Having used the 2018 MacBook Air for about 3 months now, I can say I really detest it and I would return it if that were possible.
1) the keyboard. This thing really feels like slamming your fingers into a metal slab. I think my iPad Pro keyboard is better. The MacBook Air keyboard is also very loud. For something with so little depth the sound is shocking.
2) the webcam. Total garbage. In a laptop this expensive I think this is inexcusable. my old ipad has a significantly better camera for video calls so I’m not carrying around both. Ridiculous.
3) the new charger is so much worse than I could have expected. The lack of MagSafe I knew about, thought it would be ok. Really a big loss. There’s also something wrong with the cable. It’s constantly getting kinks/twists in the wiring which I can’t straighten out, even though I baby it.
If they release a new MacBook Air this year I’ll definitely feel a bit betrayed. Like they knowingly released something that was a stop-gap PoS.
Having no real insight into who made what decisions, I think Apple’s focus on design is laudable. There are many things done right. It’s just that as someone that relies heavily on my tech, the things they’ve done wrong really hit home.
The keyboard I can almost understand. You might argue that there were true believers in the tech, thinking they just needed to iron out some problems and then it would be “so much better.”
The webcam is something that just makes me mad. It is clearly just bad. Even with ok lighting the video quality is just horrendous. There’s absolutely no excuse. It’s basically apple saying they don’t give a fuck.
Oh I don't need any convincing that many people are happy with Apple's designs. People are happy to carry dongles to compensate for miniscule no. of ports, deal with accidents due to removal of magsafe, getting rid of escape key, bad keyboard (never thought developers would be ok with the last two) etc etc while insisting on continuing to buy fairly expensive Apple products. It pretty much underlines that Apple can basically get away with murder.
> If they release a new MacBook Air this year I’ll definitely feel a bit betrayed.
With one exception, they've released a new MBA literally every year from 2008 to 2018. At this point it would be a betrayal not to release an update this year.
At least for the magsafe thing you can buy USB-C magnetic adapters like the “CONMDEX USB C Magnetic Adapter”. Doesn’t address the other major shortcomings, but it’s a small win.
Regarding the keyboard: you really need to take time and learn how to use it. You don't push the buttons, you more like softly touch them. It's strange at the beginning but then you really appreciate the fact that you don't have to work that hard to get the same result.
1) the keyboard. This thing really feels like slamming your fingers into a metal slab. I think my iPad Pro keyboard is better. The MacBook Air keyboard is also very loud. For something with so little depth the sound is shocking.
2) the webcam. Total garbage. In a laptop this expensive I think this is inexcusable. my old ipad has a significantly better camera for video calls so I’m not carrying around both. Ridiculous.
3) the new charger is so much worse than I could have expected. The lack of MagSafe I knew about, thought it would be ok. Really a big loss. There’s also something wrong with the cable. It’s constantly getting kinks/twists in the wiring which I can’t straighten out, even though I baby it.
If they release a new MacBook Air this year I’ll definitely feel a bit betrayed. Like they knowingly released something that was a stop-gap PoS.