iFixit Teardown Takes a Look at New Scissor Keys in 2020 MacBook Air and Finds Easier to Access Trackpad and Battery

[smirking]

If there is anything to comment about the butterfly mechanism which can be regarded as the world's most unreliable keyboard from Apple MB.

Most people here have very limited perspectives on this. There are plenty as bad or worse. I’m a recovered keyboard nut. I’ve owned plenty of glitchy keyboards. I don’t think anything comes near ALPS switches for madness, but yet there are lots of people out there who are fiercely loyal to that switch.

Ironically, the most iconic ALPS board is probably the Apple Design Keyboard II.

 

[sirozha]

I'm in a weird spot with this because I completely believe that the butterfly keyboard is prone to failure, but I also think people blew it way out of proportion. I think people overstate the problems in the butterfly keyboards and underestimate the potential for problems with scissor keyboards. The two mechanisms are more alike than most people realize.

I've had as 2016 and a 2018. The 2016 got glitchy, but resolved on its own after I broke it in. My 2018 was flawless until recently and now it's getting skippy, but it's minor and like my 2016 it appears to be on its way to resolving on its own as well.

It's annoying that this butterfly keyboard isn't rock solid in reliability, but I really like the tacility so I'm willing to put up with the possibility that it might get wacky on me without warning. So far in my experience, it's a temporary condition. If it were permanent and kept getting worse, I wouldn't be forgiving of it either.

There are other things about the 15" MBPs that I have bigger issues with than the keyboard. Number 1 would be keyboard marks and screen discoloration from getting oiled by your keyboard.

Have your keyboard replaced under the pretext of it being glitchy. It’s a free repair. It will fix your screen marks problem.

 

[smirking]

Have your keyboard replaced under the pretext of it being glitchy. It’s a free repair. It will fix your screen marks problem.

I have two more years of Applecare. I'm not going to bother for at least another year. I run power sucking developer utilities and typically murder my batteries too. Sometime in my last year of warranty, I'll take it in and ask for a full workup. The last time I did that, they replaced so much I practically ended up with a new laptop.

How would it fix my screen marks though? The screen's already marked and discolored.

 

[vtrautia]

I do not understand why fan and heatsink is not connected by heat pipe? 2017 MacBook air had fan,heatpipe and heatsink and it was able to handle 15W cpu. These new MacBook Air can handle only 10W

What is the reason why Apple did not put heat pipe in this computer?

 

[sirozha]

I have two more years of Applecare. I'm not going to bother for at least another year. I run power sucking developer utilities and typically murder my batteries too. Sometime in my last year of warranty, I'll take it in and ask for a full workup. The last time I did that, they replaced so much I practically ended up with a new laptop.

How would it fix my screen marks though? The screen's already marked and discolored.

I meant you won’t be getting any new marks. I just had the keyboard replaced on my 2018 MacBook Air, and the problem of keyboard leaving marks on the screen is completely gone.

The first time I experienced that problem was 12 years ago with my unibody 2008 MacBook. I fought with the Apple store manager to have it repaired, and when he refused, I wrote an email to Steve Jobs. Apple corporate called me, apologized, and told the store manager to accept my MacBook for repair. A week later, they handed me my MacBook back, and it never had the problem with the keyboard leaving marks on the screen ever again.

That’s how I knew that the marks on the screen problem with my 2018 MacBook Air was a defect.
Apple will not admit that the keyboard marks on the screen is a defect, but it is. Replacing the keyboard on my 2018 MacBook Air fixed the problem with the marks on the screen. The keyboard was glitchy, so it needed to be replaced. The fact that I no longer have keyboard marks on the screen is an added bonus.

 

[lambertjohn]

I'm glad Jony Ive is gone. Had he remained at Apple, he would have vetoed the scissor switches since they would mean a slightly thicker (by 0.5mm) keyboard. It's funny that chubby Jony had no problem with his own girth but was allergic to thicker laptops for the rest of us.

How do you know any of this? Are you God?

