
Ditching the MacBook Pro for a MacBook Air - ingve
http://bradfrost.com/blog/post/ditching-the-macbook-pro-for-a-macbook-air/
======
nicolashahn
My faith in Apple would be completely redeemed if they took the 2015 Macbook
Pro, put current gen hardware in it, maybe add a couple USB-C ports, and call
it the 2019 Macbook Pro. My personal computer is a 2015 and my work is a 2017,
and there are zero features from the 2017 that I prefer.

~~~
unknownsavage
I recently upgraded from the 2015 to the current gen.

2015 pros: * Better battery life * Way better keyboard * More robust * More
useful port selection * Trackpad is a more reasonable size

2018 pros: * Way better speakers * Slightly better screen * Lighter * Faster *
Trackpad is not mechanical * Finger print login is useful

I'd really love a proper "pro" macbook pro, that sacrificed a bit of the thin-
and-lightness for an actual professional level of stuff (better cooling, more
ports, bigger battery, no touchbar)

~~~
SCdF
To clarify, are you saying that your 3 year old 2015 laptop has, today,
_better_ battery life than your new 2018 laptop? That's mad...

~~~
kylec
The 2015 15" had a 100Wh battery, the 2018 has an 83Wh battery. The 2015 gets
better battery life because it has 20% more battery capacity.

~~~
giovannibajo1
That would make sense if they had the same hardware. Different hardware
absorbs different current. You cannot deduce anything from battery size.

~~~
nikanj
I've had the pleasure of upgrading from a 2015 to a 2017. The battery life on
the latter is definitely worse, no matter what the official specs say.

~~~
jammygit
I think decaying batteries might drive people to get new machines? Just a
suspicion. They do it with iphones :p

~~~
bluescrn
It’s certainly an incentive to upgrade, but only if the newer model is a clear
upgrade...

I suspect that Apple will be seeing a lot of 2015 MBPs brought in for battery
replacements...

------
akulbe
I upgraded my 2016 MBP w/Touch Bar to a ThinkPad P1.

For the same price, I get a _far_ superior machine.

For less than what I paid for the maxed out '16 MBP I get:

* Hexacore Xeon CPU

* 64GB of RAM

* 2TB NVMe SSD

* Nvidia Quadro P2000.

* a keyboard that is nice to type on again, instead of the butterfly SH!T that is on the 2016+ models.

I had concerns about switching my dev workflow from macOS to Windows 10, but
WSL is fantastic.

Can't help but think Apple doesn't make macOS a priority anymore. The
experience with High Sierra was just the straw that broke the camels back.

I sold my MBP for much less than what I used to get on resale. They don't hold
their value like they used to. I wonder if this is lost on Apple management.
¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

If anyone is thinking about switching from macOS to Windows… unless you're
doing {mac,i,watch}OS dev, I say jump on in. The water is nice.

~~~
swebs
Sorry, but Windows 10 is absolute dogshit. Even if you're using a Linux
compatibility layer, you're still running a Windows host and being subjected
to all the bullshit that comes with it including spying, forced updates
(bringing forced restarts!), ads, and general worse performance.

Luckily, it takes all of 30 minutes to just wipe your hard drive and install
Ubuntu on your ThinkPad and you'd be much better off for it.

~~~
ttty
> Luckily, it takes all of 30 minutes to just wipe your hard drive and install
> Ubuntu on your ThinkPad and you'd be much better off for it.

But how long it takes to fix all drivers and other Linux issues (WiFi, sounds,
video, mouse...)?

I used a few Linux versions last year and none could do the switch window
feature without breaking (alt tab on Windows).

~~~
swebs
Everything in Linux worked out of the box for me. I only had to click a
checkbox saying I wanted to use Nvidia proprietary drivers.

Meanwhile, installing Windows is a pain in the ass. I had to go to Realtek's
site on a separate machine to get ethernet drivers before I could even use the
internet. Then I had to go to Nvidia's site to get the GPU driver. Rinse and
repeat for various exes on various sites for everything you need. Package
management is a joke, so good luck installing all the software you need since
you're about to go on a scavenger hunt through somewhat questionable download
sites. Then spend hours trying to disable all the spying and forced updates,
only for your settings to get reset in the next big release.

------
post_break
I ditched my Macbook pro non touch bar for an XPS 13 with 8th gen i7 for $900
and shoehorned high sierra on it. I've got 5-8 hour battery life, full sized
usb ports and USB C, 1080p 13" display with almost no bezel, and a modern cpu.
I say modern because when I bought it even macs didnt have 8th gen. Apple
pretty much doesn't make a laptop I want and the few that I might want are
double what I paid. I know not everyone can hackintosh but it's getting
easier.

~~~
ofrzeta
Why run macOS on a non-Mac? For me, as a long time Linux user, the point over
several generations of Mac machines was always to have a usable desktop Unix
with flawless hardware support (i.e. macOS).

~~~
kebman
Bcos Adobe on Apple environment.

~~~
philliphaydon
But adobe runs terriblely on OS X?!? OS X has some awesome apps like sketch.
But adobe really sucks on OS X.

~~~
jakecopp
Adobe runs better on macOS than Linux :P

------
chipotle_coyote
Interesting experience. Personally, I'm moving closer to ditching my
_personal_ MacBook Pro for an 12.9" iPad Pro. I highlight personal to
emphasize that I don't expect to be doing development work on it (although the
more I look into ways it could be done, the closer to "never say never" I
get). But in a lot of ways, the iPad paired with a Magic Keyboard is just a
better combination. More portable, terrific battery life, at least as
powerful, better keyboard, better screen, even better speakers.

It's kind of strange, really: all the complaints you may have read about iOS
holding the iPad back at this point are absolutely true; there are a lot of
nitpicks I personally have with it (mostly relating to automation, scripting,
and system-level text editing capability); there are slightly questionable
hardware decisions (did you _really_ need to take out the headphone jack from
something this large? is this just a vendetta against headphone jacks? did a
headphone jack kill Jony Ive's pet poodle?). But when I pick up my iPad I keep
thinking _this is the best computer I 've ever owned._ I'll see if I'm still
thinking that six months from now, to be sure, but so far I'm surprised at how
much I do not regret this purchase.

~~~
ip26
Does it work in the lap? I tried tablet-with-keyboard before and found being
able to type in my lap is an indispensable feature for me.

