I guess I value thin and svelte over size

I am something of a minimalist so, the SSD size did not bother me, especially since there is a microsd card slot on it - it is basically a removable internal drive - it doesn't stick out at all and you can't even really notice it's there. I was originally planning to use a Class 4 32MB microsd card there for any docs, music etc. I wanted to keep on it.

Slightly off-topic, in terms of SSD size, for years I was bemoaning my tiny 120GB HD in my MacBook Pro. When I finally investigated where all that space was going, it was tons of OS cruft. I eventually got the nerve to wipe the machine clean, install a minimal OS X system on a partition, and partition the rest for Linux. I found that the optimal HD size for me (assuming media files are stored offline) is about 12GB. So the 8GB SSD has its limitations, but nothing I can't work around, especially with the microsd and 2 USB ports.

But that's just the price I'm willing to pay for design - like I said, my other machine is a MBP.