Updated review with more detail [after 2 weeks]. ** See additional note re color.
I switched to Mac 11 years ago, and for that entire period, I had the same laptop, a Macbook Pro, late-2011 model. After the initial adjustment, it has been a great laptop for all of these years. I used it for school, work, online browsing, a few applications, and streaming videos. I have never gamed on my 2011 laptop. Of course, it slowed down considerably after several years, and software and hardware updates can only help so much with an older model. So, I finally decided to purchase a new laptop, and based on my research on recent macbook models, the price and value was right on this 2020 Macbook Air.
GENERAL FEATURES: Switching from a Pro to an Air model is weird at first because the Air is SO thin and lightweight. It has an extremely slim profile. I have to be extra careful when I grab the laptop to move to another room. Like other reviewers have said, the screen extends almost to the edge with minimal bezel, which also means very minimal border, so you are getting a "larger" screen. I did not mind the thick bezel black border on my pro and have been used to it for so long, but I took for granted that it actually provided a lot of protection for my screen. The macbook air has almost no bezel, which in my opinion, is not ideal. Let's hope it doesn't drop or get off balance because there is basically no protection for the screen. My older macbook pro has fallen a few times on it's corner or edge in 11 years and been fine, aside from minor cosmetic damage. But the larger edge and bezel came in really handy on the macbook pro when it lost balance and fell off the counter several years ago, but I quickly saved it by grabbing it by the screen and significantly reducing the impact when it landed [luckily not on hard floor]. Obviously not an ideal way to grab it, but it was a necessary save in that moment. The only damage was cracks through the top of my screen from the pressure of my palm, and some minor dent in the bottom of the laptop. Cosmetic damage, but thankfully did not effect the screen light, LCD, or anything else. I do not think the macbook air would survive this, especially how the screen is built.
BATTERY: Upon opening the box, the battery life was already pretty high, and I decided not to charge it until the battery decreased to around 10-15%. I was still using my original macbook during the day for work, and the new macbook air during the evening for mostly online use and going through all of the system preferences and settings, and watching youtube in the background. Keeping that limited use in mind, I did not need to charge it for maybe 1 week. Great battery life thus far. I will likely be shifting to use this macbook air for work soon, in order to take advantage of the current OS, higher ram, and M1 chip, especially because I connect to virtual servers, which can take a toll on the ram and processor.
SPEED/PORTS/BLUETOOTH: Compared to an older model pro, it has good speeds so far. I already knew that the number of ports have been reduced significantly, and that air has less ports than a pro anyway, so I purchased a thunderbolt adapter and a USB hub in advance to take care of that issue. So far, the thunderbolt adapter works fine to connect the macbook air to my Thunderbolt Display monitor. The bluetooth was able to connect to my ear buds, although pairing did take a bit longer than I expected. The bluetooth preferences do seem to be less detailed/less options than my previous macbook pro.
CHARGER: ** In my opinion, the previous magnetic chargers were superior to the current ones. They attached via magnet, the indicator light was red while charging, and green when fully charged. Easy and convenient. The mag-safe charger on this computer requires an additional push to be plugged in fully. This is just like most electronic devices, so it is not a bad feature, just requires an adjustment. It is probably safer for the computer and prevents it from easily coming unplugged. However, there is no indicator light, so you can't tell that it is plugged in and successfully charging unless you look at the battery status in the menu bar, and you also cannot see when it is finished charging just at a glance. You cannot confirm when the laptop is closed or on lock screen. You have to open the laptop, log in, and then check. Big bummer. **
MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES: My previous macbook had a great feature: check the battery life at a glance with a quick push of a button while the laptop is still closed. After some additional research, I realized that apple removed the battery light indicator on the macbook pros many years ago, and that airs never had this feature. Big bummer. There is no way to check the battery life on this model without opening the laptop AND logging in, as the battery status in the menu bar on lock screen only shows the icon, but won't show you the percentage until you log in. Not ideal at all.
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Quick review for recently purchased product [during Black Friday]. I will update with a more detailed review once I have used it for a longer period.
***** Important Note: If you are on the fence about purchasing the "gold," don't get it. I had a silver MacBook Pro for many years, and I went back and forth for several days about the gold, especially after reading recent reviews and viewing customer images on multiple retailers that said the gold is closer to rose gold. I would disagree and say that the color is actually better described as dark blush pink or dark a reddish-mauve. Definitely not the look I wanted to have, and I regret not purchasing the staple silver, especially as I keep my electronics for many years beyond the 'normal time.' It would be a hassle and a lot of money to purchase the silver instead, since we cannot exchange in-store.
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| Price | From: - | From: - | From: - | From: - | From: - |
| Ratings | (18,004) | (2,233) | (507) | (1,100) | (431) |
| Display | 13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit Retina display | 13.6-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology | 15.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology | 13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit Retina display | 14.2-inch (diagonal) Liquid Retina XDR display |
| Processor | System on a Chip (SoC), Apple M1 chip, 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, Up to 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine | System on Chip (SoC), Apple M2 chip, 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, Up to 10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 100GB/s memory bandwidth | System on Chip (SoC), Apple M2 chip, 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, 10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 100GB/s memory bandwidth | System on Chip (SoC), Apple M2 chip, 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, 10-core GPU | System on Chip (SoC), Apple M2 Pro or M2 Max chip, Up to 12-core CPU with 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, Up to 30-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, Up to 400GB/s memory bandwidth |
| Graphics | Apple 8-core GPU | Up to Apple 10-core GPU | Apple 10-core GPU | Up to 10-core GPU | Up to 30-core GPU |
| Battery | Up to 18 hours battery life | Up to 18 hours battery life | Up to 18 hours battery life | Up to 20 hours battery life | Up to 18 hours battery life |
| Touch Bar and Touch ID | Touch ID | Touch ID | Touch ID | Touch Bar and Touch ID | Touch ID |
| Storage | 256GB or 512GB SSD | 256GB or 512GB SSD | 256GB or 512GB SSD | 256GB or 512GB SSD | 512GB or 1TB SSD |
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