~~~
unrealhoang
I’m wishing for a nice handwriting application that I can use Apple Pencil to
write code literally.

~~~
FPGAhacker
There is a keyboard you can download that takes pencil handwriting as input.
In practice it just wasn't compelling.

~~~
setr
Imo the primary appeal of handwriting vs keyboards is the freedom of non-line-
based editing; that is, you can draw a vertical line just as easily as you can
write a word.

This is entirely lost in a system that simply takes handwritten text and
converts it to characters (its more difficult, and slower, than a keyboard),
so it makes sense this system would be unpleasant to use. But even if it
worked well, it’d be worthless for writing current programming languages, as
they’re inherently line-based, and optimized for keyboard input. Theres
nothing to be gained from vertical lines in your C codebase.

A visual programming language might see better use, but the main issue there
is that the visual part of it is the relationships: in a sane codebase, this
is relatively rare to edit to any significant degree. You’re primarily editing
_values_ (a keyboard-appropriate task), and the the visualization is used for
reading; rarely, its useful for editing (where a pen might be more convenient,
but its competition is the mouse, and I’m not sure it does any better [if not
worse])

So it makes sense that writing/editing code with handwriting will be non-
compelling: its clearly worse than the keyboard in all cases I can think of.

But notes, documentation, and by accident of qwerty keyboards, arbitrary
symbols (eg greek) is another story. Where arbitrary drawings are first-class
citizens along with text, and the computerized benefit is automatic cleanup
(straighter lines, handwriting to text) ala onenote, though its conversion is
lacking (I can never get it to parse things “perfectly”).

But code? It _shouldn’t_ be compelling. Pens are simply worse at the task.

~~~
unrealhoang
Pen is undeniably worse than keyboard for full fledged code writing. But that
is for laptop & pc. For iPad I prefer to use its native input device instead.
Editing code is mostly about navigating and reading than writing and changing.

------
lostgame
For those who have as many complaints about the Touch Bar as I do, here's a
great FOSS application that provides a small amount of haptic feedback when
you press the Touch Bar, giving you at least a sense of having pressed a key.

[https://github.com/niw/HapticKey](https://github.com/niw/HapticKey)

~~~
nanokilo
Thanks for sharing! You'd think that with Apple's great Taptic engine, they'd
have built haptic feedback into the touch bar by now.

------
bhauer
> _The bevel is back, baby. – one of the best things about this machine is the
> nice slope that doesn’t hurt my wrists while typing. This was one of the
> biggest things I noticed when I switched from my original MacBook Air to a
> MacBook Pro, and I’m happy to return to a comfortable typing environment._

I don't own a Macbook Pro, but when I use one for testing or use a friend's,
this is one of my chief complaints. It seems idiosyncratic—why aren't more Mac
users complaining about the sharp deck edge against their wrists? Presumably
not many people actually rest their wrists on the surface. It's probably bad
ergonomics to rest your hands in such a way. But I do, and it hurts on the
Mac.

Compare the following decks:

A. The deck of the Macbook Air that Brad is discussing appears subtly
chamfered for the entire width of its front edge and then chamfered further
for a notch in front of the touchpad: [https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13390447/v...](https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13390447/vpavic_181104_3068_0095.jpg)

B. By comparison the MacBook Pro's deck is chamfered for only a narrow bit in
front of the touchpad: [https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/60364845/...](https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/60364845/vpavic_180713_2741_0017.0.jpg)

C. Microsoft uses a chamfered edge and Alcantara on the Surface Laptop:
[https://img-prod-cms-rt-microsoft-com.akamaized.net/cms/api/...](https://img-
prod-cms-rt-microsoft-com.akamaized.net/cms/api/am/imageFileData/RE2x0Kr)

D. On larger decks, Microsoft (and others) usually at least chamfer the entire
width of the touch pad, as is seen on the Surface Book: [https://img-prod-cms-
rt-microsoft-com.akamaized.net/cms/api/...](https://img-prod-cms-rt-microsoft-
com.akamaized.net/cms/api/am/imageFileData/RE267dH)

~~~
jordache
stop using the word chamfered! For a second there, I thought this account was
held by john ivy

~~~
bhauer
Sorry, but that is the word we use for, um, chamfered edges in the English
language. I don't know any synonyms. Bevel is imprecise and can refer to flat
edges.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamfer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamfer)

------
me551ah
I recently made the switch from a macbook pro to a windows machine for
personal use. My work machine is a 15 macbook pro with touchbar and I loathe
that machine. It has no usb ports ( only type c) so plugging in my DAC and
other peripherals is a pain. The keyboard feels like somebody has pasted keys
on the chassis and I really miss the function keys. Apple also did away with
the shiny logo at the back. I recently bought a lenovo machine for personal
use and I love it.

\- It's light at 1.6 kgs

\- Upgradable RAM which i upgraded to 16GB

\- The keyboard has travel and is brilliant.

\- HDD + Intel Optane - Intel Optane is a caching layer which sits in front of
a traditional HDD. So you get SSD level performance from a normal HDD. It also
means that I can install Win+Linux+VS+Android Studio+Ableton+Games on it and
still have 500+GB to spare. Also it's an NVME module, so i can swap it with an
SSD anyday.

\- Can play PUBG and Overwatch and proper games on it.

\- 8520U CPU, which has 4 cores and 8 threads.

\- Windows + WSL ( Arch Linux ) + Dual Boot(Arch Linux). WSL Is brilliant
because it allows me to run a copy of Arch inside of windows without
virtualization. pacman is a much better package manager than brew.

~~~
chappi42
Which Lenovo model did you buy?

~~~
mayniac
I got one with similar specs. Yoga 730-15ikb. i7 4c/8t, 16GB DDR4, and a
Nvidia 1050TI.

I've only had it for a week so can't say much but so far, definitely worth it.
And £1k less than a MacBook with worse specs.

------
ilovecaching
I've been thinking about it it too. I was really enamored with the touch bar
until I received my current laptop, and I essentially never use it. The one
killer feature is putting the lock screen button right next to the finger
print reader so unlocking and locking is a breeze.

The reality is that when I'm at work, I'm logged in to a super beefy server.
When I'm at home, I'm logged in to a moderately sized server in GCE. I don't
use an IDE, essentially the only apps I use are Firefox, Spotify, and
Terminal.

What's holding me back is the screen size. I'll take the biggest screen I can
get. More screen == more panes. I absolutely love the 15" inch pro screen. Not
sure if I could live with the 13" on the air.

~~~
88
Not to take away the one redeeming feature of the Touch Bar for you, but have
you looked at hot corners for locking the screen? I find that even less
friction.

