MacBook Air 2020 USER reviews

[adrianlondon]

I don't do anything besides word processing, consume media, run Citrix desktop, and play 1 game that a Chromebook can play. Don't get me wrong, everything else is flawless that I can see but I'll be sleeping on it.

Sleep on it twice or three times. There's a chance your MBA is still encrypting the drive (for Filevault), doing some indexing for spotlight, downloading iCloud stuff etc etc. Luckily, we have 14 days to make a decision so if it's still struggling with your typical tasks after, say, two or three days, then you've plenty of time to arrange a return.

 

[TiT38]

i just received my MBA i5 / 256 / 8 gb and beautiful machine. I'm not a gamer by any means but I play one web based game that my $250 Chromebook runs perfectly and my 2013 MBA plays it good too. But when I try it with my 2020 MBA it was absolutely terrible.

Hello,

the games is played inside Chrome ?

what you should check if there is a background activity on you Mac, like indexing or encrypting, the old MBA without T2 chip did not do that before.
many posts give the information that the MBA runs much better after 2 days.

 

[kdm0505]

Sleep on it twice or three times. There's a chance your MBA is still encrypting the drive (for Filevault), doing some indexing for spotlight, downloading iCloud stuff etc etc. Luckily, we have 14 days to make a decision so if it's still struggling with your typical tasks after, say, two or three days, then you've plenty of time to arrange a return.

Okay cool, yea I'm def going to give it some time and I'll report back.

 

[esphil]

Theres no way the Air you have is uncapable of playing something a old chromebook or old Air was, I'm not buying that. There must have been something causing that. The GPU is leaps and bounds better than the previous 2019 Air, especially one from 2013...

 

[kdm0505]

Hello,

the games is played inside Chrome ?

what you should check if there is a background activity on you Mac, like indexing or encrypting, the old MBA without T2 chip did not do that before.
many posts give the information that the MBA runs much better after 2 days.

Good call, i tried it in Chrome and it played better than my MBA 2013 and maybe a little less smooth than my Chromebook but very close.

I'll give it some time as I hoped it is user error and I jumped the gun on my post
[automerge]1586871969[/automerge]

Theres no way the Air you have is uncapable of playing something a old chromebook or old Air was, I'm not buying that. There must have been something causing that. The GPU is leaps and bounds better than the previous 2019 Air, especially one from 2013...

my review was within an hour of buying it so don't buy what I'm saying

 

[novakjos]

And how is the picture quality ? No lag ?

Just did a google meet with 12 other people. Let the fans start to kick up then disabled turbo boost. Immediately plummeted. Fans slowly crept up from 3500 to 4500 over the course of a half hour but definitely was a significant improvement. and I did not notice any lag. Picture quality was good...except the horribly grainy MBA camera. 😂

 

[kdm0505]

question for those with knowledge. if the fans are running when a certain application is being used, does that mean that it's doing any damage or shorten the life of the laptop? The application I'm using the fans come on but not too loud but there isn't any lagging within the application itself.

 

[ascender]

First full day back at work since I got the Air. Having spent the majority of the last few years on butterfly keyboards, the Magic Keyboard is a real joy to use. Battery life has been good, very little fan noise and the screen is more than bright enough for use under a variety of lighting conditions.

The tapered shape is also really nice to use on my lap and its the strangest thing as you'll see that there's very little weight difference between the Air and the Pro, but I think its the shape which makes it feel lighter and more portable. Very strange.

Only time I've missed the Touch Bar today was for the emoji picker! Not exactly a vital use case I suppose..

 

[dazz87]

Just got my i5/8GB/256 and coming from a 2013 MBP it's a huge improvement obviously. My 2013 MBP was starting to show its age. Having Touch ID is super convenient and while I can't speak for the Butterfly keyboard as I never used it, the keyboard on the new MBA feels really good, just as good if not better than my old MBP. Overall I'm very pleased with it.

How is the screen brighness compare to your 2013? I am trying of trading in my 2013 MBA and the screen is my concern.

 

[AndreasM]

Anyone doing development(coding, compiling, deploying and so on) on the MBA 2020 which can give feedback on the fan noise? And even better if anyone can compare it to doing dev work on previous MBA generations(like 2019 or 2018). I'm worried that MBA 2020 comes with more power but also more fans and noise which I don't want to trade for better performance.

 

[mbaire]

How is the screen brighness compare to your 2013? I am trying of trading in my 2013 MBA and the screen is my concern.

