MacBook Air 2020 i7 Review for Travel & Photography

[fcracer]

The full comprehensive review can be found at this link.

Summary Findings:

• With the recent introduction of a quad-core processor option in the MacBook Air lineup, the new 2020 model becomes a viable travel laptop for photography enthusiasts who like to edit and process their images on the go.
• While the keyboard is now based on the historically more reliable scissor mechanism, the actual typing speed and accuracy are surprisingly the same as the the butterfly keyboard on my 2018 MacBook Pro 13.
• For burst or instant performance, there is no difference between the Air 2020 i7 and the Pro 13 2018 i7; in some tests, the Air 2020 is actually quicker, but not enough to be considered consequential.
• For sustained performance, there is (as expected) a big difference, with the Air 2020 taking between 25-100% longer to complete the tasks. For example, exporting 125 images from the Fujifilm GFX50R in Capture One took 20m38s on the Air 2020 vs. 12m56s on the Pro 13 2018.
• For heat and noise, in the same sustained workloads, the Air 2020 is surprisingly cooler and quieter than the Pro 13, with far less intrusive fan noise.
• For battery consumption, based on the energy consumed to export the files, the Air 2020 used 7.3% of the battery, while the Pro 13 used 12.6%.

Conclusion:

• In deciding to purchase the Air 2020, there were three areas I was looking to improve over the Pro 13, namely heat, fan noise, and battery consumption. In those three areas, I feel that the Air 2020 succeeds in overcoming those problems.
• There is much less heat in day to day use, likely from the lower 10 W CPU in the Air 2020 versus the 28 W CPU in the Pro 13; even under sustained load, the Air 2020 doesn’t seem to get anywhere near as hot as the Pro 13 does.
• While the Air 2020 still has fan noise, it is much quieter than the Pro 13 and doesn’t seem to engage as aggressively. This leads to a more pleasant working environment and prevents the embarrassment of the person seated next to me asking why my laptop sounds like it’s about to take-off.
• Finally, battery consumption is much better on the Air 2020 than the Pro 13. Even under sustained loads where the output is held constant, there’s a noticeable difference in battery consumption. In everyday tasks, the difference is even greater with the Air 2020 holding onto battery life much longer.
• For my usage, the Air 2020 comes out the winner, but the one area where it perhaps loses more than I had expected was in sustained power. The Air 2020 gets clobbered by the Pro 13 in those circumstances.
• If you’re a video editor or need to export thousands of images (like a wedding photographer would), then the Air 2020 is not the laptop for you. If however you’re ok with starting the export and then heading to bed to get some rest before another day of exploring a new city, the Air 2020 makes for the perfect Apple laptop.

This is my first review of a laptop, so I hope you've found the full review and summary useful. Please let me know what you think; has this been helpful?

 

[snow755]

How the heat issue with the i7 is it better ?

 

[RegularGuy09]

Great review bro. The MBA 2020 seems to be very underrated around here. I'm thinking of getting the i5, 8GB, 500GB model for my basic tasks(web browsing, watching movies, playing light games like cs go etc). I'm excited because it seems like this laptop nails all the basics(great screen, good battery life, good keyboard, good trackpad, good speakers, good performance).

 

[deeddawg]

Nice pocket review. Thanks for posting.

How the heat issue with the i7 is it better ?

See the post:

• For heat and noise, in the same sustained workloads, the Air 2020 is surprisingly cooler and quieter than the Pro 13, with far less intrusive fan noise

 

[superamit]

The full comprehensive review can be found at this link.

Best review I've read so far on the factors that matter to me (heat, speed, noise, battery life, and the actual experience of using the laptop). I especially appreciated the direct comparison to a 13" MBP and enjoyed the full review on your website.

Thanks for sharing this, very helpful.

 

[edubfromktown]

Great review!

I too acquired a core i7/16 GB, with 512 GB storage. I am a more than an occasional LR6 perpetual user and hadn't had any issues running a "migrated from 10.14" copy until Monday when I migrated my data to the Air 2020. LR executed correctly one time and would not launch again (even after wipe, OS reinstall and 2nd attempt at data migration).

I may find a different home for my 100,000+ images at some point (taking a look at Luminar 4) rather than ponying up monthly forever to use Adobe subscription LR.

For now, I'm leaving my LR stuff behind on a MacBook Pro 15" running an OS prior to Catalina.

I haven't noticed the fans running excessively on the Air 2020 and overall remain positive about the purchase. The performance, battery run time and price point are inline with my expectations. Macbook Pro's are great however it is not difficult to end up dropping $2k or more on them after adding a few upgrades. I can't really justify the extra expense based on what I typically run on a daily basis.