~~~
mozillas
Control+Shift+Power turns off the display and by checking "Require password
after sleep or screen saver begins" in System Preferences you get same effect
by using a keyboard shortcut.
[https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/46170](https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/46170)

~~~
eugeniub
Personally I prefer hot corners because I can lock it with one hand, sometimes
as I'm in the middle of getting up.

~~~
jiaweihli
Ctrl-cmd-q locks out of the box, no customization needed.

------
unknownsavage
One thing I found to make the touchbar less annoying is go keyboard ->
Touchbar shows "Expanded Control Strip". At least then you get a full strip of
useful buttons that aren't constantly switching with the application.

The main issue though is with "Expanded Control Strip" the touchbar locks up
(while holding a key down) about 2 or 3 times a week (which can only be fixed
by a restart or: "sudo pkill TouchBarServer")

The whole thing is pretty inexcusable for such an expensive machine, but I
like the macos ecosystem.

~~~
r00fus
I have this feature enabled and don't have issues with the touchbar locking up
(2017 model).

My main gripe with the newer MacBook Pros is the overly large and sensitive
touchpad (I've tried everything) which is a real pain for palm rejection.

------
wsc981
I bought a MacBook Pro 13" earlier this year as a replacement for my 2014
MacBook Pro 15". I kinda wanted to smaller version for travel.

But about a month ago, the screen broke down. Had to get repairs. And the
service center told me I'd have to wait 2 weeks to get it fixed. That would
mean I wouldn't be able to work for 2 weeks which would cost me money. So I
bought a 27" iMac and worked on that ever since.

My MacBook Pro is repaired, but I will probably sell it soon. The screen
breaking down so soon got me worried, since in the past I had an iMac with a
faulty motherboard and it died on my 3 times - not willing to take the risk of
the screen dying multiple times.

I also really don't like the keyboard. I am quite concerned the keys might get
stuck at some point. And even though before I didn't mind the Touch Bar that
much, I really prefer just normal function keys that I can feel.

So my plan is, when I visit The Netherlands next week to visit some family and
friends, will sell the MacBook on the Dutch equivalent of eBay and buy an iPad
for travel. I live in Thailand on the country side and I believe in this area
the MacBook Pro would be too expensive for most people, so it'd be a hard sell
over here.

I have to admit, I feel Apple is going in the wrong direction with the
MacBooks and especially with regards to the keyboard quality. Though I've read
that the 3rd generation keyboards should be decent I am not willing to try
them out (I believe my MacBook Pro still has a 2nd gen keyboard).

------
mmgutz
I'm glad the Air line is back for those who prefer the portability. But, make
the pro great again. Give it better cooling and expandibility even at the
expense of size.

Agree Touchbar is the most worthless feature ever invented. Just give in and
add a touchscreen already Apple!

What is new with Air keyboard that makes it better? The old school MBP had the
best keyboard before these butterfly switches.

Never had issue with battery in the new MBP. I have the 2018 i7 w/ 6 cores and
I can work pretty much all day (8 hours). I use VMware Fusion and Chrome which
are battery hogs.

As for the size, I was happy with the MBP 2015 where I could replace parts. It
was the perfect size for the expandibility it provided. I'm not a big guy and
I never thought this MBP is heavy.

~~~
sircastor
I've heard (and understand) that print a touchscreen in a Mac is never going
to happen. iOS is their touch platform, and they have no interest in changing
that.

------
DonHopkins
Who remembers when Apple came out with the 512K "Fat Mac"? Well I would love a
"Fat MacBook Pro" with LOTS of batteries and LOTS of air conditioning and an
escape key. I don't need it razor blade thin, I need it to not run out of
power, and to not overheat, and to not be hard to escape.

~~~
reustle
I feel like there is a market for something like this. Surprised there isn't
one on Kickstarter yet

~~~
pier25
IANAL but I guess it wouldn't be legal since macOS can only run on Apple
hardware.

~~~
zootam
This could work under the route of hardware design for a linux laptop- but
designed with maximum compatibility with macOS in mind.

You can't pre-install macOS or distribute software to facilitate its
installation on non mac hardware, but the community would find the way on
their own and shield the company from liability.

------
legohead
Ditched Mac completely and went back to Windows after they removed magsafe,
added that dumb touch bar, and introduced dongle-gate. I lost faith in their
ability to innovate and understand their users.

~~~
geggam
I use a Thinkpad Windows 10 but am lost at work without the CLI of a unix
variant. Current solution is adding memory and a VM of linux because work wont
let me get rid of their managed OS. ( Powershell is better but it is not a
unix shell and WSL isn't all there yet )

I wont be buying a new Mac.

~~~
aonic
Windows 10 has the Linux subsystem feature now. You can have a Linux CLI
without a VM :)

~~~
nl
I believed this until I bought a cheap laptop Windows laptop to try it.

It works, technically. But it lacks all kinds of integration with core
Windows, to the point where you can't run VS.Code against Python files in the
WSL world.

It's easier to run a VM and sync files over SSH, sadly.

------
symfoniq
I found the Touch Bar so objectionable that I sold a 6 month-old 2017 MacBook
Pro at a considerable loss to be rid of it. After nearly 30 years as a user,
I’m done with Apple products until they stop with the user-hostile gimmicks.

------
suhail
My favorite bug is having it plugged in to an external monitor, unplugging it
to take it home, and then the computer still thinking it’s plugged into the
monitor so it stays on & the battery runs out. After, you have this really hot
dead laptop.

Apparently the fix is to unplug it & put it in sleep.

~~~
mr_november
Do you by chance run a VM? Sample size of 1 I know, but I use external
monitors every day and this never happens. It does however happen
intermittently if I have a VM running (Ubuntu in Virtual Box).

'Solution' is to suspend the VM before closing the lid.

------
Yhippa
The Touch Bar is one of the most annoying things added to a laptop that I
never asked for. To top it all off you have to pay for the privilege. My main
complaints are that I'm accidentally hitting something on it which disrupts my
workflow.

~~~
solomatov
Another workaround is to carry a BT keyboard with you.

~~~
neya
Is this some kind of a joke? Are you serious?? The keyboard interface is one
of the two main hardware components of a laptop, the other one being the
display. If one of them isn't right, the logical thing would be to get another
laptop, isn't it?

