Cool, would love to hear your thoughts on them.
The 10th gen model has an updated dual fan cooling solution similar to the 16" Pro so it'll be interesting to see how that impacts fan noise, thermals and sustained performance.
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Macbook Air 2020 thread
- Thread starter deaglecat
- Start date
Cool, would love to hear your thoughts on them.
The 10th gen model has an updated dual fan cooling solution similar to the 16" Pro so it'll be interesting to see how that impacts fan noise, thermals and sustained performance.
FYI @silvagti the fan goes mental and it gets rather hot just browsing the internet, reading PDFs and writing up a Word doc, etc. Dread to think how it'd cope with anything slightly more taxing
Ouch! Yeah, I've decided to go for the Pro as it's clear the Air, though it will still be capable enough for most users, isn't really designed for what I need it to do.
Surprised the fan would come on when just browsing the web and using a word processor though? What's activity monitor saying as surely there shouldn't be any load on it with just those apps running?
For anyone trying to decide whether to get the Macbook Air or the Macbook Pro this video does a good job of highlighting the differences and recommending which model would suit your needs.
Also.....
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What caused users to refuse MacBook Air's as whilst video/photo editors/developers/etc may feel they're not powerful enough I'd have though most people would be happy with the device.
Bit concerned as I've been recommending the new model 2020 Air to friends/colleagues who have been asking for a laptop for general browsing and office productivity as it seemed perfect for those uses!
Balls. Should've paid for the extra RAM instead of HD space as I actually have a BNIB Samsung T5 just sitting around. Oh well
They're not user upgradeable, are they? Genuine question, I thought they weren't...Balls. Should've paid for the extra RAM instead of HD space as I actually have a BNIB Samsung T5 just sitting around. Oh well
Edit: Ignore me, just realised the T5 is external!
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Nothing is upgradeable on the Mac! I even bought some more RAM to take my 2014 Asus N550 up to 16GB the same day I placed an order for the i5/8gb/500gb
Nothing is upgradeable on the Mac! I even bought some more RAM to take my 2014 Asus N550 up to 16GB the same day I placed an order for the i5/8gb/500gb
Surely if you contact them they'd let you change the spec? You can probably send it back if you don't open it if it's already been dispatched.
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The few we handed out people (Edited to add they were 2018 units) users complained of them being generally sluggish. For example being on a Teams call (Teams is awful from a resource usage perspective) and trying to share docs like Excel etc. It was just a horrible experience. I tried one as my travel machine to see what the fuss was about, and then I got to understand what people were saying. Desktop/end-points aren't my area by the way, I just grab new stuff when I see them going through so I can satisfy my geek.
I think there's a certain level of expectation of machines. The 2018 Air felt like I was using my 12" Macbook. I expect less of the Macbook - I use it for Mail/web-browsing and meetings (Well, I did, it's retired now and replaced with a 13" XPS). I think I just expected more from it.
That's true. I like my Macbook 12" as it's super light and very convenient for carrying around but I'd never have bought it expecting it to be my do-it-all only computer. Whereas I did consider buying a Macbook Air to be my only computer so would have been annoyed if the performance was only on a par with a 12" Macbook.
Surprised to hear a 2018 Macbook Air would have been that sluggish! Especially as it came with an SSD and was 2 years newer than my 2016 Macbook which actually has kind of reasonable performance for a 4 year old fanless lightweight laptop.
You can see the benchmarks here by the way: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gtxtlw3nt9eey2b/Screenshot 2020-05-10 at 17.55.49.png?dl=0
I tried to be objective about it as you can see in my review, as I know I get a bit spoilt with stuff, but then I started to hear the feedback from our users not liking them either.
I tried to be objective about it as you can see in my review, as I know I get a bit spoilt with stuff, but then I started to hear the feedback from our users not liking them either.
Unless there's something specific you need 16gb for I'd stick with 8Gb.
One thing I would say is that if you're contemplating spending £1200 on a 16Gb MacBook air you should consider upping your budget to £1400 and getting the 13" MacBook Pro with 16Gb instead. It's a much more capable machine.
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Yeah I’ve considered it but I prefer the air. If they did a version which didn’t have the Touch Bar I’d have probably gone for it but this is no longer the case.
Soldato
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that always annoyed me about apple, their RAM upgrades are just ridiculous priced
i think i might have to go for it though as i expect to have it for years
did you go for 16gb?
i also looked at the MBP but i think it's over priced for what it is. you seem to get just as much , or near to it, with the air.
is there any way to get the education pricing if you are not a student?
any way to wangle it
if not where is the best price for MBA at the moment?
Soldato
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- West Yorkshire / Market Bosworth
Bought the MacBook Air (2020) i5 with 512gb SSD a few weeks ago and haven't looked back.
Its a great little machine. I still need to get a usb-c to usb hub sorted so I can actually plug stuff in but other than that, really happy.
