(Photo from Engadget)

I have been in the market for a new laptop for quite a while now. Last December, my trusty Acer laptop celebrated its third birthday, and even though it's still working well enough, it's definitely starting to show its age. I've been getting blue screens on the regular recently --- I'd say at least twice in a week. The battery can't even last long enough to get through the booting process (it dies about one minute before getting to the desktop), and overall performance just isn't as good as it used to be. 

So "laptop" is definitely at the top of my shopping list, and has been for quite a while now. See, I have been putting the purchase off for ages --- I have since gotten myself a Nexus S, and even a Kindle, but still no laptop.  And it's because I still haven't made up my mind about what to buy.

I initially wanted a MacBook Pro, just the base 13-inch model. I think I made that snap decision during one of my PC-behaving-badly episodes (I've had quite a few, especially during the past year), and all the stress and anger made me look towards the Apple cult for salvation. I just wanted something reliable, pleasant to use...something that just works. And isn't that Apple's mantra?

But eventually it occured to me that it might not be the most practical thing in the world. I work in the architecture industry, and my computer should ideally have a decent graphics card, which the base MacBook Pro does not have. And even though more and more programs are starting to become available for OS X, there's still no disputing the fact that I'd have less trouble getting software onto a PC than a Mac.

So, feeling slightly resigned and defeated, I looked to Windows laptops. The selection turned out to be more decent than I anticipated. There were a lot of reasonable configurations (my minimum was a Core i5 processor and 2GB of graphics memory) in the 30-40K price range. I liked the keyboards I saw on Lenovo's models and was quite impressed by the metal body and long battery life of Acer's Timeline laptops. 

But I decided to let the Christmas season pass and put off the purchase indefinitely: CES was just around the corner, the computer makers were rallying around the Ultrabook, and Windows 8 was (and still is) looming over the horizon. It just wasn't the right time. 

Last week, as I was browsing through the avalanche of "meh" Ultrabooks from CES, a wild idea hit me: what if I just got a MacBook Air? And for the past couple of days, what started off as a crazy, ridiculous idea has been seeming less and less ridiculous. The more I think about it, the more feasible it starts to sound. It scares me, actually. 

I never considered the MacBook Air because it's not the right computer for me for two reasons:

• The SSD is nice but I have a ton of files and need a hard drive. 
• The programs I use require plenty of serious processor and graphics horsepower, two things that only a crazy person would associate with the MacBook Air. 

As for the horsepower, I am at work five days a week. 99% of the work that I do, I do on a desktop at the office. When I get home at night, or when I come home for the weekends, work is usually the last thing on my mind. I use my laptop for everyday tasks --- web surfing, movies, music, Skype. Things that the Air can handle perfectly well, especially since the latest generation have Core i5 processors. The Air is built for this kind of stuff --- there's a reason why Molly Wood calls the 11-inch Air the "perfect little computer." And if I want to be productive (like learn a new program, for example), I can and will most likely do that on my office desktop. 

And lastly (and this could be the biggest clincher of all), I could use a bit more portability. More than the average person, I dare say. I come home to my hometown every weekend (a one-hour travel in a cramped van), and I bring my laptop with me. Dragging the big elephant slab that is my Acer laptop with me every single weekend used to be a novel inconvenience, but now it's a chore. So you'll forgive me when I turn green with envy whenever I look over to the Air.

Anyway, everything's still up in the air (geddit?). I still intend to wait and see how Windows 8 will fare, and recent rumors about the Air getting Ivy Bridge processors this summer will definitely keep me at bay for now (there's even rumors that the MacBook Pro will get an Air-like new design, so that's something to consider too). I'm just saying, the prospect of me getting a MacBook Air is not as crazy as I used to make it out to be. It'd be a big jump, naturally, but it's not an impossibility.

And yeah, that actually scares me.