~~~
solomatov
It's not a joke. I've seen real people doing this.

~~~
SomeHacker44
I did this for a while. Too annoying for the long term. But definitely a work
around.

------
retromario
I know I'm in the minority but I really wish they had kept the 11' Macbook
Air, it had a wonderful compact form factor, super light but could still pack
a mean punch as you put an i7 in it. I know the Macbook is meant to fit that
slot, but it's just way too underpowered/expensive. My 2014 MBA 11 with an i7
and 8GB is neck to neck performance-wise with the current Macbook, so what's
the point of upgrading.

I would even consider the 13 MBA if they offered an i7 configuration. It feels
like that was purposefully omitted in order to push buyers towards the Pro.

I hope that both the macbook and new Airs take a similar trajectory to the
original Airs. The first iterations (2008-10) were quite weak performance-
wise, it was more about Apple planting a flag and saying "this is what the
future laptop will look at" and iterating under the hood till they reached it.

After buying a pro and returning it, then seriously eye'ing the new airs, I've
fallen back to...buying a new battery for my old 11 Air.

~~~
bredren
I went from a fully loaded 2015 11” to the new 13. The new one is a big step
up—but I also wish the 11 was still an option. I had two generations of 11”
prior to the 2015, so I am definitely in your camp.

One thing worth noting was that price / performance / portability peaked in
the 2015” 11” air and has not come close since. So you are right to hold up
this model.

The thing is I think we are going to see a very powerful ARM based MacBook
that will be a real successor to the 2015 11”.

So I’m treating the new mba as a holdover until then.

~~~
retromario
In what ways is your new 13 a big step up? Performance? Battery? Screen? I
know that with the smaller bezel it's overall more compact than an older 13,
but it's still bigger and heavier.

Let's hope that new Macbook arrives next year...

~~~
bredren
Performance, bigtime. The benchmarks don't do the change justice.

It is a lot bigger and heavier than the 11" and there is no getting around it
except get used to it. But for the speed, touch Id and keyboard it is worth
it.

If a superior ARM macbook is released next year i'll probably sell this
though.

------
oliv__
Lately I've been wondering about the reasoning behind these hellish flat
keyboards, and then I thought of the Touchbar and the following popped into my
head: the ultra flat keyboards are just a segue into a new form factor with a
full screen, tablet-like glass bottom half replacing the keyboards altogether.
The current situation is just apple's way of getting everyone one step closer,
while they work their way up (or rather down) to that goal.

Does this make sense to anyone else?

~~~
npunt
Yes, a two screen device seems like the direction things are going in maybe
2-3 generations. Figuring out haptics seems to be the key (so to speak). This
won't happen until after the ARM transition (and OLED), since they'll probably
want to standardize the screen thickness between both halves, and be able to
open it lie-flat.

------
Reason077
I was worried about losing the Magsafe too when I upgraded to a USB-C Pro, but
it turns out it’s a total non-issue.

Firstly the USB-C power cable seems to be designed to have a very light grip
on the port, so it slips out easily if anything snags on the cable. (If
anything, the worry is that a slight tug can make it slip out unnoticed and
stop charging).

Secondly, because it’s got plugs at both ends of the cable, it can pull out
from the wall end just as easily as from the MacBook.

~~~
SomeHacker44
USB-C power has resulted in my laptop being thrown onto the floor several
times since the first USB-C MBP which I ordered day 1. It is a major step back
from MagSafe, regardless of your assertion. I never had a single laptop on
floor incident since the invention of MagSafe. Major step back. Would kill for
a MagSafe MBP again... along with a keyboard that does not break four times a
year and a TouchBar free existence. After 14 years it is time for me to move
to something else. (Maybe Dell or Lenovo with Ubuntu.) Massively disappointed.

~~~
insulanus
I haven't used this yet, but you should know about it:

[http://www.macbookadapter.com/magsafe-2-to-usb-c-power-
adapt...](http://www.macbookadapter.com/magsafe-2-to-usb-c-power-adapter/)

~~~
akvadrako
That's excellent - I looked for one of these when I got my new MBP a couple
years ago - it would have saved me from buying new power bricks.

But it is really bulky, not cheap and limited to 60W.

------
sprite
I hate the Touch Bar. If they don’t get rid of it they should at least modify
it to require force touch or make it an option.

------
fernly
Can we talk about BradFrost's choice of TB3 dock station[1]? It looks capable
with the single exception of the miniDisplayPort for video. In particular, no
DisplayPort/HDMI connector. Isn't that a problem?

[1] [https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/docks/owc-
thunderbolt-3-dock](https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/docks/owc-
thunderbolt-3-dock)

~~~
zootam
maybe they expect you to use mini-dp to hdmi/dp dongles you already have?

------
randomsearch
Agonised briefly about a low end Pro vs new Air, and went for the latter
chiefly for portability.

Absolutely love the new Air. It’s so small, so relatively light, great battery
life, and the new keyboard (which I had dreaded) is one of the few that
haven’t given me RSI after long continuous use. Love it. At some point I’ll
have to buy an adapter, which is annoying but I have yet to bemoan the lack of
old school ports.

------
ttul
I switched to a MacBook Air 2018 from a MacBook Pro 2016 (15”) and I couldn’t
be happier. The new hardware is plenty fast enough for my needs, the keyboard
and trackpad are better, the battery is better, and the screen is still
great... I also switched to a new Mac Mini desktop and upgraded the RAM to
32GB and added an LG 5K. Totally life changing...

