But the MacBook Air just can't match the speeds of other Mac laptops. In fact, the Core 2 Duo processor in the new low-end $999 white MacBook runs 13 percent faster than the high-end MacBook Air. The Air was a little less than 3 percent slower in terms of Speedmark 5 scores. A closer look at the individual test scores shows that the Air's Speedmark score was helped tremendously by its Nvidia graphics, which helped it post an average Quake 4 frame rate of 24.8 versus the low-end MacBook (with Intel GMA X3100 graphics), which posted only a score of 7.6 fps. In other individual tests, the low-end MacBook was a clear winner in all but the Unzipping of a 2GB folder, which the solid state hard drive in the 1.86GHz MacBook Air helped the system to place the fastest time.

If you were to compare the top-of-the-line MacBook Air to the top of the new unibody MacBook line, a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo model with the Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics, you'd find a much bigger difference. The new high-end Air earned an 18 percent lower Speedmark 5 score, a 25 percent slower result in our Photoshop test suite, and a 71 percent slower time in our Compressor MPEG encode tests. Did I mention that the new 2.4GHz MacBook costs $100 less and has a built-in SuperDrive, built-in Ethernet, and a second USB port? The Air, on the other hand, weighs three pounds, versus 4.5 pounds for the MacBook.

We have the new low-end 1.6GHz MacBook Air on order, but it hasn't arrived in the Macworld Lab yet. When it gets here, we'll start testing and post results as soon as we can. And stay tuned for our full review of the new MacBook Air, coming soon.