Air returns - Why?

[Aurora823]

Well they haven't fixed butterfly keys after 3 generations, nor have they fixed the T2 kernal panic issue yet. Think the dim screen issue is likely to not be resolved. I would say I didn't notice a dim screen to the point where I'd use max brightness (which was blinding). I however use it indoors. Could maybe be different panel manufacturers depending on region? Who knows....

Yea I'm wondering if some screens are manufactured differently...I bought one from Microcenter and it just didn't seem crisp..and while in a dark room it was bright enough if I had any lights on I often times found myself reaching the button to make it brighter..I guess that's my main issue with it. But interesting to know there are other issues...oh Apple :/ I did enjoy the keys a bit more on the MacBook Air 2018 (in the short time I had it) and now when I type on my MacBook Pro 2017 (non touch bar) I feel like I'm going to wake up the whole house with how loud they are...
[doublepost=1543340082][/doublepost]

Just curious. Do you use Mac outdoor that often?

For indoor use, 120 nits is a recommended brightness setting. My 2018 MBA registers 308 nits peak and I hit 120 nits at 5 clicks below the maximum brightness setting. (I have calibrated the display using i1Display.)

Yes, when using MBA directly under the Sun, I wish for more brightness. But I have to crank down the brightness once I move under the tree for some shades (and I frankly prefer not to be baking under the Sun).

I mainly only used mine indoors but even indoors a few notches down from max seemed like the screen was blacking out...I have a feeling some are being manufactured differently..

 

[lambertjohn]

and i guess you're still driving that '47 ford

Hey, I drive a 96 VW GTI. Twenty-two years old and it's still an awesome ride. I'm just saying...

 

[Wags]

I had the same thought process as well - didn't want to go to the 13" TB due to far worse battery life.
[doublepost=1543337104][/doublepost]

Doubt that will occur, but feel free to believe!

Apple could have easily used better panel and would have been hardly any compromises other than Apple’s wallet. Could have been one of Apple’s best ever but they choose not too.
[doublepost=1543346778][/doublepost]

seems to me apple made a great product defectable to boost macbook pro sales, which some repliers here are going to do.

Probably some degree. Did not get rid of 13ntb for reason.

 

[MBAir2010]

that appleTV is useless as well. the constant spinning ball on the history channel is worse that spinnng on a MBAir

 

[trip1ex]

Doubt that will occur, but feel free to believe!

It's happening although it could be the year after next instead.

ARM is coming to the Mac lineup. The ARM chips afaik are not only faster now than the INtel chips in Apple's low-end macbooks. but more energy efficient and cooler with better gpus and cheaper on top of it.

Just doing the math. They've made the switch before. 12 years ago. 2006. They went intel from powerpc.

 

[AlexJoda]

It's happening although it could be the year after next instead.

ARM is coming to the Mac lineup. The ARM chips afaik are not only faster now than the INtel chips in Apple's low-end macbooks. but more energy efficient and cooler with better gpus and cheaper on top of it.

Just doing the math. They've made the switch before. 12 years ago. 2006. They went intel from powerpc.

But something like Bootcamp might not work anymore....

 

[Ma2k5]

It's happening although it could be the year after next instead.

ARM is coming to the Mac lineup. The ARM chips afaik are not only faster now than the INtel chips in Apple's low-end macbooks. but more energy efficient and cooler with better gpus and cheaper on top of it.

Just doing the math. They've made the switch before. 12 years ago. 2006. They went intel from powerpc.

It will happen for Windows, Linux and macOS eventually that I agree, it was more that I don't think it'll happen next year.

Also, moving to x86 from PowerPC is not as difficult as moving away from x86 to ARM imo.

 

[Endorphine88]

Best Buy price matches Microcenter. No problem at all.
[doublepost=1542684944][/doublepost]

I am curious why you chose to give up the Pro in favor of the new Air? I am right now considering returning the Air and getting the 13" Pro with Touch Bar... The quad core processors and better screen are worth the difference to me, I think. When I decided to go with the Air, I was thinking I'll give up some performance in return for convenience, especially Touch ID and longer battery... but that's when I was considering the non-Touch Bar version of the Pro.

