OK, I use a 13" rMBP from 2013. It's a little banged up but still runs the latest OS and works spectacularly for me. I had the battery replaced last year. The keyboard remains perfect. I used a 2015 MacBook for a year before going back to this due to keyboard frustration. I tried the 2018 Air for two weeks and while I didn't have any problems, the screen was dimmer (I heard they fixed this), the keyboard issues were an open question, the touch id was smart, the slight loss of weight and volume was nice, but all in all I couldn't justify the price and returned it. It just wasn't enough of an upgrade. But I want to upgrade, because a change after six years is welcome, and the touch bar is not my thing, so the Air is it. These are the deal breakers for 2019.
- Fourth-generation keyboard. I'm watching the forums like everyone. We're all waiting to see how long before anyone has the same old issues with the new Pro keyboard. By October or so we ought to see early failures, if it's going to happen. If we don't, it's probably fixed.
- Significant speed increase from 10nm Ice Lake. Also faster SSDs, and the rest hopefully, would be a big boost. I doubt that they'll cram a quad-core chip in here even if it's possible because they'll completely lose any reason for the low-end dual core Pro to exist. There really IS no reason left I know of -- the Air is surely Apple's midrange laptop for the next few years.
- Fourth-generation keyboard. I'm watching the forums like everyone. We're all waiting to see how long before anyone has the same old issues with the new Pro keyboard. By October or so we ought to see early failures, if it's going to happen. If we don't, it's probably fixed.
- Significant speed increase from 10nm Ice Lake. Also faster SSDs, and the rest hopefully, would be a big boost. I doubt that they'll cram a quad-core chip in here even if it's possible because they'll completely lose any reason for the low-end dual core Pro to exist. There really IS no reason left I know of -- the Air is surely Apple's midrange laptop for the next few years.
