Having purchased a 2020 i5 Intel Macbook Air I can tell you in my experience using Mac Fan control that much of the time just web surfing or watching video the fan does not even run but temps do peak at 100c. What get's interesting is playing a 4K video full screen for awhile and see the fan RPM's ramp up to almost 8000rpm's. Temps on all cores are now between 80-100c all the time. Eventually will a aluminum chassis this will become very warm especially between F4-F7 keys where I measured around 110c. Yeah that's pretty hot if you ask me just watching a 4K video. The fan design almost seems like a afterthought in which Apple considered at first using a fan less design like the 12" Macbook but them thermal throttling was so bad they chose a fan to circulate air. Definitely not a great cooling solution at all. 

The newer MacBook Air's have CPU's similar to the now discontinued MacBook. They are designed to have no active cooling, which in the MacBook was true. The MacBook Air's do have a fan that circulates air flow but does not directly cool the heatsink on CPU. Yes it can get pretty warm even hot for some but as long as it remains under the max temperature spec'd by Intel. Then it's considered normal, and many notebooks today do run pretty warm especially thinner models. The i3 in MacBook Air handles the design better than the quad i5 or i7 for sure. I also think the fan design should have been re engineered to better cool the notebook for no other reason then providing a better experience for the end user.

I got a customised model with i7 and 1 tb SSD. During a Conf call the Mac suddenly powered off. Apple folks also couldn't diagnose why- they replaced the logic board and have sent the laptop back.

I've tried out both the i3 and i5 model.  If you playback video using Chrome the keyboard tray gets hot to the touch and the bottom of the machine is also warm.  If you attempt to cast the video the fans will turn on and run continuously.  I understand Chrome can be a hog, but the same scenario on my older 2014 MacBook Air has no such issues.  This doesn't feel like an "upgrade".

Quote from: protoword on April 30, 2020, 21:29:15
Should I assume that the i7 has the same issue (or worse?)

Yes, you can hear the fan, I have an i7, 16GB memory with 2TB SSD and during video conferencing with screen sharing the fan runs extremely fast and loud, constantly..
There are no symptoms/signs of overheating though, I've had mine a month or so after waiting for it to be built and delivered.

I just buy the MacBook Air 2020 i3 256 gb few days ago, the Retina display and the Magic keyboard are just amazing! This Mac reminds me old Powerbook of 1990's
I launch many videos, games, the machine is silent and cool, no overheat on the back. I had many Mac before, and Thinkpad T43 also at the time of Wxp, but I assure that this MBA 2020, with i3, is just a good machine.

Should I assume that the i7 has the same issue (or worse?)

Clarify that the problem is only for i5 models!

Ok so weighing up the XPS 13 2 in 1, Surface pro 7 and this MacBook Air I'm thinking not the latter. The jury isn't out yet but 100 degrees is 100 degrees and it's not like it's the first time apple have had heating issues nor sold a product at a high price that was sub par.

I have an iPad, iMac, iPhone but this is too much money to go throwing away on the hope it will last if I don't set it on my lap too much.

Quote from: ariliquin on April 21, 2020, 23:40:05
They missed an opportunity to reduce heat and improve battery performance with AMD 7nm processors. Seems brand Intel has trumped common sense in high end devices. "Consumers want Intel in their lhigh end laptops* seems to be the conventional wisdom. No we don't, we want high performance, low heat, long battery life. Maybe the next MacBook Air will be running Apples own 5nm CPU as it will do a better job of all these things. .

The problem of Ryzen 4700U is its performance is better than i9-9880H. Using Ice-lake will benefit next year ARM MacBook as they can announce how many X times more performance the new ARM chip will be.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/laptop.html

Quote from: ariliquin on April 21, 2020, 23:40:05
No we don't, we want high performance, low heat, long battery life. Maybe the next MacBook Air will be running Apples own 5nm CPU as it will do a better job of all these things. .

yes we do. we are helpless sheeps ready for own sacrifice. have you seen those media or forums? where are the threads "wtf, give us the best cpu option in your laptops" on lenovo/hp/asus/etc forums? where are tech channel who asking the same simple question.
just "oh, lets hope for the better next year"
ok, i was rude to sheeps, we are worse, sorry sheeps.

They missed an opportunity to reduce heat and improve battery performance with AMD 7nm processors. Seems brand Intel has trumped common sense in high end devices. "Consumers want Intel in their lhigh end laptops* seems to be the conventional wisdom. No we don't, we want high performance, low heat, long battery life. Maybe the next MacBook Air will be running Apples own 5nm CPU as it will do a better job of all these things. .

Quote from: Mazarin64 on April 21, 2020, 22:14:59
Guys, why even bother with such an article when according to your definition, no laptops in modern times are overheating, ok, maybe some no branded laptop made in very remote part of India.

You have made great pieces in the past but the story here is that this laptop -from a luxury brand- as some of the worst cooling system you can find anywhere at any price, not that it's not shutting down. This is poor journalism on your part.

Thanks for your opinion.

I'd recommend you read our review of the Core i5 model.

It might help dispel your vitriol.

Guys, why even bother with such an article when according to your definition, no laptops in modern times are overheating, ok, maybe some no branded laptop made in very remote part of India.

You have made great pieces in the past but the story here is that this laptop -from a luxury brand- as some of the worst cooling system you can find anywhere at any price, not that it's not shutting down. This is poor journalism on your part.

dunno guys, this guy love this machine and he told us why
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKWInGYJ2Fs