2018 MacBook Air Thoughts?

[BuCkDoG]

So I currently own a 2018 15" MacBook Pro and so far I love it but I really could get away with using a MacBook Air for most of my tasks and save quite a bit of cash in the return process so I wanted to see what everyones thoughts were on their 2018 MacBook Airs and get some feedback. How do you like the machine so far? How is the performance? Would you prefer the MacBook Air versus the MacBook Pro if you were saving $1500 dollars in total even though it meant sacrificing ports, nicer screen, etc? Any advice helps. Thanks!

 

[shivaswrath]

So I currently own a 2018 15" MacBook Pro and so far I love it but I really could get away with using a MacBook Air for most of my tasks and save quite a bit of cash in the return process so I wanted to see what everyones thoughts were on their 2018 MacBook Airs and get some feedback. How do you like the machine so far? How is the performance? Would you prefer the MacBook Air versus the MacBook Pro if you were saving $1500 dollars in total even though it meant sacrificing ports, nicer screen, etc? Any advice helps. Thanks!

It's pretty great actually....is a desktop replacement no. Keyboard is awesome and it cananage basic applications.

I would still need an MBP for instensive PS work though.

 

[BuCkDoG]

It's pretty great actually....is a desktop replacement no. Keyboard is awesome and it cananage basic applications.

I would still need an MBP for instensive PS work though.

Good to know. I actually enjoy the keyboard on the 13" Air more than the 15" MBP because of the volume of the computer. You can type easier since there is less room and less wasted space as compared to the 15" MBP. All I am going to sue it for is watching youtube, light office work, etc. I thought about moving to the 13" MBP but the cost is so much more, I just don't think I would benefit form he additional $500. Sure it has a nicer screen, 4 TB3 ports, more CPU and GPU power, but again I won't really use it so why waste the money. Thats why I wanted to come here and see what people had to say. Much appreciated!

 

[UKBeast]

I will buy MBA 2018 next month.

I think as long you work on safari, itunes and microsoft office apps mba can handle fine and you will not see much performance difference with mbp touchbar.

mbp is for video and photo editors mainly.

 

[OdT22]

I've been doing quite a bit of horse swapping this past year. From 2015 MBP & 2017 iMac, to Surface Pro, then Surface LT2. Also dropping iPad Pro for about 6 months, and swapping to the Pixel from iPhone for about 3 months. My wife did nearly the same trades during this time, (we shared the iMac, though she was the only one who really used it) It's been fun and interesting.

Back to iPhone (two XR's) about 3 weeks ago due to carrier signal being poor on Google Fi. Dropped calls suck!
Back to iPad Pro (11) for me a few days after the phones, for me. Hers just arrived last night.
My new MBA (128GB/16GB) arrived yesterday, and I've spent about 12 hours on it now. First impressions couldn't really be any better. So far.

The Mac trackpad was something I was really looking forward to returning to, and it has been a genuine delight to use, as expected.
Screen is great. Not sure why I ever took any of the complaints read here seriously.
Keyboard is different, but no complaints so far. Kinda like it. Wish me luck.
Haven't heard the fans, but I have kids, dogs, and a new ductless HVAC that is mounted just above where I sit. Not sure I'll ever notice any fan noise, even if I wanted to.
The fingerprint sensor is instant. Love it. (Windows Hello was admittedly easier though)
Setup and initial use has been flawless. It's as fast as any computer I've ever owned or used.

I guess I'm an average user though.. I use property management and accounting software mostly, along with email and a web browser being the backbone of my daily uses. The 'Pro' editions of Macs have never offered me any usable benefits.

 

[ATC]

My wife tried the new MBA in an Apple store last week and she got approval from work to get one (paid for by her employer) but after reading Joanna Stern's article in yesterday's WSJ (a painful read) that the 3rd gen butterfly keyboard has the exact same failure issues as before, and then Apple confirming the issue and apologizing, I think we'll have to skip this gen again. Hopefully Apple really fixes this keyboard in the next one. Looking at getting her a Surface Laptop 2 instead.

 

[BuCkDoG]

My wife tried the new MBA in an Apple store last week and she got approval from work to get one (paid for by her employer) but after reading Joanna Stern's article in yesterday's WSJ (a painful read) that the 3rd gen butterfly keyboard has the exact same failure issues as before, and then Apple confirming the issue and apologizing, I think we'll have to skip this gen again. Hopefully Apple really fixes this keyboard in the next one. Looking at getting her a Surface Laptop 2 instead.

I think the main issue with how these keyboards fail is due to heat. Since the MBA rarely uses any power and also is not built for heavy usage and most people buying the MBA won’t be using it for those scenarios, I think it’s safe to buy it personally but I totally understand and respect why you would want to hold off.

