The best MacBook Air

I think I’ve found the perfect writing instrument: a 2015 11.6-inch MacBook Air.

I use to have one back in the day. Until I unceremoniously left it in a bin passing through TSA checkpoint at San Francisco International. I probably should have gone back after my trip to claim it at the lost and found, but I was far too cavalier with money in my 20s. Lost a thousand dollar notebook? No big deal, I’ll just buy another one.

And I did. In came a Microsoft Surface Pro 4, a device I hardly ever used and sold it a few years later towards buying an iMac.

Thanks to work, I recently came into a used unit of the 11.6-inch MacBook Air. This particular one even beefier than my lost poverty-spec version: a maximum 4 GB of memory and 256 GB of storage, a tremendous premium back in 2015. At 2.36 pounds, it’s the second lightest Mac laptop ever, behind only the retina screen 12-inch MacBook introduced in 2015. That one weights just two pounds, but has a huge fatal flaw: the god-awful “butterfly” keyboard.

In contrast, the keyboard on the second-generation MacBook Air might be the best Apple has ever made. Full keys with appropriate height and travel. The smaller 11.6-inch unibody aluminum chassis - compared to the larger 13-inch version - offers a wonderfully strong deck with almost zero flex. It’s perfect for someone like me who strikes super hard on the keys.

A laptop from 2015 is decidedly obsolete for anything but word processing and light internet browsing. This is why this 11.6-inch MacBook Air is perfect for purely writing. There isn’t anything else to distract me! The screen is so relatively small I’m not even tempted to fire up YouTube on Safari. I wrote all 3,500 words of my 2022 reflections post using the laptop. I intend to use it for all long form stuff going forward.

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Glass and concrete.

Auf Wiedersehen, Das

I am typing this out on a Keychron K8 wireless mechanical keyboard. The beloved Das Keyboard has been relegated to the closet, simply because it commits the cardinal sin of the modern digital word: having a cord. The wireless Keychron’s convenience of movement outweighs the higher typing quality of the renowned Das keyboard. Admittedly, it’s rather decent on Keychron, but the Das has that extra bit of solidity and sturdiness.

The Das is also significantly more expensive. As always, you definitely get what you pay for.

I would say any mechanical keyboard is better than the standard stuff. The increased response and feel to the fingers is what makes them such a sought after accessory for the computing enthusiasts crowd. The Keychron K8 isn’t the best at delivering those attributes, but it’s just about the only game in town if you want a wireless mechanical keyboard that’s catered to the Mac platform. It comes right out of the box with Mac-centric keys. The media keys on the ‘F’ row work correctly with the OS with zero tweaking.

Perhaps the best attribute about the K8 is that it’s quieter than the Das keyboard. It makes clicking and clacking through these blog posts in the morning a more pleasant experience for me and perhaps my sleeping housemates. Relatively speaking, of course: mechanical keyboards are innately loud. If quietness is your supreme, then mechanical keyboard is not for you.

Hopefully this Keychron K8 unit will last for a very long time, though as with all wireless electronics, the life of the battery will dictate everything. I bought the poverty-spec model without the hot-swapping capability and only white backlighting. It was on sale for about $65 dollars on Amazon. No affiliate money for me if you buy it through the link.

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Testing, one two.

Okay, I get it now

My job brings me opportunity to sample many a different computing hardware from over the generations, which can be a good thing or bad thing. Whenever the latest newness arrives in our offices, I’m obviously tempted to buy one for myself. Indeed that is in part how I’ve come to be typing on this 16-inch MacBook Pro: I noticed what a leap it was over the old 15-inch version, and how it’s truly the best large MacBook Pro since the beloved “retina” - the one with all the IO ports. So I end up spending money I wouldn’t have otherwise, all because of exposure at the workplace.

Yesterday I happened to be working on a 2018-vintage MacBook Pro, which is largely similar to the one I previously had. Immediately I noticed what a horrible experience it is to go back to typing on the “butterfly” keyboard. It felt like typing on a bed of rocks: stiff, unreassuring, and super awkward. The “magic” keyboard in the 16-inch MacBook Pro (and every Mac laptop in the current lineup) is vastly superior on typing feel alone, never mind the supposed reliability improvements. Positive feedback from the keys is so important, and the old butterfly keyboard is utterly lacking.

