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Please be aware that we do not recommend the Macbook Air as a primary laptop machine due to its historically reported weak WiFi performance and limited number of ports. It is, however, an acceptable second laptop for travel as long as the user understands its limitations and potential connectivity drawbacks. We have had a significant number of reports for the MacBook Air being unable to connect to the WiFi network at Hethrow Airport outside of London for example. For the light weight primary Apple laptop solution, we recommend the current 13" Macbook Pro with Retina Display. At 1 pound heavier than the MacBook Air it has the performance, flexibility, and functionality of a full blown laptop. But if you choose to order one of these, pay attention to the hard drive size as Apple is selling these with the smaller capacity solid state drives. Make sure you get a hard drive with enough storage to fit all your data from your old laptop.
iPads
iPads are not laptop computers. They do not have a file system and have cellular phone processors. Though there are apps that enable iPads to behave laptop-like, we do not recommend using iPads for purposes of creating anything. iPads are really life-style tools and devices to show people things on, whether that be pictures, movies, or presentations. Given the amount you would have to invest in both time and money to get the iPad to act computer-like, you would be better off buying a real computer which would do those things much better, faster, and reliably.
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