Specs says MBP2013 has 300nits (MBA2020 400nits)

13" MacBook Pro with Retina Display Review - Notebook Reviews by MobileTechReview

www.mobiletechreview.com

 

[roncron]

Anyone doing development(coding, compiling, deploying and so on) on the MBA 2020 which can give feedback on the fan noise? And even better if anyone can compare it to doing dev work on previous MBA generations(like 2019 or 2018). I'm worried that MBA 2020 comes with more power but also more fans and noise which I don't want to trade for better performance.

I can't help with your specific question. But this might be useful information.

I own a 2018 MB Air which I was going to trade in for the 2020 i5/16gb/1tb Air I received from Apple a week ago. I have a few more days, but I'm 90% sure I'm returning the 2020 Air and keeping the 2018 Air for a bit longer.

Here's why: After following the discussions and articles and youtube videos about running hot, fan noise, poor heat mitigation in the 2020 Air, I've done some comparisons between my two machines. The comparisons don't turn out well for the 2020 Air.

When pushing both machines with a lot of tasks or with processor-intensive tasks, both get hot and the fans come on. But the 2020 i5 gets hotter and throttles down to protect itself. As a result, processor-intensive tasks like ripping CDs takes as long or longer on the 2020 quad-core i5 than on the 2018 MB Air. I've tried several different comparisons, with Turbo Boost enabled vs. disabled, with the fan manually turned up to the max in hopes of preventing thermal throttling vs. letting the system determine fan speed. In all cases, the 2020 quad-core i5 is hotter and no faster than my 2018 Air.

That's when pushing the machines.

When doing normal everyday stuff, the power of a 10th generation quad core i5 is not really needed, so I don't really perceive that the 2020 Air is faster, more fluid, "snappier" than the 2018 Air.

I encourage you to read the review by notebookcheck . com. Scroll way down to the section on performance. Here's a quote that corroborates my experience: "The 2020 model with the Core i5 is on average not faster than the i5 model from 2019 – despite 2 additional cores, new 10nm process, and new architecture."

So I'm very likely returning my i5 and hanging on to my 2018 Air at least until Apple announces its updated 13" MB Pro. That model is very likely to get the scissor magic keyboard that's on the 2020 Air and 2019 16" Pro, and it's very likely to get 10th-gen processors. If Apple also cuts the price and increases the storage on the base configuration--like they did with the 2020 Air--then I will want to see one before I make my final purchase decision.

I know this isn't what you were asking, sorry if none of this information is helpful.

 

[adrianlondon]

What made you buy a new Air when yours was only 1.5 to 2 years old?

 

[roncron]

What made you buy a new Air when yours was only 1.5 to 2 years old?

1. The keyboard.
2. I thought I'd get much better performance with a current generation quad-core i5 compared to the processor in my 2018 MB Air, which was a bit underpowered even by 2018 standards.
3. The price was attractive, even with the upgrades I got. Apple cut the price of the base configuration and didn't raise the price of RAM or SSD upgrades. And the upgrade from i3 to quad-core i5 was only $100.

But I don't want to buy a computer every 1.5 to 2 years. When ordering, I was expecting that this powerful, well-equipped 2020 Air would meet my needs for 4-5 years. Now that I have it, I'm not sure it will. I'd like to see the next 13" MB Pro before I decide, or maybe I'll wait until the 2021 refresh of the Air, maybe it'll have better thermals or cooler-running processor or a better webcam.

 

[AndreasM]

I can't help with your specific question. But this might be useful information.

I own a 2018 MB Air which I was going to trade in for the 2020 i5/16gb/1tb Air I received from Apple a week ago. I have a few more days, but I'm 90% sure I'm returning the 2020 Air and keeping the 2018 Air for a bit longer.

Here's why: After following the discussions and articles and youtube videos about running hot, fan noise, poor heat mitigation in the 2020 Air, I've done some comparisons between my two machines. The comparisons don't turn out well for the 2020 Air.

When pushing both machines with a lot of tasks or with processor-intensive tasks, both get hot and the fans come on. But the 2020 i5 gets hotter and throttles down to protect itself. As a result, processor-intensive tasks like ripping CDs takes as long or longer on the 2020 quad-core i5 than on the 2018 MB Air. I've tried several different comparisons, with Turbo Boost enabled vs. disabled, with the fan manually turned up to the max in hopes of preventing thermal throttling vs. letting the system determine fan speed. In all cases, the 2020 quad-core i5 is hotter and no faster than my 2018 Air.

That's when pushing the machines.

When doing normal everyday stuff, the power of a 10th generation quad core i5 is not really needed, so I don't really perceive that the 2020 Air is faster, more fluid, "snappier" than the 2018 Air.

