Dang, I've been posting about how much I still enjoy my mid-2012 13" MBP but these posts about the 2020 MBA really make me want to get one. 
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MacBook Air 2020 USER reviews
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You got to be kidding. I'm really sorry to ask a question about how long it took an new MBA to do a task in a thread entitled MBA User Reviews, and then explain several times I wasn't asking about how hot it got or how slow it got while indexing. Just how long it took. But no problem. I'll leave you guys alone, and go back over to the Mac forums where I belong.They do say that no good deed goes unpunished
Whilst they don't have the exact timing figure to hand in the way that you'd like it, they're taking the time to let you know that your grandaughter will in all likelihood not notice any indexing going on, particularly if she has no synced media (eg iCloud) to index. But then you already knew that, given that you know what index does and how it works
I trust your grandaughter learned what politeness is from someone other than her grandfather.
If you asked whether the new car do do 50 mph without overheating and I said it had comfortably done 80 mph and remained cool, would you still be baffled?
I'm not sure why you've backed yourself into this corner where you think you've got to prove something to someone by indulging in daft analogies. Life's too short. Believe me that indexed caused no heat problems or don't. It's up to you.
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...then...
One of these things is not like the other thing....
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I have a MBA at 400 nits and a MBP at 500 nits right next to each other. The MBP definitely gets brighter, but the MBA is more than bright enough for my needs. I never need to turn the brightness all the way up unless I'm outside. I really don't think the brightness of the MBA will be a problem for most people.
I just got it and man, the keyboard absolutely lives up to the hype! Came from a Macbook Pro '15.
i see. good to hear that.
i am considering MBA base model 512GB one also. not sure if it is worth it to upgrade to i5 for the quad-core processor vs dual-core.
me too. although not sure I need 512 since I store most in iCloud. Last night I played around with the education pricing page, and before I knew it I had built it i5, 16 GB, 512GB and I was pushing it to nearly double the intro price. I've always pushed options on computers (and cars...gotta love ventilated seats in AZ), but I think this time I'll go base model. I can save the cash and basically buy a new system whenever I feel this one has lost its zippiness.
Did I ask how hot it got? NO
Did I ask if it slowed down? NO
I asked how long it took to index and was told it didn't get hot and didn't slow down.
Believe it or not, I do appreciate you tried to give me some information. But then I repeatedly said that I was asking for the TIME it took to index, not a temperature, and not speed of execution. I'm a EE/SW design engineer that has been using Macs since they were introduced in 1984 and Apple II since 1979. So I fully understand what is going on when MacOS is indexing. I simply hadn't done a fresh install for longer than I can remember, so HOW LONG it would take on the MBA with a fresh install was just a practical question someone might know off the top of their head if they had noticed. So I don't know why this was such a problem, sorry I ruffled your feathers. Now I'm gone. Peace out.
Everyone should be reading the notebookcheck review. I've finally been able to sit down and check it out. When pushing the air to do office tasks continuously, it drops to the same performance level as the 2019 dual core i5 MBA. Save your money and get the i3 version. The Macbook pro is able to cool down and keep it's CPU under boost and while the 2020 MBA i5 Geekbench scores look good, it's sustained performance is pretty bad and it get's loud while doing it. Once again, the Macbook 12 at least is silent as a mouse for it's mediocre performance while this one gets loud...
Some other quotes:
"When you start to stress the processor or even the graphics card though, the fan will speed up to its maximum 8100 rpm and loud 45.8 dB(A) within a couple of minutes. In addition to a comparatively slow device, you also have to live with a loud device and a chip temperature of 100 °C. "
" 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. There is still a difference to the MacBook Pro 13 and the Windows competition is much faster. Here we can clearly see the limitation of the cooling system and that Apple (intentionally) limits the performance of its entry-level series. "
Some other quotes:
"When you start to stress the processor or even the graphics card though, the fan will speed up to its maximum 8100 rpm and loud 45.8 dB(A) within a couple of minutes. In addition to a comparatively slow device, you also have to live with a loud device and a chip temperature of 100 °C. "
" 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. There is still a difference to the MacBook Pro 13 and the Windows competition is much faster. Here we can clearly see the limitation of the cooling system and that Apple (intentionally) limits the performance of its entry-level series. "
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I've used my 2020 MBA i5/16gb/1TB quite a lot over the last 48+ hours. I'll give my impressions in case they’re helpful. I apologize for any ignorance that becomes evident as you read this - I'm not nearly as knowledgable as most of you (which is why I hang out here - I've learned TONS from the folks on this forum which has helped me a lot).
First, about the heat and fan noise: it is often not anything to worry about under light load. But the temp did shoot up every once in a while when I didn't think I was pushing the processor. There were times when I was doing the same light tasks on my 2018 MBA as on the 2020 model, and the 2020 model was warmer by 5-10 degrees celsius.
