,500!
The Plan B MSI Wind U120 is nowhere near as sleek and sexy. It's slower, it sports half as much RAM (1 GB), its battery doesn't last near as long, and it packs a significantly smaller keyboard and 10-inch screen -- yet is actually thicker than the Air. But you can buy one for less than $330, about a fifth of the cost of a MacBook Air, and a Wind is a bit lighter, too. And if you really, really want the Mac operating system, the Wind is apparently a popular choice for conversion to a Hackintosh.
Bottom Line: A savings of $1,500 covers a multitude of sins. You could buy an MSI Wind and another laptop and still spend less than you would on an Air. But your savings won't win you admiring glances from people in the next seat on the plane.
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