My wife has had the Air for about a year now. She is not in any way a 'nerd' thus the 'lack' of a CD drive and only one USB are points of extreme indifference to her.
The machine is superb. I loaded such software as she needed using my MBP drive remotely - we also had a legacy USB DVD writer left over from Windows days.
The screen and keyboard are outstanding - I would prefer the Air keyboard to this one on the MBP. Battery life is good. She has the 80 Gb HDD and that has proved enough.
Considering the CPU speed is lower (not LOW, LOWER) than the other offerings from Apple, the machine speeds along nicely. Anyone who buys this for gaming is mentally challenged. But for business applications and on-the-road use it is outstanding.
Whilst to my very fibre, I wished to 'slag' this machine when it was announced, for all the reasons normally quoted, the Air has charmed me. It quietly just gets on with it and whilst expensive pro rata - it is a great machine.
Depending upon what you actually NEED, I have no problem giving it a big 'thumbs-up'.
If you just look at the styling alone, then it's a total no-brainer.
Hope that helps.