 

[Ghost31]

My wife tried the new MBA in an Apple store last week and she got approval from work to get one (paid for by her employer) but after reading Joanna Stern's article in yesterday's WSJ (a painful read) that the 3rd gen butterfly keyboard has the exact same failure issues as before, and then Apple confirming the issue and apologizing, I think we'll have to skip this gen again. Hopefully Apple really fixes this keyboard in the next one. Looking at getting her a Surface Laptop 2 instead.

This is always the difficulty when you hear about an issue. Its hard to really quantify how widespread it is and if you will personally be affected. So its extremely easy to get turned off based on bad publicity and just not buy a product altogether out of fear. But as you get older and you sift through all the crap online and in the media, your realize on certain points you just gotta take a chance. A calculated risk.

I did. Was hugely turned off by the keyboards to the point I wasn't even gonna get a Mac. Gonna either go back to iPad or get a windows laptop. But I noticed out of the sample size that is my life, nobody has had a single issue with a butterfly keyboard. Out of ALL the departments I've talked to and worked with, nobody has an issue. Its hard to reconcile that with the news you hear about how bad the keyboards are. I DID hear about a video card problem across a bunch of dell xps laptops. So there are issues with everything. So I took a risk.

Got mine at launch. Just your standard base model with nothing extra and haven't had a single issue. It's been the best laptop I've ever had and I look back and can't believe I was so close to letting online hysteria convince me not buy something thats such a big part of my life. The fans never kick on. The keyboard feels great. Touchid is super quick. The screen is beautiful. And I was able to get it for cheap. So take it for what its worth, its been a great experience for me

 

[BuCkDoG]

This is always the difficulty when you hear about an issue. Its hard to really quantify how widespread it is and if you will personally be affected. So its extremely easy to get turned off based on bad publicity and just not buy a product altogether out of fear. But as you get older and you sift through all the crap online and in the media, your realize on certain points you just gotta take a chance. A calculated risk.

I did. Was hugely turned off by the keyboards to the point I wasn't even gonna get a Mac. Gonna either go back to iPad or get a windows laptop. But I noticed out of the sample size that is my life, nobody has had a single issue with a butterfly keyboard. Out of ALL the departments I've talked to and worked with, nobody has an issue. Its hard to reconcile that with the news you hear about how bad the keyboards are. I DID hear about a video card problem across a bunch of dell xps laptops. So there are issues with everything. So I took a risk.

Got mine at launch. Just your standard base model with nothing extra and haven't had a single issue. It's been the best laptop I've ever had and I look back and can't believe I was so close to letting online hysteria convince me not buy something thats such a big part of my life. The fans never kick on. The keyboard feels great. Touchid is super quick. The screen is beautiful. And I was able to get it for cheap. So take it for what its worth, its been a great experience for me

Awesome to hear! I ordered the base model with 256 SSD instead of 128 SSD and got it shipped next day for $1,145. I am typing on the wires one now and I am very happy so far with this laptop. I returned a ridiculously powered 15" MBP because I just couldn't get over the keyboard on that since the volume of the machine is so big. Using this keyboard with the wedge shape that tapers down makes typing on the MBA much easier and nicer overall IMHO.

 

[ATC]

This is always the difficulty when you hear about an issue. Its hard to really quantify how widespread it is and if you will personally be affected. So its extremely easy to get turned off based on bad publicity and just not buy a product altogether out of fear. But as you get older and you sift through all the crap online and in the media, your realize on certain points you just gotta take a chance. A calculated risk.

I did. Was hugely turned off by the keyboards to the point I wasn't even gonna get a Mac. Gonna either go back to iPad or get a windows laptop. But I noticed out of the sample size that is my life, nobody has had a single issue with a butterfly keyboard. Out of ALL the departments I've talked to and worked with, nobody has an issue. Its hard to reconcile that with the news you hear about how bad the keyboards are. I DID hear about a video card problem across a bunch of dell xps laptops. So there are issues with everything. So I took a risk.

Got mine at launch. Just your standard base model with nothing extra and haven't had a single issue. It's been the best laptop I've ever had and I look back and can't believe I was so close to letting online hysteria convince me not buy something thats such a big part of my life. The fans never kick on. The keyboard feels great. Touchid is super quick. The screen is beautiful. And I was able to get it for cheap. So take it for what its worth, its been a great experience for me

That is great to hear. i hope you, the OP and others don't have any issues with the KB. Might still end up with a MBA but for now I ordered her a surface laptop 2, at least to try out and see if it works for her. This is our first non-Apple PC we buy in over 10 years.