Read reviews about the screen not being bright enough but I have it about 50% brightness and its perfect. The Retina display is gorgeous as well.
It was a toss up between the MacBook Air (2020) or last years model which was on sale at John Lewis recently for a really tempting price. Read a couple of comparison reviews and it seemed like I would be daft to even consider the previous years MacBook Air. The Pro cost just a bit more but I felt like I wouldn't require the extra performance for my rather basic everyday tasks.
Minor annoyance but I can disappointed to see Aperture seems to have disappeared completely from the App Store. I still have CD somewhere so don't know if that will work.
Its a great little machine. I still need to get a usb-c to usb hub sorted so I can actually plug stuff in but other than that, really happy.
Read reviews about the screen not being bright enough but I have it about 50% brightness and its perfect. The Retina display is gorgeous as well.
It was a toss up between the MacBook Air (2020) or last years model which was on sale at John Lewis recently for a really tempting price. Read a couple of comparison reviews and it seemed like I would be daft to even consider the previous years MacBook Air. The Pro cost just a bit more but I felt like I wouldn't require the extra performance for my rather basic everyday tasks.
Minor annoyance but I can disappointed to see Aperture seems to have disappeared completely from the App Store. I still have CD somewhere so don't know if that will work.
Going by Linus's video, it looks like the cooling is a bit poor, to begin with its hardly making contact with the cpu when they took it apart. There is a bit of loss on performance due to it throttling but only so much can be done to try and help it.FYI @silvagti the fan goes mental and it gets rather hot just browsing the internet, reading PDFs and writing up a Word doc, etc. Dread to think how it'd cope with anything slightly more taxing
I just bought the base spec model. I used a 12" PowerBook at school, a 13" white MacBook at university and have had a couple of Windows laptops over the past 10 years or so. I'd always wanted another Mac but the Windows machines were much cheaper.
Only had it a couple of days but so far I couldn't be happier. So pleased to be on MacOSUsing it for web browsing and email, I3 seems fine. I would have liked the i5, but this one was available with £50 from a large electronics retailer and should be fine for everything I use it for.
The last time I had a Mac the OS was Tiger, and I think I had just upgraded to Leopard when I sold the MacBook. Currently enjoying Catalina and re-familiarising myself with the OS. Should have bought one of these years ago.
Only had it a couple of days but so far I couldn't be happier. So pleased to be on MacOSUsing it for web browsing and email, I3 seems fine. I would have liked the i5, but this one was available with £50 from a large electronics retailer and should be fine for everything I use it for.
The last time I had a Mac the OS was Tiger, and I think I had just upgraded to Leopard when I sold the MacBook. Currently enjoying Catalina and re-familiarising myself with the OS. Should have bought one of these years ago.
I've been using the base spec model for the past fortnight for work and I'm torn.
I'm a Windows user (always have been) but I was sent the Macbook as I'm in charge of our Microsoft Endpoint Manager configuration/policies and whilst we're an Office 365/Windows company there are always a few people that insist on either having a Macbook, or using their own Macbook, so we needed someone to be able to test all of the configs in a live environment.
I really like the device, it looks good, MacOS is slick and quick, but it definitely gets hot and when the fan kicks in it makes a LOT of noise.
But the performance (mostly when using Outlook or Teams) is below what I'm used to, it does tend to get through and whilst the MS applications are mostly identical, Outlook is definitely not as good as it is on Windows.
The joke in the team has been that I won't want to give it back, and I probably won't want to as it is a lovely little device. But when I get offered a shiny new Surface Pro I'll probably crack
Of course, the iPad Air that I've been sent as part of the project definitely won't make it back
I'm a Windows user (always have been) but I was sent the Macbook as I'm in charge of our Microsoft Endpoint Manager configuration/policies and whilst we're an Office 365/Windows company there are always a few people that insist on either having a Macbook, or using their own Macbook, so we needed someone to be able to test all of the configs in a live environment.
I really like the device, it looks good, MacOS is slick and quick, but it definitely gets hot and when the fan kicks in it makes a LOT of noise.
But the performance (mostly when using Outlook or Teams) is below what I'm used to, it does tend to get through and whilst the MS applications are mostly identical, Outlook is definitely not as good as it is on Windows.
The joke in the team has been that I won't want to give it back, and I probably won't want to as it is a lovely little device. But when I get offered a shiny new Surface Pro I'll probably crack
Of course, the iPad Air that I've been sent as part of the project definitely won't make it back
What kind of tasks cause the fans to spin up? I'd have thought the base dual core model would have stayed fairly quiet as presumably the quad core would be even hotter?
I had a 13" 2020 MBP 10th gen but ended up returning it due to an issue with the display. Off the back of the ARM announcement at WWDC I'm still pondering whether to buy another given the high cost and the potentially reduced support lifespan now Apple are moving away from Intel chips.
Contemplating whether it might make more sense to buy a base spec MacBook Air for now until it's clearer what's happening with ARM and exactly what the transition will mean in the longer term.
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