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shuiwutiancao

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 25, 2013
13
3
i can’t believe the front camera on 2020 model is far worse than the one on my 2013 air. what’s going on?
 

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i can’t believe the front camera on 2020 model is far worse than the one on my 2013 air. what’s going on?
You don't say which pictures are which. Deducing that the first picture and the last picture are the MBA 2020 - i.e. the worse looking oncs then I think there is a problem with the color ... possibly a hardware fault. They should not look that washed out.
 
i can’t believe the front camera on 2020 model is far worse than the one on my 2013 air. what’s going on?
I can believe it. I have a 2018 and 2020 MBA (haven’t yet decided whether to return the 2020 or sell the 2018) and the webcams on both are very disappointing. Especially now that so many of us are working from home and doing video conferencing. It would have cost Apple only a few more dollars per unit to put in a decent camera. But they want to give people a little extra incentive to buy a MB Pro.

The webcam on the pro is also 720p, but it’s less grainy and does a little better in suboptimally lit rooms.

Maybe one good thing to come out of this horrible time will be that Apple starts putting halfway decent cameras in their $1000+ computers.
 
You don't say which pictures are which. Deducing that the first picture and the last picture are the MBA 2020 - i.e. the worse looking oncs then I think there is a problem with the color ... possibly a hardware fault. They should not look that washed out.
yeah i thought it’s obvious the 1st and last one are from 2020 air. i will be returning it soon
 
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Unless you have a faulty camera, this is just the standard of webcams on the Apple laptop range at the moment. Its not great, especially when we're spoiled with the quality of the front-facing cams on the iPhones and iPads.

Hopefully the rumoured 2021 move to ARM and redesigns will see some better quality cameras being put in.
 
i
Unless you have a faulty camera, this is just the standard of webcams on the Apple laptop range at the moment. Its not great, especially when we're spoiled with the quality of the front-facing cams on the iPhones and iPads.

Hopefully the rumoured 2021 move to ARM and redesigns will see some better quality cameras being put in.
i have been ok with my 2013 air. i don’t understand why 2020 air got so much worse. i hope it’s a faulty camera
 
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If I remember correctly, I've heard that before that the camera has deteriorated over the years, especially in low light. And I can kind of confirm that, I have 2014 MacBook Air and my webcam doesn't seem to be that bad. I mean I don't have a newer machine like the 2020 Air here with me to compare it side by side, but when watching videos about the webcam I think the new one is worse.
 
i have been ok with my 2013 air. i don’t understand why 2020 air got so much worse. i hope it’s a faulty camera
It is very unlikely that it is faulty. It is as bad in MBP Pro 13" 2019 too. In my opinion it would be better leave it off completely if they cannot afford to use decent quality parts. The last time I saw camera this bad was like 20 years ago.
 
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i

i have been ok with my 2013 air. i don’t understand why 2020 air got so much worse. i hope it’s a faulty camera
There are tons of reviews that highlight the Crappy camera on the 2020 mba and the whole fan issues.if you are going to spend money in 2020, the specs should sky rocket our previous devices...I also have a mba 2013 version and I will hold off until I see the new mbpro that will be released soon
 
Camera quality is mostly dependent on how large the camera module can be. Since the lids on the new MacBooks are so thin, there's barely any room for a camera, so the quality sucks. I don't see this getting better any soon, to be honest.
 
Camera quality is mostly dependent on how large the camera module can be. Since the lids on the new MacBooks are so thin, there's barely any room for a camera, so the quality sucks.

While it's easier to get to better quality, especially in low light, with a bigger sensor the main factor is the quality of the sensor behind the lens.
The argument "the lids are so thin so they can't do better" is invalid, other manufacturers show it can be done .
 
If I remember correctly, I've heard that before that the camera has deteriorated over the years, especially in low light. And I can kind of confirm that, I have 2014 MacBook Air and my webcam doesn't seem to be that bad. I mean I don't have a newer machine like the 2020 Air here with me to compare it side by side, but when watching videos about the webcam I think the new one is worse.

I rarely use mine, so it is not an issue, but the 2020 Air definitely has a weaker camera than my 2015 MacBook Pro.
 
