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Would you buy a MacBook 12" in 2021?
- Thread starter DaneTheGr8
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- macbook 12"
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8GB.
16GB would probably have helped a bit, but I wouldn't say it'd be a game changer. I usually kept just a few apps running because of the 8GB limit, so RAM wasn't really the overall bottleneck.
As I posted earlier, I just bought a used one with 16 gigs of RAM last week - haven't used it much, it hasn't felt that slow to me so far (fast SSDs can really help for a lot of things), but you'd think it should feel very slow when my other Macs are an M1 Max MBP and a 6-core mid-2020 iMac.
Simple tasks like loading wep pages felt a lot slower on my Macbook 12" compared to my 16" MBP (intel) and 2019 iMac. I also did a clean reinstall of Catalina the Macbook 12", so there wasn't any software issues that could've slowed it down.
Unless you're talking web pages from 15-20 years ago, I wouldn't call "loading web pages" a simple task these days... just look at how much memory web browsers guzzle compared to productivity apps.
I am still very happy with my 2017 12" MacBook which I bought fully maxed-out and she works quite nicely for occasional tasks around home, but her main purpose remains as my travel companion. Of course traveling hasn't been quite the same over the past couple of years!
Basically I have used her on the road for checking emails and looking in on and participating in forums such as this one, but since I can now also do that with an iPad, why bother? Many of my trips involve doing a lot of photography and I appreciate being able to download image files into the 12" MB and using her as a repository for those as well as also a way of quickly also sharing the same files with an external drive. Nowadays, of course, one can also do this with an iPad but at the time I bought my 12" MB that was not the case and since she still handles the job just fine, I'm content for the moment.
Would I leap to buy a 12" M1 or M2 or whatever, especially if it had two ports? You BET!! The weight, the overall dimensions of this little machine are just perfect for traveling. In my household this is not the machine which does the heavy lifting -- I don't need her to do that, but she does admirably well at what I do ask of her. If she were brought up to date I'd be snapping up her successor in a heartbeat......
Basically I have used her on the road for checking emails and looking in on and participating in forums such as this one, but since I can now also do that with an iPad, why bother? Many of my trips involve doing a lot of photography and I appreciate being able to download image files into the 12" MB and using her as a repository for those as well as also a way of quickly also sharing the same files with an external drive. Nowadays, of course, one can also do this with an iPad but at the time I bought my 12" MB that was not the case and since she still handles the job just fine, I'm content for the moment.
Would I leap to buy a 12" M1 or M2 or whatever, especially if it had two ports? You BET!! The weight, the overall dimensions of this little machine are just perfect for traveling. In my household this is not the machine which does the heavy lifting -- I don't need her to do that, but she does admirably well at what I do ask of her. If she were brought up to date I'd be snapping up her successor in a heartbeat......
I found a 2017 I5/8gb of ram-512gb of storage for $480 with a little over a hundred cycles on it. Is this a good deal or pass? My biggest concern is the four year keyboard replacement program has expired so if the keyboard fails I will be out of pocket to get it fixed.
I just sold my perfect condition M1 MBA 16/512, with about 37 charge cycles for about 1000 dollars and now use exclusively Macbook 2017 8/256 as a main mobile machine, bought with 67 battery cycles. It is very light, which I like most and works perfect in Monterey. I have two large desktops, so no heavy work on this macbook, but for mobile tasks it performs just great.
I get this, I do—I have a loaded 12" 2017 myself—but you do run the real risk that when you finally open this sealed one up, the battery will have degraded a lot.
I recently borrow my Macbook 12" 2017 (8GB/Intel M3) to my aunt and asked for a Macbook at my job (I like to use my own laptop to work but i can use a laptop of the work), a Macbook Pro 2017 base model and wow, the difference in performance is really noticeable.
My Macbook with Big Sur just didn't run fine but i see now the performance of a more capable Macbook in Big Sur and yes, i can tell that these little Macbook 12" are not the best in power..
..but man, maaaaan how i miss that little, beautiful Macbook 12". Yes, is underpowered but is so little, so silence, so portable, so beautiful. With High Sierre it move really really nice (i think a good middle could be Catalina).
I recommend one if you won't need a powerful machine to do powerful things. I use mine with Quickbook, Chrome and some excels so all good and if you will need it to wath Netflix, youtube, some office, just navigate in the web i highly recommend one. Especially if you will move outside your house with this little machine.
My Macbook with Big Sur just didn't run fine but i see now the performance of a more capable Macbook in Big Sur and yes, i can tell that these little Macbook 12" are not the best in power..
..but man, maaaaan how i miss that little, beautiful Macbook 12". Yes, is underpowered but is so little, so silence, so portable, so beautiful. With High Sierre it move really really nice (i think a good middle could be Catalina).
I recommend one if you won't need a powerful machine to do powerful things. I use mine with Quickbook, Chrome and some excels so all good and if you will need it to wath Netflix, youtube, some office, just navigate in the web i highly recommend one. Especially if you will move outside your house with this little machine.
Yes, I had a mid lever 2016 MacBook, and I upgraded to a fully loaded final 2017 model. Performance wise it makes a big enough difference that it’s still getting the job done, and can run Ventura.
My 2017 m3 16 GB is not fast, but it's more than fine for the stuff I do with it, which is basically just surfing, Office, and VPN to work, and occasional video watching. In terms of performance for a lightly used laptop, I have no desire to upgrade it (partially because it includes hardware HEVC decode acceleration for h.265 videos). As mentioned before, my bigger complaints are the single USB port, the mediocre keyboard, and the weak trackpad.
However, I have a 2017 Core i5 iMac at home, so I spend more time on that. That thing isn't slow, but interestingly its CPU is actually slower than the latest iPhones. The latest iPhones are way overpowered. Not that I'm complaining though.
However, I have a 2017 Core i5 iMac at home, so I spend more time on that. That thing isn't slow, but interestingly its CPU is actually slower than the latest iPhones. The latest iPhones are way overpowered. Not that I'm complaining though.
Back in June I sold my 2018 256/8 Gold MBA to get a refurbished MB in Rose Gold 512/16/i5 as a stopgap in hopes they would do colorful M2 MBAs but sadly they did not so I didn't upgrade since I have a M1 iMac already and this MB was basically as good a new.
I love how beautiful the machine is but it is underpowered which is a shame. it's good for browsing, word, and basic tasks, but I really avoid opening photoshop on this even with the higher ram space and faster SSD
I love how beautiful the machine is but it is underpowered which is a shame. it's good for browsing, word, and basic tasks, but I really avoid opening photoshop on this even with the higher ram space and faster SSD