Hat tip to Felix Metzger for pointing me at Electronista’s MacBook Air review, which contains some oddball pros and cons. First, cons:

Not as fast as costlier rivals.

Is that really a ‘con’ of any hardware? The more expensive iPhone 4 is superior to the cheaper iPhone 3GS, but is that a ‘con’ regarding the older hardware? Surely if an alternative option is cheaper and faster, that might be something you should criticise, but more expensive and faster is just par for the course.

Battery life could still be longer.

That’s a statement, rather than a criticism. If Apple had a MacBook Air battery that lasted 24 hours, there would still be people who’d moan that it could last longer. But Apple’s 13-inch notebook lasts around seven hours, which is at the forefront of this technology. Again, if Apple was falling behind its rivals, that would be a ‘con’. “MacBook Air doesn’t include technology that doesn’t yet exist” isn’t really a criticism at all.

And then there’s a lovely pair of opinions. First, the ‘con’:

Display isn’t as vivid as on a MacBook Pro or similar.

Then a ‘pro’:

Sharp, low-glare display.

The gist is that Apple’s toned down its MacBook Air display, so it’s no longer akin to a mirror! Hurrah! But then that means it’s not quite as vivid as it once was. In this case, Electronista has a valid complaint, but it strikes me that you get one or the other (with current display technology): either you have glare with vibrancy or matte with dullness. Apple’s struck a balance, and so the review has complained about something it’s earlier championed. Odd.

Note that this doesn’t showcase that Electronista is stupid or that reviewer Jon Fingas needs a slap. The review itself is imperfect but pretty good and balanced. What it does show is that if you run a publication that forces reviewers to add ratings or the inevitable and rather pointless ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ lists, you must take extreme care on those overview elements. They are the things readers are driven to first, and they can so easily mislead, unintentionally or otherwise.