That's awesome, I'd love to see how you go after indexing/synching is done, and a battery test would be great! Thanks man!
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MacBook Air's cooling system is... terrible...
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That's awesome, I'd love to see how you go after indexing/synching is done, and a battery test would be great! Thanks man!
Totally agree with you - it's all about compromise that's acceptable for the usage, and those decisions won't just be based on engineering. If they were going for the best cooled laptop in the world, i imagine it would be liquid cooled, weigh 6 kilos, and cost 3x the price. Probably wouldn't be that reliable either.
I have the base model 2020 MBA and so far the temps have been fine with no fan noise for doing 'every day' tasks - web browsing, , media streaming, office work, and including a bit of photo editing. I don't get the panic and concerns by those who have no intention of using the laptop for what it is for 😄✌
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Anyone know a good testing scenario/app for battery life usage?
Hmm that's a good question. I don't think there's one app that can be used, the major review sites tend to have standardised tests (they'll loop a video for as long as it'll go on 66% brightness for one test, they'll do a web browsing/light office work scenario for another test, they'll do CPU intensive stuff on max brightness for another).
They never seem to release their methodologies though - I think probably the best test would be just recording your usage over a period of time and your anecdotal averages.
The only time I've done a battery life test for myself was to make sure my 2019 Air would last for an international flight. I set screen brightness to 2016, opened Netflix and set a long TV series to auto-play. Got 10 and half hours, which was the exact length of the flight
Not sure how you'd measure web browsing though, as it really depends on what browser, what sites, what elements are in them, how well optimised they are. All that jazz. If anyone has any suggestions that'd be great (I'd like to run a similar test when my i3 arrives).
This might help:
Laptop battery life estimates are rarely accurate — here's how they vary by brand
26 hours of battery life? Show me the receipts!
How Laptop Mag tests laptops
For well over a decade, Laptop Mag has been testing notebooks in our lab to help you decide which ones rise above the rest
These guys use a script to do their browsing/productivity tests. Looks like it's proprietary though, so I think the only way us average joes can do it is to try and run down the battery by continuously browsing and trying to make sure one test isn't reddit and the other isn't 4K Youtube or something.
Typically people get hung-up on something on the internet - regardless of the accuracy or real-world relevance and then use that as some reason to hate on something purely as a way to find identity 😄😎🤘
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It is tricky and the default test seems to be from 2014!Hmm that's a good question. I don't think there's one app that can be used, the major review sites tend to have standardised tests (they'll loop a video for as long as it'll go on 66% brightness for one test, they'll do a web browsing/light office work scenario for another test, they'll do CPU intensive stuff on max brightness for another).
They never seem to release their methodologies though - I think probably the best test would be just recording your usage over a period of time and your anecdotal averages.
The only time I've done a battery life test for myself was to make sure my 2019 Air would last for an international flight. I set screen brightness to 2016, opened Netflix and set a long TV series to auto-play. Got 10 and half hours, which was the exact length of the flight
Not sure how you'd measure web browsing though, as it really depends on what browser, what sites, what elements are in them, how well optimised they are. All that jazz. If anyone has any suggestions that'd be great (I'd like to run a similar test when my i3 arrives).
Love your battery life test mate!
What was your brightness level during your test sorry? I will attempt to do the same - once all the data has copied down, indexing complete etc. Also need to get access - actually bought it for the Mrs 😸
p.s. would be great to hear your battery life experience when you get yours mate
Hey man,
I actually did the test on Windows 10 and Catalina, but the brightness scales differently for both. Windows 10's brightness is a linear 1-10 scale, so I did the test at 50% brightness. On Catalina, I don't have a nits-reader-tool-thingo, so I used about two-thirds-of-the-scale-brightness, as it's a non-linear curve. Looked about the same as 50% brightness on Windows 10.
Catalina got me the 10:30, Windows 10 topped out at about 9:30, but I consider both to be very good (on par with my 2015 Macbook Air). I imagine you'd be able to get more if you weren't streaming from wifi and were just watching a local file on Quicktime or the Windows Movies/TV app, but I stream things way more than I download them, so for me, this was a 'real world' test.
I'll run the same test when I get the i3 to compare them ✌
Does anyone know how the 2020 quad core models are holding up with the heat using the same heatsink design?
2020 Air Heatsink Modification Thread
MBA 2020(2018 also possible) cooling modification thread. here is a detailed guide on the process provided by @fcracer "The issue" The 2020 MBA is almost a perfect laptop OOTB for my needs. Size, battery life, keyboard, weight, and what seemed to be the right amount of performance to carry...
forums.macrumors.com
This is the main hub of discussion for it. Some people report theirs is perfect, others report their experience is not good. There's no consensus as far as I can see.
I don't think it is the same cooling solution. People are losing their mind about it 😂🙄
Sure:
Use the computer as you would normally expect to use the computer (once everything's indexed/settled/etc).
You'll soon figure out if the battery life is sufficient for your needs.
