I bought the 13″ core 1.8Ghz i7 with 4GB RAM and a 256GB SSD last night at the Apple Store. So far: screen is a huge improvement (resolution) over my existing 13″ MBP. Speed is amazing. I had heard people talk about how fast flash memory was, but I had never experienced it on a laptop until last night. Applications launch instantaneously. It came pre-loaded with OSX Lion, and I had no issues setting up all of my programs. I’m always amazed that I can sign into a few programs and 90% of the data I need automatically appears on my computer (thanks to Google/Gmail, Dropbox, and my Windows Home Server).

So far I’ve tested it with my usual cadre of programs that I use on a weekly basis: Photoshop, Lightroom, iMovie, Skype, and a healthy dose of Google Chrome. All appear to work great without any issues for me.

It wasn’t all rosy though; I had a huge issue with wifi speeds, and discovered that somehow the settings in my router had reverted to 54Mbps. I corrected those settings and I get my full 50Mbps download speeds from my provider.

I’m very happy with this purchase thus far. Even with loading all my data and stuff on it last night battery life is still on par with my MBP. I have to say that I wouldn’t like it as much if it didn’t include the backlit keyboard, and that was one of the reasons I passed on the last Air that came out in October-ish.

My next plan is to sell my 6 month old 13″ MacBook Pro, and pick up another Mac Mini so I can pass along my older Mac Mini to my daughter. I’m excited about the fact that Apple finally got around to updating the processors in some of their best hardware, and I think the Air will be a keeper for me for a while (but I say that every time).

I just posted the unboxing on YouTube, so if you haven’t yet, check it out below!