the 8th gen thing bothers me, my workload is light, nothing but light photo editing. And yeah I use it in my lap a lot. i Might just get the air. My pro lasted me five years and I expect this to do the same.
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.
MacBook Air 2020 USER reviews
- Thread starter Untapped Potential
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
the 8th gen thing bothers me, my workload is light, nothing but light photo editing. And yeah I use it in my lap a lot. i Might just get the air. My pro lasted me five years and I expect this to do the same.
I ordered mine and have to wait 2 weeks or so, I got the i5 with 16gb and 512. education discount. glad you like yours! what webcam are you using? I really do wish they would increase the webcam, even the one on the 2015 pro I have is garbage.
1. The 10th Gen CPU in the Air is useless for anything more than a quick task due to thermal limitations. Unfortunately people are paying for a 10th Gen CPU that can't be used to it's full potential anyway on the MacBook Air which you could argue is a bigger waste of money. In Australia at least the 512GB, 16GB i5 MacBook Pro 2020 is $450 cheaper than it was in 2019 and has a better keyboard, so it's not entirely 2020 prices.
2. The Air really lets itself down with watching 4K Youtube video's and Chrome. It quickly shows the shortcomings when hardware decoding is unavailable.
3. The MacBook Pro does feel hotter on the lap in general use. Fan noise isn't obnoxious, but the higher power makes it feel warmer in general use. I'd argue the sloped MacBook Air design is more comfortable as well.
I'd recommend anyone concerned with a CPU's "full potential" not buy a system with a 10W TDP CPU.
The MBA is clearly not aimed at sustained CPU intensive workloads such as software-decoding 4K video in the VP9 codec -- it's aimed at brief bursty CPU workloads, which it does seem to do very well.
Folks need to choose the proper tool for the job - can't blame a screwdriver for being a poor hammer.
I've got the i5/8/256 and get around 8 hours, although I'm guessing as I've not really timed it.
With your battery fully charged, having used it to zero at least a couple of times, unplug the power and after a few minutes run this in terminal: "pmset -g everything | grep Cycles". Do wait at least two minutes after unplugging before running this.
The "Time:" value will show how many hours:minutes the system reckons it'll last for doing whatever you're currently doing.
Last edited:
I suppose it depends on what one considers basic usage, but I've generally seen more than that.
First couple or three days don't count - a new system is indexing files and photos and such. Leave it open, awake, and plugged in overnight a couple days, then run it down and recharge a couple times to get everything settled.
I've seen you bang this point earlier. It's not helpful. When Apple advertises 10th Gen i5 Processors in a MacBook Air and 8th Gen i5 Processors in a MacBook Pro they aren't telling you that the newer processor isn't able to even watch a 4K Youtube video or run Chrome without heating up and the fans going crazy, while the older processor will be fine.
This is all well and good for people on forums like these, but why would the general public know any of this? For a lot of people the MacBook Pro Base model (At least in Australia where the prices are almost the same as the Air) will be a better buy.
How is "buy the proper tool for the job" not helpful?
To the degree that I've run Chrome on my MBA it's never heated up or run the fan. Not even with the handful of 1080p videos I've played on it. I seldom run Chrome on macOS - I prefer safari when on Apple devices.
I also don't watch 4K videos on youtube so maybe there's that. I wonder how many folks in the general population do that or even stress their systems at all? I look to my wife's usage, or either of my adult kids - they're not using external monitors, they're using Safari, their usage is pretty basic.
As for "the general public" - I imagine someone who inadvertently buys the wrong tool returns it and buys what they need. Or they get guidance from more knowledgeable friends and family.
As for the "better buy" - with different pricing in different countries, and different people's needs, obviously the answer can vary.
Yet when one glances at the reviews on sites like BestBuy.com or Amazon.com the MBA seems to be getting pretty good reviews from the general public.
I’m seeing almost as much hesitation with the Macbook Air as I did with the iPhone 4 antenna issue. Granted Macbook’s are nowhere near as big as iPhones, but a lot of people seem nervous with the heat issue. I think overall it is overblown, but it is an issue when you have people thinking a Macbook Air will perform better than a Pro due to a newer processor which just isn’t the case.
It’s not helpful when the specs are muddied the way they are. Apple doesn’t give a lot of tech details about it’s mac’s. It doesn’t for example tell people that the Macbook Air and upper Macbook Pro have better speakers than the base Macbook Pro, however the Macbook Air has a poor thermal design which means that the older generation CPU in the base Macbook Pro is going to perform better..... It gets very hard to understand.
Pricing in different countries is also a confusing factor which further muddies things. In Australia our prices for upgrading ram on a Macbook Pro base model follow the U.S exchange rate and it costs 50% more than in the USA. Our difference in price between a 512GB SSD and 16GB ram base Macbook Pro to the higher end Macbook Pro 13 inch is 175% more expensive than the USA though, so apple is making these price points much more difficult to work out wherever you happen to be in the world.
