I have a mid 2014 MBP I have been using with virtually no batter, broken keyboard for years and feel it's time to upgrade. Up in Canada I can get the 8/256 on our Refurb store for $1,229 (July 2022 release) which is about $100 cheaper than new even with the Education discount which seems to have disappeared up here? Is Midnight to really show every fingerprint? I use this for work and current machine was only 256GB as well. Was thinking about looking at used, but always hesitant buying phones/Macbooks used...
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
The "I just bought/ordered/got/shipped my new/refurb MBA" thread, [Merged]
- Thread starter kfscoll
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Since this is an upgrade from a 2014, now a decade (!) old machine, I’d consider moving up to 16 GB +/- 512 GB for the sake of longevity, although it does depend upon what you do with it.
To put it another way, if you’re going to buy a very inexpensive used machine and/or you don’t plan on keeping it for very long, 8/256 may make sense. However, if you’re going to pay full refurb/edu price for it and plan on keeping it a long time, I’d pay the extra money for 16 GB RAM and maybe 512 GB storage as well, unless you know your usage will be light and will remain light for the next 5-10 years.
Hey a fellow RFD guy! I really only use this for work/business which is pretty much light use, so don't really need to upgrade and can offload any needed space to my Personal Cloud. Used our previous without issues.
Well, I'm taking the plunge and upgrading from my stalwart 2017 MacBook Air to a refurb M2!
It will be an amazing (night and day) difference in every conceivable way. Enjoy!
So I had the chance to give it a spin. I gotta say, for me it's not just a speed difference, it's just an overall quality-of-life difference, with the display being the biggest change. Changing from my 2017 Air to the M2 Air reminds me of what it felt like to move from my original iPhone SE to my current iPhone 11 Pro. Sure, it's not as good as the MacBook Pro, but man, the display on the MacBook Air is nice.
I know a lot of people were also really upset about the design change between the M2 Air and the M1/Intel Airs, but I really like the design of the M2 Air. Thanks to Apple's aggressive move against the display bezels, and the thinness of the slab design, the M2 Air feels like it's closer in size to my lamented 11" 2011/2013 MacBook Air than my current Intel Air, even though at 13.6" the M2 is apparently slightly larger.
I was seriously considering getting the M1 MacBook Air, and while it's a fine machine, I'm really happy I went with the M2. If anything, just getting old-school MagSafe back (and having two actual free USB ports) made me happy.
Just bought an M1 Air base model, £764 on Amazon UK. No doubt it’ll get discontinued when the M3 launches next month but I prefer the design and only need it for basic stuff, hopefully I’ve not made a mistake!
Considering the fact that pretty much all of the major Mac-focused YouTube channels are still singing the praises of the M1 MacBook Air in 2024, I'd say that you still got a fantastic computer. Heck, even I'm still wondering if I should have gotten the M1 Air instead of the M2 and saved $200 on the refurb store.
And given how popular the M1 Air is, I honestly don't see Apple discontinuing it any time soon, unless they drastically drop the price of the M2 Air to $999, which I just don't see happening.
Just picked up the last of the non-retina MacBook Airs, a Mid 2017 model 7,2. Due to some extremely unfortunate happenings I don't have my M2 Air anymore, and I couldn't afford to replace it outright, so I bought this for peanuts instead and will ride it until it dies or I can afford another new Air. And it seems to work great with Sonoma, no performance issues or otherwise. I feel like it might need a battery, and if I'm going to bother with that I may as well upgrade the storage (which is only 128GB). But the parts for that aren't much either. You absolutely feel the loss of that snappy M2, but the screen actually isn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be.
Unexpectedly thrust into the world of Intel Macs again.
Unexpectedly thrust into the world of Intel Macs again.
Attachments
Yep, my wife is still very happy with hers. Here it is in our kitchen computer nook:
I also got it quite cheap used, a couple of years ago. I did upgrade it from 128 GB to 256 GB though, with a used Apple Samsung OEM SSD.
The M2 MBA 13" is $949 while the 15" is $999.
It happened.
Congratulations on getting what is, IMHO, one of the finest laptops Apple ever made.
It's the penultimate evolution of the 2010-2017 redesign generation, making it a proven hardware design on a proven chassis. And since it doesn't have a T2 chip you won't need to worry about DIY repairs likely resulting in a bricked machine. Plus you can both replace/upgrade the SSD and replace the battery with ease. And while it's not going to dominate the Geekbench leaderboard or work with 18 streams of 8K ProRes video, it's plenty fast to tackle most productivity tasks.
My ride-or-die MacBook Air was an Apple refurb 7,2 and it was one of the most rock-solid Apple machines I've ever had. And while my new Apple refurb M2 Air is a fine machine, my old MacBook Air is still going strong. The original battery had gone wonky and I actually replaced it with a new iFixIt battery last year. I might still upgrade its SSD to something bigger and beefier.
Yep, my wife is still very happy with hers. Here it is in our kitchen computer nook:
I also got it quite cheap used, a couple of years ago. I did upgrade it from 128 GB to 256 GB though, with a used Apple Samsung OEM SSD.
I’ll probably go through OWC. I actually do have a Samsung 970 1TB drive I’d like to install but apparently the interface is custom despite the drive being PCIe. I can get a 480GB drive for about the same price as a battery replacement kit, which includes the tools for opening the unit up that I don't have, so I might do them both at the same time and that should push it along for a few years yet. I am in the process of re-calibrating the original battery so we'll see if I can get it to behave properly.
