Why You Shouldn’t Use a Keyboard Sleeve on Your MacBook
Your MacBook’s keyboard is probably even more fragile than you think. Sure, a single accident can destroy your entire computer, but even crumbs can mean death to your keys. It might be tempting to put a keyboard cover on your computer to protect both the keys and your MacBook, but as it turns out, these covers can actually do more harm than good.
Keyboard Covers Can Damage Your MacBook Display
All the time you spend worrying about your MacBook keyboard, you might be thinking about its display. MacBook displays are great, but they’re also fragile (think how easily yours gets dirty). Fingerprints and water stains will eventually clog the display and make cleaning difficult, but adding a keyboard cover exacerbates the problem.
Apple makes these laptops super slim, which you probably already know when you pick up yours. As it happens, the company designs these machines with such precision that there is only a gap between the keyboard and the display when you close your laptop. There really is no room in this space for anything but air.
The keyboard covers, while thin, are not that thin. They end up touching the display when you close your MacBook, and it stays that way until you open the computer again. You will immediately notice that your MacBook has a QWERTY imprint on its display, which goes well with any other junk that has accumulated here. This, for lack of a better word, is ugly.
However, you might be acting a little ugly if it meant that you are protecting your MacBook’s keyboard. After all, you could just wipe the stain off your keyboard and get on with your day, right? In fact, sometimes not. It is possible that the keyboard cover could damage the display over time.
Since this gap is so small, if something comes into contact with your display over and over again, it causes problems. This is why Apple recommends removing keyboard covers, palm rests, and camera covers before closing one of its MacBooks.
If you really want to use the case, your best bet is to simply remove it before closing the lid of your MacBook. Even then, depending on your device, the cover might be bad news.
Keyboard covers can get very hot on your MacBook
If you have a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro M1, you probably don’t feel like it gets too hot too often. But for those of us who use old MacBooks, you know these things can be frustrating . There are many reasons for this, and there are ways to mitigate it, but one of the easiest ways to reduce heat is to skip using a keyboard case.
If your MacBook has a fan, it uses that fan to move air through the machine – pumping hot air from MacBook components helps control temperatures. One of the areas it gets into, however, is the keyboard itself. If you have a keyboard lid, your MacBook will not be able to absorb as much air as it would like, which can interfere with its ability to pump out the optimal amount of hot air.
This doesn’t apply to every MacBook model as Apple doesn’t put fans in all of them. For example, MacBooks (known as MacBooks) don’t have fans like the M1 MacBook Air. You can safely use the keyboard case with these devices without worrying about the machine overheating; just be sure to remove them before closing the lid (which, as you can imagine, is easy to forget).
For the rest of us using fan-driven MacBooks, keyboard covers really aren’t worth the hassle. It is much better to try not to eat near your laptop or, if necessary, keep the lid closed while you do it. Will you heed this advice? Probably not, and neither will I. But at least we all now know what to do.