(To monitor temp & fan speed, I'm using the 3rd party app "TG Pro". It's the same app Max Tech uses on the 2020 MBA in his videos. I like it, it has a 2-week trial period and I'll probably buy it.)
Incidentally, when the fan is running at 3000rpm or less, it's hardly audible. When it maxes out at 8000rpm, it's loud. For the last 20 minutes, the CPU has been around 65-69C and the fan has been running at 2700-2800rpm, and I can't hear it above the ambient noise around me.
I tried to tax the processor to test temp & fan. First, I ripped CDs using an external CDRW drive, temps quickly went up to 100C and the fan blasted--which also happens when I rip CDs with my 2018 MBA. After a while, I disabled turbo boost (using a free 3rd party app called "Turbo Boost Switcher" that every MBA owner should get) and that helped a bit. For comparison, I ripped the same CDs using my 2018 MBA; initially, the 2020 was ripping them about 2x as fast as the 2018 MBA. But after a few minutes on the 2020 MBA, thermal throttling kicked in and things slowed way down. That didn't happen with the 2018 MBA. Ultimately, the amount of time to rip the CD was only a little faster on the 2020 MBA.
I plugged the 2020 MBA into my Thunderbolt hub which is connected to a Dell 28" 4K monitor, external powered speakers, and various peripherals. The MBA's temp quickly shot up to 100C, but then came down after a couple minutes and hovered between 70 and 80, and later down to 65-69 degrees C. When I unplugged the MBA from the hub/external monitor, the CPU temp came down another 10C.
For about 15 minutes, I ran a bunch of things simultaneously (using the hub with external monitor & speakers): I streamed music from Qobuz, I opened up a bunch of tabs in Safari and had a video streaming through one of them, I watched part of Black Panther using the TV app, edited a Word document, and had the "about this Mac / system report" open. The screenshot below was from this. During the entire 15 minutes, the fan was blasting and the temp varied from 85 to 100C, usually closer to 100C.
Regarding other things: I like the keyboard better than the butterfly keyboard (even the latest generation butterfly keyboard on the 2019 MBA, which I think is much improved from the version on the 2016 MBP). But not quite as much as the keyboard on the pre-retina MBA (my wife has a 2016 MBA) or the pre-2016 MBP (I had an early 2015 MBP and loved the keyboard). But it's still quite good.
I like the true-tone display, which I don't have on my 2018 retina MBA. The 400 nits is more than bright enough for my needs - in fact, I never have the brightness all the way up, unless I'm in a room with lots of windows on a very bright sunny day. I'm also using a 2016 MBP with Touch Bar, the computer my employer provided me for work. The MBP screen is brighter at 500 nits, and you can definitely tell it's brighter when they're side by side. But again, I never have the screen up that bright - it would give me a headache after a while. I truly think most people will find the 400-nit MBA display bright enough.
I did all the setup on Day 1, and I expect indexing was complete before the end of the day, which was a long day of using the new MBA. On Day 2 (yesterday), after a few hours of work I unplugged and continued working into the evening. The battery was down to 20% after 5 hours, with brightness at about 60%. I expect I would get 6 or 7 hours on a full charge. On my 2018 MBA, I typically get 7 to 8 hours on a full charge.
I ordered this machine fully expecting I would love it and want to keep it for many years, but right now I'm not sure I'll keep it.
I've always loved the MBA form factor and prefer it over the MBP. When the 2018 MBA came out with Retina display, I ordered it right away. In using it, I was aware that it was underpowered, but that didn't seem to affect my usual workflow much if at all. But I still wished there were options for processor upgrades. So I was thrilled when Apple announced the 2020 Air with quad-core processor options and the magic keyboard.
But now that I have it, I'm not sure I'll keep it. I'll continue using it over the next week, and maybe as things settle in more and perhaps my expectations of it become more realistic, I'll decide to keep it.
But at this moment, after 2 days of heavy use, I'm just not sure, and mostly my concern is with the heat & throttling. Not so much that it's inconvenient, more worried that it will tax the internal components and reduce their lifespan.
In addition, the experience of using the 2020 MBA in my normal workflow does not significantly enhance my happiness or quality of life relative to the 2018 MBA, despite the better keyboard and faster chip. Maybe the best choice for me is to stick with the 2018 MBA for a while longer, and see what Apple releases next.
If the latest rumors are correct, we won't have to wait too much longer for a 13" MBP with Magic scissor keyboard and 10th-gen quad-core processor options. Maybe that will be a better option for me, though I dislike the Touch Bar and much prefer the MBA's physical Fn keys, and also prefer the MBA form factor. We'll see.
