JUNE 2020 T3 63Apple MacBook Air
chip, running at 1.1GHz. This doesn’t
make it sound like a speed-demon...
and it isn’t. But it is plenty fast enough
for average use, and because it’s a
new-gen chip, it gets more than
respectable scores in benchmarks. It
feels more than fast enough in real life
too, for work such as document
editing, light editing of photos and
browsing the web.
When it comes to multi-core
performance – for tasks such as
compressing files or video exports –
this is clearly a weaker machine but it
still doesn’t find itself totally
embarrassed by its own quad-core
bigger brother.
Finally, battery life here is decent
but not exceptional. Apple says you
can get 11 hours out of it but you’d
have to be working really lightly to
achieve that. We found six or seven
hours was more typical, though it
does vary a lot by task.
The MacBook Air 2020’s screen
hasn’t changed from the previous
model, which is no problem with us.
It’s a 2560x1600 Retina display; that’s
impressively high-res compared to
the competition at this price, which
tend to be Full HD (1920x1080).
It looks perfectly sharp from a
standard viewing distance, and is
bright enough to overcome reflections
well. It’s also pleasingly colourful. The
MacBook Pro 13-inch’s screen is about
20% brighter, and we do wish this
could have that extra vibrancy. But it
really isn’t a problem – it looks great
as is and colours are highly accurate.Hot keys
The main thing you should know is
the backlit keyboard on the new
MacBook Air is just excellent.
Introduced a few years ago, Apple’s
‘Butterfly’ keyboards were very
divisive. Not only was the feel of them
unpopular, they seem to have
reliability issues, failing more often
than Apple’s previous keyboards.
The last MacBook Air still had one
of these keyboards, but this model
doesn’t. You’ve got a new key type
with more travel, and a different
mechanism that should prove more
reliable. It feels great to type on and
it’s no problem for accuracy either. It
definitely doesn’t feel cramped.
But we need to end on a gripe.
Apple has improved the microphones
in the MacBook Air for clearer voicechat but the webcam here is an
ancient 720p affair. Its quality rapidly
degrades in anything but the best
light. It’s so strange that having a
beautiful premium Mac laptop means
you’re the person with the muddiest
feed on the Zoom call, but here we are.
With the new MacBook Air, Apple
has dispatched our two biggest issues
with the previous model – the
uncertain keyboard and the lack of
storage – by improving them both,
and then cutting the price as a bonus.
In that regard alone, it’s a hugely
successful product, and it gets a
really strong recommendation from
us. It is not only the Mac that best
suits most people, it’s also one of the
best laptop choices overall.WE’RE IMPRESSED 9HU\IDVWIRU
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