Does the display losses brightness over time/usage?

Okay, I am sorry if you know this, but I recently went through this with my wife. She was complaining the kids' MBPs displays weren't bright enough when she was trying to use them. I showed her that the brightness could be turned up all the way by using the F2 key which she didn't know. Just then my six-year-old son came in and said "what didn't she know how to do?" He said he knew how... she said, "show me." Sure enough he uses f2 to go brighter and f1 to go dimmer. My wife never even knew a laptop could do that. So again I am not trying to be a jerk and act like you don't know this because maybe you do, but some people honestly don't know that the display brightness can be turned up.

Now, let's say you already knew that. Some panel manufacturers make better displays than others. You can go look at the manufacturer of the display, but since you didn't do that with the original (I am assuming), it will not do you much good. However, assume you got a better panel and be thankful! Best wishes with it. I think the consensus is Samsung and LG make the best displays, so maybe you now have one of those?

 

The MBA uses LED backlighting, which doesn't (appreciably) degrade over time. The CCFL (cold-cathode flourescent) type (used less and less these days) does, and can be noticeable over just a couple years. In other words, you don't need to worry about your MBA's display becoming dimmer over time.