I encourage you to read the review by notebookcheck . com. Scroll way down to the section on performance. Here's a quote that corroborates my experience: "The 2020 model with the Core i5 is on average not faster than the i5 model from 2019 – despite 2 additional cores, new 10nm process, and new architecture."

So I'm very likely returning my i5 and hanging on to my 2018 Air at least until Apple announces its updated 13" MB Pro. That model is very likely to get the scissor magic keyboard that's on the 2020 Air and 2019 16" Pro, and it's very likely to get 10th-gen processors. If Apple also cuts the price and increases the storage on the base configuration--like they did with the 2020 Air--then I will want to see one before I make my final purchase decision.

I know this isn't what you were asking, sorry if none of this information is helpful.

Thanks for sharing. Sounds like it's better to wait and see if the new MBP 13 or even MBP 14 gets released.

 

[Falcon80]

Thanks for sharing. Sounds like it's better to wait and see if the new MBP 13 or even MBP 14 gets released.

I am hoping the Touch Bar goes away in the MBP13/14 but unlikely to be the case.

 

[rozandoz]

Hi!

Did somebody already try to use some apps like "volta" or "voltageshift" to limit TDP?
Seems to be it can be limited by editing MSR values (if its not locked?)

 

[ozzieman10]

I can't help with your specific question. But this might be useful information.

I own a 2018 MB Air which I was going to trade in for the 2020 i5/16gb/1tb Air I received from Apple a week ago. I have a few more days, but I'm 90% sure I'm returning the 2020 Air and keeping the 2018 Air for a bit longer.

Here's why: After following the discussions and articles and youtube videos about running hot, fan noise, poor heat mitigation in the 2020 Air, I've done some comparisons between my two machines. The comparisons don't turn out well for the 2020 Air.

When pushing both machines with a lot of tasks or with processor-intensive tasks, both get hot and the fans come on. But the 2020 i5 gets hotter and throttles down to protect itself. As a result, processor-intensive tasks like ripping CDs takes as long or longer on the 2020 quad-core i5 than on the 2018 MB Air. I've tried several different comparisons, with Turbo Boost enabled vs. disabled, with the fan manually turned up to the max in hopes of preventing thermal throttling vs. letting the system determine fan speed. In all cases, the 2020 quad-core i5 is hotter and no faster than my 2018 Air.

That's when pushing the machines.

When doing normal everyday stuff, the power of a 10th generation quad core i5 is not really needed, so I don't really perceive that the 2020 Air is faster, more fluid, "snappier" than the 2018 Air.

I encourage you to read the review by notebookcheck . com. Scroll way down to the section on performance. Here's a quote that corroborates my experience: "The 2020 model with the Core i5 is on average not faster than the i5 model from 2019 – despite 2 additional cores, new 10nm process, and new architecture."

So I'm very likely returning my i5 and hanging on to my 2018 Air at least until Apple announces its updated 13" MB Pro. That model is very likely to get the scissor magic keyboard that's on the 2020 Air and 2019 16" Pro, and it's very likely to get 10th-gen processors. If Apple also cuts the price and increases the storage on the base configuration--like they did with the 2020 Air--then I will want to see one before I make my final purchase decision.

I know this isn't what you were asking, sorry if none of this information is helpful.

Maybe that’s why a lot of the reviews I’ve seen recommend the i3 MacBook Air 2020 it’s a jump from last gen, but runs around 10c cooler than the i5 so should run better in day to day tasks.

 

[HopelesslyConfused]

Hi!

Did somebody already try to use some apps like "volta" or "voltageshift" to limit TDP?
Seems to be it can be limited by editing MSR values (if its not locked?)

I believe Volta is not yet compatible with Catalina, and may never be. I read that somewhere on these forums - I'm not running MacOS at the moment so I can't verify it, but I don't believe Volta currently works with the MBA2020.

 

[rozandoz]

I believe Volta is not yet compatible with Catalina, and may never be. I read that somewhere on these forums - I'm not running MacOS at the moment so I can't verify it, but I don't believe Volta currently works with the MBA2020.

The undervolting is only compatible with Haswell and Broadwell processors. But this guy is setting the MCR values for TDP directly (more likely Volta uses the same approach to do that and it may work too).

 

[darkest.d]

My new Air temporarily freezes whenever it wakes up from sleep. Didn't happen on my old Pro, have to wait about 2 secs before it's actually functional, anyone else experience this?

 

[magbarn]

Just finished indexing on i7/16/1TB machine. The SSD is slightly faster I think than smaller models (usually is)

,
but still much slower than my MBP 16

 

[thadoggfather]

My new Air temporarily freezes whenever it wakes up from sleep. Didn't happen on my old Pro, have to wait about 2 secs before it's actually functional, anyone else experience this?

