Yes, the 2018 MacBook Air's FaceTime HD Camera is Awful

[coolfactor]

I think the word "awful" is being misused here.

At face value, I would tend to agree, but for a brand new machine, at a premium cost, there's really no excuse for Apple to continue selling the same older technology. New Macs should all come with the better 1080p, in my opinion.
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To be fair, the guy in the photo was three years younger in 2015. Of course he looked better then!

Hahahahahahah! Good one! Thanks for making my day... I needed a good laugh.

 

[gwaizai]

It's because of China!

Clever plot to demoralize us Americans. Sneaky busters...

 

[maclinic]

I don't either. To me it looks like an exposure/shadows adjustment could work wonders.

I am wondering if you have one of the new Airs? I do. The image is bad. Awful, terrible, unacceptable, defective, abysmal... any of those words fit quite well with what I have in front of my eyes. No exaggeration. So awful, I have to believe at this point that there is a technical problem. Apple's early silence is annoyingly typical.
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I don't either. To me it looks like an exposure/shadows adjustment could work wonders.

I am wondering if you have one of the new Airs? I do. The image is bad. Awful, terrible, unacceptable, defective, abysmal... any of those words fit quite well with what I have in front of my eyes. No exaggeration. So awful, I have to believe at this point that there is a technical problem. Apple's early silence is annoyingly typical.

 

[MoreRumors?]

It seems like the third set of pics looks better and more natural than the other pics shown. The ceiling lights seems to wash out and darken the pic a little bit. Overall, I would be disappointed too if the video didn't come out quite as clear.

For those of you stuck on a 2015 machine and yearning for that sweet sweet 2018 experience, I've got a DIY solution for you.

Step 1: Make sure your fingers are nice and greasy.

Step 2:

Are you the cast member from the show Stranger Things?

 

[AngerDanger]

It seems like the third set of pics looks better and more natural than the other pics shown. The ceiling lights seems to wash out and darken the pic a little bit. Overall, I would be disappointed too if the video didn't come out quite as clear.



Are you the cast member from the show Stranger Things?

Alright, alright, you caught me! Given how early my character, Barb, was killed off, I didn't really expect people to pay much attention, but the reception has been amazing!

 

[kemal]

You at least pay for the better camera. So half way there is pretty good.

 

[Gogeta-Blue]

the person that has a defective device has all the right to complaint
if I have a bent iPad or a mac book with a low quality camera
I have all the right to complaint, so why all these apple lawyers wanna be come to the rescue
do you own one of those defective devices?
if you accept that device that is fine with me but don't tell others to accept it or that it is perfectly fine

that is what apple does

you are only suppose to get low quality products when you buy cheap
but when you pay over 1,000 for an expensive device you don't want a low quality product
specially when older products perform or look better than the newer more expensive product

apple is ripping off their costumers now more than ever
let me say that again, Tim is ripping off apple's costumers
charging more and giving less quality
what i'm trying to say is that apple has lower their standards
plain and simple
sorry for the ones that don't want to hear this or read this
can't wait for tim to go away

my neighbor told me that his spark drone camera is not awful shooting in 1080
yes until he saw my phantom 4 pro 4k videos
1080 is not that bad but when compared to 4K
it is awful

 

[rittchard]

Maybe it's just me, but I'm not seeing the "issue", at least not from the photos in the article. The 2018 MBA image certainly appears darker but the color looks more natural to me than the other images. The 2018 MBP image looks too pink, the 2015 MBA looks kind of blown out and pasty, and the iMac one looks too orange/pink. But again that's all eye of the beholder, and only based on a single screenshot. Maybe the live animated camera appears much worse?

I actually have a new MBA so I'll check it out when I get home if I remember to.

 

[MoreRumors?]

Alright, alright, you caught me! Given how early my character, Barb, was killed off, I didn't really expect people to pay much attention, but the reception has been amazing!

Here is your chance to break into the film industry by finding a story where you both can play twins or siblings,

 

[ryanwarsaw]

I have never understood why Apple always has parts of their "premium" laptops that are so bad. At their prices they can't afford tp have such weak links for people to openly ridicule.

 

[skitidetdu]

Can't be much of a financial win on Apple's behalf to put a 720 camera in there instead of a 1080?

 

[44267547]

I don’t really think the camera on the MacBook is that really pivotal a feature that consumer generally place a lot of emphasis when making a purchasing decision, unless it’s for a FaceTime situation. If Somebody truly wanted a higher quality camera, then obviously you would consider an external third-party camera.

 

[Plutonius]

The main light source is a florescent light behind the subject and the secondary light source is your screen. Did you think this was going to produce a quality shot?

But didn't you see the comparison between the 2015 and 2018 models ?

Regardless of quality shots, why does the 2015 picture look so much better ?

 

[coolbreeze]

The camera on the $399 Surface Go is full blast HD. It's crystal clear. Yes, the frame is thicker and yes Apple possesses the engineering chops to put a better camera into their Air. It's as bad as the 12" MacBook, which is to say awful and like something from 2011 to be honest.

 

[sirozha]

Still better than almost all built-in webcams on the market.
If you want the best of course, you buy the pro models.

The 2018 MBP models have the same exact camera as the 2018 MBA.
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I think the word "awful" is being misused here.

It's awful. It should have been pulled up in FaceTime. It's much much worse than the still images.

 

[Jago]

I find the front camera situation rather baffling. Apple makes the best laptop trackpads, bar none. Apple makes the best laptop chassi, bar none. The front camera... wtf?