~~~
whitehouse3
Any render lag on that 5k display? I have the new Mac Mini as well but I run
it at 1440p.

~~~
ttul
Not that I notice.

------
geuis
I received a 2017 mb pro with touchbar a couple months ago at a new job. After
two weeks of utter frustration with the touchbar, Fisher-price keyboard, and
comically large touchpad I went to IT and switched it out for a 2015 mb pro.
It’s the model of MacBook Pro I’ve used for years and is such a better overall
design that I haven’t even looked back.

------
p2t2p
For those who're thinking about going to Windows. Yesterday I pulled my
Surface Pro out of the drawer, installed updates and tried using it once
again. Here is list of what happened.

\- Keyboard didn't work no matter work, attach, un-attach, reboot, power off,
nothing. It started working after I watered contacts.

\- No bluetooth for you until Windows is booted. That means when the keyboard
failed I couldn't choose Windows startup options as I have no wired keyboards
home.

\- Inking still has noticeable lag compared to my iPad Pro (the very old one,
9.7 inch)

\- One Note still has no proper grid - one is too small and tiny and another
one is too large, no grid that would much traditional notebook grid. Both
Apple Notes and Notability on my iPad Pro have proper grids that more or less
resembles the notebook.

\- One Note refused to create a notebook "Foo" with message "Notebook Foo
already exists" because I had a folder "Foo" in the "Documents" directory in
OneDrive. I had to delete it.

\- Build-in Photos app crashed when I tried to edit a video with it. That is
click a video in the collection, click "Edit" button, see "Preparing video"
screen, crash.

\- YouTube application that is one of the top in the Store crashes every time
I try to scroll things. It's fine until I scroll something, then crash.

\- Startup items that cannot be deleted even though application are gone for
good. Only disabled.

\- I tried to install Adobe products. When I uninstalled it I had two services
left running and 1 GB of files that has been leftover. I had to open
PowerShell and manually disable and delete services and then manually delete
the files.

\- I tried to install Amazon Photos and while it completely removed itself
during uninstall I'm stuck with "Amazon Photos" startup item. Files are gone
for good though.

\- One of the reboots took over 40 minutes. I dunno what was it doing, it was
just sitting there with “Rebooting” screen, speaking fans. I let it run just
to see how long can it be like that

All this I had in two evenings. I didn't even try to do any real work on that
thing.

I know that Adobe and YouTube app issues are not Microsoft's fault but that
the culture you have in this ecosystem. Be ready you'll have to deal with
that.

I made my choice - until Apple looses it completely I'm stuck with them
because everything else is just unbearable. And once they've loose it I'll
probably go linux or stop using computers altogether.

------
725686
Can't understand why developers like Macs (except, of course, if you're doing
iOS or Mac dev).

I have been using a Dell Precision M3800 with Ubuntu for the last 4 years and
it still rocks. I just upgraded memory and SSD HD. Couln't be happier.

~~~
sagichmal
MacOS is just phenomenally, over-the-top better than Linux as a day-to-day
operating system.

~~~
bowlich
I guess to each their own. I've slowly grown to hate OSX on my MacBook in
comparison to the ease of use that I get out of my daily driver -- Ubuntu on
my desktop.

OSX seems far too opinionated on things. It keeps installing Itunes even
though I've gone through and deleted it repeatedly. It won't let me uninstall
all of the Apple software that I have zero use for (I have no use for a word
processor suite). I spend 100% of my time either on Firefox, Thunderbird and
the Terminal. I have nearly zero use for any other gui applications and would
like to uninstall everything down to the bare minimum of applications and
processes to do my work.

Too many terminal applications are subtly different between what I have
available on Linux vs OSX, and I'm frequently having to resort to compiling
them myself to get feature parity. Shell scripts need to be every so slightly
altered to account for the fact that its running on OSX and not Linux -- I'd
like to be able to write it once and then run it on my dev machine, virtual
machine, and server without needing to make these changes.

OSX likes to liter hidden files all over the place that I need to remember to
exclude from git repositories.

These are all little things, but they're little things that have grown over
the years to really irritate me and I probably won't be doing a MacBook on my
next upgrade.

~~~
dlisboa
"To each their own" is when everything else is equal. I don't think that's the
case comparing Linux to macOS. And I've used Linux for close to 8 years of my
life, on and off, I'm not an Apple defender. Their OS is just better.

I got upset about the things you've said too, after going from Linux to macOS.
Linux is much "cleaner" (and FreeBSD even more so). But back on Linux now I
get way more upset when Bluetooth doesn't work, when the battery on my laptop
isn't recognized (I got a Thinkpad with a removable battery), when the
trackpad is glitching. Right now I have a nagging issue that the laptop wont
charge when it hits 0% battery unless I unplug it and remove the battery, then
plug it again. This is a Thinkpad, which I got specifically because it's said
to be hassle-free on Linux.

I'd love to complain about hidden files and the bad situation of package
management on macOS, that'd be a luxury. I don't think even the most ardent
Linux defender can argue macOS isn't miles away as a consumer OS. You have to
be in a very specific bubble of distro+hardware for Linux to never crap out
some hardware on an upgrade, before even going into the merits of the UI/UX
comparison.

~~~
bowlich
I mean to each their own in terms of your use case may vary based on the UI/UX
of your choice. I can see a need for OSX if a big chunk of your workload is
going to be in graphic design, front-end development, or some kind of
management role where you're spending days looking at spreadsheets or word
docs.

I'm also not defending Linux as a consumer OS, but as an OS for use in a work
environment tuned purposely to maximize the efficiency of an employee working
as a developer who is deploying to Linux from OSX. I'm often bewildered as to
why I run into so many back-end developers who are deploying to Linux, yet
using OSX for their daily driver.

I suppose the hardware issues that you cite. I've had the occasional hardware
issue, maybe once every two or three years that takes a couple hours to track
down and fix. My workflow doesn't really make use of pointing devices, and
I've never owned a bluetooth device that I've needed to connect to a
workstation, so I haven't come across those issues. Battery would be a horrid
pain though.

~~~
dlisboa
> I'm often bewildered as to why I run into so many back-end developers who
> are deploying to Linux, yet using OSX for their daily driver.

It's very obvious: they use a personal machine for work only 8h a day and want
their OS to be usable the other hours of the day and weekends. It's not that
they necessarily prefer macOS for programming, but they prefer macOS for
everything else they spend most of their time on. Or, alternatively, they have
done so for so long they're more productive on macOS (admittedly a worse OS
for programming) than Linux.

Just think of it like this: my demands from a development environment are much
less strict than from a consumer OS. For developing all I need is a terminal
and some programs, that's it. For a consumer OS all I need is what every other
consumer needs: a functioning system 100% of the time with good usability.

It's much easier to run a VM than to constantly fix hardware issues or
usability quirks that are out of your control as a user.

Your idea seems to make more sense when you use one for work and have a
personal notebook for whatever else. Some people can't have that, or just
don't want to. That was my original idea when getting a Linux notebook, but
when I had to use it as a personal machine it became much less adequate.

------
scarface74
I just can’t with Apple’s laptops. I have a work provided laptop and really
don’t need a laptop at all for personal projects.

A 6 core I7 Mac Mini is perfect. It supports up to three monitors.

------
st3fan
I did the same and I could not be happier. (Although my rMBP broke and simply
needed replacement)

The Air is a wonderful machine. Lightweight. Plenty fast. Great keyboard that
I now prefer.

