Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
2020 MacBook Air Reviews Praise Magic Keyboard and Faster Performance at Lower $999 Starting Price
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Of course youtubers would praise it....cmon people. Looks like only die hards are posting during these times.
I think the only thing keeping me back from not upgrading from my 2016 nTB base its:
1- cheapness (primary reason)
2- no P3 screen
3- wondering what the performance upgrade would be, these are ULV procs right?
4- wondering how battery would stack up vs this one still on Sierra running great
5- wondering how speakers are
6- indecision of color
back to the old keyboard which long term I think is the way to go, even though horrible longevity aside from these keyboards and lack of travel I like the mechanism more..
True Tone,
Easy BTO for 512GB/16GB/Quad Core, although I don't really need 512gb or 16gb, would be comfy. not sure I *need* quad core either but that would be sweet having first Mac laptop with quad core being an air. This Pro could use a slight diet.
TouchID added,
a normal ESC key (even though I still have a physical ESC key, the long and skinny one, I don't mind the current arrow key layout but indifferent)
(...would be good leap from 256/8/2.0 dual core from 4 generations ago)
--
Can you trade a laptop in after receiving your replacement, is there a window? would want to make sure I get a good unit / can deal with Catalina and use all my apps and such before trading it up
1- cheapness (primary reason)
2- no P3 screen
3- wondering what the performance upgrade would be, these are ULV procs right?
4- wondering how battery would stack up vs this one still on Sierra running great
5- wondering how speakers are
6- indecision of color
back to the old keyboard which long term I think is the way to go, even though horrible longevity aside from these keyboards and lack of travel I like the mechanism more..
True Tone,
Easy BTO for 512GB/16GB/Quad Core, although I don't really need 512gb or 16gb, would be comfy. not sure I *need* quad core either but that would be sweet having first Mac laptop with quad core being an air. This Pro could use a slight diet.
TouchID added,
a normal ESC key (even though I still have a physical ESC key, the long and skinny one, I don't mind the current arrow key layout but indifferent)
(...would be good leap from 256/8/2.0 dual core from 4 generations ago)
--
Can you trade a laptop in after receiving your replacement, is there a window? would want to make sure I get a good unit / can deal with Catalina and use all my apps and such before trading it up
The media has got its hands on the new MacBook Air and first impressions of the notebook after a day or two of usage are largely positive.
Following in the footsteps of the 16-inch MacBook Pro, the new MacBook Air features a redesigned Magic Keyboard with scissor switches that deliver 1mm of key travel for a comfortable and stable key feel. As with the 16-inch MacBook Pro, reviews find the keyboard on the new MacBook Air to be far better than the problematic butterfly keyboard of recent years.
TechCrunch's Brian Heater:CNBC's Todd Haselton said "I'm pleased to report that the new keyboard is a vast improvement."
Engadget's Dana Wollman went as far as putting "buy it for the keyboard" in the title of her piece.
Apple significantly redesigned the MacBook Air in 2018, but it also increased the base price of the notebook from $999 to $1,199. Fortunately, the 2020 base model not only starts at $999 again, but also comes with a doubled 256GB of storage. Writing for Six Colors, Jason Snell said this price "finally sets the bar at the right place."
One caveat of the new $999 base model is that it is equipped with a 1.1GHz dual-core Core i3 chip, but it is a newer 10th-generation Intel processor. Apple told CNBC's Todd Haselton that the Core i3 chip is a "big upgrade" from the 8th-generation 1.6GHz dual-core Core i5 chip in the base model 2018 MacBook Air.
Still, many reviews recommend spending an extra $100 to upgrade to a 1.1GHz quad-core Core i5 chip -- the first quad-core MacBook Air configuration ever.
One criticism that Haselton offered is that the new MacBook Air continues to have a 720p webcam, with many customers wishing that Apple would offer a 1080p front-facing FaceTime camera on its notebooks.
More first impressions were shared by CNET's Dan Ackerman, Business Insider's Lisa Eadicicco, TechRadar's Gareth Beavis and Matt Hanson, PCMag's Tom Brant, Pocket-lint's Stuart Miles, and the Daily Express' David Snelling.
Video Impressions and Unboxings
Article Link: 2020 MacBook Air Reviews Praise Magic Keyboard and Faster Performance at Lower $999 Starting Price
Give it a month and the price will be cut in half.
