New MacBook Air 2020 happened in the hands of some American media. No tests yet in the true sense of the term, all publish their first impressions after having a little strumming on the machine.
However we are not talking about a new paradigm in portable Macs, it is a beefier, improved and cheaper MacBook Air that Apple launched this week, but on many points we will be in already well-known territory (read Apple Introduces New MacBook Air With Revised Keyboard And Quad-Core Processors).
In unison with his comrades, Jason Snell, at Six colors, enjoy the arrival of the keyboard with scissor mechanism inaugurated with the MacBook Pro 16 “(but his wife still prefers the old butterfly), especially for its longer stroke of the keys.
Snell took the time to run a Geekbench 5 test (most journalists received the second configuration, with the 10th generation quad-core 1.1 GHz 1.1 i Core i5 as opposed to the 1.1 GHz dual-core 1.1 i Core range).
Compared to the 8th generation 1.6GHz dual-core Core i5 used between 2018 and 2019, the single-core score increases by 32% and in multi-core by 63%. These are not progressions to which Intel had accustomed us lately! Even the Core i3 used at entry level seems to do better than the previous Core i5.
For good measure, Snell notes that the CPU performance of this laptop remains very far behind those obtained with Geekbench on the iPad Pro 2018.
This is the model with the Core i3 that Matt Hanson has got for TechRadar. The configuration left him an excellent impression for the reactivity: “ Even by filling up 25 tabs, this RAM eater that is Chrome, and trying to retouch images at the same time with Photos ” The slowdowns during the changes of activity were minimal and Hanson indicates that sometimes the ventilation comes in support.
In CNBC Todd Haselton had enough half a day with this MacBook Air to recommend it without hesitation. He also appreciates this keyboard, but he finds the new speakers a little worse than those of the 16 “MacBook Pro (normal, they should be bigger there) but there is a real improvement compared to those of the MacBook Air 2018.
For the little that he used it, the machine proved to be lively: ” I did not notice any slowdown by running several apps together, like Apple TV + (sic), a lot of tabs in Chrome, Slack and Photos “
Haselton has two regrets, that of a webcam that remains taped in 720p and still no sign of Face ID on Mac. Naturally, the Touch ID button stacks with this generation.
Dana Wollman for Engadget insist on the short time she was able to spend with her laptop, but the keyboard – which finds the arrow block in the shape of an inverted T – made her very good impression, like that of the 16 “MacBook Pro.
Wollman simply finds it a bit noisy when typing and poses the question of a possible annoyance when it is used with other people around you (bet that nothing can’t be as loud as hitting Anthony his mechanical keyboard, editor’s note). It also notes a reactivity a priori good, with apps that are unevenly greedy: Chrome, Slack, Spotify, Safari and Notes.
Knowing that none of them could use their machine for even a full day (Marques Brownlee made their video after only two hours of use), we will not know more about autonomy and on the general behavior of the machine in everyday use.
The fact that Apple has modernized this MacBook Air, doubling the two basic storage capacities (256 and 512 GB, with options to 1 and 2 TB), while lowering the entry level to $ 999 is obviously very appreciated.
In France too, the first model is sold for less – by € 50 – but we are far from the symbolic threshold of € 1,000, since the $ 999 American (excluding taxes depending on the State) becomes € 1,199 with us.
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