Granted, I didn’t hate the typing experience when I had my 15-inch MacBook Pro - with the butterfly keyboard. The shortcomings of the keys, in terms of feel, can be overlooked once you get used to it. Besides, I didn't really have anything better to compare it to until this year when the new 16-inch laptops started arriving at work, and I got to experience what an improved alternative is like. People say comparison robs you of joy; I would say it also robs you of your hard-earned cash. In an alternative universe where I don’t work in tech support, I’m sure I’d still be happily using my 15-inch MacBook Pro, and my wallet wouldn’t be out of a two grand.

I just hope the cycle doesn’t continue: what if the forthcoming Apple silicon Macs prove to be equally irresistible? Perhaps I should make a declaration…

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The new normal in San Francisco.

I quite like the 'butterfly' keyboard

Apple’s' ‘butterfly’ keyboard is a joy to type on.

Which is something I’ve only found out recently. The incredibly flat and thin ‘butterfly’ style keyboard have been featured in Apple laptops since the introduction of the 2015 Macbook, but I’ve been clinging onto the ‘chiclet’ style keyboard for as long as possible, primarily because I haven’t had use for buying a later generation Macbook of any variant. Plus, as we frequent typists understand, nothing can defeat the supreme feel and tactility of a quality mechanical keyboard.

During the many years since 2015, the butterfly keyboard have proliferated through the entire Apple laptop lineup, and of course I am privy to the relatively catastrophic (for Apple) reputation it has for unreliability. The mechanism is often doomed by normal amounts of dust and crumbs, same amounts that previously did not harm the chiclet keyboards. The invasion of tiny particles would cause keys to flat-out stop working, or singular key-presses registering multiple instances. The reliability problem is so acute that Apple is already on its fourth iteration of the technology, and is simultaneously offering free repairs to all laptops fitted with the butterfly mechanism for four years from initial purchase.

Rumor has it Apple is going to ditch that style of keyboard entirely in its next generation of laptops.

Before that happens, I recently got a chance to sample the butterfly keyboard for the very first time when my work took in a few of the latest Macbook Airs. On admittedly brief impression, I have to say I really like the typing experience. The butterfly keys have an absolute sturdiness, not unlike true mechanical keys, a factor which I appreciate and favor. Key travel is indeed on the shallow end but for my purposes it’s not a detriment at all, because the feedback is so sharp and brilliant.

Easy death by sandwich crumbs and Cheetos fuzz aside, I think I rather enjoy typing on Apple’s butterfly keyboard.

Which is just as well, because due to recent life circumstances, I have a Macbook Pro arriving imminently. Perhaps a bit of bias in my take because I will soon own a laptop with the butterfly keys? I’ll soon find out after some long-term use with the new machine. Nevertheless, I think it will be important to keep the keyboard area on the Macbook Pro pristine at all times, to decrease the chance of getting the dreaded failures I’ve read about these pass few years. Thankfully, I’m known among friends to be fastidiously clean.

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Back in a time when “small” cars were truly small.

Changed up my typing regiment

Autocorrect have made me a worse typist that I already am. 

Typing is a large part muscle memory, is it not? Not having to look down at the keyboard whilst typing is all in our fingers remembering each and every key position. Autocorrect disrupts that memory because even when my fingers betray me momentarily, I never have to go back and correct the mistake - the computer does it for me. This happens enough times and suddenly my muscle memory on how to type a particular word is completely out of sync. 

I was never that great of a typist to begin with - thanks for nothing, Mavis Beacon - and autocorrect exacerbates it. Therefore I've turn it off on all my computers. 

On the same tangent of typing, I've recently had a nasty liquid spill on my desk and my old Corsair mechanical keyboard took the brunt of it. Water and electronics never mix so I had to purchase a new one. I've own the Corsair K70 for five years and to be honest I was hoping to get plenty more mileage out of it.

That thought escaped my mind as soon as the replacement arrived: a Das Keyboard Model S Mac edition. This unit is pricey indeed but the haptic typing experience is supreme. I hadn't realize there's a hierarchy in the realm of mechanical keyboards, and apparently I've bought the Ferrari of them all. The Model S has a tactility and response that feels mega on the fingers, rendering the other keyboards I use for work completely inadequate. 

Pray I don't end this keyboard's life prematurely with misuse liquids as well.