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Should I upgrade from my 8GB MBA mid-2012 to 4GB MBA 2014 ?

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perfect0909

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 20, 2014
8
0
Hi, I currently own a mid-2012 MBA with 8GB ram and 128GB flash storage. I was thinking of selling my current MBA to get the base model (4GB ram / 128GB) of the latest MBA. I'm on a tight budget so I could only afford the base model and not upgrade anything.

Is it worth selling my current MBA with 8GB ram for a newer MBA with lower ram but longer battery life ?

The battery life on my current MBA is no issue to me but having a longer battery life seems better. I'm also planning to use my MBA for at least 4 years or so. So maybe keeping my current one with the 8GB ram is the better idea ? What do you guys think ?
 
capathy21

capathy21

macrumors 65816
Jun 16, 2014
1,418
617
Houston, Texas
perfect0909 said:
Hi, I currently own a mid-2012 MBA with 8GB ram and 128GB flash storage. I was thinking of selling my current MBA to get the base model (4GB ram / 128GB) of the latest MBA. I'm on a tight budget so I could only afford the base model and not upgrade anything.

Is it worth selling my current MBA with 8GB ram for a newer MBA with lower ram but longer battery life ?

The battery life on my current MBA is no issue to me but having a longer battery life seems better. I'm also planning to use my MBA for at least 4 years or so. So maybe keeping my current one with the 8GB ram is the better idea ? What do you guys think ?
Click to expand...

This would be easier to answer if you tell us what you do on your Air? Do you just do basic tasks, or do you do heavier multi-tasking stuff?
 
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perfect0909

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 20, 2014
8
0
capathy21 said:
This would be easier to answer if you tell us what you do on your Air? Do you just do basic tasks, or do you do heavier multi-tasking stuff?
Click to expand...

Right, forgot to include that bit into this. I'm a university student and I do a lot of web browsing, sometimes up to 12-15 tabs for research. I watch movies, listen to music, I use a lot of Skype video calling for hours, I do my assignments on Microsoft Office, I also edit photos / videos / presentations, and I blog + Tumblr. I do most of those tasks at once too :eek:
 
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perfect0909

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 20, 2014
8
0
MarvinHC said:
What is your motivation to upgrade? The 'I want' factor, or the longer battery life or.... ?
Click to expand...

The longer battery life. And also the sightly improved display. (Intel HD Graphics 5000 in comparison to the 4000 on mine). But then again, if I really wanted better display on MBA, maybe I should wait for Apple to release one with a retina screen in the near(??) future.
 
flowrider

flowrider

macrumors 604
Nov 23, 2012
7,232
2,962
perfect0909 said:
I'm on a tight budget so I could only afford the base model and not upgrade anything.

The battery life on my current MBA is no issue to me but having a longer battery life seems better.

So maybe keeping my current one with the 8GB ram is the better idea ? What do you guys think ?
Click to expand...

I think you answered your own question. If longer battery life is unimportant, keep what you have and spend the money you have saved yourself by taking a nice young woman to dinner:p

The Display is not better. but the graphics are a wee bit faster, something I believe you would not notice.

Lou
 
M

MarvinHC

macrumors 6502a
Jan 9, 2014
834
293
Belgium
perfect0909 said:
The longer battery life. And also the sightly improved display. (Intel HD Graphics 5000 in comparison to the 4000 on mine). But then again, if I really wanted better display on MBA, maybe I should wait for Apple to release one with a retina screen in the near(??) future.
Click to expand...

The display is not improved only the graphics processor which makes it slightly faster, but it won't look any different!

I would recommend you to find out what price you can get for your 2012 model so that you can see how much you would be paying for the extra battery life (plus some other small changes). From what you are describing you are not needing more than 4GB of RAM even though all the people here that always want to 'futureproof' will disagree.
 
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flowrider

flowrider

macrumors 604
Nov 23, 2012
7,232
2,962
MarvinHC said:
(and the USB 3.0 if this is of concern to you, plus some other small changes).
Click to expand...

The 2012 MBA does in fact also have USB 3.0. The only differences are the faster graphics, The SSD interface, and the CPU which is the reason for the improved battery life.

Lou
 
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perfect0909

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 20, 2014
8
0
Thank you for all your replies. I decided that I won't be upgrading and maybe when future MBA models are released with significantly bigger changes (praying for an MBA with retina in the near future). Only then I will upgrade. I figured my 2012 model and the current 2014 one don't have that much difference besides the battery life. I'm still okay with my 7 hour battery life on the 2012 so I'm good :p This was my first time posting on a forum and I'm glad to be in this community of helpful Appleheads. Thank you once again.
 
Ronnoco

Ronnoco

macrumors 68030
Oct 16, 2007
2,568
522
United States of America
flowrider said:
The 2012 MBA does in fact also have USB 3.0. The only differences are the faster graphics, The SSD interface, and the CPU which is the reason for the improved battery life.

Lou
Click to expand...

802.11ac wifi and dual microphones are also differences and iirc, the 2013/14 Airs use low power (LP) DDR memory.
 
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