If it is, great. If it isn't, then consider the alternatives. One plus of the USBC laptops is that even an inexpensive 18W USB-PD powerbank can help extend your time away from power)
(don't believe published battery life - in a quarter century of owning & using laptops, published specs never match my real world usage regardless of brand)
Edit - fyi the following is from the tech specs battery life footnote - I still wouldn't put much faith in it..
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Thanks for that. It doesn't really help with comparisons however as I don't have a i3 and i5 in my hot little hands
There also isn't an alternative for the MBA. an iPad is not a replacement in my opinion for my use case. YMMV
I found the MacBook 12 was pretty much as quoted - 11-12 hours.
There's so many variables and requirements so having a scale - even an arbitrary one is useful.
Cheers mate 🤘✌
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Id love to know that too - however I don't think there is any source that proves that as yet. If you goto youTube and search 'Juan&only' and MacBook air 2020, they have done a comparison between the chip heat measurements doing the same tasks. The i3 is cooler for most of the tasks including at idle, but it is all 'lite' usage. I extrapolated that out to potentially having less fan spinning up and a quieter experience, which was high on my list of requirements. This is why I went i3 however if it shows signs of lagging behaviour or slow response, I will return for the i5.
Hope that helps! ✌
I think it's interesting that when discussing heat, nobody talks about the fact that these computers have intel iris plus graphics and super fast ram at ddr4 3733. Those components in and of themselves produce heat. Don't just blame the cpu. Also, a lot of people fail to realize that the case temperatures as measured by some reviewers are cooler than comparable windows machines like the xps 13. So to me that's a testament to a great design. The fact that the cpu can hit 100 degrees and the case is still cooler to the touch than a windows machine with a lower cpu temp? Nobody even talks about that.
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Just stick your hand in front of the vent and see if the air is warm/hot, if it is that means the cooling system is working obviously.
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Just stick your hand in front of the vent and see if the air is warm/hot, if it is that means the cooling system is working obviously.
Very good point. If the components and CPU are designed to run within certain parameters I don't see the big deal that they do just because somehow there's an arbitrary limit people have set. FOr me, itt's about fan noise and case temperature, then 100% that is a valid reason to question it. As it is, I've found the MBA 2020 silent and does not feel hot at all.
Throttling a different discussion
It's a 10nm design not 14
Yea, one person complained about the fan revving up a lot during a zoom meeting but i think that's more the fault of the software than the hardware.
That’s good to hear, if that’s the case I may be fine. I don’t care if its 100 degrees all day as long as I don’t hear a loud fan and the case doesn’t feel hot. Even if it’s warm that’s fine, every apple laptop I’ve owned has felt warm using on my lap.
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Another point might be something a lot of the reviewers picked up on - this computer is being released at a really weird time. They kept mentioning how the webcam sucks and normally that wouldn't be an issue, but with so many people having to use it for work/socialising, it might get annoying. They didn't get into how this would affect cooling though.
I'm not a remote worker, so I would normally Facetime friends/family... once a week maybe? Now I'm using video conferencing software at least once a day, which would not be 'normal' for me at all if not for Covid and iso.
Fans going during video calls aren't a deal breaker to me because I don't really care, but the 2020 got noticeably hotter, and louder in a shorter period of time than the 2019 MBA I was coming from, or the 2015 I subsequently tested it against.
Main point - people might be weighting Zoom/MS Teams/VTC capability higher than they normally would because they're having to use them way more than normal.
100% agree - My last-years MBP i7 fan goes full-on any video conferencing - zoom, skype, facebook too.
Cheers
My 2015 and 2019 MBA's eventually get to 8000rpm within about half an hour of Zoom, MS Teams or Facebook. With the 2020 i5 it was within 5-10 minutes, so it was intrusive and noticeable faster than the machines I was transitioning from.
MacBook laptops get hot. Yes I can confirm that. My first was a 2009 white MacBook core 2 duo. It heated so much I had to put it between a pillow and my lap. I traded it in for 2011 MBA 13 then that for a 11 inch. that heated as well and battery life was terrible out in the field. Then switched to a MBP refurbished 2011 15”, after that traded in for the new 2016 13” MBP, This was my favorite as far as form factor, but I traded it in for a 2017 15” MBP. That gets hot too but it’s a bit to heavy for the lap. Now I am trading in the 15” 2017 for a new 2020 MBA. I’m sure the new MBA is going to get hot when I push it. But hey, it’s been that way forever in my eyes. One thing is I always have a return window and if I miss it it still has good trade in value.
My MacBook core2duo was a workhorse for me. I remembered when I installed a ssd into that thing and the difference it made. I did my job at work with one running 2 usb vídeo adapters with only 4gb of ram and many apps open at a time with 30+ tabs. I never had any hardware issues either, only replaced a drive in my 10 year old iMac.
Now i'm getting nostalgic! I remember my 12" ibook g4, my first Mac and loved that computer. Then my 15" titanium powerbook, that one was cool too. Ah, good times.
Battery health management is coming to the next Catalina update (10.15.5) according to this Six Colors article.