 

[[AUT] Thomas]

But it makes a lot of sense now, as the 13 Pro hasn't been updated. If performance is not an issue you can get an Air with 512GB of storage at a lower price than the base 13 Pro with a measly 128GB of storage.
Once they'll update the Pro, if the base model starts with 256, the Air will have less appeal. But consider than a lot of people are working from home these days and are buying laptops for that very reason. The Air is brand new, the 13 Pro is more expensive and older, the Air seems like an obvious choice unless you really need a different CPU, but I don't think it is the case for a lot of customers

It might appear so, but if you think about depreciation of value, I don't think the Air is a good choice.
The 2019 Air will likely take a deep dip in value now as the 2020 model is much better (lot more performance, better keyboard,...). If you buy an Air and next year Apple finally installs a heatpipe that would increase steady performance by 20% easily -with the same CPU- it will share the same destiny.
Meanwhile, spending a few 100 more will in the near future get you a PRO that will lose only little value... have vastly superior performance, a better screen, 2+ USB ports, and probably some other improvements that didn't make it into the Air (WiFi? 1080p Cam? ... )
Also, for work, i.e. multitasking, I would never buy an Air... if you need a laptop for home office you don't want to wait for the Air anyway, it's going to be delivered only in 2-3 weeks (ships in 1-2 weeks acc. website).

 

[smirking]

A week later, they handed me my MacBook back, and it never had the problem with the keyboard leaving marks on the screen ever again.

Ok, I forgot that there's also an issue with the keyboard leaving physical marks. That's not the issue I have. Mine is simply that the oils from my hands get on the screen through the keys and cause the screen coating to get splotchy. It's really insane that this is a perpetual issue with Apple laptops starting from the first rMBP.

 

[ericwn]

The tech press always talks about the butterfly design as if it was proven to be more "prone to failure" than other types of laptop keyboards, but it never was. Can MacRumors say what the failure rate for the older scissor design was? No. Can MacRumors say what the failure rate for the butterfly design was? No. Can MacRumors say what the failure rate for PC keyboards has been in the past five years? No. There are no numbers to compare.

It is however easy to figure out when you’re looking at a design flaw as complaints about the keyboard before 2015 were hardly a thing. Then after the design change keyboard failures became a thing.

 

[ericwn]

Listen Apple, we don't want to buy another APPLE MBPro or MBAir with soldered storage and RAM that can't be fixed or upgrade by the user if anything bad happens.

Who is we? I don’t have any problem with that. I just get a configuration that works for me and use it until I get the next one.

And no bold text necessary.

 

[rolandopr]

So anyone offering a Heat-pipe cooling solution for these soon? Install a Raspberry pi fan or 2 on that heatsink?

 

[SSD-GUY]

...on a device that is thicker than a Macbook Pro!

...and once the 13" Pro is refreshed with a 10th Gen CPU and 256GB SSD in the cheapest model, the Air will be pointless again... unless you really can't afford the 250 bucks difference.

It's really sad... I really like the concept of the Air. But it's as heavy as Pro, as thick as a Pro almost as expensive as Pro and has an inferior cooling system.
I'd gladly take a 12" passive cooled Air like the old one, but with an A12Z. 8GB RAM is sufficient there.

I think this basically paves the way for a 14" MacBook Pro that is thicker/heavier/wider than the 13" current MBP. The 14" and 16" will be for 'Pro' customers whereas the 13" Air is for everyday consumers.

 

[Peperino]

I would have loved to buy a new 2019 16" MBP. Though like many others, I will NOT buy until they stop soldering RAM and SSD. They need to be upgradable. It is a complete joke that for the price Apple is charging you cannot upgrade it.

 

[Jury]

Who is we? I don’t have any problem with that. I just get a configuration that works for me and use it until I get the next one.

And no bold text necessary.

You don't necessarily get it, Samsung NVMe is just as fast as the one used in MBP device IF NOT SLIGHTLY FASTER and can be user-replaceable if Apple wasn't using a proprietary connector for locking out third party vendor and customer.

 

[ericwn]

You don't necessarily get it, Samsung NVMe is just as fast as the one used in MBP device IF NOT SLIGHTLY FASTER and can be user-replaceable if Apple wasn't using a proprietary connector for locking out third party vendor and customer.

I am getting it that a small subsection of people don’t buy the product because they can’t exchange components.

I purchase my tools so that they can do their job from the start the way I want. I haven’t encountered a situation where I want to pump additional money into an almost closed system with old board and years old display for a long time. Easily over a decade. YMMV.

