2018 MacBook Air HD camera is in poor quality.

I used the feedback link - thanks. This could be the best thing to do to get an improved 2019 MBA. Guess I will have to wait another year for possible product improvement...

As for warning others of this terrible product... maybe we can leave reviews where we can.

Shame the apple store does not show public reviews of their products - but I guess it is not in their best interest.

I too am experiencing very poor video quality on my FaceTime camera. I was shocked at how BAD the quality is. It reminded me of the early 2000's webcam cameras with 480 quality. I am returning my laptop today. It is inexcusable how terrible the camera is on an extremely pricey laptop.

Shame on you Apple.

I purchased the 2018 MB Air and I could not accept the photo and video quality at all. I tried applecare the genius bar and even best buy where purchased and had no solutions. Unfortunately I returned and purchased a new one of the old macbook air which takes beautiful photos. I was really excited for the 2018 but I really need the camera quality as I use it all the time. Hopefully Apple can fix this issue ASAP!!

OMG! You did not buy an old one for the sake of Photo Booth......

I heard the MacBook pro 2016-present is the same crap quality as the MBA 2018.

I figured out it is only crap in dim light. In bright light, it looks fine. Still *****, but oh well..

I looked at the new pros and everyone had the same issue but my old one just died so I needed one now but facetime is how I keep in contact with family back home. I have other desktops that are fantastic but the new macbook air will just not work for me. The old one will at least do my school work and keep me in contact with my family and hopefully If apple fixes the issue I will be able to go back to a new version but honestly what is the point of upgrading if you are downgrading other features you use the most?? I will keep my eye out and if the problem is resolved I will absolutely go back but until then I will just wait.

If everyone saves $25 per week, then perhaps we will have enough money to afford a new MBA by the time they resolve the issue.

In the mean time I’m sure they will continue shipping sub standard product, just like other ethical corporations do... 😉

i guess you could always drop $60 on a new webcam.

Even if you don’t use the webcam much - it’s a hard thing to accept, after dropping over 1k on a ‘state of the art’ product.

What about these MBA slogans instead?

90s webcam strikes again

Mediocracy strikes again...

Well,

I have a theory, maybe if your device still in warranty, you can change the old device by a new one .. but i do not know if that is possible, anyway, there are a lot of users that returned their devices because there is not solution yet. in my case, i still waiting because i can return my device till January 15th. So i don't know, i have a little bit of hope..

regards

I took our MBA 2018 back after using for 10 mins. It was that bad.

In my 20 + years experience in the electronics industry - it does not appear to me to be an easy fix.

I’m thinking that it could be a vendor problem. Maybe they supplied low quality cams - and apple was unaware.

Or maybe the factory fitted the same 480p cam as the 12” mackbook by accident?

Or maybe there was a deadline and there was a part shortage on the 720HD cams - so someone made a decision to fit the poor UVC cam type?

To to swap out that cam - it could potentially destroy the screen trying to get to it.

If the screen is swapped - with lid and all - that is an expensive swap. The unit would have to be fully opened to unhook the cables. Probably talking a 1 to 2 hour job. Plus the laptop has to be re-tested...

To find another cam may take some engineering effort. Plus it would take a while for that to filter through to new production in China. As big as apple is, they may be able to pull it off sooner than a year.

Wish Apple would comment and let people know where they stand on this issue...

Maybe there is a scrambling behind the scenes to figure out this issue and will officially announce something once they have a handle on it?

Or maybe they knew all along...

Hello I purchased the 2018 MacBook Air two days ago. I am now using the camera and it is as blurry as the image that someone provided below. I feel like I am using a camera from the early 2000s. I will go to the Apple Store tomorrow, but it sounds as if they are not willing to do much. I hope this is a software issue, otherwise I will be returning this.

Agree with Ricky here. I went back to the Apple store the other day and tried all the camera using PhotoBooth and FaceTime. Non of the MB, MBAir or MB Pro are better than the 2015 MB Air. It's a big downgrade in camera quality if you upgrade from early 2015 MB Air to 2018 MB Air. The only device that has a better camera or at least the equivalent to the 2015 MB Air are the iPads. Disappointed, but I guess this is the new reality. I doubt Apple will do anything about it. Just strange that a MB Air from 2015, three years old, is better than the current generation MB, MB Pro, and MB Air. I wanted to report back to everyone here.

Here is what I found talking to various mac owners. Old style airs and old style pros (no touch bar!) have decent cameras. New airs and new pros (with touch bar!) have terrible cameras. The signatures are Apple_camera and UVC correspondingly. If the latter can be fixed in software - remains to be seen. Hardly. And still not a word from Apple.

Just saw this post after posting the same thing up above.

We just bought a brand new 2018 MacBook Air, and right out of the box the camera is awful - worse than my old MacBook Pro, worse than our old iPad.

I'm sure they knew - look at the processor they chose to put in this computer, and the price they're asking for it. It's basically a scam. But if we want to use macOS, which we do, we have to put up with it until they decide to stop hoarding all their earnings as cash and actually use it to make solid computers again.

Apple removed my post about my 2018 Macbook Air. They said it's a "rant" and not constructive.

Well, I guess they don't like all the paying customers speaking facts about a crappy 480P camera that they put in the new MB Air lolol

I just upgraded (may be downgraded) from MBA 2015 to MBA 2018.

My experience is in case of artificial lighting there is a lot of noise in the picture. Much more compared do MBA 2015.

Even for private use the quality is unacceptable. Not sure if it is a hardware bug.