Nothing insightful today other than asking why Apple decided to change the MacBook Air’s design.

I bought the 2017 version – the older one, with a slightly bumped CPU & 8 gigs of RAM – new for $750 last year on sale. That’s proving to be a pretty good deal. Then recently we added the 2018 version with two USB-C ports for someone else to use. It’s… fine. It is fine.

But, honestly, I don’t get it. The 2018 MBA’s screen upgrade is great, and extra chassis colors are nice, I guess. I don’t mind the keyboard or trackpad, and smaller isn’t worse, but why not keep the old ports? Swap out the single Thunderbolt for one USB-C on the right of the old design and be done with it.

My only real gripe with the older MBA version was that the login screen had jaggies on it with my non-Retina screen, but a recent upgrade to macOS seems to have fixed that. The 2017 isn’t fast, but it’s quiet, great battery life, a decent keyboard, and does everything I need it to do. You know, everything I need including sharing USB-A jump drives, importing pictures from my camera’s memory card, and working with USB-A keyboards, mice, and docks.

That is, connectivity really makes the older MacBook Air a more useful box when I’m out doing some mobile computing. The first thing we did for the 2018 MBA was add a USB-C to -A adapter, and now it looks stupid with that danged dongle sticking out all the time, but it stays because it’s always being used.

I don’t get it. Why “fix” what’s not broken? Apple’s USB-C fixation really is a textbook proof of, “In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they’re different.”

Labels: , ,