Exactly as you said.

I am mostly using the PRO to type. I am not taking advantage of all the processing power and I have a friend who would. He agreed to buy the PRO off me for a price higher than I could get anywhere else. I am also paranoid that the older generation keyboard will malfunction on me (it hasn't and I have AppleCare, but still).
I also have a soft spot for the Air. It was my first MacBook when the original one came out and there's something sentimental about it. It accomplishes everything I need it to and it is a newer machine either way. That's why I decided to part ways with my Pro.

 

[Kate0088]

.

 

[AlexJoda]

Looks like Apple is on the wrong path this year. Extremely expensive products with bean counter attitude to save the last possible cent in production. The display and the camera on the new MBA is a shame as is the basic configuration with 128 GB SSD for these freaking prices. Same quality problems and freaking prices with iPad Pros.

That might be the way to become to most valuable company in the world but not to stay there very long (as we see at the moment).

 

[iMi]

I am returning my MacBook Air 2018 due to the screen not being nearly bright enough and the colours looking dull. This is my first MacBook and I love everything about it apart from the screen so I am really disappointed to be having to return it. Contemplating the Pro but really love the wedge shape of the keyboard on the air.

I returned the Air and got the Pro. Yes, you'll notice the difference between the square and wedge shapes but after a few days you will not feel any different typing on it. The Pro is an awesome machine.

 

[eric.johnson]

I have had my new MacBook Air for literally 2 days and I am not happy with it. I do know this machine was never really intended for doing video work but even just a simple 1080p video about 1 min in length has a much longer export time then I expected and this is due to the CPU not being able to go as fast due to heat. I am not saying that they are throttling the CPU but it does seem that the clocks are running much lower due to heat (tested in Intel Power Gadget). For my export a lot of the time the CPU was running at around 1.3 GHz! Not even the base advertised speed of 1.6 and I'm sure it would never be able to get to the turbo boost of 3.6 Ghz. The CPU is running at 99C most of the time when exporting.

Very basic tasks sure, there is a computer here for someone. BUT the apparently 720P Camera for Skype or whatever you want to use it for is terrible. My old 2012 MacBook Air is much superior. What have they done? I'm going to return this computer because it is way too expensive for what you are getting. The value is in the 2017 MacBook Pro for around 100 bucks more for a much better screen, SSD, thermals, CPU clock and GPU.

I will miss Touch ID but it is kinda a little bit of a gimmick.

 

[Ma2k5]

I have had my new MacBook Air for literally 2 days and I am not happy with it. I do know this machine was never really intended for doing video work but even just a simple 1080p video about 1 min in length has a much longer export time then I expected and this is due to the CPU not being able to go as fast due to heat. I am not saying that they are throttling the CPU but it does seem that the clocks are running much lower due to heat (tested in Intel Power Gadget). For my export a lot of the time the CPU was running at around 1.3 GHz! Not even the base advertised speed of 1.6 and I'm sure it would never be able to get to the turbo boost of 3.6 Ghz. The CPU is running at 99C most of the time when exporting.

Very basic tasks sure, there is a computer here for someone. BUT the apparently 720P Camera for Skype or whatever you want to use it for is terrible. My old 2012 MacBook Air is much superior. What have they done? I'm going to return this computer because it is way too expensive for what you are getting. The value is in the 2017 MacBook Pro for around 100 bucks more for a much better screen, SSD, thermals, CPU clock and GPU.

I will miss Touch ID but it is kinda a little bit of a gimmick.

What was the difference in export time?

Did you notice any lag/beach ball/unresponsive otherwise in using the Air?

Thanks

 

[AlexJoda]

I have had my new MacBook Air for literally 2 days and I am not happy with it. I do know this machine was never really intended for doing video work but even just a simple 1080p video about 1 min in length has a much longer export time then I expected and this is due to the CPU not being able to go as fast due to heat. I am not saying that they are throttling the CPU but it does seem that the clocks are running much lower due to heat (tested in Intel Power Gadget). For my export a lot of the time the CPU was running at around 1.3 GHz! Not even the base advertised speed of 1.6 and I'm sure it would never be able to get to the turbo boost of 3.6 Ghz. The CPU is running at 99C most of the time when exporting.