 

[fcracer]

Great review bro. The MBA 2020 seems to be very underrated around here. I'm thinking of getting the i5, 8GB, 500GB model for my basic tasks(web browsing, watching movies, playing light games like cs go etc). I'm excited because it seems like this laptop nails all the basics(great screen, good battery life, good keyboard, good trackpad, good speakers, good performance).

Thanks! I think the i5 is the sweet spot for this laptop. I’d personally go for more RAM since 8GB seems to get filled up pretty fast these days. Either way, I think you’ll love the machine. It’s such a great package.

Best review I've read so far on the factors that matter to me (heat, speed, noise, battery life, and the actual experience of using the laptop). I especially appreciated the direct comparison to a 13" MBP and enjoyed the full review on your website.

Thanks so much! There are so many good reviews out there that use benchmarks and other criteria so I wanted to do something different and show the real world experience of using the laptop. I’m so glad you liked it!
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I may find a different home for my 100,000+ images at some point (taking a look at Luminar 4) rather than ponying up monthly forever to use Adobe subscription LR.

Have you tried out Capture One Pro? It’s super fast compared to Lightroom and I find it more stable too.

 

[magbarn]

Thank you for the review. The almost half speed of converting raw files compared to the mbp has me sure to return the 2020 MBA. i didn’t realize the gap is that big...
I have a mbp 16 that has no problem, but it’s too big for travel

 

[edubfromktown]

Thanks! I think the i5 is the sweet spot for this laptop. I’d personally go for more RAM since 8GB seems to get filled up pretty fast these days. Either way, I think you’ll love the machine. It’s such a great package.



Thanks so much! There are so many good reviews out there that use benchmarks and other criteria so I wanted to do something different and show the real world experience of using the laptop. I’m so glad you liked it!
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Have you tried out Capture One Pro? It’s super fast compared to Lightroom and I find it more stable too.

Haven't heard of that one. I'll have a look at that one as well.

Thanks!

 

[Pugly]

Thanks for your review. You presented good information for how this could be used in more processor intensive tasks.

I'll run some tests and see how it compares to my 2015 Air using Logic Pro. I have some performance benchmark I can compare to see just how much faster it is. I'm hoping a quad core gives a pretty big boost in performance, audio production is really scalable with more cores.

It's good to know that you found it quieter than the Pro. Some were commenting that it was too loud doing regular tasks. But it seems this is tuned to be quiet in exchange for some performance. I guess one could crank up the fans before doing something intense, if they wanted to eke out a bit more performance.

 

[dhazeghi]

Thanks for the link and the review. Sustained performance under Capture One looks rather disappointing (both slow, and after a while, loud). Can't win 'em all I guess.

 

[edubfromktown]

Thanks for the link and the review. Sustained performance under Capture One looks rather disappointing (both slow, and after a while, loud). Can't win 'em all I guess.

Have you tried Luminar 4? I'm curious what others think of the performance and functionality in general.

I've been kicking the tires on it and began the process of exporting ~18k images from LR 6 perpetual (running on a MacBook Pro). Once that completes, I'm going to import them into Luminar running on the 2020 Air to see what happens.

 

[ARJR84]

Great review!

I too acquired a core i7/16 GB, with 512 GB storage. I am a more than an occasional LR6 perpetual user and hadn't had any issues running a "migrated from 10.14" copy until Monday when I migrated my data to the Air 2020. LR executed correctly one time and would not launch again (even after wipe, OS reinstall and 2nd attempt at data migration).

I may find a different home for my 100,000+ images at some point (taking a look at Luminar 4) rather than ponying up monthly forever to use Adobe subscription LR.

For now, I'm leaving my LR stuff behind on a MacBook Pro 15" running an OS prior to Catalina.

I haven't noticed the fans running excessively on the Air 2020 and overall remain positive about the purchase. The performance, battery run time and price point are inline with my expectations. Macbook Pro's are great however it is not difficult to end up dropping $2k or more on them after adding a few upgrades. I can't really justify the extra expense based on what I typically run on a daily basis.

I can recommend capture one. Perpetual license often is 30-50% off. In many regards it's better than LR, and many professionals, especially studio ones, use it for its tethering.

Also the results from C1 with both my fuji and sony come out better.

OP, can you use your a dB app on your phone and verify the noise? Notebookreview book actually measured them and found them to be 45dB, and louder than the MBP.

