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MacBook Air 2020 USER reviews
- Thread starter Untapped Potential
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It's great. My only complaint for years has been the keyboard. It works as it is supposed, like all the keyboards before the butterfly. I've been using it for a week. The fan has come on once, perhaps because I had twenty or so large pdf open at one time and a dozen Safari windows, without noticing. It was really quiet, even then. I'm not a power user, but I like a zippy machine. This is plenty zippy. I would have bought the lowest end Pro if the 13/14 inch had come out first, but I have been dying for a replacement keyboard for four years.
I upgraded to the i5, just to ensure that zip and also at the moment I ordered it was quicker to get and I needed it for the remote teaching I am doing and all the typing I am doing in NYC in the pandemic. I get the education discount so the price, though not quite as cheap as the base model, was pretty close to it. I love the keyboard, screen is fine, Touch ID is such a major improvement for passwords with any password manager, and as I said, it is quiet as can be for what I use it for.
Don't hesitate to ask if you have other questions.
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The one thing I can't help you or anyone else with is the battery life. That's something I would ordinary be able to tell you. But living here in Manhattan, I won't be taking the machine out of the apartment at least until the middle of June. I am just not paying attention to it. I've heard it only gets the advertised number of hours using Apple programs. But we'll hear more about this soon.
Don't hesitate to ask if you have other questions.
[automerge]1585658865[/automerge]
The one thing I can't help you or anyone else with is the battery life. That's something I would ordinary be able to tell you. But living here in Manhattan, I won't be taking the machine out of the apartment at least until the middle of June. I am just not paying attention to it. I've heard it only gets the advertised number of hours using Apple programs. But we'll hear more about this soon.
Does the base ever gets warm under ordinary usage? Like watching YouTube videos or Netflix? Thank you.
I've been curious as well.
Currently have a Pro 16", but it is overkill for what I do, especially since I now use my iPad Pro for many things. I'd really rather pocket the $1000+ CAD difference if I can, especially as a student in this weird time period.
I generally have about 5-6gb worth of ram usage just in PDF's, as well as some Safari tabs, mail and messages going.
My only concern is now and again I do have power user tasks (VMware Fusion with a super cutdown W10 image for a few programs not supported by OSX, and Matlab), but it's not often, as I mostly just remote in to other machines to do that type of stuff.
I've always heard the 2019 Air fan freaked out running sidecar. Anyone with a 2020 and an iPad Pro 12.9" want to let me know if similar happens?
Considering taking up Best-Buy on their generous return policy extension right now to test the new air and see if it is an ok replacement for the 16.
Currently have a Pro 16", but it is overkill for what I do, especially since I now use my iPad Pro for many things. I'd really rather pocket the $1000+ CAD difference if I can, especially as a student in this weird time period.
I generally have about 5-6gb worth of ram usage just in PDF's, as well as some Safari tabs, mail and messages going.
My only concern is now and again I do have power user tasks (VMware Fusion with a super cutdown W10 image for a few programs not supported by OSX, and Matlab), but it's not often, as I mostly just remote in to other machines to do that type of stuff.
I've always heard the 2019 Air fan freaked out running sidecar. Anyone with a 2020 and an iPad Pro 12.9" want to let me know if similar happens?
Considering taking up Best-Buy on their generous return policy extension right now to test the new air and see if it is an ok replacement for the 16.
Does anybody with the i5 with 16GB ram do photo editing? I’m looking at the 16 MacBook Pro because all tech reviewers say it’s needed for video editing, and that all the air can do is ‘light photo editing’ but I can’t find any information about the middle ground. And I don’t want the keyboard on the 13 pro..
I will need to manage a few hundred ~26mb photos at a time in Lightroom and photoshop with an external monitor (edit less than that after culling) and wonder if the air is the right machine for this task. The photo editing is a couple of times per month, the rest is simple word processing, safari, etc.
I will need to manage a few hundred ~26mb photos at a time in Lightroom and photoshop with an external monitor (edit less than that after culling) and wonder if the air is the right machine for this task. The photo editing is a couple of times per month, the rest is simple word processing, safari, etc.
I'm intrigued about how people with the 8GB base memory option are finding it, and what kind of tasks they do. One on hand, it feels like I really should swap out my old 2010 Air at last (4GB) but I'm a little weary if in 5+ years time when I'm undoubtedly still using this machine if 8GB will be enough.
Most of the time I'm doing fairly straightforward tasks... I might have a bunch of tabs open, Coda open for web scripting and stuff like that. I do like to use Lightroom on my Air now even, and that's probably my most intensive task and I somehow get away with it. I'm guessing the current SSDs are fast enough that swap file usage is not like the olden days.
I can survive on a 256GB drive as I offload everything to my home network anyway and won't keep unnecessary files, the i5 quad seems a worthwhile upgrade, but if I can get away with not having to upgrade the RAM I'll be a happy camper.
