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Defect or not?

M

mpaquette

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 15, 2010
136
65
Columbia, SC
I unboxed my new 13" Air yesterday and noticed something odd with the lid. It doesn't close flush against the body. The front edge (by the trackpad) is flush and the back edge is flush, but the sides have a gap. Almost as if the curved slightly. The gap is large enough that the side can be squeezed and you can hear the lid touching the body. The gap seems to be uniform on each side, so I thought maybe it wasn't a defect, but maybe designed that way.

So what do you think, is this normal? At this point I could easily swap it out for another.
 
The best thing to do would be to either

a. Post a pic of the area bothering you
b. Take it to the store and compare it with the demo units

As for mine, I just closed my lid, and yes, the gap on the sides is ever so slightly larger than that on the front
 
There may be a small discrepancy in how things line up, but as the anirudhr mentioned. Post a picture so we can see first hand what you're talking about.
 
It's nothing new, and yes, it's fairly 'normal'. The sides of the lid on my Air bulge slightly upwards from the body of the machine when closed. I can't say that it's bothered me any time in the last two years.
 

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MultiFinder17 said:
It's nothing new, and yes, it's fairly 'normal'. The sides of the lid on my Air bulge slightly upwards from the body of the machine when closed. I can't say that it's bothered me any time in the last two years.
Click to expand...

It doesn't bother me, I was more or less curious if it was "normal." Your pictures are exactly like mine. Tightly closed on the front, small gap in the middle of the sides. It definitely doesn't affect my use of the laptop, but now is the time to have it replaced if it's an issue.
 
mpaquette said:
It doesn't bother me, I was more or less curious if it was "normal." Your pictures are exactly like mine. Tightly closed on the front, small gap in the middle of the sides. It definitely doesn't affect my use of the laptop, but now is the time to have it replaced if it's an issue.
Click to expand...

Absolutely normal, mine looks just like that. The gap is tiny and I only realised it was there after I read your post and checked.

Stewart
 
mpaquette said:
It doesn't bother me, I was more or less curious if it was "normal." Your pictures are exactly like mine. Tightly closed on the front, small gap in the middle of the sides. It definitely doesn't affect my use of the laptop, but now is the time to have it replaced if it's an issue.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's not the kind of thing that's going to get worse over time or anything, and every Air you get will have it. So as long as it doesn't bother you, keep and enjoy the little bugger :)
 
hmm strange. Just checked mine out it is very flush. Does it bother you to the point where it's always on your mind though? That seems like it might even be better than being flush because it would be easier to open up, yes?
 
Keep in mind if you put any type of the plastic cover protector on your MBA, the tabs from the cover will make the Air not close by about a millimeter all the way around. I have a incase perforated only on the bottom. But the two hook tabs that hold the case on make the air an equal gap from not closing flush by a millimeter or so.

I use a bottom cover because I take mine into manufacturing shops for work and place the Air on work benches and other not so clean places.
 
IngerMan said:
Keep in mind if you put any type of the plastic cover protector on your MBA, the tabs from the cover will make the Air not close by about a millimeter all the way around. I have a incase perforated only on the bottom. But the two hook tabs that hold the case on make the air an equal gap from not closing flush by a millimeter or so.

I use a bottom cover because I take mine into manufacturing shops for work and place the Air on work benches and other not so clean places.
Click to expand...

I don't have any kind of cover on it. Always use my devices naked. The more I think about it, the more I think I'm just going to return it and stick with my 13" MBP for now. Besides the odd fitting lid, I have trouble obtaining a WiFi connection unless I turn Bluetooth off. Also not sure I like the screen. I like that the resolution is a bit higher than my 13" MBP, but the contrast seems to be weird. Not sure how to describe it other than it's more difficult on the eyes vs. my MBP.
 
mpaquette said:
I don't have any kind of cover on it. Always use my devices naked. The more I think about it, the more I think I'm just going to return it and stick with my 13" MBP for now. Besides the odd fitting lid, I have trouble obtaining a WiFi connection unless I turn Bluetooth off. Also not sure I like the screen. I like that the resolution is a bit higher than my 13" MBP, but the contrast seems to be weird. Not sure how to describe it other than it's more difficult on the eyes vs. my MBP.
Click to expand...

Maybe you have a dud. I don't have the wi-fi issues (Lion itself has some, such as forgetting preferred networks occasionally, that are not MBA-specific). Anyway, if you don't like the screen then perhaps it isn't for you. Did you try changing the resolution down to 1280x800?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I have been previously informed that this is a 'tolerance' to protect the screen from the keyboard!

Totally normal.
 
Oli3000 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I have been previously informed that this is a 'tolerance' to protect the screen from the keyboard!

Totally normal.
Click to expand...

Really? Who told you that?
 
mpaquette said:
I don't have any kind of cover on it. Always use my devices naked. The more I think about it, the more I think I'm just going to return it and stick with my 13" MBP for now. Besides the odd fitting lid, I have trouble obtaining a WiFi connection unless I turn Bluetooth off. Also not sure I like the screen. I like that the resolution is a bit higher than my 13" MBP, but the contrast seems to be weird. Not sure how to describe it other than it's more difficult on the eyes vs. my MBP.
Click to expand...

There is a fix for your wifi issues. Look at the recent post "wifi driving me up the wall". Or something like that :)
 
I just used a micrometer that measures spaces, not objects to measure the gap all around my MBA. I won't bother you with the size of the gap in all 40 places that I took measurement from but Ill just get to the good bits where I refer to the sizes as a percentage of the gap in the opening area at the front. The left hand size is the worst fitting on my air, it is 103% at the worst location. The right hand size is about 99% at the worst bit. So this proves 3 things-

I have far too much time on my hands
I am happy to use that time for a useless purpose
The gap between the top and bottom of a MBA should be fairly consistent.
 
After spending a bit more time with it tonight, I'm going to have Apple swap it out for a different one. In addition to the large gap, I also noticed that the entire lid is crooked. When closing it, the right corner touches the base before the left. The track pad is also crooked; left side is almost flush with the body, but the right corer has the normal edge. Think I just got a wonky unibody or something.
 
Last edited:
I called Apple this morning and just decided to return it. Awesome customer service from Apple as always. I'll just hang on to my MBP for now and try the Air again whenever the next refresh happens.
 
some of you guys are really into your laptops. imagine if others u knew found out about this - they'd think you're a freak.
 
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