MacBook Air 2020 Review - A Laptop To Love And Hate
Devices / / January 06, 2021
The MacBook Air is one of Apple's greatest products and has defined the laptop format for decades to come. However, the company updated the model two years ago with an unreliable keyboard, weak processor, ineffective cooling and limited ports.
Many considered the update unsuccessful and continued with the 2015 version. Now the new MacBook Air is out, in which they tried to fix all the mistakes. Finding out how the gadget turned out.
Table of contents
- Specifications
- Design
- Screen
- Input Devices
- Sound
- Speed
- Autonomy
- Outcome
Specifications
operating system | macOS Catalina |
CPU | Intel Core i3‑1000NG4 Dual Core 1.1 GHz / Intel Core i5-1030NG7 Quad Core 1.1 GHz |
Memory | RAM: 8 GB LPDDR4, 3 733 MHz; ROM: 256/512 GB NVMe SSD |
Video accelerator | Intel Iris Plus G4 / G7 |
Display | 13.3 inches, Retina IPS, 2,560 x 1,600 pixels, 227 ppi |
Ports | 2 × Thunderbolt 3; audio jack |
Wireless interfaces | Bluetooth 5.0; Wi-Fi 5 |
Battery | 50 Wh |
Dimensions | 304.1 x 16.1 x 212.4 mm |
Weight | 1.3KG |
Design
There is not much to say about the appearance of the new MacBook: it has not changed at all. The same aluminum wedge-shaped case, glossy logo and familiar colors: gold, silver and space gray.
Many people love the design of the latest MacBook for its minimalism, and it's hard to argue with that. There are no unnecessary inscriptions and stickers, slots for cooling and an abundance of connectors. The build quality and materials are the highest. The laptop will look good in five years, if you don't take into account the thick frames around screen: they already seem archaism now.
The 720p webcam is also obsolete. In the era of telecommuting and video calls, this quality is simply indecent.
In the lower part, the space is used more efficiently. On the sides of the keyboard are stereo speakers, and in front of it is a huge touchpad. The front indent is wide enough for the palms of the hand. The keyboard is turned to the user at a slight angle, which also works for convenience print.
There is an audio jack on the right, and two USB Type-C ports with Thunderbolt 3 and DisplayPort support are located on the left side. Both support charging, but it would be better if they were spread on different sides, then it would be more convenient to connect the power cable.
The laptop weighs 1.3 kg - not much, but there are lighter models on Windows. For example, HP Elite Dragonfly weighing 1 kg. And the dimensions of the MacBook Air are rather big by the standards of 13.3-inch laptops, for which "thanks" to the thick frames around the display.
Screen
The MacBook Air 2020 has a Retina display from the previous model. The 13.3 ‑ inch sensor has a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 pixels, which is QHD equivalent for a 16: 10 aspect ratio. By the way, such a screen is more convenient for surfing the web, working with text and code than widescreen displays.
With such parameters, a dot density of 227 ppi is achieved - higher than most competitors on Windows, if you do not take into account the 4K model. However, at this diagonal, UHD resolution would be overkill, so Apple found the perfect balance of performance.
The quality of the matrix itself cannot be found fault with either. The screen is made using IPS technology and is perfectly calibrated, the colors are natural, the viewing angles are maximum. We were also pleased with the level of contrast and the uniformity of the backlighting: there are no highlights on a black background. Finally, the display supports True Tone technology, which adjusts the picture to the lighting.
Input Devices
The new MacBook Air features a scissor keyboard that replaces the butterfly. The button travel is now deeper, which greatly improves the typing experience. It's too early to talk about the reliability of the new keyboard, but the one presented last year MacBook Pro 16 there are no problems with the same mechanism, which is a good sign.
In the upper right corner there is a power button with a Touch ID fingerprint scanner, which greatly simplifies authorization in the system and accounts.
The touchpad is reference here, as is the case with all Apple laptops. The finger glides easily on the glass surface, the area is sufficient for comfortable gestures. And while Windows laptops are catching up to MacBooks in touchpad quality, they will still need a couple of years.
Sound
Another point where Apple retains its lead is speaker quality. For such a thin laptop, the MacBook Air delivers impressive sound with full bass, excellent vocal response and massive volume headroom.
True, over time you notice that the result is achieved with the help of software processing. Sometimes the sound can be heard resonances in the lower mids - low voices can come out loud and unnatural.
Audio quality in headphones also commendable, all frequencies are in balance with each other, the volume is sufficient when working with most portable models.
Speed
The initial configuration of the MacBook Air 2020 received a dual-core Intel Core i3-1000NG4 processor, clocked at a base frequency of 1.1 GHz. It is enough to satisfy the simple needs of most users: surfing the web, playing video and music, working with text and photos.
Testing in Geekbench 5 showed good single core performance, but the overall score is not impressive. Indeed, the novelty quickly copes with single tasks, but if you load it with a multitude of parallel processes, the performance decreases.
This is especially noticeable when using multiple desktops. Still, two cores may not be enough in multitasking conditions, which is why it is worth considering a modification with a Core i5-1030NG7 with four cores and eight threads.
Responsible for the graphics is the new Intel Iris Plus G4, its performance is enough for processing photos and videos. Of course, we are not talking about RAW files in Photoshop and Final Cut - here you need an external graphics card. By the way, the new Intel processors have improved eGPU performance over Thunderbolt, so such a combination can be effective.
The amount of RAM is 8 GB and the solid state drive is 256 GB. The latter demonstrates good read and write speed.
The laptop scores 700-750 points in the Cinebench Release 20 processor test. For comparison, the 2015 MacBook Air scores around 600 points. But the operation of the cooling system is much more interesting: during the test, the temperature remains around 100 ° C, despite the noticeable fan noise.
This means two things. Firstly, the cooling system cannot cope with heat dissipation during prolonged load. Secondly, the laptop does not drop frequencies to reduce heating, but works on temperature limit.
On the one hand, this increases productivity, on the other, it can shorten the life of the device. So you don't need to load your MacBook Air often and for a long time, it's still a machine for simple tasks. During normal use, the temperature is kept between 40-60 ° C, which is a comfortable value.
Autonomy
A battery with a capacity of 50 Wh is installed inside. Battery life has always been a strong point of the MacBook Air: previous generations produced 10 hours of active screen during video playback, while Windows counterparts could not stand seven. Considering the new generation of the processor, we expected an even more impressive result.
Unfortunately, expectations were not met. The 2020 MacBook Air still lasts about 10 hours of video playback, up from 7.5 hours of Pages and concurrent web surfing. Not bad, but in the camp of Windows laptops there are more autonomous models, for example Dell XPS 13 9300.
Outcome
The MacBook Air 2020 can be praised for its build quality, good screen, new keyboard, great touchpad, and best-in-class speakers. But it can also be blamed for its mediocre webcam, limited multitasking performance, and inefficient cooling system.
To understand how critical all the listed disadvantages are for you, you need to answer a simple question: do you need macOS. If so, feel free to take the new Air. Just take a closer look at the Core i5 version, otherwise it's pretty sad with two cores in 2020.
Buy
The author thanks Apple for the device provided for testing. The company had no way to influence the test result.
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