 

[fcracer]

OP, can you use your a dB app on your phone and verify the noise? Notebookreview book actually measured them and found them to be 45dB, and louder than the MBP.

Will do. I’ll get back to you later tonight.

 

[esphil]

I can recommend capture one. Perpetual license often is 30-50% off. In many regards it's better than LR, and many professionals, especially studio ones, use it for its tethering.

Also the results from C1 with both my fuji and sony come out better.

OP, can you use your a dB app on your phone and verify the noise? Notebookreview book actually measured them and found them to be 45dB, and louder than the MBP.

I was trying to push the laptop playing 4k videos and the fans didnt pass 5k. I cant really even hear the fans even at 5k. Most of the time not playing 4k video and normal operations its always under 2k if on at all. I have yet to max the fan out, perhaps the 16gb memory helps with heavy graphics. I think the noise of fans and it feeling hot are overblown on the i5. Even with it at 100c I have never felt the top of the laptop hot at all, and the back feels warm not hot. If people didnt use that tg pro app they would never think theres a issue imo. I ran it for the first few hours and never heard a audible fan or felt that it got too warm compared to every mac laptop Ive had. My 2015 i7 feels alot hotter on my lap

 

[fcracer]

The full comprehensive review can be found at this link.

I've been asked by a few folks if a Geekbench test was conducted on the two computers. I did indeed run Geekbench 5 to make sure there were no issues before starting the test, and here were the results:

MacBook Air 2020 i7:

• Single-Core: 1194-1249 across four tests
• Multi-Core: 3357-3519 across four tests

MacBook Pro 13 2018 i7:

• Single-Core: 1021-1073 across four tests
• Multi-core: 4088-4219 across four tests

 

[deeddawg]

Have you tried Luminar 4? I'm curious what others think of the performance and functionality in general.

I've been kicking the tires on it and began the process of exporting ~18k images from LR 6 perpetual (running on a MacBook Pro). Once that completes, I'm going to import them into Luminar running on the 2020 Air to see what happens.

Biggest issue for me with Luminar 4 is that it does not support XML sidecars -- so while it does support star ratings and color labels, they're solely within the Luminar catalog and there's not a way AFAIK to interchange that info with other packages.

I use PhotoMechanic for initial import / rename / culling / categorization, so Luminar's inability to read that info from the XML sidecars eliminates its ability to replace Lightroom for me.

With the new MBA, LR6 launched once and that's it, so my avoidance of moving past LR6 are at an end. I've enjoyed DXO OpticsPro in the past, and will look at DXO PhotoLab's library capabilities - but it's $90 to upgrade vs. $120 for a year of LR+PS, so I'm unsure which path I'll take. Had a glance at On1 - though that's $50 (2020.1 on sale) and looks like the paid updates are once or twice a year. Not sure it's worth learning a whole new platform vs. LR that I've been using since v1.0?

Edit: two other datapoints - #1 is I do have a bunch of panorama shots to process from travel the past couple years, and LR did that pretty well in 6.14, I can imagine they've improved things by the current v9.whatever. Luminar doesn't. Not sure about DXO. Affinity Photo does, but that's *another* interface to know.
#2 - one of my sore spots with LR6 was it simply didn't handle RAW infrared photos well. Looks like the current versions do a lot better now, as it allows creating custom camera profiles, and one can create such for an IR converted camera.

 

[edubfromktown]

Biggest issue for me with Luminar 4 is that it does not support XML sidecars -- so while it does support star ratings and color labels, they're solely within the Luminar catalog and there's not a way AFAIK to interchange that info with other packages.

I use PhotoMechanic for initial import / rename / culling / categorization, so Luminar's inability to read that info from the XML sidecars eliminates its ability to replace Lightroom for me.

With the new MBA, LR6 launched once and that's it, so my avoidance of moving past LR6 are at an end. I've enjoyed DXO OpticsPro in the past, and will look at DXO PhotoLab's library capabilities - but it's $90 to upgrade vs. $120 for a year of LR+PS, so I'm unsure which path I'll take. Had a glance at On1 - though that's $50 (2020.1 on sale) and looks like the paid updates are once or twice a year. Not sure it's worth learning a whole new platform vs. LR that I've been using since v1.0?

In the event you didn't see elsewhere, I managed to get LR6 playing nice with Catalina (launch more than once without immediately crashing) after user migration assistant import of apps and data from my old 12" running Catalina (that I had upgraded from a clean install of Mojave).

