Apple Macbook Air 2020 Features and Review
One of the most famous laptop from Apple- Macbook Air, just got a refresh with the introduction of Macbook Air 2020. It got most of the things right, read more about the latest Macbook in this review.
Yes. The new MacBook Air 2020 is finally here! Apple, the trillion-dollar company has released the upgraded version of 13-inch MacBook Air. As you might have known, the MacBook Air is a wonder in terms of the design and build quality. The laptop looks so thin, sturdy, and feels quite premium to work on.
Now if you remember the older version of the MacBook Air has had a major problem with the keyboard. Yes, the butterfly keyboard sucked and we all knew that. The keys were sticky with very little travel but Apple still told us that this is one of the best keyboards you can get on a Mac. And boy, they were so wrong! After plenty of reports and complaints from the consumers, Apple added a mesh under the keycaps to prevent dust from entering inside.
But this, of course, didn't work. Moreover, one astonishing fact about the MacBook Air keyboard is that if a key fails you will have to replace the entire keyboard deck! Now with the latest MacBook Air 2020, Apple finally came back full circle with the adoption of the scissor mechanism switches. The scissor mechanism was the most successful laptop keyboard ever designed.
So without further ado, let's get started with the review:Display and Design
The MacBook Air has a Retina true tone display which is one of the best display tech currently available in the market.
The display is a 13.3 inch IPS panel with LED backlighting. The display comes with a native resolution of 2560x1600 at 227 pixels per inch. The MacBook Air feels impressively light(as the name suggests) when holding thus making it the perfect MacBook for taking for travel trips. The MacBook Air is one of the thinnest and compact laptops you can find in the market these days.
The display also supports TrueTone technology which makes the display feel slightly warmer or colder based on the environment you are in. There is not much change with the design of this year's MacBook it's almost the same as that of the previous 2019 with premium feeling machined aluminum case and light feeling. The 2020 model comes in three color models: Gold, Space Grey, and Silver. I'm a fan of the Space Grey MacBook Air as it feels more premium and classy according to me. The hinges can be opened with a single finger which is a specialty we got in love with premium laptops like the MacBook.
The keyboard is the highlight of this year's MacBook. I missed them so much. With the tried and tested scissor mechanism, we get the familiar key travel along with a feeling of peace that these keys are more durable than the much-hated butterfly switches. Apple also changed the arrow keys to an inverted T-shaped layout which also improves the overall user experience.
There is also the inclusion of the Touch bar along with the Touch ID at the top right corner of the laptop. The touch ID provides one of the easier methods to login to the laptop. Setting up the fingerprint was also a breeze like the previous-gen MacBooks. The MacBook Air 2020 weighs 1.29kg which is just below the Dell XPS 13 which weighs 1.23kg. Storage & Performance
We managed to get the base model of the MacBook Air 2020 which comes with the Intel Core i3. This will also be the version of the MacBook that most people would prefer considering that the MacBook Air is meant for the light workload. For anything more than casual web browsing, playing songs on Spotify, and casual movie watching, I prefer you to buy the MacBook Pro version. Well, if you are not into the expensive MacBook Pro territory then I suggest you buy the MacBook Air 2020 with slightly more RAM and a better CPU.
Nevertheless, the base model of the Air 2020 performed well during our tests with little slowdowns and hiccups. We were able to run multiple tabs of Chrome(around 15), Play songs on Spotify, and also edit using Photoshop. The MacBook Air 2020 performed how a normal laptop with a dual-core Intel Core i3 processor would perform on a day to day tasks with only some rare slowdowns!
We also found out that when running several apps all at once, the MacBook Air 2020 required some extra cooling help from the fans (they ramp-up 😬). But the laptop remained silent most of the time.The area where the laptop needs cooling is when under heavy loads. Like the fans ramp up to their max speed but the ultra-thin design of the laptop makes the fans work extra hard to reduce the temperature.
This finally leads to high fan noise and made it quite disturbing to work on the device. During the start of the benchmark test, the CPU hit the expected turbo boost speed of 3.1 GHz before the temps reached 100C and the fans started whirring up. Even though the temps were satisfactory, the clock speed hovered anywhere from 2.1 GHz to 2.3 GHz soaring above the base clock of 2.1Ghz but still long way from 3.1Ghz. But then again this is expected as the Intel Turbo Boost is designed to provide with a short burst of performance and if the cooling is right, stay at the boost clock speeds!
Well here, I think the MacBook Air 2020 is intentionally keeping the clock speed at 2.1 GHz to keep the laptop cool as the fans might not be able to cope with the heavy load.
Also, the 256GB of SSD storage adds life and spirit to the Mac OS and the operating system runs smoothly and boots up pretty fast! But then again, as I have mentioned earlier in the post the MacBook Air 2020 is not meant for intensive heavy workloads so you'd be better off buying a MacBook Pro if your daily tasks require heavy power.Price & Availability
Surprisingly, the MacBook Air was launched at a much better price than the previous year's version. The entry-level dual-core Intel Core i3 costs 256 GB of SSD storage and 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM costs $999/£1,099/AU$1,699. I am very happy to see Apple releasing its 2020 MacBook Air 2020 at cheaper prices.
I sincerely hope that this continues! There's also the high-end variant of the MacBook Air 2020 which costs $1,299/£1,299/AU$1,999 this comes with a 10th gen Intel Core i5, 512GB SSD storage and 8GB of RAM.There is also a fully flexed maxed out version with a 1.2Ghz core i7,16GB of RAM and 2 TB SSD which comes at a price tag of $2,249/£2,249/AU$3,349.Ports & Connectivity
Well as you might have guessed this section is pretty small for thin and light laptops especially the MacBook! The MacBook Air 2020 comes with two USB-C Thunderbolt ports and an audio jack.
One of the best things about Apple as a company is that even though they skimp on some extra stuff like USB 3.0 ports, HDMI ports, etc. What they do, they do it perfectly in their style like no other company in the market does.
For instance, even though the device only has two thunderbolt ports both the ports are highly versatile and capable of delivering 40Gb/s transfer which is quite fascinating for a laptop in this price range! This 40Gb/s speed can technically allow the MacBook Air 2020 to simultaneously transmit 6K video footages to a supported monitor and also use it for charging the laptop!Batttery Life
Apple is one of the few companies that deliver the amount of battery life promised. Apple said that the MacBook Air 2020 would give you 11 hours of battery life. But during our 1080p video loo test, it scored a respectable 8hrs which is still quite impressive for a thin and light laptop. If you upped the gear a little bit and ran some heavy apps and software you would get around 7hrs of usage time.
But there is still something to be happy about, the laptop can stay in standby mode with minimal impact on battery life and without losing a single percentage of battery. This means that you can put the MacBook AIR 2020 for days a stretch without losing considerable battery life. The MacBook Air 2020 will still work at its full capacity!Who Should Buy the Macbook Air 2020?
If you are a regular traveler who likes to work on the go. You would do good with something lightweight and the MacBook Air is the perfect choice for you.
The MacBook Air 2020 is also the best choice for bloggers and freelance photo editors and would benefit from the best Magic Keyboard. Finally, if you are someone who likes to get started in the Apple MacBook ecosystem and want to have a taste on the Mac OS, then the MacBook Air 2020 is the perfect entry-level MacBook for you.