 

[ntlman]

This is one area that Tim Cook rightfully deserves to be thoroughly criticized for: going cheap on parts to save a few bucks. Removed mag safe and headphone ports along with skimping on a proper camera to goose the stock for a few quarters, all the while slowly undermining the Apple build quality they were properly respected for.

 

[sirozha]

In 2019 the words "horrible" and "awful" now mean not quite as good as the best.

It's horrible and awful. Laptops cameras are used for video, not for still images. When pulled up in FaceTime, the camera is awful.
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I purchased a 2018 MacBook Air and agree the FaceTime image is appalling but I also note that when using Skype the image using the same camera is much better. I am hoping it is a software issue and resolvable.

I'm hoping for that as well.

 

[ntlman]

Alright, alright, you caught me! Given how early my character, Barb, was killed off, I didn't really expect people to pay much attention, but the reception has been amazing!

THIS. IS. BRILLIANT.

 

[sirozha]

The photos don't do justice to the magnitude of the problem. I bought one of the new airs, and the camera is so bad that I would say there is a technical problem of some kind; it simply can't be that Apple released such an awful camera. To see how bad it is, it is better to watch video of the grain swimming around rather than a still image. I would return the Mac instantly except that I am hoping that I am right, that it is a technical problem, and that Apple will release either a software fix or send out a recall...

I totally agree with you. I couldn't believe that such a bad camera was put in a 2018 MacBook Air.

The author should have pulled up FaceTime and taken screenshots. The quality of the image in FaceTime is absolutely and unbelievably horrid.

It can't be the hardware. It's impossible that Apple would allow this bad a camera in the 2018 MBA. Hopefully, this can be fixed in software.

 

[Wags]

Can't be much of a financial win on Apple's behalf to put a 720 camera in there instead of a 1080?

Idk. What is Apple going to do now. Tell investors they are taking less profit to make better machines. Think they are over the cliff.

 

[sirozha]

Regardless of whether Apple is penny pinching or not, it is 2019 and all T2-equipped Macs that incorporate a FaceTime camera should be at 1080p, given that one of the USP’s of the T2 is that it performs image processing functions, irrespective of the fact that the Intel CPU in most of these models is beefy enough by itself. The extra weight and thickness is trivial at this point. The 2018 MacBook Air is a complete mess anyways, so none of this should come as a surprise.

A rather anemic dual-core 5w Y-Series CPU instead of the more powerful 15w quad-core Whiskey Lake U-Series (i5-8265U and i7-8565U), a single CPU choice, no Bluetooth 5.0 while almost every other device Apple shipped in 2018 had moved to BT 5.0, a meager 128GB starting storage tier, no 1TB SSD BTO option but a 1.5TB option at an outrageous upcharge, a lower resolution Retina display than what should have been specc'd if this was to be a TRUE Retina successor to the 2015/2017 MacBook Air, half the available ports of the previous version, no SD Card slot (which makes more sense in this model than the Pro) and a $200 higher starting price while the previous-gen model retains its pricing from 2017.

To me, the 2018 MacBook Air is trading on the name while failing to provide the value of its predecessor. Even with its faults (8GB DRAM max and poor display), the 2010-2017 MacBook Air is probably one of the top 5 most iconic Macs ever produced. The new version just seems like a pale shadow, even if it has a slicker wrapper.

So, the only real problem right now with the 2018 MBA is the horrible quality of video captured by the bult-in camera. Otherwise, it's an absolutely phenomenal machine. There's nothing wrong with the display. The microphone and speakers are phenomenal. The CPU is powerful enough to run two VMs concurrently in VMware Fusion. The MBA is extremely light and doesn't get hot at all.

I used to buy MacBook Pros exclusively, but they got so expensive now that I decided to go with the 16 GB RAM / 512 GB SSD 2018 MBA. I was ready to return it, but after using it for a week now, I'm truly impressed.

I don't edit video but I do need to run Windows and Linux VMs occasionally. I didn't think the MBA would be able to handle VMs without choking, but it absolutely does it without braking a sweat.

Is it the most powerful laptop? Of course not. Does everyone need to have the most powerful laptop? Not anymore. I don't need to pay $3,000 for a MBP, whereas I can get all the performance I need in a very portable form factor for a 40% discount.

As for the 2018 MBA keyboard, it's the best keyboard I've ever used on a Mac. All those reports of how horrible the keyboard is are an absolute and utter nonsense.

 

[cmichaelb]

Unless you're a webcam model or webcam sexting how good does it need to be?

 

[killermike2178]

I feel like Dr. Ian Malcolm should be in charge of design at Apple, since he had a good mantra about expirimentation for the sake of expirimentation:

"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should."

At some point, the design team should have been coordinating with the sales team to ensure that that they could find that sweet spot where they could make the products in question lighter and sexier without making them lesser and stripped down.

Instead, we're stuck with 15-inch notebooks that have abysmal 720p built-in web cameras while other brands' 13-inchers have 1080p cameras, being forced into the dongle lifestyle, since the chassis' are so thin that we cannot use our existing USB Type-A I/O devices with them in their native USB Type-C setup, and MacBook Airs that cannot even get i7 CPUs, due to battery limitations, since those just had to be thin and light as possible. Again, they are not making lighter notebooks, they're making lesser notebooks.

When will they learn that professionals aren't in the business of paying more to get less?

 

[WinterWolf90]

Unless you're a webcam model or webcam sexting how good does it need to be?

well they shouldn't stifle our dreams from the start.