Midnight color 15" MBA owners, how are the connection ports holding up against scratches?

[ozziegn]

I'm thinking about getting the midnight colored MBA but I'm worried about how easy the ports will get scratched up? I rarely unplug my laptops because I almost always use them at home on my desk. But I am always very careful when I do unplug and plug them back just so I don't worry about scuffing up anything. I have always had silver colored laptops but Best Buy has a 16/512 model in stock but its only available in midnight color. Just wondering how easy do the outer part of the ports wear out in terms of the midnight colored coating.

 

[G5isAlive]

I carry mine around a lot since it’s release and take no extra precautions in plugging and unplugging external drives. Zero, none, zilch, nada visible wear marks around the ports. I however have not used a microscope to examine.

 

[Macbookey]

I literally have to look inside the port itself to see some slight wear on the edges internally. None of that wear affects the external appearance, nor has there been any flaking of the colour around it. It has held up amazingly well, and looks nothing like some of the YouTube videos were showing. I am constantly plugging in and out of the ports with my audio interface on a daily basis. I do baby my Mac, and I love the Midnight and now Space Black options the most. Nothing about it has caused me any regret in my choice. A simple wipe down at the end of every day keeps it pristine, and there is zero wear on any other part of the body. Love it! I’ve had mine since November 2022, and there is no going back to the other colours for me.

 

[ozziegn]

I literally have to look inside the port itself to see some slight wear on the edges internally. None of that wear affects the external appearance, nor has there been any flaking of the colour around it. it has held up amazingly well, and looks nothing like some of the YouTube videos were showing. I am constantly plugging in and out of the ports with my audio interface on a daily basis. I do baby my Mac, and I love the Midnight and now Space Black options the most. Nothing about it has caused me any regret in my choice. A simple wipe down at the end of every day keeps it pristine, and there is zero wear on any other part of the body. Love it! I’ve had mine since November 2022, and there is no going back to the other colours for me.

Thanks. This is what I was wondering about. Lots of YouTube videos on this subject show clear visible areas on the outer edges of the ports where the coating has been removed from people unplugging and plugging in their stuff. Like I mentioned earlier, I rarely unplug my laptop and I use a USB C hub for my external monitor connection along with extra USB and USB C ports.

 

[throAU]

I think if you can avoid scratching the crap out of the ports on a silver MacBook Pro, you'll be fine also with a black one.

My Silver M1 Pro has zero scratches around the ports and I use all 3 type C ports pretty much every weekday (a hub, a yubikey and maybe a network adapter or cable to my iPad Air for sidecar).

 

[jdb8167]

My 13” Midnight MacBook Air USB-C ports are scratched all to hell. But I’m not careful at all. Life is too short to worry about such things.

 

[throAU]

My 13” Midnight MacBook Air USB-C ports are scratched all to hell. But I’m not careful at all. Life is too short to worry about such things.

That's it. They're a tool to do a job. If you aren't fussed, more power to ya!