Are you on 10.15.3 or .4?

 

[Pierre-Luc Dionne]

This is my review after two days of using this machine. MBA 2020 i5/8go/256go. Should I send it back or not !

First of all, I was really worried about the temperature of the MBA. After reading hundreds of complains, I was questioning the product I was waiting to be deliver by UPS. The situation is already stressful and buying a bad product was only another moment of stress.

Yes, the MBA after what I call an average usage gets really hot. The temperature goes up to a 100 degrees without any reason sometimes. It's getting so hot I can't keep it on my lap, I have to move to my desk or to my kitchen table.

Because it's running hot, I have to disable the Turbo Boost (using the amazing app), but after all, I didn't spend an extra $100 to get a machine I can't use to the best. I was quite pissed to be using my computer with limitation, day one...

I've discover a apple call Macs Fan Control, and good lord, it helps really the machine. I set it up whenever the core temperature goes around 80 degrees, the fan kicks in and reduce the thermal temperature. As soon as it gets 60 degrees the fans kicks in smoothly to get the temperature between what I call acceptable (60-80). You can also set it up to run at the speed you want. For your information, anything below 3500 RPM is really hard to hear. For fun, try it out at 7000 RPM, damn it makes noise !

I explained my position about the temperature, here's are my thinking about the MBA overall.

1. The keyboard is amazing. I REALLY enjoy typing on it it's really smooth, the height is perfect and it's really not much noisy.
2. The screen is gorgeous, I have exchanged my MBA Mid-2013 and it's really pleasant. Retina really give a beautiful touch to pictures, movies and everything.
3. I like the weight of the product, the beautiful finish of the product, the ultra portabilty and the size.
4. The Touch ID is amazingly fast, useful and well placed. Even if I'm using Enpass software, I really enjoy to have only to lift my finger to this little spot.
5. The sound is much more accurate than in previous and older models (not the MBA 2018 or 2019). I've never have a computer with such a beautiful sound. Even if I have all the required gear for my 3 television sets in my house.

At first, I was wondering, should I send it back to Apple. I've decided, nah, I'm gonna keep it and purchase the AC+ to protect my product.

I'm overall very pleased of this product and happy with it.

 

[mbaire]

This is my review after two days of using this machine. MBA 2020 i5/8go/256go. Should I send it back or not !

First of all, I was really worried about the temperature of the MBA. After reading hundreds of complains, I was questioning the product I was waiting to be deliver by UPS. The situation is already stressful and buying a bad product was only another moment of stress.

Yes, the MBA after what I call an average usage gets really hot. The temperature goes up to a 100 degrees without any reason sometimes. It's getting so hot I can't keep it on my lap, I have to move to my desk or to my kitchen table.

Because it's running hot, I have to disable the Turbo Boost (using the amazing app), but after all, I didn't spend an extra $100 to get a machine I can't use to the best. I was quite pissed to be using my computer with limitation, day one...

I've discover a apple call Macs Fan Control, and good lord, it helps really the machine. I set it up whenever the core temperature goes around 80 degrees, the fan kicks in and reduce the thermal temperature. As soon as it gets 60 degrees the fans kicks in smoothly to get the temperature between what I call acceptable (60-80). You can also set it up to run at the speed you want. For your information, anything below 3500 RPM is really hard to hear. For fun, try it out at 7000 RPM, damn it makes noise !

I explained my position about the temperature, here's are my thinking about the MBA overall.

1. The keyboard is amazing. I REALLY enjoy typing on it it's really smooth, the height is perfect and it's really not much noisy.
2. The screen is gorgeous, I have exchanged my MBA Mid-2013 and it's really pleasant. Retina really give a beautiful touch to pictures, movies and everything.
3. I like the weight of the product, the beautiful finish of the product, the ultra portabilty and the size.
4. The Touch ID is amazingly fast, useful and well placed. Even if I'm using Enpass software, I really enjoy to have only to lift my finger to this little spot.
5. The sound is much more accurate than in previous and older models (not the MBA 2018 or 2019). I've never have a computer with such a beautiful sound. Even if I have all the required gear for my 3 television sets in my house.

At first, I was wondering, should I send it back to Apple. I've decided, nah, I'm gonna keep it and purchase the AC+ to protect my product.

I'm overall very pleased of this product and happy with it.

Hi!
Thanks for your review, I have ordered a MBA and I am worried and questioning the product too, one question please ...

Macs Fan Control looks good!

What frequency (GHz) does the i5 reach with the temperature between 60 and 80 degrees?