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How is the Midnight Holding Up?

neo_cs193p

neo_cs193p

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 17, 2016
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People who have used the midnight MBA M2 for more than a few days. How is it holding up?
How often do you need to clean it?
What do you use to clean it?
Is it easy to clean? Do the smudges truly go away or does a degree of mess still persist?

Would you still get the same color now if you had the option to switch?
 
There is a thread just a few down from there with lots of input for this. Im returning mine because the hinge on the right side is rubbing and taking off the coating. Basically it’s an amazing colour but not the one for you if your ocd about finger prints or getting little marks in the coating. Used the usb c port one time, super careful and still took some coating off.

So for me, I’m not sure I’ll replace it with the same colour.
 
Had mine less than a week. The finish is still perfect. I’m babying it bc it’s new but not too crazily.

It smudges easily. I clean it with a microfiber cloth. It definitely completely gets clean, but yes, it smudges again. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
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Honestly, it's going to be fingerprint ridden, and I've come to accept that. I have come to the conclusion that using the same wipe I clean my glasses off with gets rid of the fingerprints easily, so I'm being eco...ish by usng that. Chipping of the paint? None seen so far. I don't know what people do to get scrapes, but I haven't seen any around any of the connector points or the joints at all. I'm pretty much still sold on this color, I think people just get pretty rough with their machines, sometimes, and I'm still trying to figure out how people are getting chips around their usb-c and magsafe port, it's like they're running into it purposefully with a chisel or something.
 
Happy with the color. Fingerprints on the chassis aren’t a big deal. I wipe it down every couple of days. Honestly fingerprints on the keyboard—especially the space bar—are a far worse problem.

If you are concerned about chipping around the ports there might be an issue there. I already have a chip on the back USB-C port where I plug in my dock. It’s not too noticeable but if you look you can find it. I personally don’t care but if you do, you should probably get a different color.
 
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I don't think the fingerprints on the Midnight color are any worse than they were with the old black plastic MacBooks. They definitely show, but you just have to learn to ignore them or wipe it down regularly. I really like the Midnight color anyway.
 
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I've had the silver for a couple of days and it does look great. Coming from a Space Grey Pro I'm preferring silver, just looks cleaner and fresh.

Went into the Apple Store today to take another look at Midnight. It really is sexy but sometimes I look at it and think it looks like any Windows laptop. A load of people at work have ordinary laptops (they don't care, they don't know the Apple effect haha) and this Midnight Air makes me think it would eventually just blend in with those.

However, it does look sexy sometimes. I'm not sure whether to swap my silver for it. I do often get nicks in my laptops, I'm always moving around, quite a 'quick' person and a couple of times was sloppy with my old Pro, got marks. So on that note, I bet the midnight would look messy if I had it a couple of years.....
 
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I have had my Midnight MBA now for three weeks. For the first day or two I was concerned at the finger prints; however, three weeks later I don't notice them and haven't wiped it down at all. They actually don't both me at all, which is strange as I am obsessed with keeping the screens of my laptops, iPad Pro, and Mac Studio display finger print free. Over the last couple of weeks, the Midnight MBA seems to have developed a nice matte patina that shows of the blue of the midnight color as the light shifts.
 
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mcgm said:
I have had my Midnight MBA now for three weeks. For the first day or two I was concerned at the finger prints; however, three weeks later I don't notice them and haven't wiped it down at all. They actually don't both me at all, which is strange as I am obsessed with keeping the screens of my laptops, iPad Pro, and Mac Studio display finger print free. Over the last couple of weeks, the Midnight MBA seems to have developed a nice matte patina that shows of the blue of the midnight color as the light shifts.
Click to expand...
Can you show a picture of what you mean by a matte patina?
 
I think he’s probably just noticing the blue more. On my third visit to the Apple store yesterday I noticed the blue a lot more too.

Not sure whether to swap my silver for midnight.

I didn’t realise how shiny the silver Apple logo on the front would be. I prefer understated looks.

But, I’m also prone to chucking my laptop around and being a little rough. In the Apple store, the midnight has edges damaged and silver showing.
 
"It really is sexy but sometimes I look at it and think it looks like any Windows laptop."

Got to be honest—I don't consider/see Windows laptops. In my world they don't exist. So for me, as a Mac only and Mac first person, I was drawn to Midnight because it's such a breath of fresh air as a finish for a Mac. Felt the same way about Space Gray when it first came out.
 
Do you reckon it'll look worse as time goes on though? I've had a couple of nicks in my old Space Grey Pro and they are visible. I just wonder how the Midnight would hold up over time, probably even worse than SG...
 
Though I don't think we know for certain, the anecdotal evidence so far is that Midnight is going to show wear. I lived through having a first gen Titanium PowerBook—now THAT was the gold standard for a laptop you had to be frightneningly careful with if you didn't want a scratch, nick, mark, etc.
 
The midnight in my local store had two major 'nicks' on the edge and you could clearly see the silver underneath the paint.

I walk around with my laptop a lot, so I really think it will get a couple of nicks here and there. I can imagine mine looking pretty nasty in a couple of years.
 
Mine is doing well. The M2 is such an upgrade over my early 2020 intel air. It does get fingerprints, mostly on the outside, but I just wipe it down. nothing crazy. I like the color a lot. if it wasn't this one it would have been space grey.
 
Im still on the fence abut swapping this for silver but I love this colour so much lol. My concern is, will I love it in a year from now after some wear and tear? Im pretty careful with my stuff, even at home, when im done using my air, it gets put away in a sleeve right away. Im leaning more and more towards sticking it out with this colour, its my favourite looking MacBook ive ever seen personally.
 
1BadManVan said:
Im still on the fence abut swapping this for silver but I love this colour so much lol. My concern is, will I love it in a year from now after some wear and tear? Im pretty careful with my stuff, even at home, when im done using my air, it gets put away in a sleeve right away. Im leaning more and more towards sticking it out with this colour, its my favourite looking MacBook ive ever seen personally.
Click to expand...


I like the color as well. My first Mac was an early MacBook Pro 2015 and it was silver. The next was the 2020 air intel. and I got a space grey. My boyfriend has a starlight iPad. the starlight is a nice color as well. I am sure mine will have some wear and tear, the best colors for that will be the regular silver one, but I liked the new color so I went for it. I like to take care of my items as well, but normal wear and tear will happen .
 
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