I think the main concern for her is a loss of confidence in the product. While this KB fiasco is not affecting every user, it does appear to be somewhat widespread. I mean for Apple to come out and make an official statement about it, I would think it takes more than just a few units to be impacted. Also, being a work-laptop my wife can't afford a lot of downtime, and our local genius at the Apple store told me it's a 7-8 business day turn-around for KB replacements, at least here in Canada.

The other thing is, even with us being deep in Apple's eco-system, her work is O365-heavy so the OS choice may not be critical, in fact her workflow might be slightly better suited to a W10 environment. I'm not confident or hopeful that she'll love this surface notebook but we'll see. Bought it from Costco so it would be an easy return : )

 

[BuCkDoG]

That is great to hear. i hope you, the OP and others don't have any issues with the KB. Might still end up with a MBA but for now I ordered her a surface laptop 2, at least to try out and see if it works for her. This is our first non-Apple PC we buy in over 10 years.

I think the main concern for her is a loss of confidence in the product. While this KB fiasco is not affecting every user, it does appear to be somewhat widespread. I mean for Apple to come out and make an official statement about it, I would think it takes more than just a few units to be impacted. Also, being a work-laptop my wife can't afford a lot of downtime, and our local genius at the Apple store told me it's a 7-8 business day turn-around for KB replacements, at least here in Canada.

The other thing is, even with us being deep in Apple's eco-system, her work is O365-heavy so the OS choice may not be critical, in fact her workflow might be slightly better suited to a W10 environment. I'm not confident or hopeful that she'll love this surface notebook but we'll see. Bought it from Costco so it would be an easy return : )

Costco is not a bad place to buy any computer as you get that sweet warranty however I would recommend buying Apple Refurbished with the military discount if you have someone in the military as you do save quite a bit of money and get a practically brand new computer.

 

[MBAir2010]

I will buy MBA 2018 next month.

I think as long you work on safari, itunes and microsoft office apps mba can handle fine and you will not see much performance difference with mbp touchbar.

mbp is for video and photo editors mainly.

the white zone is for parking only
I still compose graphics on my mbair 2010 while running foobar, quod libre and other apps with no,lag, imagine WHADDA 2018 can do? Besides infiltrate Pakistan’s nuclear power and missile launch grid...

 

[jimmy_uk]

My wife tried the new MBA in an Apple store last week and she got approval from work to get one (paid for by her employer) but after reading Joanna Stern's article in yesterday's WSJ (a painful read) that the 3rd gen butterfly keyboard has the exact same failure issues as before, and then Apple confirming the issue and apologizing, I think we'll have to skip this gen again. Hopefully Apple really fixes this keyboard in the next one. Looking at getting her a Surface Laptop 2 instead.

The alcantara finish kills the Surface laptop for me. What a ridiculous design decision for long term use. Microsoft should have given an option for a metal finish.

 

[ATC]

The alcantara finish kills the Surface laptop for me. What a ridiculous design decision for long term use. Microsoft should have given an option for a metal finish.

Yeah I wonder how it handles wear and tear. Can’t imagine it handling that well over time.

 

[OdT22]

Yeah I wonder how it handles wear and tear. Can’t imagine it handling that well over time.

Mine still looked the same as new after 3 months. I think it is over scrutinized like some of the recent Mac stuff is.

 

[BuCkDoG]

Mine still looked the same as new after 3 months. I think it is over scrutinized like some of the recent Mac stuff is.

The Mac stuff does get scrutinized however you pay a lot for the product and they used to be worth the price but when you have massive issues like the keyboard that are so widespread, of course there is going to be scrutiny.

 

[Ghost31]

The Mac stuff does get scrutinized however you pay a lot for the product and they used to be worth the price but when you have massive issues like the keyboard that are so widespread, of course there is going to be scrutiny.

Massive? How massive? What are the sales numbers like 5 million a quarter? So that’s 20 million a year? 3 generations that’s 3 years so 60 million butterfly switches and how many of those tens of millions have issues?

Without any concrete data that’s not just little biased polls on websites like this, we have no way to know. I suspect if it was as big as some people say though there would be a recall. So I think apple has some things to work on, but I also don’t think it’s nearly as big of a problem as people make it out to be

 

[BuCkDoG]

Massive? How massive? What are the sales numbers like 5 million a quarter? So that’s 20 million a year? 3 generations that’s 3 years so 60 million butterfly switches and how many of those tens of millions have issues?

