Suggestion for University Student

[Redsfan]

Hi guys, our 18 year old is looking to upgrade her 2014 Pro, and I am looking at a coulpe of options. This is really just for school and messing around, nothing in depth or design needed. Still using our mid 2014 and all is great except the battery. Is there a difference between these two in the end: Both 13.3, same memory

July 2019 Refurb: 1.7ghz quad core, i7, turbo boost, 128mb eDRam, 256SSD- $1,979
July 2018 Refurb: 2.3ghz quad, i5, turbo, 128mb eDRam, 256SSD- $1,989

Thoughts?

 

[satcomer]

I would go with the 2019 19 inch one because of fixed keyboard!

 

[Redsfan]

thanks for the reply...I have read some on the issues but wasn't aware it was for the 18's, thought it was the newer ones?

 

[Fishrrman]

DO NOT buy a 2016, 2017, 2018, or 2019 13" MacBook Pro.
DO NOT DO THIS!
The keyboards are prone to failure. Apple will cover the cost of the repair for 4 years from when the unit was first sold, but after that, the repair will run $700.

Can she "hold out" just a little while longer?
The 2020 "smaller" MacBook Pro (will be either 13" or possibly 14" this time) will come with an IMPROVED KEYBOARD that will not have the design weakness of the earlier models.
You DO want to wait for this one.

 

[revmacian]

thanks for the reply...I have read some on the issues but wasn't aware it was for the 18's, thought it was the newer ones?

The 2019 models have the latest generation of butterfly keyboard. I own a MacBook Air 2019 base model and I have seen no problems with the keyboard. I also own a 2017 MacBook Pro base model and have not seen any keyboard issues with it either. Yes, butterfly keyboards can fail more often than the older keyboards. However, saying that butterfly keyboards are faulty and will fail are nothing more than false statements - I'm still waiting for my 2017 MBP keyboard to fail.

That being said, I would go with the 2019 model you have listed simply because it is a newer model and it should easily handle the use case you've listed.

 

[Redsfan]

DO NOT buy a 2016, 2017, 2018, or 2019 13" MacBook Pro.
DO NOT DO THIS!
The keyboards are prone to failure. Apple will cover the cost of the repair for 4 years from when the unit was first sold, but after that, the repair will run $700.

Can she "hold out" just a little while longer?
The 2020 "smaller" MacBook Pro (will be either 13" or possibly 14" this time) will come with an IMPROVED KEYBOARD that will not have the design weakness of the earlier models.
You DO want to wait for this one.

she can wait, but doesn't want to, lol. Good points though that you make. Her battery is dead too so it's $200 to replace for how long before new? When are 2020's coming?