------
lowercased
I've not made that switch yet, but it was on my mind. No magsafe would still
bug me, but if the horsepower is good enough, it might be fine for day to day
work. I do a fair amount of Java work, and of course faster is always better.
I know I _used_ to get by on a ~1.6ghz, and maybe could do it again, but
currently at 2.9ghz i7... maybe I'd feel the drop too much?

------
fmajid
The 2018 MacBook Air is not that much lighter or cheaper than the 13" non-
touchbar MacBook Pro. The only advantage I can see is it offers the
fingerprint sensor without the touchbar.

That said, neither is appealing, and the replacement I am actually considering
is a 2018 Mac Mini (I mostly work in offices where monitors are available).

And I am also keeping my 2013 rMBP until it falls apart.

~~~
colmvp
It's funny to see so many enthusiast rMBP users out there.

It's absolutely incredible how long my rMBP has lasted the thousands of hours
of wear and tear of travel. At this point, my battery is pretty much non-
existent and the body is a bit warped, but otherwise for a six year old laptop
that's seen incredible amount of use per day, it's tremendously resilient.

It kind of disappoints me that five years after the release, today's batch of
laptops aren't really that dramatically better for their premium cost,
especially when you compare the difference between the 2012 rMBP to the 2006
MacBook line.

------
ppeetteerr
So much hate towards Apple's new hardware. Too bad, I really like it. The OS
is great, the hardware is as solid as ever, the weight of the new MBP 13 is
the same as the old Air. I use the Touch Bar regularly (more so than the
function keys), and I enjoy the hardware more than the old 2015 model.
Overall, couldn't be happier.

~~~
wishinghand
You didn’t refute any points, just listed things you like about it. The
battery life is not good, the keyboards have a tendency to jam, it’s
overpriced when higher amounts of RAM and processors are selected, got rid of
a great idea that they’re not open-sourcing so no other laptop makers can use
it (MagSafe), has an unwieldy large trackpad. Other than that, yeah, the
hardware is good.

~~~
ppeetteerr
The battery is as good as most other laptops with the exception of the
Microsoft Surface 2* and maybe one other. The keyboard does jam sometimes, but
a little compressed air resolved all of my bad jams. The price is higher than
others, and I do not agree with that, but no other laptop has the full
package, so I'll have to pay the MacOS tax. At least the resale value of these
computers is much better than a PC. As for the trackpad is the best part of
these laptops.

It sounds to me like you've never owned a Mac.

As for open sourcing their hardware, I really couldn't care less. That's a
problem for other manufacturers, not Apple.

* [https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Elite...](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Elitebook-x360-2018-benchmarks_BATTERY.001-980x735.jpeg)

~~~
wishinghand
> It sounds to me like you've never owned a Mac.

That's a foolish assumption. I've worked as a web developer on Macbook Pros my
entire career. Recently they've made some decisions that make me want to leave
MacOS. The only thing I'll miss is being able to text on the desktop.

> As for open sourcing their hardware, I really couldn't care less. That's a
> problem for other manufacturers, not Apple.

That's a problem for users. It's a great idea they're discarding but keeping
it guarded with patents.

------
saagarjha
> With my MacBook Pro, I would be lucky to get 4 hours out of a charge.

I have never gotten battery life this poor out of the 2016 MacBook Pros, even
when running Xcode continuously with a bunch of other apps open. 6 hours,
maybe. I think you'd have to use every single battery guzzler at once: Chrome,
VirtualBox, a Java IDE, antiviruses…

------
GreaterFool
MacBook Air looks dope. The killer feature? _No touchbar_

~~~
ngngngng
But still fingerprint login. It's so tedious using my older macbooks

------
benologist
Ditching my MBP for ElementaryOS on an existing PC has been a challenge, using
Firefox and it's crappy tab-changing makes me really miss the macOS-wide
shortcuts for cmd+shift+{} to change tabs, and in general it feels like I have
to use the mouse often.

There's a substantial environmental benefit to reusing a computer you already
have over buying another machine even if it is made of recycled aluminum, but
my main hesitation is if Apple does change processor architecture in the next
2 years per rumors these may be their last x86 devices, and software
compatibility for them in just a few years could become very bleak as
developers focus more exclusively on the newer architecture.

------
mkhattab
Over the years, I've had an older MacBook Air, pre-touchbar MacBook Pro 13"
and 15", and the second generation MacBook.

Order of preference:

MacBook > MacBook Air > MacBook Pro 15" (pre-touch bar) > MacBook Pro 13"
(pre-touch bar)

The MacBook is my favorite and I think is the proper evolution of the MacBook
Air. I rarely need ports for doing day-to-day stuff like programming, reading
and consuming content.

Also, as the OP mentioned, the tapered design makes typing a better experience
compared to the hard edged MacBook Pros. The daily ergonomics of the MacBook
is something that needs to be experienced and experience with the MacBook Air
with respect to ergonomics was a factor in buying the MacBook.

------
dr_
If a company has built a product that’s filled with problems, why buy another
version of the same product from them. My original MacBook 12” was plagued
with issues. It was underpowered and the keyboard was horrendous. I vowed to
not get another MacBook, since most of my work is browser based or using
office. I don’t rely on iTunes or iphoto on the laptop. Getting iMessages is
nice but not something I’ll miss. For work there are other messaging services.
I love my iPhone, my AirPods and my iPad, but the MacBook product line is
disappointing.

~~~
chrisseaton
> why buy another version of the same product from them

There's not really anything else that comes close to giving me what a MacBook
does. So it's going to have to be a lot worse than even 'filled with problems'
to get me to switch.

------
Nursie
I really liked the idea of going to the Air because I want a lightweight
laptop, and was willing to sacrifice some of the power.

But it's not actually very much lighter that the current 13" Pro, there's only
about 100g in it. It's only a few bucks lighter on the wallet too.

The only way to get a truly light Mac is to get the just-plain Macbook, but
that has no thunderbolt so it's a no-go.

I don't want to look at other brands for a work machine, but I am starting to,
because some are now offering true quad-core i7's in a package about the
weight of the Macbook.

------
oliv__
I've loved my 2011 Air ever since I got it, but now it's 2018 and call me
crazy but I'm seriously considering making my own computers and possibly
software.

I'm really hating the direction that tech is taking lately, getting colder and
colder, more hype less substance, arbitrary choices (no more headphone jacks),
making people disconnected from the real world, and overall just freaking me
out with all those fingerprint and face recognition sensors getting
ubiquitous.