 

[Romeo_Nightfall]

Listen Apple, we don't want to buy another APPLE MBPro or MBAir with soldered storage and RAM that can't be fixed or upgrade by the user if anything bad happens.

actually we do. The times you reference are over ...accept it!

 

[FrankCataldi14]

I am happy with my 2018 MacBook Air except for the performance and a bit low screen resolution. The 2020 model seems to be a home run especially with the processor options.

Did 2018 not have TrueTone?

 

[Jefferyd32]

I meant you won’t be getting any new marks. I just had the keyboard replaced on my 2018 MacBook Air, and the problem of keyboard leaving marks on the screen is completely gone.

The first time I experienced that problem was 12 years ago with my unibody 2008 MacBook. I fought with the Apple store manager to have it repaired, and when he refused, I wrote an email to Steve Jobs. Apple corporate called me, apologized, and told the store manager to accept my MacBook for repair. A week later, they handed me my MacBook back, and it never had the problem with the keyboard leaving marks on the screen ever again.

That’s how I knew that the marks on the screen problem with my 2018 MacBook Air was a defect.
Apple will not admit that the keyboard marks on the screen is a defect, but it is. Replacing the keyboard on my 2018 MacBook Air fixed the problem with the marks on the screen. The keyboard was glitchy, so it needed to be replaced. The fact that I no longer have keyboard marks on the screen is an added bonus.

I have 10 year old MBP and didn’t even realize this was a problem. I am just about to replace it, but I gu I should pay more attention next time.

 

[Jury]

I am getting it that a small subsection of people don’t buy the product because they can’t exchange components.

I purchase my tools so that they can do their job from the start the way I want. I haven’t encountered a situation where I want to pump additional money into an almost closed system with old board and years old display for a long time. Easily over a decade. YMMV.

You don't fully grasp why it's bad in the long term, Apple decided to close down its retail store in times of the pandemic until further notice and the people who experienced a defective RAM or storage will be extremely troublesome due to the soldered that preventing you to fix it .

 

[BeatCrazy]

Does the Ice Lake CPU in this 2020 Air support an integrated Thunderbolt controller?
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You don't fully grasp why it's bad in the long term, Apple decided to close down its retail store in times of the pandemic until further notice and the people who experienced a defective RAM or storage will be extremely troublesome due to the soldered that preventing you to fix it .

So you're saying the average 60yo MacBook Air owner would be better off if they pulled out their iFixit 154-piece toolkit to try and troubleshoot some bad RAM vs (waiting) taking it into an Apple retail store?

 

[Jury]

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So you're saying the average 60yo MacBook Air owner would be better off if they pulled out their iFixit 154-piece toolkit to try and troubleshoot some bad RAM vs (waiting) taking it into an Apple retail store?

Yes. It's no brainer to the owner if it has back that option.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Yes. It's no brainer to the owner if it has back that option.

LOL expecting anyone (outside the nerds on this site, 0.01% population) to open up their laptop to troubleshoot RAM/SSD/etc. is a disaster waiting to happen. And what happens if they have some bad RAM? Go down to RadioShack and pick up a replacement?

 

[mudflap]

Funny how things have been slowly improving after Ivey left.

 

[chucker23n1]

You don't fully grasp why it's bad in the long term, Apple decided to close down its retail store in times of the pandemic until further notice and the people who experienced a defective RAM or storage will be extremely troublesome due to the soldered that preventing you to fix it .

So, we're in the scenario where someone buys a MacBook Air right now, during the closed stores, and they end up having bad RAM within just a few days, and they also have a way to order RAM online or a stash in their grandparents' basement, but they also don't have a way to simply go to support.apple.com, request a send-in, and have Apple's support center do the replacement?

There are valid arguments to be had that replaceable RAM would be nice to have back, so why go with a preposterous one?

 

[FrankCataldi14]

WOW. I would buy more MacBook Pro laptops IF they did not solder the SSD and RAM in place
Please Change this APPLE. it costs you nothing and does not affect manufacturing or performance
It is meant to screw customers wanting to upgrade

I want to buy a new 16 inch MacBook Pro with a 6 core processor BUT CAN NOT UPGRADE AFTER PURCHASE!!
SUCKS.

It's been this way for years--it's not changing.