2020 MacBook Air Review

Okay, so I know what you might be thinking: “Dan, you’re two years late to review this thing,” and also, “I thought you only did stuff with old tech?” Well yes, but actually no. I just mostly focus on old stuff because it’s wonderful and tons of fun, but I do enjoy getting my hands on the new shiny every now and then. In this case it’s a 2020 MacBook Air that I was issued by my employer. And as far as the timing goes, I would have loved to have reviewed this when it launched, but unfortunately I’m not a blogger with sponsors or benefactors that finance these kinds of things.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I’ve been using this thing for roughly a week and so far I’m really liking it. Performance-wise it’s been a huge improvement to the machines I’m used to using — even with all of their upgrades. This model includes 8 GB of memory, a 500 GB SSD, and Apple’s M1 chip. Most people have moved on and have been raving about the M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra. Those chips are crazy with their performance, but to be honest, for my workload — writing, web browsing, technical scripting, and the occasional media edit, the M1 is more than enough.

For comparison, my daily drivers are a mid-2012 MacBook Pro with a Core-i7 CPU and an upgraded 16 GB of memory, and a low-mid ranged Windows box that I buit back in 2017. It runs a Pentium 4 CPU, has 8 GB of DDR4 memory, but has no GPU. It’s barebones, but it works for most of the tasks I throw at it. Between the two, the Mac is clearly the more powerful of the two despite being 5 years older. That said, even as a 10 year old laptop it can out compete many of the computers I see people using today.

That said, that laptop (like many of Apple’s Intel-based Macs) gets hot… like, uncomfortably hot. Hot enough that I usually end up using it on a desk or table, or I get a thick book or a board to set it on so it doesn’t burn my legs. The Air, on the other hand, has yet to get even mildly warm. I’ve used it on my lap for hours and the only time I get uncomfortable is if I’m wearing shorts and the hinge starts iritating my skin. I even spent the evening watching videos with my kids on it last night and it didn’t heat up at all.

The operating system is also an upgrade. My 2012 Mac is currently running 10.15 Catalina which is the last officially supported version for that device. The Air is running the latest version of 12.2 Monterey and while it’s not the first time I’ve used Monterey, it is the first time I’ve used it with current hardware. It’s fast and responsive, and integrates well with my other newer iOS devices by utilizing the features of macOS that my 2012 laptop physically can’t.

THE KEYBOARD

At one point, about 5 years ago, I had the opportunity to try out a MacBook (I can’t remember if it was an Air or a Pro) and it was a pretty awful experience. Now at that point I wasn’t much of a macOS kind of guy — in fact I was pretty much exclusively using Linux at the time — but it wasn’t the OS that I had a problem with; it was keyboard. This was shortly after Apple had transitioned to that terrible “butterfly” keyboard because their design team apparently decided that all of their laptops needed to basically disappear when viewed from the side so they replaced the perfectly fine and quality scissor keys with these new mechanisms that allowed for a lower profile. While the flaws of the butterfly keyboard are well documented elsewhere, my issue when trying it out was really just the typing experience.

As a writer and a tech professional, a quality typing experience is important to me. The key travel, the level of tactile feedback, even the sound play a role in the typing experience. The butterfly keyboard failed on every one of these points. Their ultra-low profile mininmized the key travel to the point that it almost felt like you typing on a flat surface. Tactile feedback on the key press was almost non-existant, and the sound was very muted. With that all said, I was pleased to find that the butterfly keyboard is a thing of the past and this 2020 MacBook Air has a new and improved keyboard that fixed all of these issues for me. It’s not quite as enjoyable to type on as my 2012 MacBook Pro’s keyboard, or even my 2004 ThinkPad’s keyboard, but those are honestly pretty high marks to try and hit.

PORTS

The only real issue, and one that has been discussed by mamy people over the years is the lack of ports. On my 2012 Pro, I’ve got 2 USB (2.0) ports, a FireWire 800 port, a mini Display Port/Thunderbolt 2 port, an SD card reader, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and a MagSafe 2 charging port. On this slick little machine I have a headphone jack and two USB-C ports. That’s it. They’re not even Thunderbolt ports!

Now I get that Apple likes to push innovation and try to drive consumers to newer technologies, but it is a little ridiculous. Thankfully they seem to have figured out that people don’t like having options taken from them arbitrarily and have started adding ports back to their newer products. For me it’s not a deal breaker, even if I don’t like it. Like I said, this is a work machine and at work I have a USB-C dock that I can plug into that offers the ports I need, but without that luxury I would be quite frustrated by the I/O options here.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Final thoughts: if you’re someone who does a lot of graphical rendering, audio work, gaming or graphic design, then you should probably go with one of the more powerful Mac’s on the market, or a higher end PC instead. Likewise, if you’re not a fan of macOS or iOS than obviously steer clear of anything Apple, including the Air. That said, if you like Mac’s, iPhones, iPads, and other Apple devices you’ll like this one.

The form factor and weight make it ideal for computing on the go, even without a bag to carry it in. The display is crisp and bright making it a solid option for streaming movies or watching videos on YouTube or Odysee. The speakers are decent, but they’re still laptop speakers; definitely miles above you’re run of the mill laptop speakers though. They keyboard is solid and there’s no deck flex due to the aluminum chassis and the probable crap ton of screws holding this thing in place. The trackpad is an Apple trackpad so you get all of the gestures and multi-touch support you could want or need.

Overall I am very pleased with this laptop. Like most Apple machines, it is a solidly well-built machine. I streamed about an hour’s worth of 1080p video from YouTube and the base of the machine didn’t even get warm. Pushing 4K might get it a little toasty, but I’m a simple man who doesn’t care about such things and still respects the venerable 480i resolution of the original Xbox.

I had been considering whether or not I could really use an Air seeing as I like the power of my old Pro. If I was using an Air from, say, 2018 or 2019, I really don’t think I could. The limitations would be too much, but with these newer Air models sporting the Apple Silicon chips I am not worried about it at all. If you’re in the market for a quality laptop that is well suited to the things that most users do, the 2020 MacBook Air is a solid choice. It is a little on the pricy side coming in at $1399, but you really get what you pay for.