I can't seem to find options that fit me now and I don't like it.

~~~
soared
Not having a headphone jack is the farthest thing from arbitrary and making
that claim proves your opinions aren't based on facts.

[https://smartphones.gadgethacks.com/news/what-every-major-
ph...](https://smartphones.gadgethacks.com/news/what-every-major-phone-gained-
by-removing-headphone-jack-0181462/)

~~~
oliv__
What's the alternative, exactly? It's an arbitrary choice in the sense that
plenty of people enjoy and rely on headphone jacks and that the benefits of
switching aren't exactly major.

Besides, just because the removal has _some_ factual claims doesn't mean there
aren't facts supporting the other side of the story. So it seems like it comes
down to opinions now, what do you know.

~~~
albedoa
_It 's an arbitrary choice in the sense that plenty of people enjoy and rely
on headphone jacks and that the benefits of switching aren't exactly major._

That's still not what arbitrary means.

~~~
oliv__
"(of power or a ruling body) unrestrained and autocratic in the use of
authority."

~~~
albedoa
Yes, we know what it means. If you had applied the adjective to power or a
ruling body, then you would have shown to as well.

~~~
oliv__
The adjective was in reference to the powers that are making these choices,
obviously.

~~~
albedoa
You twice attached it to the noun "choice" but you were actually referring to
a power? Sounds believable.

~~~
oliv__
Jesus christ, and where do you think choices come from?

~~~
albedoa
Again, _we_ know what words mean. We know where choices come from. That has
nothing to do with and is frankly a strange deflection from your ongoing
confusion about the words you use.

Which is more likely: That you don't know what a word means or that everyone
and multiple dictionaries are wrong?

~~~
oliv__
lol

~~~
dang
Please don't do tedious tit-for-tats on HN, and please don't post uncivil
comments.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

~~~
albedoa
dang, the guy is adamantly denying the definition of a well-known word. That
behavior can be shut down without resorting to “both sides-ism”. Don’t use me
as the tat to his tit.

~~~
dang
It doesn't matter very much if someone is denying the definition of a well-
known word on the internet. And it's not interesting. Therefore the thing to
do is just let it go. By feeding it, you only keep it alive.

------
robarr
It kind of worries me that's the last point he makes is to see if the Air will
be powerful enough for the work he does.. It would be my number one

------
hartator
I’ve also tried switching from a MBP 2017 15” to the new air and it’s a really
good laptop. Love the weight, battery life, CPU is not as good but enoughly,
typing is back to good. My main grip and the reason I’ve returned it was the
screen. I don’t mind the brightness, but colors were faded away and the gap is
big between a MBP screen. Final blow was no True Tone making the pick even
less attrative.

------
tibbon
We're about to go up at work from the i5 13" touchbar 8GB MBPs to 15" i9 ones
with 32GB ram. Main need? Running containers/VMs. Just doesn't fly on a
machine with little memory and fewer cores.

I do dislike the lack of a magsafe, but at least with 4 ports hopefully
if/when I break one (haven't yet in a year) then there's more left.

------
anon4242
So for someone who's looking for a Macbook for iOS app development (mainly
simple games in C++), will a Macbook Air suffice?

~~~
saagarjha
If you're doing anything very complicated, it should be fine. If your app is
large or you plan on doing many things at once, then it might not be the best
choice.

------
Down_n_Out
I've ditched the laptops of Apple for the new Mac Mini, upgraded the ram
myself to save on cost and it was not too hard to do. Now I'm running an I5
with 32Gb ram. Nice little machine. As a travel buddy I'm using a Lenovo X280
with Linux on it, light, nice enough keyboard, just works and the two OS can
work together quite well.

------
victor106
Does anyone here use Siri on their Mac? I can’t seem to find a good use case
for if however hard I try.

~~~
lostgame
Especially not for those of us with iPhones...

------
solomatov
Also, what's nice about Macbook air, is that it has a real thunderbolt 3 port
which allows egpu

~~~
wishinghand
What’s a fake thunderbolt 3 port? Don’t all TB3 ports support 40gbps?

~~~
solomatov
You can consider USB-C which MacBook has as a fake TB3 port :-)

------
RivieraKid
I have late 2016 MBP, the two port version and the new MBA seems to be better
or equal in every way, except maybe processing power. Honestly I wonder what's
the point of MBP now, why don't they simply offer configs with better Intel
chips?

------
tobyhinloopen
"Oh yeah and I bought a $299 dock with it, I'm so happy"

That's my #1 complaint with the new macbooks. They are expensive enough
already, and I hate having to buy dongles/docks as well.

I just hope my 2015 rMBP doesn't die on me for a while

------
tim333
I bought three of the old MacBook Air 11s. One for me and two for friends -
they work well for a lot of things and are not so much on eBay (about £300-400
in the UK). Less than one new Air and you get magsafe and two happy friends.

------
eugeniub
Does anyone use the new MacBook Air for iOS app development? How does it hold
up?

~~~
hesarenu
I do using 2017 Air. But i am using ReactNative. Its good. Mine is 120GB which
is quite limiting when you install additional libs like installed
docker/android/visualcode/studio.

------
intopieces
Anyone with a new MBA want to weigh in on the screen brightness? I can’t unsee
it. I don’t usually have the brightness up all the way but even at max the new
MBA just seems dim.

------
mk89
As long as they don't release a decent new Mac pro, I am not gonna throw away
more than 4k€, it's just unethical and wrong. Even if it's company money.

------
epynonymous
my biggest nitpick with the mbp 2017 is the touchbar, i only use it when i’m
forced to press a function or escape key, i dont even know what additional
features it has, i’ve seen some instances like quicktime where you scan to a
certain spot in a video, but what else is it good for?

to me it seems to drain power, take up mechanical space, i dont even like the
aesthetics of the touchbar, truly the appendix of the mbp.

i do like the 32g for the mbp, the air only gets up to 16g

------
dirtylowprofile
For the new MacBook Air, I was wondering if anyone has run Xcode in it and the
emulator. How was the performance? I am still on MBP 2012 and is still going
fine.

------
k__
At the moment I have a 2013 MBP and I like it. I also read this was a good MBP
year, but there were bad MBP years since then.

