fragility of 13" MBA?

I'm in the market for a very light laptop, and although I've never bought a mac before, I'm very tempted by the 13" Macbook Air. It's more expensive than the 12" Thinkpad I'm considering, but I'm willing to pay extra for the larger and much better screen. The thing I'm most afraid of is the stability of the Air. I've always owned Thinkpads, and while I try to be careful, in general I'm pretty hard on my computers. I haven't managed to break a thinkpad, but I'm worried I'd break an Air (I have, for example, broken the screens on two ereaders in three years).

Can any owners give me advice? I'd hate to give up the quality of the Air screen if I don't have to, but next to portability, stability is the feature that's most important to me.

 

I'm curious to hear the answer as well. I'm a Thinkpad owner, too, and I've heard paradoxically that Macs have great build quality on the one hand, but owners seem very obsessive about the way they handle the machines. Are they so delicate? Whatever applies to the MBA,I'm guessing would go for other models as well since they all share the screen build and the unibody frame.

 

It's probably stronger than the other Macbook Pros since they utilize a similar chassis with 1/2 the weight.

I don't treat my Air differently than my other laptops, though I am careful not to scratch it.

 

As always plain old dumb luck plays a large role.

 

you wouldn't want to drop it, because you would most likely warp part of the casing, which ruin the whole laptop.

MBA or MBP are too be used with care... i know plenty of people who sell their machine as soon as they dent it.

 

I've always treated my Alu-Macs as though it was a baby in my arms. While dropping it might not make it die, it would never be the same.

These are not OLPC's or Toughbooks made for the rigors of combat. Quality is not always how it performs under abuse, but how well it endures with care. The current MBA's are definitely something that will endure with reasonable care.