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Apple's New 2018 MacBook Air vs. Old MacBook Air

Sand, gritty bits, crumbs, micro-dust bunnies (and maybe a drop or two of fluids) - all argue why I have always included a Moshi / Moshiesque keyboard protector to my MacBooks. Always considered it as a good practice on my 2011 and now 2017 Airs, but now with butterfly, it seems to not do it is simply foolhardy.
 
I've had time to read various reviews and even played with one in person at my retailer of choice - my opinion on this hasn't changed. It's an extremely poor value that carries forward Apple's notorious QA/QC problems (with the Keyboard) making it yet another product line Cook and his zombies have trashed. For those that have it and love it though, good for you - happy computing.

Thankfully though my 11" Air still has plenty of life left and is still quite useable (even after the latest OS updates). Definitely going back to Windows though when it dies (and already have my options pretty well narrowed down).
 
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Here in Germany the price difference for a usable configuration (a 128 GB SSD is a joke in 2018) is much more than $200. For the 265 GB version the new one cost about 50% more (500-600€) if you compare the street prices. For that price I expect much better specs in 2018 like 16 GB RAM and a 512 GB NvME, if the new MBA should last as long as the old one, which I doubt very much.

Another problem is that the CPU/GPU is not adequate to the price and the rest of the hardware. The full mobile i5 or even the i7 (not the Y Version which has not much in common with a real i5) in 2011 was a much more powerful option at that time. Especially the GPU looks under-powered for the nearly quadrupled pixels of the retina display.

In addition we have the aspects the others here already mentioned like less usable interfaces, and no MagSafe. The UI resolution for the best 1:1 retina experience should be 800x1280 (half of the retina resolution) and not 900x1440, which is the native resolution of the old MBA. So you give up already some of the quality improvements of the retina display (besides the worse brightness and washed out colors).

All in all the old MBA at the reduced price seems a better deal to me. I knew the specs are not as good as more recent notebooks but that is acceptable for that price point (at least in the Apple universe..). The new MBA with not much better specs seems overpriced and under-powered from the start...
 
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levitynyc said:
Still not updating my 2011 13” MacBook Air.

I need 256GB and the upgrade of $200 is criminal.
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Absolutely! It is the same on the Mac mini and low end MacBook Pro's too.

$200 for an 256>512 GB is already a very high price (for performance that almost none in this target market needs).

The MBair should have lower spec SATA speed SSDs at half the price price of the MBPRos.
 
Can I replace the 2017 MacBook Air display panel with a Retina panel from the new 2018 MacBook Air?
 
BigBoy2018 said:
Hah ha. Laugh now funny guy, but particles like sand can show up anywhere. Text me again in the next 6 months or so when you’re waiting at the Apple store for your beloved laptop to get fixed. I’ll be curious to see how your hilarious sense of humor is holding up.
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My work has had several of the last generation MBP's at power plants, and still have no issues. Either some people here are very dirty, or very unlucky.
 
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