One month with Apple’s new MacBook Air. Three annoying problems

The laughter of an Apple store employee still echoes around my bones.

It had amused him, as you can see, the fact that my still relatively new MacBook Air had been cursed by a faulty Butterfly keyboard. This forced me to buy the latest MacBook Air as soon as Apple announced it in March.

The Apple store employee offered, “So you bought an Air that sucked and you didn’t bother replacing the keyboard?”

This has been preceded by: “HAHAHAHAHAHA”.

It was the first time I had purchased a device before I had physically seen it. I was desperate. And, I confess, I am a kind of hollow head.

The MacBook Air has been my only writing partner since Steve Jobs first introduced it. Overall, it has been an unfailingly good machine. It’s light, durable, and each new iteration has been a little better than the last. Until the butterfly floated in late 2018.

I have had the new MacBook Air 2020 for just over a month. It’s fair, I think, to give him an Airhead evaluation.

Let’s start with the most important element. Writing is a joy. At first, I was surprised to have to lift my fingers a bit more, since its (supposedly magic) keys are higher than those of the butterfly. Now, the secure elasticity of the keys offers a guarantee that the previous Air could not.

Of course, I’ve already managed to leave croissant crumbs on the keyboard. Until now, it’s as if my new Air had rejected them. The previous Air keyboard had a reputation for allowing crumbs to enter, making the keyboard behave as if it had been Novocained.

For the first two weeks, then, I was a relieved writer. The 2020 Air was working perfectly. But I don’t always pay attention to details until they criticize me.

There I was, writing one day, when I suddenly noticed that my battery had surprisingly little remaining charge.

If you are a regular user of a laptop, you get used to the amount of juice you can get out of your machine. Without even looking up, you will know if there is fifty percent charge remaining or twenty.

The Butterfly Air had the longest battery life of any Air it has ever had. This 2020 Air has slipped back in time. I really can’t get past mid-morning without it dipping somewhat alarmingly. It appears that this battery is approximately 20 percent less efficient than the previous one.

It’s a frustration, since battery life is something you don’t want to think about.

Still, if I had to change the ability of the letters I choose on the keyboard to actually show on the screen for shorter battery life, I’d still choose the former.

But then there was another echo from past Airtimes.

It was later in the evening and suddenly my new Air fans started complaining. I couldn’t remember my Airs doing something like that for a few years. I have not changed my usage patterns at all. However, here was a whiner, a little more muffled than the whimpers of yesteryear, but still surprisingly abrupt.

It’s strange, then, that as Apple has reverted to an older keyboard layout, even if it has renamed its move like, oh, Magic, two issues from ancient times have resurfaced.

But then I looked to my left and found a new problem. The so-called Thunderbolt 3 power adapter is already damaged. Crushed, you might say. The end of the plug is also bent.

This is quite strange. Initially, my Airs had a fairly bright MagSafe connector, which flew gracefully once it felt excess tension. The Butterfly Air dispensed with that, but still offered a perfectly solid connector. This new Air thing took less than a month to damage. Which feels more than a little sloppy.

I’m sure I didn’t do anything with that or I didn’t do with my previous Airs. Therefore it is disappointing that small but important elements may be a little weaker.

I know I’m stuck with this machine now. And above all it performs very well. Your real test, of course, will come after a year. Or more.

Essentially, as with so many things we used to think normal, the new Air, at least in my use so far, has gotten a little off track, but it solved the biggest issue from the previous iteration.

No, I haven’t emailed the Apple store employee to ask what he thinks. Not yet.