A lot of students head back to school with the weight of the world on their shoulders, and in some cases, the weight has something to do with the huge laptop computer they lug around in their backpacks.

Apple's MacBook Air is designed to take some of that weight off, while keeping most of the experience of having and using a Mac in place.

To say it's really thin doesn't come close to describing what it looks like when you see it in person. At its thickest point, it's not even an inch high. As for weight, it tips the scales at 3 pounds. But it has nearly all the features of the traditional Mac notebooks, like built-in wireless capability and a Web camera.

The side of the metal case has a hatch that flips down to let you access the main ports you need: USB, headphone and a video port. It has a smaller MagSafe jack to connect to a power source and a bright, backlit screen. And for those who want to type in the dark, the keyboard is backlit. The touch pad brings in some of the iTouch and iPhone-like features, like being able to pinch, swipe or zoom in on pictures and or text.

In addition to the Mac OS X, the notebook comes with a suite of software for handling tasks like e-mail, photos, recording music and running Windows-based programs.