Sorry this post turned out to be so long. Hope you all are safe, healthy, and as comfortable as possible during this really challenging and weird period in our history.
First, about the heat and fan noise: it is often not anything to worry about under light load. But the temp did shoot up every once in a while when I didn't think I was pushing the processor. There were times when I was doing the same light tasks on my 2018 MBA as on the 2020 model, and the 2020 model was warmer by 5-10 degrees celsius.
(To monitor temp & fan speed, I'm using the 3rd party app "TG Pro". It's the same app Max Tech uses on the 2020 MBA in his videos. I like it, it has a 2-week trial period and I'll probably buy it.)
Incidentally, when the fan is running at 3000rpm or less, it's hardly audible. When it maxes out at 8000rpm, it's loud. For the last 20 minutes, the CPU has been around 65-69C and the fan has been running at 2700-2800rpm, and I can't hear it above the ambient noise around me.
I tried to tax the processor to test temp & fan. First, I ripped CDs using an external CDRW drive, temps quickly went up to 100C and the fan blasted--which also happens when I rip CDs with my 2018 MBA. After a while, I disabled turbo boost (using a free 3rd party app called "Turbo Boost Switcher" that every MBA owner should get) and that helped a bit. For comparison, I ripped the same CDs using my 2018 MBA; initially, the 2020 was ripping them about 2x as fast as the 2018 MBA. But after a few minutes on the 2020 MBA, thermal throttling kicked in and things slowed way down. That didn't happen with the 2018 MBA. Ultimately, the amount of time to rip the CD was only a little faster on the 2020 MBA.
I plugged the 2020 MBA into my Thunderbolt hub which is connected to a Dell 28" 4K monitor, external powered speakers, and various peripherals. The MBA's temp quickly shot up to 100C, but then came down after a couple minutes and hovered between 70 and 80, and later down to 65-69 degrees C. When I unplugged the MBA from the hub/external monitor, the CPU temp came down another 10C.
For about 15 minutes, I ran a bunch of things simultaneously (using the hub with external monitor & speakers): I streamed music from Qobuz, I opened up a bunch of tabs in Safari and had a video streaming through one of them, I watched part of Black Panther using the TV app, edited a Word document, and had the "about this Mac / system report" open. The screenshot below was from this. During the entire 15 minutes, the fan was blasting and the temp varied from 85 to 100C, usually closer to 100C.
Regarding other things: I like the keyboard better than the butterfly keyboard (even the latest generation butterfly keyboard on the 2019 MBA, which I think is much improved from the version on the 2016 MBP). But not quite as much as the keyboard on the pre-retina MBA (my wife has a 2016 MBA) or the pre-2016 MBP (I had an early 2015 MBP and loved the keyboard). But it's still quite good.
I like the true-tone display, which I don't have on my 2018 retina MBA. The 400 nits is more than bright enough for my needs - in fact, I never have the brightness all the way up, unless I'm in a room with lots of windows on a very bright sunny day. I'm also using a 2016 MBP with Touch Bar, the computer my employer provided me for work. The MBP screen is brighter at 500 nits, and you can definitely tell it's brighter when they're side by side. But again, I never have the screen up that bright - it would give me a headache after a while. I truly think most people will find the 400-nit MBA display bright enough.
I did all the setup on Day 1, and I expect indexing was complete before the end of the day, which was a long day of using the new MBA. On Day 2 (yesterday), after a few hours of work I unplugged and continued working into the evening. The battery was down to 20% after 5 hours, with brightness at about 60%. I expect I would get 6 or 7 hours on a full charge. On my 2018 MBA, I typically get 7 to 8 hours on a full charge.
I ordered this machine fully expecting I would love it and want to keep it for many years, but right now I'm not sure I'll keep it.
I've always loved the MBA form factor and prefer it over the MBP. When the 2018 MBA came out with Retina display, I ordered it right away. In using it, I was aware that it was underpowered, but that didn't seem to affect my usual workflow much if at all. But I still wished there were options for processor upgrades. So I was thrilled when Apple announced the 2020 Air with quad-core processor options and the magic keyboard.
But now that I have it, I'm not sure I'll keep it. I'll continue using it over the next week, and maybe as things settle in more and perhaps my expectations of it become more realistic, I'll decide to keep it.
But at this moment, after 2 days of heavy use, I'm just not sure, and mostly my concern is with the heat & throttling. Not so much that it's inconvenient, more worried that it will tax the internal components and reduce their lifespan.
In addition, the experience of using the 2020 MBA in my normal workflow does not significantly enhance my happiness or quality of life relative to the 2018 MBA, despite the better keyboard and faster chip. Maybe the best choice for me is to stick with the 2018 MBA for a while longer, and see what Apple releases next.