Most of the time I'm doing fairly straightforward tasks... I might have a bunch of tabs open, Coda open for web scripting and stuff like that. I do like to use Lightroom on my Air now even, and that's probably my most intensive task and I somehow get away with it. I'm guessing the current SSDs are fast enough that swap file usage is not like the olden days.
I can survive on a 256GB drive as I offload everything to my home network anyway and won't keep unnecessary files, the i5 quad seems a worthwhile upgrade, but if I can get away with not having to upgrade the RAM I'll be a happy camper.
With OSX memory compression, 8gb of ram goes a long way these days. 16gb on my 16" can be stretched closer to 20-32gb depending on what I'm doing.
Yeah, and it helps I use Safari rather than Chrome I'm sure ha. I upped my Mac Mini (2012) to 16GB because I was feeling the crunch of 8, but it's a machine that is used constantly for a bunch of different things and lots of background processes that probably aren't written in the most efficient way (using mono etc). I'm not usually one to complain about lack of user upgrade abilities in these kinds of devices, but when you can get nearly a decade out of a laptop it's hard not to think about many years ahead when buying!
the Air is likely to be 2x2 802.11ac. If you’re using wifi for your home network it might be a little limiting. It doesn’t suck, not at all, but Apple has been releasing 3x3 iterations for some time now. With a few 2x2 stragglers (Air, nTB Pro, 1.4/1.7 13” Pro).
First impression, comparing to a base 13" MBP nTB 2017:
- Keyboard's good! If you have a pre-Butterfly typer - that's basically what you get here, too.
- Sound's even better than on my MBP, which is already quite good. The Air seems to have less bass, though.
- Screen: max. brightness difference to the MBP seems to be OK, but boy that Air is NUMB compared to the MBP. I knew it's only RGB compared to P3, but honestly I did not thought it would be such a big difference. Might be the dealbreaker for me, don't know yet...
- Performance test is pending, not expecting it to outrun my MBP, but would not accept worse performance...!
- I'm feeling really better with that 'new' keyboard!!!!!!
- Keyboard's good! If you have a pre-Butterfly typer - that's basically what you get here, too.
- Sound's even better than on my MBP, which is already quite good. The Air seems to have less bass, though.
- Screen: max. brightness difference to the MBP seems to be OK, but boy that Air is NUMB compared to the MBP. I knew it's only RGB compared to P3, but honestly I did not thought it would be such a big difference. Might be the dealbreaker for me, don't know yet...
- Performance test is pending, not expecting it to outrun my MBP, but would not accept worse performance...!
- I'm feeling really better with that 'new' keyboard!!!!!!
What do you use your machine for? Curious if i7 could be slightly cooler, but I guess that's unlikely. I work as a web dev, would be annoying with a machine that tends to run hot as I often use the machine on my chest or lap (yes I'm lazy!)
Office, web browsing, light photo editing (e.g. what the Photos app offers), and some time in the future limited 4K video editing (using DaVinci Resolve most likely). Went for the i7 for peace of mind.
Anyhow, after comparing the screen quality to that of my MBP (together with my wife, who normally keeps me from nit-picking) for half an hour, we decided to return the Air. The quality is not as bad as I may have indicated in my earlier post. But I can also not "unsee" the difference, and knowing myself quite well, I know it would always bother me (I do some amateur photography - spent good money on equipment (Sony a6400 & good prime lenses) - would always feel strange to watch those on an "inferior" screen compared to what I had before)...
I guess this is like an “acquired taste” for the screen? As a normal person how can I tell the difference? I’m not trying to become picky but I’m just curious how do you train for this?
How was brightness compared to your other Pro?
The screen is really my main concern with moving to the Air. But I think I might keep my Pro and turn it into a faux desktop
The screen is really my main concern with moving to the Air. But I think I might keep my Pro and turn it into a faux desktop
That's a good description I would say! We simply compared some of our favourite pictures side by side, and always favoured the MBP display. Fiddled a bit with color profiles, but without a greater effect. The Air tends a bit towards the yellow, the Pro's more crisp.
Which Pro do you have? Max brightness is quite a bit lower compared to my 2017. There it would be max brightness minus 2-3 "digits".
I would say it really depends on where you're coming from. When I put by work Lenovo 15" next to the Air, the Air would be the winner!
I have the late 2016 NTB. three notches less isn't too bad
is the screen uniform at least?
I'm in a similar boat - would like to know how 8GB is working for folks. The 16GB upgrade is a bit pricey.
thats good to know! My understanding is the P3 screens are much more of a crapshoot in that department. But my 2016 NTB is nice and uniform as well (and its a replacement display from fluxgate, which was uniform too I think I got double lucky because I can be very picky about this sort of thing)
What is the actual model of i7 in it? I haven’t been able to find it yet. Trying to see how it measures up to my current 2014mbp with an i5