MacBook Air for Zoom/Teams

[houttbe]

I do most of my heavy lifting on desktop Macs, but am looking into buying a notebook. Mostly for writing/browsing the internet, for which I expect any MacBook Air would be sufficient. But — pandemic obliges — I also need to spend quite a bit of time on Zoom/Teams meetings.

So my question is whether the MBA could also be used for that purpose. From reading other threads I gather that the i3 would have difficulty, would the i5 model be a good choice? With or without the heat pad and/or shim mods that are extensively documented on the forum?

Or is the MacBook Pro the wise choice? 8th or 10th generation processor?

A further consideration is that battery life is important to me.

I am happy to spend a few 100 € extra provided the notebook can accommodate my use case for several years.

Any real life advice? Thanks in advance!

 

[Bazza1]

Well, I've got a 2017 1.8 i5 w/ 8 RAM and I've not yet experienced a problem with Zoom. At least, nothing to do with the MBA.

No idea about Teams, but I can't imagine its anymore power intensive. But that's a guess, not a definitive.

 

[ilikewhey]

it gets the fan going when i tried zoom.

 

[Supra Mac]

I have a base i3 WITH the shim mod. Hour long zoom with 20 participates once a week, CPU temp holds steady at 62C with no fans. Without the mod I can see the fan coming on but not at an audible level. The i3 base is going to have the longest battery life.

The i3 can hang with this process. It out benchmarks my 2016 nTB 13 MBP in geekbench and Cinebench, no one would question that if the MBP could zoom. Hope this helps. No team usage though.

 

[twintin]

Not sure what you mean with issue, but I have used mine unmodded i3 since april both with ms teams and zoom with no perceived issue. On VC, temps are around 70-80C and the fan runs at around 2600 RPM (can not hear it).

 

[NeonIbis]

I have the i7 (not modified). I use Zoom all the time for online teaching / meetings (sometimes 6 hours a day). Performance is excellent, but sometimes the fans come on quite audibly. Only sometimes, though, and seemingly randomly (it doesn't seem to relate to number of users, screen share, or whether I have my video on or off; no clues in activity monitor, either). I have friends with older (2018/2019?) base models that also perform fine – indeed, even my 2015 retina Macbook was fine with Zoom, but wouldn't do virtual backgrounds. I should think any of the 2020 MBAs would do just fine. I haven't used Teams.

 

[Isamilis]

I have i5/512 MBA 2020. The temp is significantly higher (with fan noise) when using Ms Team. The keyboard is just warm, but fan noise is quite disturbing. For zoom is still normal. I am using latest version of Catalina. I hope Apple fix this.

 

[chrfr]

I have i5/512 MBA 2020. The temp is significantly higher (with fan noise) when using Ms Team. The keyboard is just warm, but fan noise is quite disturbing. For zoom is still normal. I am using latest version of Catalina. I hope Apple fix this.

Microsoft needs to fix it, not Apple. Teams is extremely processor intensive on Macs.
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I do most of my heavy lifting on desktop Macs, but am looking into buying a notebook. Mostly for writing/browsing the internet, for which I expect any MacBook Air would be sufficient. But — pandemic obliges — I also need to spend quite a bit of time on Zoom/Teams meetings.

So my question is whether the MBA could also be used for that purpose. From reading other threads I gather that the i3 would have difficulty, would the i5 model be a good choice? With or without the heat pad and/or shim mods that are extensively documented on the forum?

Or is the MacBook Pro the wise choice? 8th or 10th generation processor?

A further consideration is that battery life is important to me.

I am happy to spend a few 100 € extra provided the notebook can accommodate my use case for several years.

Any real life advice? Thanks in advance!

Could you make an iPad work? They have much better cameras than Mac portables, and don't have fans to get loud when on calls.

 

[houttbe]

Thanks, helpful suggestion but not for me I think. I need a proper keyboard to write and prefer Mac software over iOS (Scrivener), so a notebook seems to be the better choice.

 

[chrfr]

Thanks, helpful suggestion but not for me I think. I need a proper keyboard to write and prefer Mac software over iOS (Scrivener), so a notebook seems to be the better choice.

You can easily use a Bluetooth keyboard, or accessory keyboards like the Apple Magic or Smart Keyboard or Logitech options as well. I use these fairly regularly when I use my iPad and they really change how the device works for me.

 

[ghanwani]

I have a 2019 MBA. I use it a LOT for zoom meetings (usually not transmitting video) and teams phone calls. I run nearly 100% on battery. The fan never turns on when using these apps and neither does the laptop heat up. The only time I notice the fans coming on is when a browser tab is stuck in a loop.

Keep in mind that if you want to use a custom background in zoom, neither the 2019 nor the 2020 i3 will allow this. You need at least a 2020 i5.

 

[bigdogn12]

Please be aware that the built-in FaceTime camera for the MacBook Air has HORRIBLE quality