MacBook Air (2020) first look - Apple's most affordable laptop

On March 18, Apple suddenly revealed the new MacBook Air. The company has equipped the laptop with a more reliable keyboard and fresh hardware, and at the same time made it cheaper. But is this enough to make the owners of older versions decide to upgrade?

Design

Externally, the novelty is identical to the 2018 model: a thin aluminum case, a wedge-shaped deck, two Thunderbolt 3 ports on the left and an audio jack on the right. Even the colors have remained unchanged: the laptop is available in silver, gray and rose gold.

The main change is the Magic Keyboard with scissor mechanism. It replaced the “butterfly” and features high reliability and improved feedback.

At first impressions, we can say that typing on a laptop is convenient: the key travel is very clear and linear. However, its depth is still shallow. However, this is a significant improvement over the uninformative butterfly in the 2018 MacBook Air. The company also listened to the fans and returned the T-shaped block of arrows.

In the upper right corner there is a power button with a Touch ID fingerprint scanner. The sensor does its job well: readings are fast and accurate. It's weird that Apple still hasn't equipped its laptops with a face-scanning system like the iPhone.

The touchpad remains unchanged, but it's hard to imagine how to make it even better. The surface is glass and is very slippery, the area is sufficient, the reading accuracy is impeccable. In this regard, the MacBook is still a role model, although Windows models are closing the gap.

Screen

The new MacBook has the same display as previous generation laptops. It is a 13.3 ‑ inch Retina matrix with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 pixels. The aspect ratio is still 16: 10, which is convenient for web surfing, working with text and code.

As before, the screen has very thick bezels and does not support touch control. However, the overall impression is still good: the picture quality here is higher than that of the latest Asus ZenBook 13.

You can only find fault with a not very large margin of brightness, which, together with a glossy finish, complicates work in direct light.

Performance

The new MacBook Air is based on Intel Ice Lake processors, made using a 10-nanometer process technology. The lineup includes models based on the dual-core Core i3-1000NG4, as well as the quad-core Core i5-1030NG7 and Core i7-1060NG7. All of them belong to the Y-series and have a heat dissipation of less than 10 W, which means they consume less energy and heat up less. The laptops are equipped with integrated Intel Iris Plus graphics, which are significantly more powerful in versions with Core i5 and i7 than in the model with i3.

All configurations have 8 GB of RAM, just like the previous generation devices. But the minimum SSD size has grown from 128 GB to 256 GB, which will be enough for most users. We have a basic model in testing and it will be interesting to know what it can do. This is now the cheapest laptop in Apple's lineup, so many will consider it.

Other features

The novelty has received some of the best stereo speakers among ultrabooks. The sound is clear and spacious at any volume. Also, the engineers have improved the microphone system, but the webcam is mediocre, as in the devices of the previous generation.

A battery with a capacity of 50 Wh is installed inside. Battery life has always been a strong point of the MacBook Air, and considering the energy efficient hardware, the laptop should last up to 15 hours. We will check the autonomy during long-term testing.

Subtotals

The MacBook Air 2020 has been a very important update. Many still have not changed the laptop of the generation before last and are waiting for a worthy successor. It seems that the novelty hit right on target: the keyboard has become better, the storage capacity has increased, the hardware has also become more powerful. But most importantly, the price for the base configuration has dropped by $ 200 (almost 15 thousand rubles), which for Apple is an unheard of generosity.

Unfortunately, in Russia the effect is not so noticeable due to exchange rate fluctuations, so the new MacBook will cost us about the same as the old one - 90 thousand. Despite the price, this is an attractive opportunity to join Apple laptops. Although it is still worth waiting for a full review in two weeks: suddenly, over time, critical flaws will surface.

Buy

The author thanks Apple for the device provided for testing. The company had no way to influence the test result.