Very basic tasks sure, there is a computer here for someone. BUT the apparently 720P Camera for Skype or whatever you want to use it for is terrible. My old 2012 MacBook Air is much superior. What have they done? I'm going to return this computer because it is way too expensive for what you are getting. The value is in the 2017 MacBook Pro for around 100 bucks more for a much better screen, SSD, thermals, CPU clock and GPU.

I will miss Touch ID but it is kinda a little bit of a gimmick.

What was that the export time compared ro the previous MBA?

 

[vito]

I returned the Air and got the Pro. Yes, you'll notice the difference between the square and wedge shapes but after a few days you will not feel any different typing on it. The Pro is an awesome machine.

Same here, got the Air from Costco UK on BF for £1249. I just couldn’t get along with the screen which was the main sticking point for me. Whilst visiting family in London I went to a few computer shops for a browse whilst the ladies were doing their own thing. Picked up a 13 MBP 2018 TB base model for £1299, still has 11 months Apple warranty remaining. Bargain!

 

[oghowie]

Got the MBA and the brightness is fine to me, but I'm coming from a 2013 MBA. If you're running this at 100% brightness all the time, I feel sorry for your eyes.

 

[dagored]

Got the MBA and the brightness is fine to me, but I'm coming from a 2013 MBA. If you're running this at 100% brightness all the time, I feel sorry for your eyes.

Agreed. I said before that I believe some crappy screens got past quality control.

I’m 3 bars from 100%.

 

[oghowie]

Agreed. I said before that I believe some crappy screens got past quality control.

I’m 3 bars from 100%.

Yeah, same here. This is in a fully lit room. I don't have a new MBP to compare it too though.

 

[newellj]

I returned the Air and got the Pro. Yes, you'll notice the difference between the square and wedge shapes but after a few days you will not feel any different typing on it. The Pro is an awesome machine.

Yes. Going from the 2015 (big) MBP to the 2018 (smaller) MBP makes a big difference to me. I still prefer the lower front edge of the MBA, but everything else about the MBP is, for me, a better experience.

 

[hans1972]

I have had my new MacBook Air for literally 2 days and I am not happy with it. I do know this machine was never really intended for doing video work but even just a simple 1080p video about 1 min in length has a much longer export time then I expected and this is due to the CPU not being able to go as fast due to heat. I am not saying that they are throttling the CPU but it does seem that the clocks are running much lower due to heat (tested in Intel Power Gadget). For my export a lot of the time the CPU was running at around 1.3 GHz! Not even the base advertised speed of 1.6 and I'm sure it would never be able to get to the turbo boost of 3.6 Ghz. The CPU is running at 99C most of the time when exporting.

Depending on the video format and the application, it is the T2 chip that does the exporting.

Old assumptions that the CPU is doing the video conversion is not correct.

 

[eric.johnson]

Depending on the video format and the application, it is the T2 chip that does the exporting.

Old assumptions that the CPU is doing the video conversion is not correct.

Ok I didn’t know that. The cpu due to thermals imo is slowing down far too much. Plus I want the computer to last at least 5 years so I went with the beefier 2018 MacBook Pro instead.
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What was the difference in export time?

Did you notice any lag/beach ball/unresponsive otherwise in using the Air?

Thanks

For general tasks it is quick. He only beach ball I got was when it had to process the photos app and figure out how much terabytes of photos to download from the cloud haha. I didn’t measure the export time but it seemed to be a little on the lengthy side but this imo is due to the design and form factor of the thermals. The cpu in this computer runs much hotter right up to the max and therefore causes a slow down but this slow down is hard to detect unless looking at a monitoring tool like intel power gadget. I guess I didn’t want to be paying that price for a cpu that was often running much slower. Now in the pro, this rarely happens. My cpu sits on 93 c on demanding tasks and doesn’t reach the throttling thresholds thus cpu speeds and base clocks stay the same and turbo boost works well. The MacBook Air turbo boost barely turned on for me in testing.
[doublepost=1543825926][/doublepost]

What was that the export time compared ro the previous MBA?

