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MBA 2013 vs MBA 2014

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PharmDoc

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 10, 2010
292
9
Hi Everybody

I have a MBA 2011, 13 in that is absolutely in perfect condition but I'm getting a bit irritated with the shorter battery life. I'm looking to sell this and get a refurb 2013 that's in the Apple store which would cost me about $500 after selling this one. Is there any noticeable difference between the 2013 and the 2014 refresh? I'm definitely not a power user anymore but I do like that 8 to 10 hour battery life vs the 4 hours I'm getting now. Thanks

PharmDoc
 
PharmDoc said:
Hi Everybody

I have a MBA 2011, 13 in that is absolutely in perfect condition but I'm getting a bit irritated with the shorter battery life. I'm looking to sell this and get a refurb 2013 that's in the Apple store which would cost me about $500 after selling this one. Is there any noticeable difference between the 2013 and the 2014 refresh? I'm definitely not a power user anymore but I do like that 8 to 10 hour battery life vs the 4 hours I'm getting now. Thanks

PharmDoc
Click to expand...

If you are that keen to upgrade just because of a battery life boost, wouldnt you be pretty upset when Apple released a completely redesigned MBA later this year? If you absolutely cannot live with 4 hours of battery life, then you should get a new computer, but if it works fine, I don't think it would be worth the money. Definitely the 2013 version by the way between the two.

Matt
 
Refurb, nothing really changed with the 2014 bump. I'd not even call it a refresh its so minor.
 
It's probably only a matter of time till someone finds a way to flash 2014 firmware on 2013 model, cause it's really IS a very minor bump. :)
 
SmOgER said:
It's probably only a matter of time till someone finds a way to flash 2014 firmware on 2013 model, cause it's really IS a very minor bump. :)
Click to expand...

What do you mean by flashing 2014 firmware :confused:. Apple only bumped up the processor speed.
 
maflynn said:
What do you mean by flashing 2014 firmware :confused:. Apple only bumped up the processor speed.
Click to expand...

Yes, they did that via firmware (same as messing with BIOS settings on desktop PC), the chips are essentially the same. Essentially you could take any chip on the market and bump it's speed by at least 100mhz with no problems whatsoever. On most machines turbo boost overclocks even more than that when all cores are at full load, cause there is a room for it till TDP reaches the pre-set W limit, but most people aren't even aware of that. I'am starting to wonder if on the full load the clockrates are actually any different, in theory, if the chips are the same, they should be giving the exact same performance for the same TDP, unless Apple bumped TDP as well that is, which would mean more heat.
 
Last edited:
SmOgER said:
Yes, they did that via firmware (same as messing with BIOS settings on desktop PC), the chips are essentially the same. Essentially you could take any chip on the market and bump it's speed by at least 100mhz with no problems whatsoever. On most machines turbo boost overclocks even more than that when all cores are at full load, cause there is a room for it till TDP reaches the pre-set W limit, but most people aren't even aware of that. I'am starting to wonder if on the full load the clockrates are actually any different, in theory, if the chips are the same, they should be giving the exact same performance for the same TDP, unless Apple bumped TDP as well that is, which would mean more heat.
Click to expand...

Both chips have the same TDP, but they've been binned differently. I doubt all i5 4250u chips would handle running at 1.4GHz. Even if they could, it appears that the multiplier it is locked at a hardware level on the Haswell chips.
 
T5BRICK said:
Both chips have the same TDP, but they've been binned differently. I doubt all i5 4250u chips would handle running at 1.4GHz. Even if they could, it appears that the multiplier it is locked at a hardware level on the Haswell chips.
Click to expand...

multiplier is dynamical, cause there is turbo mode. Try fully loading one of the threads and you will see what I mean when frequency increases by some 500Mhz.

From my understanding clock is locked only to TDP on these chips, so maximum clock with all threads fully loaded will actually ever so slightly vary per chip. And I'am not saying all that out of the blue, I actually observed cpu clock climbing higher than officially stated in specs when CPU load was 100% and temps were in normal range on my MBA.
 
Having 10+ hours battery life is indeed amazing, but can you wait to the end of the year? There're going to be a major upgrade then, probably 12" retina MBA with 10+ hours battery life.

PharmDoc said:
Hi Everybody

I have a MBA 2011, 13 in that is absolutely in perfect condition but I'm getting a bit irritated with the shorter battery life. I'm looking to sell this and get a refurb 2013 that's in the Apple store which would cost me about $500 after selling this one. Is there any noticeable difference between the 2013 and the 2014 refresh? I'm definitely not a power user anymore but I do like that 8 to 10 hour battery life vs the 4 hours I'm getting now. Thanks

PharmDoc
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for this thread and advice. My niece is starting college in the fall and wanted an Air (she needed something more portable) so I ordered this refurb for her from Apple for $799.
Originally released June 2013
13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, 1440-by-900 resolution
4GB memory
128GB flash storage
720p FaceTime HD camera
Intel HD Graphics 500
She just needed one for basic college stuff and the FaceTime will be nice if she gets homesick. Not sure if it ships with Mountain Lion or Mavericks but the family is using a mini with Mavericks so should I upgrade it to 10.9 or just wait till later this year for Yosemite? My other question is if I do upgrade it to Mavericks, do you think she would be eligible for the free iWork software? This unit was released in June of 2013 and the free upgrade started in October.
 
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Thanks for the advice everybody. I will wait until the Fall to see what is released and then I might get the 2014 refurb. I don't need the latest and greatest anymore as Apple definitely makes some solid products. This Air has been the best laptop I've every owned.
 
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