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i can’t believe the front camera on 2020 model is far worse than the one on my 2013 air. what’s going on?
Oh man I wished it wasn't true. I was excited to zoom with my new 2020 MBA thinking the camera would be equal to or better than my MBA 2013...but it seemed grainier in low light and I was surprised it looked worse than my old laptop from 7 years ago. Reading these comments make me sad...The new one also gets hot faster it seems. And scrolling lags with Reddit. I get the "webpage is consuming more significant energy message" within 10 minutes of browsing Reddit. I have i5/8gb ram/256gb.
 
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Yeah, the camera sucks across the whole Macbook line and it's become very noticeable now that a lot more people are using video chat from home.
 
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Oh man I wished it wasn't true. I was excited to zoom with my new 2020 MBA thinking the camera would be equal to or better than my MBA 2013...but it seemed grainier in low light and I was surprised it looked worse than my old laptop from 7 years ago. Reading these comments make me sad...The new one also gets hot faster it seems. And scrolling lags with Reddit. I get the "webpage is consuming more significant energy message" within 10 minutes of browsing Reddit. I have i5/8gb ram/256gb.
Are you going to return it ?
 
The camera is not good and could be better. But the alternative, is Windows or Chromebook.

I think I know which I will choose.
 
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Its good enough for video conferencing, and that's all it will ever be used for.

Where your video is most likely reduced to postage stamp sized anyway while you all review a freaking powerpoint presentation on screen.

If you're doing pure video chat and care about image quality - use your phone.
 
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Are you going to return it ?

I'm not returning, because:
- 2020 MBA is still faster than my 2013 MBA (w/better screen, speakers, battery, smaller, lighter...)
- employee discount price
- I'm more of a casual user and do not need a MBP that costs a lot more.
- Don't like Windows

I can stand the heat if the laptop can keep up its performance for a good 4 years or so. I just don't want the heat to damage the computer "prematurely."

It's just overall disappointing that Apple products that were once way above the rest (like the 2013 MBA whoo whoo) are getting increasingly inferior.
 
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The camera and microphone is a catastrophe -- the machine looks and sounds so bad on FaceTime as compared to my 2015 MBA that I can scarcely believe it isn't a hardware defect.
 
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Why does everyone think other people want to see their faces in high definition? 😂 We really don't! ;)😁
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Oh man I wished it wasn't true. I was excited to zoom with my new 2020 MBA thinking the camera would be equal to or better than my MBA 2013...but it seemed grainier in low light and I was surprised it looked worse than my old laptop from 7 years ago. Reading these comments make me sad...The new one also gets hot faster it seems. And scrolling lags with Reddit. I get the "webpage is consuming more significant energy message" within 10 minutes of browsing Reddit. I have i5/8gb ram/256gb.
Might want to look at getting the i3. For web browsing it appears to run cooler, and fan is used less
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Oh man I wished it wasn't true. I was excited to zoom with my new 2020 MBA thinking the camera would be equal to or better than my MBA 2013...but it seemed grainier in low light and I was surprised it looked worse than my old laptop from 7 years ago. Reading these comments make me sad...The new one also gets hot faster it seems. And scrolling lags with Reddit. I get the "webpage is consuming more significant energy message" within 10 minutes of browsing Reddit. I have i5/8gb ram/256gb.
Might want to look at getting the i3. For web browsing it appears to run cooler, and fan is used less
 
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Yeah, it's horrible. It's horrible on all of the MacBooks though, and on the iMac as well. It is pretty ridiculous.

I only ever use it for work calls once in a while though and I couldn't care less if the video quality is bad on those.
 
Its good enough for video conferencing, and that's all it will ever be used for.

Where your video is most likely reduced to postage stamp sized anyway while you all review a freaking powerpoint presentation on screen.

If you're doing pure video chat and care about image quality - use your phone.

There are a lot of people right now hosting classes of various kinds, in this scenario others predominantly watch you fullscreen for an hour.
For this the quality is just really bad.
And yea I did indeed try to use my phone for this and of course image quality was way better, yet usability was horrible; if you ever hosted, say, a Zoom event for more than four people on your phone you would understand this.

Long story short that webcam is total crap, and they could have done a lot better, end of story.
 
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There are a lot of people right now hosting classes of various kinds, in this scenario others predominantly watch you fullscreen for an hour.
For this the quality is just really bad.
And yea I did indeed try to use my phone for this and of course image quality was way better, yet usability was horrible; if you ever hosted, say, a Zoom event for more than four people on your phone you would understand this.

Long story short that webcam is total crap, and they could have done a lot better, end of story.

Try an Ipad. Works like a charm. 😋
 
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