Apple continues to bet on Macs for those users who are not looking for a professional team to perform video and photo editing. This is why they have recently updated the MacBook Air range, solving all the deficiencies that could be found in the renovation they did in 2019. In this article we tell you all the characteristics of this new equipment.
Technical characteristics
Although this is a computer that is designed to perform work that does not require processor power, Apple has opted for tenth-generation Intel processors . This obviously gives you a very good long-term performance plus since we will undoubtedly be facing a team that can easily last for many years without giving any kind of problem. This is undoubtedly one of the most significant changes included with respect to the previous generation.
Another major change lies in the keyboard. The 2019 MacBook Air so far integrated a butterfly keyboard that has obviously given users a lot of trouble. That is why Apple has decided to give it a folder and has chosen to integrate the Magic Keyboard that was first seen in the 16 ″ MacBook Pro of 2019. In this way, we will be facing a keyboard with a greater keyboard travel by having a scissor mechanism, plus we make sure it doesn’t break easily over time.
At the top of the keyboard we still do not have a Touch Bar but it does add the Touch ID biometric recognition mechanism. In this way we can place our finger to unlock the equipment and perform different operations in a simple way.
In the rest of the technical characteristics, there are hardly any surprises, as we continue to bet on a 3733 MHz LPDDR4X RAM and a base storage of 256 GB SSD. The graphics, being a computer that is not intended for professional edition, is an integrated one, specifically the Intel Iris Plus Graphics. The screen is maintained with Retina True Tone technology and a size of 13.3 ″ with a resolution of 2560 by 1600 pixels .
For the battery we should not suffer, because according to Apple it can last up to 11 hours of web browsing, or up to 12 hours of video playback on the Apple TV app. With the 30W charger it can be charged relatively quickly.
Available configurations
Apple allows us to make different hardware configurations depending on our needs. It is based on a somewhat basic processor such as the tenth generation Intel Core i3 at 1.1 GHz that can go up to 3.2 GHz with Turbo Boost. But we can update this process, and integrate in our Mac one of the following processors:
- 10th Gen 1.1 GHz Quad Core Intel Core i5 (up to 3.5 GHz with Turbo Boost).
- Tenth-generation 1.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 (up to 3.8GHz with Turbo Boost).
As a base, the MacBook Air 2020 starts with 256 GB SSD, which may be somewhat scarce. That is why the company allows it to be expanded to the following capacities:
- 512 GB.
- 1 TB.
- 2 TB.
Finally you can configure the RAM, since although it starts from 8GB of LPDDR4X memory , you can include another 8GB to have a total of 16GB. This may be interesting for those who are going to edit video, but for the most general cases we believe that with the initial configuration it can be totally sufficient.
Price
One of the most interesting aspects is obviously in the price of the device. If we go to the company’s website, the most basic model is priced at € 1,199 , although it can be obtained for € 100 less if you are students thanks to the company’s special prices. But as we say, this is the price for the basic configuration that includes an Intel Core i3 processor, 256 GB of hard disk and 8 GB of RAM. To this you can add different extras that are the following:
- Intel Core i5 processor: + € 50 at the base price.
- Intel Core i7 processor: + € 130 at the base price.
- 16 GB RAM memory: + € 250 at the base price.
- 512 GB of SSD storage: + € 250 at the base price.
- 1 TB of SSD storage: + € 500 at the base price.
- 2 TB of SSD storage: + € 1000 at the price.
These are extras that can be added. We want to highlight that the price of the processor update seems tremendously interesting to us and especially the jump to an i5 processor can be highly recommended so as not to have problems. Although the i3 is a fairly worthy processor, the i5 for € 50 we think is worth studying.
In the end, if we want to get the best MacBook Air 2020 on the market with all the premium features, we must pay a total of € 2,579 , which can easily be what a base model of the MacBook Pro costs.
Apple Care + and financing
Apple offers you the possibility of financing a MacBook Air 2020 with interest 0 up to 24 months for a limited time. You will simply have to calculate approximately how much it will cost you to finance it on the Apple website . Once you have decided, simply select the ‘Financing’ option when you go to pay.
If you want to have your Mac fully protected, we recommend paying for the Apple Care + plan that starts from € 89 for Macs through the Apple website . In the event that the equipment suffers accidental damage to the screen or the case, you will only have to pay € 99 for repair. If the problem is of another nature you will pay € 259. It is certainly much better to pay this price than the official for a repair that can easily exceed 500 euros.