Basically our Macbook Air and base Macbook Pro are fairly priced with the exchange rate, but then the top of the line 13 inch Macbook Pro has a massive jump.
Ahhh the irony is strong in this one; you're criticising what is actually a pretty mild and uncontentious point by the previous poster - 'Folks need to choose the proper tool for the job' - for being 'not helpful', and then replace it with a comment that is little but exageration and hyperbole.
Last edited:
Just for fun discussion, what does "unnecessarily thermally limited" really mean?
What if Apple's engineers intended to hold the CPU processing throughput back? Maybe to keep battery life longer? Maybe to keep bottom case temperature low enough to be comfortable? Maybe to create product differentiation and not cannibalize MBP sales too much?
What if the MBA is behaving exactly as they designed it to behave?
What if it is necessarily thermally limited - to achieve a goal different than what some folks outside of Apple think it should've been?
All I know is my MBA is far more comfortable in my lap after a couple hours than is my MBP15 (2018). I also love not having a touchbar.
It means the cpu is unable to sustain its designed performance potential due to thermal capacity. Although you make a good point.
However, I value longevity and durability more than outright performance. This is my biggest concern about the thermals. Normally, the case would get hot because there’s a thermal path using it to dissipate heat. If it’s not getting hot where is the heat going? Either it’s not producing much heat or it’s not being well dissipated.
Have you got the Macbook Air? I still have an i5 256GB one here which my wife is overall happy with, but it cannot handle a 4K Youtube video. It’s not hyperbole or exxaguration, they just cant do it due to not enough power for software decoding. My wife has had to stop using Chrome which is her favourite browser to stop the fans ramping up as well and move to Safari.
It might not bother people like my wife enough to return it, but it is noticeable enough to change behaviour. No-one advertises that a $1,700 AUD laptop won’t be able to use the world’s most popular browser without heating up to a point anyone in the room can hear it.
Don’t get me wrong, it is a great mac, and I’ve defended it heaps on this forum as the heating doesn’t ruin the many other great attributes, but it is a stain on an otherwise pretty flawless laptop.
Thank you so much for this review. Im an old bloke in the UK,researching for a new laptop and found your report most helpful, so had to register here and say so.
I am a light user and the base Air would be more than suitable for my needs, but I wanted further information regarding the thermal issues.
I could even understand most of what you were writing.
Many thanks.
I may be wrong, but I've kind of assumed the point of a fan was to pull ambient air into the casing, across the stuff needing cooling, then exhaust the warmer air out of the case. So that's one place where the heat would be going.
Plus, 10W isn't a whole lot of heat - and when dissipated both via airflow and via case, it'll represent a fair bit less warmth than a higher wattage CPU would generate.
I do have a MBA i5/16/500. You said 2 things above, both of which are simply not true:
1. the newer processor isn't able to even watch a 4K Youtube video - here you go:
2. run Chrome without heating up and the fans going crazy - I'm running chrome reading this forum and the BBC News website right now and the fans are inaudible. The MBA is barely warm to the touch.
So what your the newer processor isn't able to even watch a 4K Youtube video or run Chrome without heating up and the fans going crazy actually amounts to seems to be 'There are some 4k videos on YouTube that are VP9 encoded which stutter when watched in the Chrome browser.' Which is quite a bit less than what you actually said above.
Drama, exaggeration, hyperbole. Its what naturally happens when you garner your opinions from 'influencers' on YouTube rather than from reality and your own experience.
My experience is that the fan does go crazy when watching 4K YouTube videos in Chrome. Intel Power Gadget showed the CPU (i5/16/512) hitting 100c.
It also stuttered too often when I moved between apps. While I know the focus of the Air is portability and efficiency, rather than outright performance, I still expected better.
It also stuttered too often when I moved between apps. While I know the focus of the Air is portability and efficiency, rather than outright performance, I still expected better.
I'm glad it helped you mate! You're the kind of person I was writing for. All the best!
Cheers
I’m going to leave this conversation here. If you seriously believe you can watch those video’s on a Macbook Air you are either lying or Firefox is playing them in 1080p and not 4K.
I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, Have a look at the quality you are watching those 2 videos you posted in. Clock on the little gear symbol in the youtube video and change the quality to 4K. You will not be able to watch more than 30 seconds without the video stuttering, dropping frames and the fan ramping up. Youtube does not encode any 4K videos outside of VP9. This isn’t hyperbole, this is fact.
Please know what you are talking about before commenting. People read these forums for advice and there is not a 2020 Macbook Air out there which you can watch those videos you posted in Youtube in 4K without serious issues. Even the people who like the Macbook Air acknowledge this, it’s now well known.
Last edited by a moderator:
I think your experience reflects a lot of people’s. Outside of this design flaw, it is still a great laptop though.
I will be, but haven’t when testing those videos. They don’t play without stuttering or stopping regardless.
I have no idea if the new MBA/P can play these, but the Costa Rica vid was really cool. I watched in 1080 on my 2012 MBP 9,2.