Macbook Air 2020 really warm to the touch (palm rest)

[heycal]

Hi there,

I also got the same problem with my brand new Macbook pro 13" 2020. On first day using, the CPU temp is around 57-70°C when browsing youtube and the palm rest is also always 32-35°C (using TG Pro).

How is your mac going on by now or did you return it?

I had been using a 2013 MBA with no heat or fan noise. I bought an i5 version 2020 MBA, but returned it because of heat and noise. Instead I got a 2020 MacBook Pro 13", the higher end model. Had it since Friday. It also runs hot, but not quite as hot as the MBA did, and no fan noise yet.

How do you know what your temperature is, Dat Le? I'd like to know myself. And what is your situation now after a couple of weeks?

 

[Dat Le]

I had been using a 2013 MBA with no heat or fan noise. I bought an i5 version 2020 MBA, but returned it because of heat and noise. Instead I got a 2020 MacBook Pro 13", the higher end model. Had it since Friday. It also runs hot, but not quite as hot as the MBA did, and no fan noise yet.

How do you know what your temperature is, Dat Le? I'd like to know myself. And what is your situation now after a couple of weeks?

Hey, I used TG Pro for temperature and fan control. Weird thing is my old 2014 MBA also has no heat or fan noise as yours.

My new MacBook Pro 13" base model ran hot for the first few days. Now it's more stable but still runs extremely hot and loud when I watch streaming video.

 

[jmilan0302]

Did you seriously buy a 2020 MacBook Air and not expect it to be terrible? It's a luxury Facebook browsing machine. The CPU barely has a heatsink to dump heat into, and the heatsink it has is right on top of it rather than in a different part of the chassis and then connected to the CPU with a heatpipe, so heat builds up in the middle instead of being spread around, to the left in the old MBA and lower end 13" MBP or to both sides in the higher end 13" and 15" MBP.

 

[triangletechie]

Did you seriously buy a 2020 MacBook Air and not expect it to be terrible? It's a luxury Facebook browsing machine. The CPU barely has a heatsink to dump heat into, and the heatsink it has is right on top of it rather than in a different part of the chassis and then connected to the CPU with a heatpipe, so heat builds up in the middle instead of being spread around, to the left in the old MBA and lower end 13" MBP or to both sides in the higher end 13" and 15" MBP.

I'm going to assume he spent $1299 on an Apple laptop and expected it to not be terrible. you know....considering the i5 Air costs $1299 and it's from.... Apple.

 

[heycal]

Did you seriously buy a 2020 MacBook Air and not expect it to be terrible? It's a luxury Facebook browsing machine. The CPU barely has a heatsink to dump heat into, and the heatsink it has is right on top of it rather than in a different part of the chassis and then connected to the CPU with a heatpipe, so heat builds up in the middle instead of being spread around, to the left in the old MBA and lower end 13" MBP or to both sides in the higher end 13" and 15" MBP.

Who are you addressing this question to? Some of us are normal people with regular lives who've never heard the term "heatsink" and couldn't tell a CPU from an STI.

Speaking for myself, yeah, I bought a 2020 MacBook Air and expected it to not be terrible, and to be a bit better all around than the 2013 Mac Air I happily used everyday for 7 years. I guess that makes me an idiot who should have known better, huh?

 

[heycal]

Hey, I used TG Pro for temperature and fan control. Weird thing is my old 2014 MBA also has no heat or fan noise as yours.

My new MacBook Pro 13" base model ran hot for the first few days. Now it's more stable but still runs extremely hot and loud when I watch streaming video.

Hi Dat Le, my machine is still running hot after 4 days, so maybe it's not going to Cool down a bit like yours did. Did a 2 hour zoom today, screening sharing a video file, and I felt like I was in an oven. First I put the laptop pad I have on my lap, but the heat penetrated that. Ended up using a pillow and the pad and it still felt warm. Battery wasn't great either...

 

[ghanwani]

Did you seriously buy a 2020 MacBook Air and not expect it to be terrible? It's a luxury Facebook browsing machine. The CPU barely has a heatsink to dump heat into, and the heatsink it has is right on top of it rather than in a different part of the chassis and then connected to the CPU with a heatpipe, so heat builds up in the middle instead of being spread around, to the left in the old MBA and lower end 13" MBP or to both sides in the higher end 13" and 15" MBP.

I have a 2019 and it does totally fine. May not be the fastest thing around but it's very adequate for normal tasks -- web, youtube, zoom, office, etc. And it never gets hot.

I use it unplugged all the time. It gets a bit warm if I use it when plugged in, but never what I would consider hot. On the other hand, 2019 MBP both 2TBP and 4TBP models used to get uncomfortably hot, especially when on zoom/skype calls.

 

[jmilan0302]

Who are you addressing this question to? Some of us are normal people with regular lives who've never heard the term "heatsink" and couldn't tell a CPU from an STI.

Yes, that's who it's for. Not for people who will put load on it or expect it to last longer than 2 years.
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I'm going to assume he spent $1299 on an Apple laptop and expected it to not be terrible. you know....considering the i5 Air costs $1299 and it's from.... Apple.

