Macbook Pro (late 2011) to Macbook Air (mid 2019): A step forward?

[transatlanticist]

Hi there, I Would be pleased to have your opinions in order to make the best decision.
Currently I have a Macbook Pro 13'' late 2011 Intel Core 2,8 Ghz i7 4GB SD RAM DD3, 750 GB SATA HD,
As I have been reading, it won' t support OS X High Sierra smoothly, it might need an HD / RAM upgrade.

On the other hand, I was seeing a refurbished Macbook Air, Intel Core i5 1,6GHz 8GB Ram LPDDR3 HD SSD PCIe 128GB.

Apparently with the MBA I would loose pretty much HD storage.
Also, from my point of view, moving from a i7 2,8 GHz to i5 1,6 GHz would be a step back, but I might be wrong, here I will appreciate your opinion.

My question: It would be better to sell MBP and get the MBA, or stuck with my MBP and upgrade HD and RAM? To be said that I am a normal user (email, iTunes) and have a small budget
Thank you all in advanced.
Kind regards.

 

[killerrobot]

You can buy a SSD and RAM for pretty cheap as you can upgrade those still in a 2011 computer. I'd do that over buying a MBA.

 

[Tekguy0]

Upgrade to the max RAM, and pop in a nice SATA SSD. The main issue with that model MBA is the keyboard. It probably does have a faster chip, (due to architectural improvements) even though the base clock speed is lower. Its probably pretty close.

 

[4sallypat]

Upgrade to the max RAM, and pop in a nice SATA SSD. The main issue with that model MBA is the keyboard. It probably does have a faster chip, (due to architectural improvements) even though the base clock speed is lower. Its probably pretty close.

^^^ yes this is a lot better on the wallet.
Plus the older MBP has all the ports standard instead of having to buy dongles with the newer Macs..

As for the CPU speeds, you can't compare -it's like apples and oranges.
The newer generation 8th or 9th gen Intel core runs circles around the second gen Intel core.
The clock speed has little impact when the number of threads that it can run simultaneously...
It's more an efficiency in processing power.

 

[theluggage]

Also, from my point of view, moving from a i7 2,8 GHz to i5 1,6 GHz would be a step back, but I might be wrong, here I will appreciate your opinion.

Hmm. Is that a 2015 "classic" Air or the 2017 re-design (with a better display but the curse of the butterfly keyboard)?

Those "classic" Airs may not be powerhouses or have super displays, but they are pretty much perfect machines for your sort of light use, and the SSDs made them feel really snappy - and still had the good old, classic keyboard. For your use it would probably feel quicker than your HD-based MBP. Not so keen on the newer ones with the butterfly keyboard (although they have nicer displays).

The key is how much HD space do you need - 128GB is probably OK for office and email, unless you have a huge iTunes library or massive email archive.

As for upgrading the MBP - I wouldn't lavish too much money on a 9-year old machine that is out of software support, but upgrading the RAM and replacing the system disc with a 2.5" SSD is fairly cheap and very easy to do, and should give it a new lease on life.