So, in the opinion of HN, what are good macbooks?

~~~
pdimitar
I was never a hardcore Apple user. Only started seriously jumping ship at
November 2017 when me and my wife bought iPad Pros and iPhone X for both of
us. Had the MacBook 12" from before.

Then I bought a refurbished MBP 2015 15". Couldn't be happier with a laptop,
honestly. Only thing I hate is when you load it heavily for a few minutes and
the fans start wailing like a banshee. But truthfully, that's just a hate
towards laptops in general. :D

The MBP 2015 is extremely durable, still lightweight enough, very powerful --
on compilation it _seriously_ outperforms the 2nd gen i7 CPU on my gaming PC!
-- and has a respectable battery life even when loaded. Never had to look for
an outlet before I hit 6 hours of coding and compiling. And if I wasn't doing
much compiling and mostly was just reading, coding from time and time, and
watching videos, once it actually lasted for 10 hours.

So again, I ain't an Apple expert but ever since I got the MBP 2015 and read
countless reviews and stories about the other models (like this thread) I
still can't see what would ever entice me to buy another MacBook. Especially
having in mind that the keyboard of the MBP 2015 is much better compared to
anything on any subsequent MacBook so far.

------
Traubenfuchs
I love my MacBook Pro at work.

I would love it even more if it didn't have the touchbar and would have a key
press depth larger than half a millimetre.

------
eberkund
I wish they had a quad core MBA, that's the only thing (well that and the
keyboard) stopping me from upgrading from my 2013 MBP.

~~~
ksec
The new MBA CPU is actually Fanless, there is only a heatsink on top and a Fan
next to it sucking air flow from it. I think that is may be a maximum of 10W
TDP design, would be hard to get a Quad Core even on 10nm. If Apple could
improve its cooling to 15W then that would be possible.

------
objektif
I recently got a MB Air as well. Only complaints I have so far is the
reflective screen and the weird arrow keys on the keyboard.

------
seaghost
I've got retina MacBook Pro late 2013 five years ago and I don't plan to ditch
it anytime soon. Works like a charm.

------
NoblePublius
Because the Touch Bar is so bad, I bought a $2k MacBook Air instead of a $3500
15’’ MBP. Wish they made the air 15’’

------
finchisko
The author is mixing arguments. Sometimes he's referring to previous
generation of Air (magsafe), sometimes to nobody knows what (touchbar -> you
can buy pro without touchbar). Classic human behaviour in practice. First
buying, then convincing yourself, that you did good, by making up arguments.
We all do that, but I wouldn't write article about that, because it'll always
end up unbalanced.

~~~
uw_rob
> touchbar -> you can buy pro without touchbar

Kinda. If you do, you get the 2016 specs machine, not the 2018 bumped specs.
Maybe it is not rational, but if I am forking over that kind of money for a
machine, I would want to get the best version, not an artificially gimped one.

------
shubidubi
Please stop the touch bar

------
therealmarv
Should be Quadcore then it would be a no brainer. Come on Intel...

------
true_tuna
I ditched my MacBook Pro for a Lenovo X1 I’m super happy with it.

~~~
brandon272
Windows?

------
TrueTom
My next MacBook Pro will be a ThinkPad.

------
paulcole
WTF was this guy doing to barely get 4 hours out of a MacBook Pro charge?

~~~
randallsquared
Possibly Docker for Mac.

I have to quit Docker for Mac if I want more than ~3 hours from my late 2017
MBP. If Docker decides to do whatever it's doing when it uses 300% CPU for no
apparent reason, that can end up being "I have 25% battery; time to look for a
place to plug in!"

------
ratsimihah
Am I the only one surprised this is at the top of HN? The content feels not
only very first-world problem, but also superficial. Or maybe I'm just not the
HN target audience anymore.

~~~
akvadrako
It feels like a support group for touch-bar MBP haters. I mean, do we really
need like 30/40 of the top-level comments to be saying the same thing?

I've probably read 100+ comments on this site saying they prefer the 2015 MBP
to the new ones. There is no value in repeating that again or upvoting a
comment that repeats it.

It's a minority of customers as evidenced by sales numbers, but they seem to
think Apple has a duty to cater to them.

~~~
hamstergene
How did you get that? Apple has never published per-model sales stats to my
knowledge. Could you share the source?

2015 MBP was available until this July, non-touchbar 13" still is. The fact
that the new Air got TouchID but not TouchBar could as well be a hint that
it's non-touchbar models that were making most sales.

------
black-tea
Why is this interesting? People "ditching" an Apple product for _another Apple
product_? What about trying a Dell XPS with Linux on it? That would be an
actual interesting post.

------
sonnyblarney
At least in the current product line, it may not be worth it. There is 1 Air
less expensive than the Macbooks - and it's 1.something Ghz processor with 8G
Ram and 128G SSD. It's basically unsuitable for anything but light work. If
you want more horsepower you're into Macbook territory in terms of pricing.
(Of course this is all besides specific concerns over trackpads and touchbars
etc.)

------
random878
I'm new here, so perhaps I'm missing something, but how does this submission
meet hackernews guidelines for posting?

This is a superficial, brief opinion piece outlining someone's thoughts on a
piece of hardware reviewed ad nauseam across the internet.

How is this submission 'deeply interesting' (or am I missing something here)?

~~~
tomhoward
The guidelines say acceptable posts are include "anything that gratifies one's
intellectual curiosity".

This one might be at the less gratifying end of the spectrum, but if it gets a
lot of votes and a worthwhile discussion develops, that generally indicates
that it's a solid enough post.

Mediocre posts can sometimes spawn surprisingly good discussions.

But if you don't like a post, you can always flag it. If enough people do that
it will be demoted down/off the front page.

------
aviv
I recently switched from a $3K 2018 Macbook Pro to the latest $1200 base Air
model and couldn't be happier.

------
kapauldo
Great write up, I will likely upgrade my old air, was waiting for a fix to
keyboard and other issues

------
AznHisoka
I work from home and connect my macbook to an external monitor and keyboard.
The other day i had to work outside and after 1 minute typing on the macbook,
I couldnt bear it. I have no idea how people can work with these primitive
things.

~~~
coder543
why not have a desktop at that point? it would be more powerful for that price
point.

~~~
AznHisoka
my company only provides laptops to their remote employees and we cant use our
own machines

------
anonymas
I bought a MacBook Air and it suddenly died after 16 months, the quality of
MacBook Air is crap.

~~~
muteh
Well I'm using the one I've had for five years. Our anecdata seems to be
conflicting.

~~~
wetpaws
I believe it's called survivor bias :)