If the latest rumors are correct, we won't have to wait too much longer for a 13" MBP with Magic scissor keyboard and 10th-gen quad-core processor options. Maybe that will be a better option for me, though I dislike the Touch Bar and much prefer the MBA's physical Fn keys, and also prefer the MBA form factor. We'll see.
Sorry this post turned out to be so long. Hope you all are safe, healthy, and as comfortable as possible during this really challenging and weird period in our history.
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You've been throwing an awful lot of OUTRAGED CAPITALS around for someone accusing other people of having ruffled feathers, but thank you for your concern.
I hope your granddaughter loves her MacBook.
I think you should go with the i5. If it gets noisy and if you reduce turbo boost with the utility, you will go faster than i3
think about resale also
the question of the extra 200 for 16GB is more touchy...do you need 16 GB as a moderate user ? (the target of this macbook). Especially considering that the new memory is much more efficient than the previous one
If a third party company releases a Fan with heatpipe for the MacBook Air (why not ? ) you will be happy to have the i5 model
I'm honestly just considering changing my i5/512/16gb to a base order with the i3. I may not even need a i5, and I rather have it not be hot and be able to use the laptop on my lap.
Is the laptop always warm to the touch for you as well? I'm sitting on 60C right now, palm rest sensors show 29/31C respectively and my hands are sweating hard.
Do you experience the same issue?
15 inch i5, 4 gigs of RAM that I upgraded to 8, 320 GB HDD
When the CPU is above 70 or 80, the bottom of the laptop gets warm and I can tell if it's on my lap, and just above the row of Fn keys gets warm. But never uncomfortably warm.
For reference using this 15 mbp with i7 and 16gb of ram, I don't have many apps open and its around 60 degrees all the time, and is pretty warm on my lap. If I open 1 video in 1080p on youtube, it is at 70 degrees. This is only having chrome with 10 tabs outlook, terminal, slack, and spotify open, thats it.
The laptop does seem very sensitive/temperamental about things taxing its CPU and making the fans kick-in on its first day, but to be fair, bulk of CPU utilisation is still synching my iCloud photo library, so I'll leave it on overnight. I suspect some of it is because I'm installing multiple things at once as well as it synching the photos.
That and cloudd are hogging things just now.
Its so nice to have this keyboard in this form factor, can't wait to get working on stuff tomorrow.
That and cloudd are hogging things just now.
Its so nice to have this keyboard in this form factor, can't wait to get working on stuff tomorrow.
I really appreciate the direct thoughts. If I do an upgrade, it'll probably just be to the i5. My 2014 MBP is using only about 165GB of space (plus Bootcamp). I have 16GB RAM, but just have Mail, 3-6 Safari tabs, iMessage (always I'm trying to remember to close it after each message), Numbers, and a print-sharing app running. I'm thinking I can get by with 8GB RAM in the new computer, although my monitor indicates I'm always using about 6-10GB always on this one.
Got a i5/256/16GB yesterday and so far it's been pretty good. The fan only came on while watching a 4K Youtube video for over 5 min. I ended up just closing the video and the fans turned off shortly after. Under normal use use, MS Office, MS Remote Desktop, webmail with multiple Chrome tabs and Slack, the fan never came on. RAM usage was about 12 out of 16GB throughout the day. Keyboard is great and a little better than the regular bluetooth magic keyboard that I have. I wasn't pushing the laptop so the keyboard never got hot, but I had a 2019 13" MBP 4 port before this and I think that keyboard would get hotter than this towards the top.
Overall, it's a great laptop, but I'm not absolutely sure I'm going to keep it. Hopefully, the rumored 14" MBP comes out during the return period for this one.
Overall, it's a great laptop, but I'm not absolutely sure I'm going to keep it. Hopefully, the rumored 14" MBP comes out during the return period for this one.
I wonder if the 16gb helps with any of the IO to not kick the fan on as often. Isn't the return period for online orders only 14 days though? I have similiar spec with 512gb on order.
One question I have with RAM is...how does a computer use it? I mean, let's say I have 3 computers with the same tasks open, but I have 8, 16, or 32GB. Will the computers use the same amount of RAM for the processes? will they share the applications as a % over the total RAM?
You are correct about 14 days. Thanks for the heads up as I thought it was 30.
Interesting thought about the 16gb helping, but I have no idea.
Apps are likely to use more ram than they actually need. For example, an app uses 12gb ram on 32gb computer, we cannot say that app won’t be fuctioning well on a machine with 8gb of ram. It gets easier to access memory cells when they are allocated. Therefore, the youtube videos that tell you “I have this computer with 32gb ram and Lightroom uses 22 gigs therefore you should get 32 ram” are garbage. OS optimization and other things are also important. (4gb ram might be enough for an Iphone but an android phone needs a lot more.)
More ram is better, but we cannot make conclusions by using only that data.