Does the MacBook Air 2020 have an overheating problem?

[AD]

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.

[JohnIL]

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.

[JohnS]

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.