Lol well my previous was a late 2012 model so much much faster. I didn’t like the cooling method and cpu slow down and lack of turbo boosts in the air because of heat so I ended up going for the 2018 MacBook Pro touchbar. Hurts the wallet a bit but I am now actually satisfied with the computer than paying so much for the air for not that much.

 

[kooky]

I'm fairly confident I saw a post from a person that bought a 128GB after owning a 256GB and they said the brightness was better.

For anyone happy with their brightness and contrast, would you be able to post the first 5 digits of your serial number?

I am not happy with mine, my contrast is terrible, so is the brightness - washed out.

I have stock 256GB purchased at Apple Retail store, serial starts with FVFXG

I have been using the Chipmunk serial lookup tool at http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html and also the information here https://beetstech.com/blog/decode-meaning-behind-apple-serial-number

The Chipmunk site throws this back at me:

FVFXG = Factory FV, build Year 2018 Week 39

I was wondering, for anyone that has seen either one with a comparably better screen, is the factory also FV?

I was hoping, via a long shot, that if there was a different factory, and I could see the serial number before purchase, I might be in the lottery to get the unicorn brighter screen (if indeed it exists).

Interestingly, I see all of my other Macs that I've owned, they all start with serial C02 (12" Retina, 15" Pro, 13" Pro)..

 

[dagored]

I'm fairly confident I saw a post from a person that bought a 128GB after owning a 256GB and they said the brightness was better.

For anyone happy with their brightness and contrast, would you be able to post the first 5 digits of your serial number?

I am not happy with mine, my contrast is terrible, so is the brightness - washed out.

I have stock 256GB purchased at Apple Retail store, serial starts with FVFXG

I have been using the Chipmunk serial lookup tool at http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html and also the information here https://beetstech.com/blog/decode-meaning-behind-apple-serial-number

The Chipmunk site throws this back at me:

FVFXG = Factory FV, build Year 2018 Week 39

I was wondering, for anyone that has seen either one with a comparably better screen, is the factory also FV?

I was hoping, via a long shot, that if there was a different factory, and I could see the serial number before purchase, I might be in the lottery to get the unicorn brighter screen (if indeed it exists).

Interestingly, I see all of my other Macs that I've owned, they all start with serial C02 (12" Retina, 15" Pro, 13" Pro)..

CO2XL This is a 16/512 and I am two notches down on brightness. However, I am using REC. ITU-R BT.709-5 color profile.

 

[Endorphine88]

I'm fairly confident I saw a post from a person that bought a 128GB after owning a 256GB and they said the brightness was better.

For anyone happy with their brightness and contrast, would you be able to post the first 5 digits of your serial number?

I am not happy with mine, my contrast is terrible, so is the brightness - washed out.

I have stock 256GB purchased at Apple Retail store, serial starts with FVFXG

I have been using the Chipmunk serial lookup tool at http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html and also the information here https://beetstech.com/blog/decode-meaning-behind-apple-serial-number

The Chipmunk site throws this back at me:

FVFXG = Factory FV, build Year 2018 Week 39

I was wondering, for anyone that has seen either one with a comparably better screen, is the factory also FV?

I was hoping, via a long shot, that if there was a different factory, and I could see the serial number before purchase, I might be in the lottery to get the unicorn brighter screen (if indeed it exists).

Interestingly, I see all of my other Macs that I've owned, they all start with serial C02 (12" Retina, 15" Pro, 13" Pro)..

C02XK****** - Got it the week after reveal. Base (128 GB). During the day I typically keep it at 3 notches from max on the brightness, at night I drop to half brightness. Contrast, colors and everything of that nature are impeccable. Used to own the 2017 13 inch Pro (256GB with touchbar).

I did go to a store the other day and stood the Pro and the Air next to each other. The Pro is visibly brighter at Max setting, no argument about that, but I for some reason don't like that.

 

[auxbuss]

CO2XL 8/128. Brightness is fine, even sat next to my MBP. The colour range is not as good as the MBP, although we know that, and it has no impact in practice (for me). I'm also using the REC. ITU-R BT.709-5 colour profile. (The default colour profile looks washed out.)