2020 MBA is the best mac I've owned thus far - but it needed a mod.

U

User.45

Guest
I just want to express that after 6 months, I consider my 2020 i7 16Gb MBA the best Mac I've owned.
The keyboard is a masterpiece, the screen is just fantastic, true tone works insanely well to reduce eyestrain.
This machine is faster than anything I need. It can even decently drive a 4K screen @60Hz.
However, stock version overheats easily and that makes a fluid machine stutter like it came from 2010.
Now after it started affecting my work, I bit the bullet and did the cooling pad mod and maaaan...this machine is absolutely soaring.
CPU temps remain <50C at regular use. I have yet to hear the fan whirr since I did the mod.

So why this and not MBP:
1. Desirable form factor
2. It's OK for an ultrabook to solely rely on USB-C; it is not for a pro machine, where dongles are unreliable and very expensive legacy equipment is still used.
3. Touch Bar has been an absolute flop. It could be fantastic with haptic feedback. without it, it's just a constant source of accidental triggers, and confusion. In exchange its only utility had been to provide a Crop button in Powerpoint.
 

Alli

Perfection
Staff Member
Site Donor
Posts
5,887
Reaction score
11,792
Location
Alabackwards
I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised by the Touch Bar. I use it, believe it or not. That being said, I could go back to a MBA and be perfectly happy. I store everything in the cloud these days.
 
U

User.45

Guest
I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised by the Touch Bar. I use it, believe it or not. That being said, I could go back to a MBA and be perfectly happy. I store everything in the cloud these days.

I do a little scripting for research stuff, and the most annoying recurrent issue was when I accidentally kept my finger on ESC (2017 MBP through work).
It got super annoyed by it. I also disliked the larger size touchpad. Accidental triggers were an issue I've never encountered with any other mac before.
Bleh.

Two days in with the cooling pad mod, and it all starts to make sense why they crippled the cooling system of the MBA.
If cooled appropriately, this machine is easily on par with the 13-inch MBP in terms of real-world performance.
Even my battery life improved by about 1-2 hours since the mod. Amazing.

This is going to be the first Mac I'll recommend to people since 2015.
 
Top Bottom
1 2