MacBook Air 2020 - First impressions and reviews

[AJB1971]

Six Colors -

2020 MacBook Air review: No news is good news

[Author’s Note: I’ve updated this piece to change the chart at the conclusion of the story. I put the wrong numbers in the chart, and those numbers were wildly misleading about iPad Pro…

sixcolors.com

MKBHD -

CNET -

SuperSaf -

Engadget

Apple MacBook Air (2020) first look: Buy it for the keyboard

Hello from the new MacBook Air. Allow me to answer your first question up front: Yes, the new keyboard is excellent. There's only one problem with it: I've already greased the keys with residue from the peanut butter sandwich I was eating. Work-from-home life, y'all!

www.engadget.com

TechCrunch -

Apple MacBook Air review | TechCrunch

Let’s address the elephant in the room. There’s an undeniable irony reviewing an ultraportable laptop when you’re not allowed to leave your house. Of

techcrunch.com

TechRadar -

MacBook Air (2020) review

New and improved for 2020

www.techradar.com

CNBC -

The new MacBook Air is the best laptop for Mac fans — and Apple finally fixed the keyboard

Apple's new MacBook Air starts at $999 but now includes twice the storage as before, 256 GB, and has a fixed keyboard. With good speakers, battery life and a still-great design, it's the laptop most people should buy.

www.cnbc.com

PC Mag -

Apple MacBook Air (2020)

A redesigned keyboard and lower price make the Air easy to recommend

uk.pcmag.com

Pocket-lint -

Apple MacBook Air (2020) review: Keyboard dreams become a reality

Return of the Mac with a keyboard that doesn't clack

www.pocket-lint.com

 

[mreg376]

But with the same T2 chip and BridgeOS errors??

 

[ascender]

Thanks for sharing, I didn't realise so many first impressions had come out already.

I know its not really relevant if you need macOS, but the performance comparison with the new iPads is quite eye-opening.

 

[AJB1971]

Thanks for sharing, I didn't realise so many first impressions had come out already.

I think there must have been an embargo as they all seemed to come out at the same time.

 

[Ybersetzer]

Major props to the OP for gathering all the links! Thanks!

Jason Snell (sixcolors, first link) makes a rather unbelievable mistake in his review though, I guess this will be updated and corrected shortly:

"
Worth the wait?
If there’s a real revelation to be had in my test results, though, it’s the performance of the iPad Pro. This isn’t the new 2020 model that’s due out next week, either—it’s the third-generation iPad Pro that was released the same day as the first Retina MacBook Air model. The 2018 iPad Pro was nearly five times as fast in single-core performance and nearly seven times as fast in multi-core performance."

He then gives the respective geekbench-results, but treats the iPad Pro`s (high) Geekbench 4 scores as if they were Geekbench 5 .... The iPad Pro is still faster, but not 5 TIMES!

 

[neverendingscot]

Anyone seen any Geekbench 5 scores yet? All I've seen is 4. Want to compare it to my current Mac but I only have the 5 scores for it, not the 4.

 

[JTToft]

Anyone seen any Geekbench 5 scores yet? All I've seen is 4. Want to compare it to my current Mac but I only have the 5 scores for it, not the 4.

- I would assume MKBHD's scores are Geekbench 5, from the first video above.

 

[neverendingscot]

- I would assume MKBHD's scores are Geekbench 5, from the first video above.

View attachment 900091

Thanks. I clicked all the articles in the OP but forgot to go back to the videos. I fthose are GB5 scores, both scores are more than double my 2012 Macbook Pro so that would be plenty sufficient for me!

 

[G5Unit]

Anyone seen any Geekbench 5 scores yet? All I've seen is 4. Want to compare it to my current Mac but I only have the 5 scores for it, not the 4.

I haven't been able to find the Geekbench 4 scores either. Do you have a link?

 

[neverendingscot]

I haven't been able to find the Geekbench 4 scores either. Do you have a link?

It was in one of the articles in the OP, I forget which one. For some reason they used a few older benchmarks like geekbench 4 and cinebench r15 instead of r20.

 

[imp3rator]

For even basic users, however, I’d recommend adding $100 back onto the system price in order to upgrade to an i5. That’s the chip ours came with. The system scored 5244 and 14672 on Geekbench 4’s single and multi-core tests, respectively, presenting a marked upgrade over the last model we tested, back in 2018.

MB Pro 2019 2TB has - 4651 / 16712

interesting one core result 🧐
I like GB4 scores more...

 

[ascender]

For even basic users, however, I’d recommend adding $100 back onto the system price in order to upgrade to an i5. That’s the chip ours came with. The system scored 5244 and 14672 on Geekbench 4’s single and multi-core tests, respectively, presenting a marked upgrade over the last model we tested, back in 2018.

MB Pro 2019 2TB has - 4651 / 16712

interesting one core result 🧐
I like GB4 scores more...

So that seems to confirm initial view that the i5 Air looks like quite a good buy unless you really need the most powerful machine available because of your workflow?

 

[imp3rator]

Yep - 1250 eur for 1.1 i5 vs 1750 eur for 1.4 i5 (all with 256gb)... and 17% slower in multicore and 28% higher in single-core.
But sustainable load should be better in Pro... But price...

 

[ctyrider]

Thanks for sharing, I didn't realise so many first impressions had come out already.

I know its not really relevant if you need macOS, but the performance comparison with the new iPads is quite eye-opening.

Those are wrong numbers - Six Colors had since corrected them. See the revised Six Colors article - the Geekbench scores between Air and iPad 2018 are very close, at least for Single-Core.

2020 MacBook Air review: No news is good news

[Author’s Note: I’ve updated this piece to change the chart at the conclusion of the story. I put the wrong numbers in the chart, and those numbers were wildly misleading about iPad Pro…

sixcolors.com

 

[KPOM]

But with the same T2 chip and BridgeOS errors??

I haven’t gotten a BridgeOS error in 5 months on my 13” MacBook Pro.

 

[bosozoku]

Anyone seen any Geekbench 5 scores yet? All I've seen is 4. Want to compare it to my current Mac but I only have the 5 scores for it, not the 4.

1047/2658

 

[kp98077]

I started out with the baseline 2020 air then upgraded for the quad core i5 version, any reason why the screen and colors would look so much better on this unit??

 

[twintin]

I started out with the baseline 2020 air then upgraded for the quad core i5 version, any reason why the screen and colors would look so much better on this unit??

Compared to what ?

 

[kp98077]

Compared to what ?

I said, I started out with a baseline 2020 air... lol

 

[twintin]

I said, I started out with a baseline 2020 air... lol

As far as I know all 2020 Airs regardless of configuration have exact same display, so the answer is no, there is no reason.