I signed up for a free 7-day eval of LR Classic ($9.99/month subscription) and ran the installer- this is a 64-bit executable (unlike LR6's 32-bit one !#$%&*@##). After listening to my fans kick on high and stay there from merely opening up the app and letting it sit there for ~15 minutes, I closed it and deleted the beast. While continuing to wonder what I was going to do to get LR6 figured out, I clicked on it and it ran and has continued to do so for a couple of days now.

 

[deeddawg]

In the event you didn't see elsewhere, I managed to get LR6 playing nice with Catalina (launch more than once without immediately crashing) after user migration assistant import of apps and data from my old 12" running Catalina (that I had upgraded from a clean install of Mojave).

I signed up for a free 7-day eval of LR Classic ($9.99/month subscription) and ran the installer- this is a 64-bit executable (unlike LR6's 32-bit one !#$%&*@##). After listening to my fans kick on high and stay there from merely opening up the app and letting it sit there for ~15 minutes, I closed it and deleted the beast. While continuing to wonder what I was going to do to get LR6 figured out, I clicked on it and it ran and has continued to do so for a couple of days now.

Yup. Giving it a go right now.

Be interesting to see what performance I get and whether I see a similar experience.

 

[deeddawg]

@edubfromktown -- FYI - and you may wish to add to your thread in the Digital Photography forum - it appears that simply downloading a new Creative Cloud Desktop App fixed LR6 on my 2020 MBA.

I too had restored from a Mojave 12" rMB - so had LR6 installed. Just didn't work after the one launch.

I've started the LR Classic CC trial, but saw that I needed to update CC desktop app - so downloaded/installed it before installing the new Lightroom

Figured what the heck and tried my LR6 -- came right up.

So be interesting to see if others can solve LR6 with just downloading the new CC desktop app from https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/desktop-app.html

I'll now install the new LR and see how it goes.

 

[deeddawg]

I signed up for a free 7-day eval of LR Classic ($9.99/month subscription) and ran the installer- this is a 64-bit executable (unlike LR6's 32-bit one !#$%&*@##). After listening to my fans kick on high and stay there from merely opening up the app and letting it sit there for ~15 minutes, I closed it and deleted the beast. While continuing to wonder what I was going to do to get LR6 figured out, I clicked on it and it ran and has continued to do so for a couple of days now.

tl;dr - not seeing the CPU slamming issue you saw. It's sitting there pretty quiescent showing maybe 6.3% CPU. Activity monitor is higher at 7.0 - no fan noise.

So at first it looked like the software wanted to install Lightroom CC rather than Lightroom Classic CC v9.2.1
I canceled the LRCC install and told it to install Classic CC. Let it convert a copy of my (small) synced catalog and open up.

Seems to be working fine here. I haven't a guess as to what occurred with your instance.

Edit: I've done some HDR merges and panorama merges, as well as recreating smart previews. As you would expect, it goes from silent to presenting a little bit of fan noise (not obtrusive tho) if it's a longer job like doing 200 smart previews- then the fan fades back to silence when complete.

For *my* expectations, observing the external attributes of usage, it's entirely within my expectations for a MBA.

 

[Capeto]

Something to take into consideration for photography is the lack of P3 wide color on the MacBook Air's display, which the Pro does have.

 

[ctjack]

Something to take into consideration for photography is the lack of P3 wide color on the MacBook Air's display, which the Pro does have.

P3 is more for 10-12 bit video cameras rather than photo edits.

 

[magbarn]

P3 is more for 10-12 bit video cameras rather than photo edits.

Yes, when editing photos in Lightroom, the MBA 2020's only demerit vs the MBP 16 is the slightly dimmer screen

As an aside, I fired up Lightroom Classic v9.2.1 on my MB 12 vs. MBP 16 vs. 2020 MBA i7
50 45MP files from my Z7, Export to JPG 80% quality which includes resizing/sharpening
2019 MBP 16 i9 (the beast) 1:48
2020 MBA 13 i7/16/1TB 3:47 - a bit slower but not bad
Fan noise was about the same between the 2 devices. I also liked that the MBA's bottom stayed relatively cool
2016 m5 MB 12 7:25. Bottom case got pretty toasty too! yikes!

So the 2020 MBA is pretty decent. The screen difference is not as big when editing photos too!
I originally bought this MBA to replace my long on the tooth MB 12 when wanting to travel light and still edit photos, was going to return and wait for 2020 MBP 13, and I may just keep it as I prefer the wedge shape and real function keys...

 

[deeddawg]

I originally bought this MBA to replace my long on the tooth MB 12 when wanting to travel light and still edit photos

same here. Very happy with mine for this purpose. I have a 2018 MBP15 for home desk dual monitor heavy lifting