Yes, OWC sells drives with the right custom interface, but they are no-name drives so not necessarily the best option. You can use standard NVMe M.2 drives with the appropriate adapter. There is an entire thread here about which name brand drives are best for this purpose. The adapter is about US$8-15.
The safest is using used Apple Samsung OEM, but they come with a price premium, and of course, they are used.
Thanks! I really like this machine. I had one of these in 2018 on a job I was working, but had to give it back after the job ended. I also had an 11" machine in 2011 for school. I've always liked the form factor of these machines. And they stand up well. Apple is still effectively using this design mildly re-worked as the M1 MacBook Air. So it's hardly dated. The USB-A ports are nice to have again, definitely missed those on my M2.
As for upgrades, because the machine was so cheap to buy, I'm not adverse to tossing some upgrades at it if I'm keeping it for a few years, as is the plan (I'll try to get to the end of the support date for Sonoma, or whatever macOS is the last to support Intel).
That's good to know, I'll see if I can find the information on here. I saw that there were adapters but wasn't sure about fitment. I have a Samsung 970 EVO 1TB drive I could put in this machine if the adapter and spacing requirements aren't too onerous.
BTW, be careful with the battery replacements. A lot of them aren't very good. If your battery life is still manageable, it may be better just to keep the OEM battery for now. I personally only go with third party battery replacements when the OEM battery becomes truly bad.
BTW, I see that the Apple Samsung SSUBX OEM drives have dropped considerably in price on eBay, so that's also a consideration. Space in the Air may be more limited than in the MB Pro, so look for advice on that in the Mac SSD thread if you decide to take the SSUBX route, but the machine did take up to 512 GB straight from Apple though so you're likely safe with 512 GB SSUBX.
I believe the 970 EVO has been tested in Macs, but I don't remember the results.
BTW, I see that the Apple Samsung SSUBX OEM drives have dropped considerably in price on eBay, so that's also a consideration. Space in the Air may be more limited than in the MB Pro, so look for advice on that in the Mac SSD thread if you decide to take the SSUBX route, but the machine did take up to 512 GB straight from Apple though so you're likely safe with 512 GB SSUBX.
Last edited:
just ordered!
8th delivery
16GB/512GB is enough for me. This will be my secondary computer so it doesn't need to be crazy powerful. My PC which is my main computer has 64GB/4.5TB. The boot drive on my PC is 512GB and I still have ~320GB free on it. I'm not gonna play games on the Air and all my files are stored on the PC and backed up to external drives.
The 512GB on the Air will be just for the bare essentials and 16GB RAM is good enough for basic web browsing and light photo/video editing on the go. 8GB is too little and the 24GB is overkill.
Last time I had a Mac was 12 years ago. I've been wanting a new Mac for years. Excited to come "Back to Mac"
I'll buy AC+ eventually but not just right now until I get the laptop and use it for a bit.
Mine isn't available until the 20th.
just ordered!
8th delivery
16GB/512GB is enough for me. This will be my secondary computer so it doesn't need to be crazy powerful. My PC which is my main computer has 64GB/4.5TB. The boot drive on my PC is 512GB and I still have ~320GB free on it. I'm not gonna play games on the Air and all my files are stored on the PC and backed up to external drives.
The 512GB on the Air will be just for the bare essentials and 16GB RAM is good enough for basic web browsing and light photo/video editing on the go. 8GB is too little and the 24GB is overkill.
Last time I had a Mac was 12 years ago. I've been wanting a new Mac for years. Excited to come "Back to Mac"
I'll buy AC+ eventually but not just right now until I get the laptop and use it for a bit.
This is replacing my M2 MacBook Air. Nearly identical except now it has the M3 (duh), can support 2 external displays and shouldn't be as much of a fingerprint magnet. The M2 goes into storage in case of emergency and my M1 gets sold.
I'm so excited! I'm a longtime iPhone and iPad user, but I'm about to become a first time Mac owner!!
16GB/1TB model, midnight colour.
Expected delivery: March 19-21 (hopefully sooner??)
16GB/1TB model, midnight colour.
Expected delivery: March 19-21 (hopefully sooner??)
So you keep an extra last gen MacBook Air just as an unused backup?!?
Also, I'm curious. How much will M3 benefit you over M2? And if CPU/GPU matters to you, why not MacBook Pro?
MacBook Pro is too big and heavy for everyday carrying. I have to have something to fallback on since my livelihood totally depends on having a MacBook. I kept the M1 for the same reason and now I'll sell it. The M1 was used for a much shorter time than the M2 so its battery is in better condition. My M2 is currently at around 85% capacity after 250 or so charges.So you keep an extra last gen MacBook Air just as an unused backup?!?
Also, I'm curious. How much will M3 benefit you over M2? And if CPU/GPU matters to you, why not MacBook Pro?
As for performance, yes the extra performance will be noticeable. I spend all day doing React builds. For my current project the builds take about 9 seconds. Anything faster is appreciated since any delay can get you off track during development and debugging sessions. The only way that a faster CPU wouldn't help if the builds were literally instantaneous.
My current M2 MacBook Air is paid off in full so adding a small monthly fee to get the update is not a big deal to me. It's essentially $5/day.
Please be careful with this, and I do it myself so no criticism.
However, when I bought my M2 MBA I missed the deadline and Apple refused to allow me to purchase AC+. I would buy an M3 MBA and trade in my M2 but I feel like that's a waste (well, at least this point).
What do you mean be careful?
I believe I have 60 days to purchase it after ordering the Air. I waited to buy AC+ for both my iPhone and Watch. I like to spend sometime to decide if I’m happy with the product before coughing up for insurance.