Review: Hands on the Apple MacBook Air 2020
The new keyboard is key to the 2020 Apple MacBook Air upgrade.
Apple has replaced the keyboard on MacBook Air with a better one with a more conventional scissors mechanism.
It’s good to see Apple putting energy afresh into Air. At one stage it seemed like a neglected device. Apple released the first generation Air in 2008 to much fanfare as the world’s thinnest laptop. The second generation Air came in 2010 but we were kept waiting until 2018 for the current line of Airs with a retina display and Thunderbolt 3 empowered USB-C ports.
Sure, the second generation Air underwent some component upgrades but by 2018, it felt like the Air range was stagnating.
Apple now seems re-energised when it comes to the MacBook Air, with two upgrades of the 2018 13.3-inch model in a little more than two years.
The 2018 Air came with a new look, an edge-to edge 2560x1600 display that was slightly finer than quad HD resolution, touch-ID for fingerprint unlocking. You gently press the power button. It also had Apple’s T2 security chip which offers on-the-fly data encryption of solid-state-drives. There were those USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports.
The 2019 Air added Apple’s True Tone display, which adjusts the white balance to lessen the strain on your eyes in different lighting environments. Last year’s Air switched to Intel Iris Plus Graphics, had faster processors and more storage. It wasn’t a quantum leap from 2018 but significant.
The same can be said for the 2020 MacBook Air. It’s not a huge upgrade from last year’s model, but there are significant improvements.
Apple just had to replace the keyboard. The previous butterfly keyboard which was introduced in 2015 with two delicate “wings” under each key became a festering sore. Not everyone experienced problems, but enough people did to force Apple to issue an apology.
Apple even faced a class action in North California in 2018. The concern was that keys would fail to register, when dust and debris accumulated under keys.
Last year’s MacBook Air used a modified butterfly mechanism with different materials, but in 2020 the Air finally has the “magic keyboard” already now also found on MacBook Pro models.
Apple will hope its keyboard problems will finally be gone for good – like magic.
The magic keyboard uses a more conventional scissors mechanism, but also importantly has what Apple calls a rubber dome underneath each keycap that “delivers a responsive and satisfying keypress”.
With the old butterfly mechanism, sometimes you felt you were typing on concrete. It’s now a softer experience with one millimetre travel.
Apple has rearranged the positions of the arrow keys on the bottom right into an inverted-T shape. It says you don’t need to look down to find them. It’s true there is a gap above the left and right arrow keys that you can feel with your fingers, but I didn’t find the difference that significant.
There are other upgrades. The 2020 MacBook Airs now have 10th generation Intel processors with smaller 10-nanometer architecture that Apple says is two times faster. Apple has gone with Intel Iris Plus Graphics to boost graphics performance.
I ran Cinebench R15 to score both of these on my review unit, which has a dual-core Intel Core i3-1000NG4 processor that clocks from 1.1GHz to 3.2GHz. The processor scored 274cb and the Iris Plus Graphics 41.72 frames per second.
It’s nothing spectacular but I can say the Core i3 processor of 2020 was not far behind the Core i5 processor in 2018 which scored 290 cb. The 2018 Air came in with a terrible 13 frames per second in the graphics test. That has thankfully improved.
You’re not going to get a powerhouse machine using basically a mobile processor with on-board graphics but if you are into power your choice should be a MacBook Pro.
I also conducted our standard battery test, playing a 1080p video continuously at 50pc brightness. It played for 8 hours, 23 minutes. That’s good, but not as spectacular as what devices with new Qualcomm Snapdragon chips. The Samsung Galaxy Book S achieved battery life of 16 hours with such a chip, but there again it’s limited in the Windows applications you can use.
Apple has doubled the minimum solid state drive storage on Airs. It used to be a 128 gigabyte SSD, now the entry level is 256GB and you can opt for up to 2 terabytes.
The two USB-C ports are on the left hand side and they are positioned close to one another. That makes it harder to use an adaptor that fits along the side but I just did manage to plug in a USB-C cable in the rear port with an adaptor plugged in just in front of it. If in doubt, get an adaptor that doesn’t hug the side of the notebook.
You get a 3.5mm headphone port at right, stereo speakers and a three mic array.
Apple has kept the price of an entry level Air relatively low, even with our dollar tanking around 55 US cents. In 2018, you’d pay from $1849. My review unit this year with a Core i3 processor with a 256GB SSD is $1599.
The listed price for an Air with a Core i5 processor (still 1.1GHz), 8GB of memory and a 512GB SSD is $1999, but if you start with a Core i3 model and upgrade the processor to Core i5 on Apple’s Australia site, you get it for $1699. You can sneak up from Core i3 to Core i7 the same way for $250. Apple also offers educational discounts.
BTW: the $1599 price tag compares favourably to the US entry level price of $US999 which converts to about $1690. Maybe Apple’s Australian pricing didn’t factor in the virus!
In the end this upgrade delivers better performance and addresses two weaknesses in the 2018 models: the poor graphics performance and butterfly keyboard and that means the Air is better than before. New MacBook Air units will be in stores this week.
Apple MacBook Air 2020
Price: From $1599
Rating: 8/10
Features
10th generation Intel Core i3 & i5 processors
13.3 inch quad HD display, storage from 256GB
Weight: 1.29kg; thickness: 0.41 to 1.61cm
2 USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, headphone jack
Pros
Keyboard a great improvement
Default storage doubled
Reasonable entry level price
Cons
Not a major upgrade
On-board graphics limiting
FaceTime camera just 720p
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