I first bought the lowest-priced MacBook Air which has the lowest capacity SSD of all available. When it showed up at my house, I was surprised at how sluggish it was. I read some reviews, and realized that Apple didn't make it clear (at least to me) that the lowest-priced Air also has a slower, dual core processor. It makes sense in hindsight, but I digress. I returned that Air, and replaced it with the 500+GB SSD and quad core processor. Wow! The difference in performance is marked! Multitasking, turning on from sleep, everything is MUCH quicker and smoother than with the dual core processor. If you can afford the higher-priced model, I really recommend it!
Overall, the MacBook Air is really a beautiful machine aesthetically. I the recycled aluminum exterior is slick and high-end. The onboard speaker won't ever be confused for an external sound system, but it is the best onboard speaker system I've heard. The Retina screen looks great; vibrant and detailed. I also love the large touch pad with the gestures.
My favorite aspect of the laptop is the OS. Out of the box this runs Catalina. I haven't owned a Mac since the iBook G4, but I got back into it without much exploring required. I like how easily it works with my iPhone XR as well. Getting texts on the laptop, or pushing a webpage on my iPhone to my Air is seamless and easy. Things just work. I needed to download updated drivers so that I could print wirelessly to my Canon laser printer, but that took five minutes. I also downloaded and installed Chrome for Mac, which I use for a few things, but Safari works very well for the sites I visit. I did have to buy a converter cable that switched from the onboard USB-C to a regular USB cable for a few attachments I have, but that was pretty cheap (especially for an Apple product). I wish the Air had one more USB-C port.
Some people hate the onboard camera. At first I was disappointed with it too. With all of this COVID business, I use my laptop to play D&D online with friends via Roll20. We use cameras to interact with each other, and although I found the onboard camera to be slightly grainy, it is very fluid. One of my friends commented that everyone else's video feed stuttered as they moved, but mine looked like he was watching TV. So, although it could be better, it is NOT horrible for my purposes. For the price we pay, Apple could beef up the camera, but it is what it is.
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| Price | From: $1,199.99 | From: - | From: - |
| Ratings | (3,874) | (1,247) | (1,771) |
| Display | 13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit Retina display | 13-inch Retina Display | 13-inch Retina Display with True Tone |
| Processor | 1.1GHz dual-core 10th-generation Intel Core i3 processor with Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz or 1.1GHz quad-core 10th-generation Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz | 1.6GHz dual-core 8th-generation Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz | 1.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 with Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz |
| Battery | Up to 12 hours wireless web battery life | Up to 12 hours wireless web | Up to 10 hours wireless web |
| Touch Bar/ID | Touch ID | Touch ID | Touch Bar and Touch ID |
| Storage | 256GB or 512GB SSD | 128GB or 256GB SSD | 128GB or 256GB SSD |
| Weight | 2.8 pounds (1.29 kg) | 2.75 pounds (1.25 kg) | 3.02 pounds (1.37 kg) |
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Loud fan during FaceTime calls and poor camera
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2020
The camera has a poor image quality (only 720p) and the fan gets very loud during FaceTime/Zoom calls. The MacBook Air 2020, like the MacBook Air 2018 and 2019, has very poor thermal design because there is no pipe to connect the fan to the CPU's heatsink.The MacBook Air 2020 is suitable for causal use. But even a video call will push the CPU's temperature to a 100 degrees celsius. Because of the poor thermal design, the fan becomes loud and the device will thermal throttle (meaning it limits the CPU's speed in order to reduce its temperature). This was not a present problem in MacBook Air devices produced before 2018 as the CPUs in those devices were properly cooled (the fan was connected to the CPU with a pipe).With the 2020 MacBook Air, you get a loud fan and a CPU performance that cannot be sustained for a longer time. The problem becomes even worse when you connect an external monitor to it.The most important advantage that the MacBook Air 2020 has over other Apple laptops is that it is the only one which still has a keyboard with no Touch Bar. So many people dislike the gimmicky Touch Bar in the MacBook Pro, as the Touch Bar ends up getting in your way and slowing you down.This would be a great laptop if it has a proper thermal cooling system and a better camera (at least a 7-megapixel sensor capable of 1080p).UPDATE (December 2020): If you are interested in MacBook Air, you should get the late 2020 model with the M1 Chip. It is fanless and much faster than the early 2020 model.
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2020
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