Yes, it's not like apple historically makes some of the hottest running laptops ever.

 

[The_Battary_guy]

Hello!

Two days ago I've received the all new Macbook Air 2020 i5, 512gb, 8gb version. So far it is an awesome laptop, but I just can't stop noticing the super warm laptop palm rest, which makes my hands really sweaty. I haven't had a metal laptop for 3 years almost, I used to use my old Dell latitude before purchasing this laptop and it was not warm at all even when pushing that thing...

I'm a web developer, mostly doing light stuff and not compiling as I mostly use interpreted languages that require more RAM rather than CPU power, so CPU power was never an issue for me. I used to own 2017 macbook air from work and it worked like a charm, I loved it so much that I decided to purchase this new macbook air, but why the hell is it so warm? I'm sitting here doing nothing, just browsing the web and it is still really uncomfortable, my CPU usage is litteraly at 9-15% right now, temps are around 55-60C, after two days of use my palms start to get red from the salt in my sweat and it is not the most comfortable thing in the world.

See, the thing is, I don't remember 2017 Macbook Air being so warm, so I decided to compare the surface temperatures of the old (2017) and this new macbook (2020), thanks to good guys at notebookcheck reviews, here's what I found out:

Macbook Air 2020 i5 model (Max. load)
View attachment 904723

Macbook air 2017 (Max. load)
View attachment 904724

The Macbook Air 2017 seems to be warmer under load, but what the hell is going overhere? Why is my macbook air 2020 so warm to the touch? While sitting writing this article my palm rest temperatures are: 31C (thanks to TG Fan software) and I'm not even on max load... I don't really know where the palm rest sensors are here on this laptop, but still, it shouldn't be this warm...

What is up? Do I have a defective unit that is way to warm than it should be? Or is there something I'm missing... Any of you, Macbook Air 2020 i5 owners, could you help me out? God forbid I do some programming, the laptop get's so hot that it is ridicilous and I can barely work...

Should I ask for apple support in my country? Europe has ****** electronic return policies, so I cannot return a product if it was opened up, so I can't return the product, unless it's defective (apple support finds it out).

P.S. I'm living in north-eastern Europe climate, where the spring just barely began and it's still quite cold here. I have no idea how hot it will get in the summer...

Remember the product you're using has a single fan located miles away to your left from the cpu. It is expected to be quite warmer. As you do processor intensive tasks it get's heated up. I have the same machine but the palm rest are not as hot as yours.

 

[heycal]

Yes, that's who it's for. Not for people who will put load on it or expect it to last longer than 2 years.
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Yes, it's not like apple historically makes some of the hottest running laptops ever.

Don't know if the last message was sarcastic or not since my only experience with an Apple laptop was 7 years of cool breeze MBA use.

If the 2020 MBA isn't for people who don't "put load on it", who was the 2013 MBA for? Because I put a fair amount of load on mine for 7 years and getting too warm wasn't a problem. So why wouldn't I, or countless others folks who aren't computer hobbyists or keep up with the latest news in the tech world, expect at least the same level of performance in this area from the same model computer that's brand new?

 

[jmilan0302]

Don't know if the last message was sarcastic or not since my only experience with an Apple laptop was 7 years of cool breeze MBA use.

If the 2020 MBA isn't for people who don't "put load on it", who was the 2013 MBA for? Because I put a fair amount of load on mine for 7 years and getting too warm wasn't a problem. So why wouldn't I, or countless others folks who aren't computer hobbyists or keep up with the latest news in the tech world, expect at least the same level of performance in this area from the same model computer that's brand new?

The MacBook Air was always a luxury netbook. The original one was even worse than the new one, it barely had a heatsink and ran idle at 80c and would shut off half the cores to stop itself overheating. Then in 2010 it finally became similar to a proper laptop but still retained the netbook size. The 2019 MacBook Air is a successor to the 12" MacBook, not the MacBook Air. So it makes sense for it to be a downgrade.

 

[ghanwani]

The 2019 2018 MacBook Air is a successor to the 12" MacBook, not the MacBook Air.

This is the part that is confusing/misleading for customers and has led to "surprise" observations that the 2017 has a more fluid/better performance that the current (2018/2019/2020) MBA.

 

[ghanwani]

Remember the product you're using has a single fan located miles away to your left from the cpu. It is expected to be quite warmer. As you do processor intensive tasks it get's heated up. I have the same machine but the palm rest are not as hot as yours.

This is true of the 2018 and 2019 as well, but they don't get anywhere near as hot as folks are reporting for the 2020 with i5/i7.

 

[heycal]

Speaking of warmth, is it normal for the bottom of my 2020 MacBook Pro to be warm while sitting on my wooden desk with the charger plugged in? This would include a few hours later, presumably long after it reached 100% battery charge. I would guess it would stop doing anything at that point, but sometimes it stays warm.

 

[emadeaziz]

Try upgrading to the latest version of Catalina. My i5/8/2TB works perfectly fine and cool now.