Without any concrete data that’s not just little biased polls on websites like this, we have no way to know. I suspect if it was as big as some people say though there would be a recall. So I think apple has some things to work on, but I also don’t think it’s nearly as big of a problem as people make it out to be

Widespread enough to where they issued a keyboard replacement program on 3 years worth of ALL their notebooks, not just one model so clearly there must be ALOT of claims for this issue. Yes Apple is a gigantic company so the numbers could be different in comparison however I still feel this is widespread enough to make it a really big deal.

 

[Ghost31]

Widespread enough to where they issued a keyboard replacement program on 3 years worth of ALL their notebooks, not just one model so clearly there must be ALOT of claims for this issue. Yes Apple is a gigantic company so the numbers could be different in comparison however I still feel this is widespread enough to make it a really big deal.

There have been repair programs for a lot of different things. So it’s still a bit difficult to grasp the gravity of this situation. Just means something has happened to people and they’ve been vocal and apple has understood and listened.

I think it was Rene Ritchie that looked at repair data and found there wasn’t a super high keyboard repair rate from the 2016 compared to 2015. I may be wrong.

Is the iPad bending a real issue? Because apple acknowledged that too but it doesn’t seem to affect a lot of people. I think if they just expended the repair program to all butterfly keyboards to 4 years, most people wouldn’t really complain. It kinda blows my mind it’s so hard to repair a keyboard

 

[imrazor]

I was also concerned about the keyboard issue affecting both Macbook Pros, and the new Macbook Air, so I decided to get the older model MBA instead. I got the fifth generation i7 model which is about as powerful as the i5 in the new MBA, and I have ports. I've avoided joining the DongleNation(TM) for the time being, and hopefully stay away for a few more years. It is also possible to upgrade the storage in the older MBA instead of being stuck with the SSD soldered to the logic board and/or I can use an SD card to expand storage.

 

[AustinIllini]

Massive? How massive? What are the sales numbers like 5 million a quarter? So that’s 20 million a year? 3 generations that’s 3 years so 60 million butterfly switches and how many of those tens of millions have issues?

Without any concrete data that’s not just little biased polls on websites like this, we have no way to know. I suspect if it was as big as some people say though there would be a recall. So I think apple has some things to work on, but I also don’t think it’s nearly as big of a problem as people make it out to be

Stop trying to use reason. People who don't own and have never used the product have already made their decision.
[doublepost=1553950220][/doublepost]

I was also concerned about the keyboard issue affecting both Macbook Pros, and the new Macbook Air, so I decided to get the older model MBA instead. I got the fifth generation i7 model which is about as powerful as the i5 in the new MBA, and I have ports. I've avoided joining the DongleNation(TM) for the time being, and hopefully stay away for a few more years. It is also possible to upgrade the storage in the older MBA instead of being stuck with the SSD soldered to the logic board and/or I can use an SD card to expand storage.

And a 2010 screen

 

[Dave245]

There have been repair programs for a lot of different things. So it’s still a bit difficult to grasp the gravity of this situation. Just means something has happened to people and they’ve been vocal and apple has understood and listened.

I think it was Rene Ritchie that looked at repair data and found there wasn’t a super high keyboard repair rate from the 2016 compared to 2015. I may be wrong.

Is the iPad bending a real issue? Because apple acknowledged that too but it doesn’t seem to affect a lot of people. I think if they just expended the repair program to all butterfly keyboards to 4 years, most people wouldn’t really complain. It kinda blows my mind it’s so hard to repair a keyboard

If it wasn't a higher failure rate, would Apple really be apologising now?

 

[Ghost31]

If it wasn't a higher failure rate, would Apple really be apologising now?

Maybe. Then again, if it was a high failure rate, would they just keep the same failing keyboard for 3 years? Does that make sense too? It’s always hard to tell with these things. Will be interesting to see if the next redesign has an entirely different keyboard or stays about the same.

 

[imrazor]

And a 2010 screen

...which looks just as good now as it did then. Yes, it’s not as sharp as the new screen but it is brighter. I weighed the pros and cons, and decided that the higher resolution wasn’t worth giving up a better feeling and more reliable keyboard. And paying $250 less than MSRP sealed the deal.

 

[Dave245]

Maybe. Then again, if it was a high failure rate, would they just keep the same failing keyboard for 3 years? Does that make sense too? It’s always hard to tell with these things. Will be interesting to see if the next redesign has an entirely different keyboard or stays about the same.

Good point. I wonder if Apple will introduce the new redesigned Macbook Pro this year, Ming Chi Kuo has said that they will announce a 16" version this year with a new design. Maybe Apple have decided to bring the Pro redesign forward to this year in response to the keyboard issues. Other wise the redesign would be expected next year.