Huh? Why?Give it a month and the price will be cut in half.
Why do Youtubers all have facial expressions regular people never actually make?
I could skimp on SSD if I were to get Air, but think the 16GB is worth it from an 8GB machine for the past several years?
is 8 a dog on Catalina?
is 8 a dog on Catalina?
And I still cant decide
i'd like to keep it for as long as possible, but it's gonna be my first macbook and i dont know what i need
was in the same boat, but realised a spec'd up one is: base MBA + MacMini
– however, as I still love my (USB-A) 2015 i7 11" MBA and had promised myself I'd wait for an ARM MB, but...
With the way we use our home wifi these days, that is becoming more and more common. A big reason for that is because the number of devices connected and interference drastically reduces actual Wifi speeds. Wifi 6 means paying for 50mbps and actually getting that over Wifi across your entire house (maybe a better example).
ULV isn't a thing any more; it sort of became "U". Which your nTB also is.
This is Y, below that.
And yet!
You probably have the 2 GHz i5-6360U. Get the Air with the i5 at $1,099, and your CPU will be 71% faster in single-core and 105% faster (more than twice as fast) in multi-core, based on MKBHD's tests.
(Maybe consider spending another $200 on 16 GB RAM.)
I agree. I upgrade my phone every year but I tend to keep my laptop 4-6 years between upgrades. I just upgraded my ancient (~2013) Airport Extreme router last December with an Eero Mesh network because I was starting to run into issues with too many smart home devices on my old router.
My 2014 MacBook Pro with 8GB/128GB SSD still runs great on Catalina.
If I were buying now I'd spring for 16GB, but I haven't faced a lot of issues except when doing intensive After Effects workloads.
I have a late-2013 MBP with 8GB, on the latest Catalina beta. Runs fine. My screen is smashed though, so it only works when connected to an external display. I was thinking about buying the 16" MBP until this Air came along at close to half the price. But 13". Need to give it some thought.
This looks like a fantastic update. In August, I traded-in my 2014 MBA for a 2019 MBA, and so far it has been great. No issues and meets all of my needs. That said: the 2020 MBA looks to be a much better computer. So, while I am somewhat disappointed that I pulled the trigger too soon, I am very happy to see that Apple is back to making a great everyday laptop for under $1,000. Hopefully, the 2020 MBA will bring millions of students and regular consumers back to the Mac, and that's a good thing.
Yeah, that HDD is an absolute joke. But you acn easily run an external SSD via thunderbolt or usb 3.
A 4K monitor of that quality + the computer itself for that price is an incredible value.
For $100 more you get two additional cores and either 32 or 16 more Execution Units on the Iris Plus GPU, so I would have to say that unless you are incredibly cash strapped, upgrading to the Core i5 is a complete no-brainer from a couple of different standpoints. How much the upgrade to the Core i7 is worth at $150 is definitely up for debate.
Hopefully, benchmarks and anecdotals will be coming in the next couple of weeks for those who are considering a purchase.
[automerge]1584727869[/automerge]
After I tested my Core i7 2.2GHz/16GB/256/Iris Pro GPU 2015 15" MacBook Pro and got 523 on the Metal test in GB5, I started thinking that it might be time to move on...there are so many reasons. My goal is still to end up with iPad Pro and iMac (or iMac Pro) only, but this little nugget is seriously so much better than the 2018/2019 MBA it's not even funny. I've never owned or used anything but a 15" MBP or 17" MBP, so I'm leery of the size difference, but I'm also tired of lugging a 15" laptop around. I wish I could go completely iPad only, but iOS 13 is not there, yet. Hopefully, iOS 14 will be.
Without hitting the Apple fanboy button too hard, I think they actually got the MBA back to the glory days (2013-2015) without that awful LCD display. If only they can keep doing this...alas, the $350 keyboard tempered it a bit.
Last edited:
God no kidding - “Magical”?
How about “functional again”
This company brings out more hot air than an actual hot air ballon.
Won't happen. Calling something that big an "Air" would be ridiculous
The ‘Air’ brand refers to lightweight and thinness. Not how large the screen is.
16 inch laptops are huge. It would be heavier for sure. A 16 inch air would make no sense at all. The whole point of it is to be small and light
