2010 MacBook Air a1369...still a good buy?

davistld01 said:

Got the MBA today, and got it set up and usable. Had a problem loading Yosemite for some reason (wouldn't download until 3rd attempt), but all looks good. I'll spend the next few days tweaking things to my liking...but all in all I'm pretty impressed.

I'm going to give my learning Mac OS a real opportunity this time because I'm starting even now to see something's are more intuitive than Windows that I'm used to. If I find I'm getting comfy with it...it won't be long before I step up to a new or at least a newer model.

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Congrats and enjoy your purchase. I like OS X a lot but as with anything new and complicated there's still a learning curve. If you get stuck on something I find that it's almost always helpful to google for the solution.

The SSD in the 2010/2011 model is much slower than the SSD in the 2012 model.

The battery life on the 2013 model is 2x the battery life on the earlier models.

Figure this into your math: the 2010 MBA you are looking at probably is in need of a new battery ($120 from Apple, cheaper version of debatable lifespan available for $60-100).

My wife's 2010 MBA with 2GB is going strong for doing all the stuff you are talking about (although it does now have a new battery and SSD). But I never upgraded it beyond OS X Lion, because I didn't want to risk killing its speed by loading the newer OS. My 2012 MBA (8GB), is also going strong with the latest OS X version.

tmarks11 said:

Figure this into your math: the 2010 MBA you are looking at probably is in need of a new battery ($120 from Apple, cheaper version of debatable lifespan available for $60-100).

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This is getting out of control already.

Where did you get these numbers from?? Please do your research before posting any specific numbers like this and don't spread disinformation. Genuine battery price starts at slightly above $50, you just need to buy them from trusted ebay/aliexpress sellers, not from Amazon where there are zillion sellers and none of them has substantial selling records or reviews - you could just as well get the different item each time ordering. As for the Apple store prices, well we know about those..

SmOgER said:

This is getting out of control already.

Where did you get these numbers from?? Please do your research before posting any specific numbers like this and don't spread disinformation. Genuine battery price starts at slightly above $50...

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"Out of control"? I don't think you understand what that expression means.

So you are decrying my saying minimum price is $60 instead of $57? lol.

Ok, let me be precise, the minimum price I have seen is $56.88 (as in the battery you pointed out on eBay in the last thread on this).

Or do you disagree that I am questioning how long batteries bought from someone beside Apple will last? Come back in 4 years when you have found out the real answer to that question. Notice that this didn't stop me from buying an off-brand replacement.

And I have my strong doubts that the "genuine eBay" sellers are any more reputable than the Amazon storefronts.

What "research" did you do that led you to believe that the $57 battery from Ebay is genuine? Looking at the picture where it says "designed by Apple"?

davistld01 said:

How did this go from me asking about the 2010 MBA I was looking at to a back and forth battle of the egos? Sheesh! Who cares?

I'll probably drop $60 on a new battery soon. It lasts about 3.5-hours of moderate use...which is how I use it. And, it doesn't seem as slug slow as some of you make it out to be. Maybe not as fast as your hotshot, latest & greatest 2014 model...but fast enough for me at this point. I won't be spending the extra bucks on an SSD. I'll probably sell it or give it somebody who can enjoy it before that.

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It already has an SSD so I wouldn't get another unless you're running out of space. True, some SSDs are faster than others in terms of raw megabytes per second, but the main benefit of an SSD is being able to randomly access files with very low latency, and that's something any SSD will do. So you're already seeing almost all of the benefit of an SSD.

3.5 hours sounds about right for that model. I used to get maybe 4 hours with my 11" model so it's not that far off. You can check the battery condition by downloading an app called Battery Health that's pretty good. Then you'll know what you can expect from a new battery.

Enjoy your laptop!

tmarks11 said:

So you are decrying my saying minimum price is $60 instead of $57? lol.

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haha slow down the horses, I was "decrying" your saying that all the ~50-80$ ones are the knock-offs (not those exact words, but don't even start on that...), which is obviously not truth if you are buying wisely.

If you don't believe me, then go to the Apple store and pay 3 times the price. End of story.

SmOgER said:

haha slow down the horses, I was "decrying" your saying that all the ~50-80$ ones are the knock-offs

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How do you know that Ebay seller is selling ones made in the same place as the Apple ones? $57 would be a good deal if that were true. Indeed, $100 would be a good deal if that were true.

At least buying from the Amazon storefront, there is an 18 month warranty (assuming the company selling them still exists in 18 months... which it probably won't... at least not under the name it is selling now). Do I seem a bit too cynical here?

Airboy1466 said:

I wouldn't say that because in 2011 the Mac book air went through a major change from core 2 duo to a sandy bridge processor so no it's not and highly doubt that 2010 can even run yosimite

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I've been using Yosemite on my 2010 MBA 1.86 GHz and 4 GB RAM with no problems whatsoever. I reverted back to Mavericks as Yosemite has not been polished enough and I personally prefer Mavericks' stability and performance over the UI overhaul of Yosemite.

That being said, I've been using my 2010 MBA for 5 years. For all the stuff that I do (word processing, light gaming, 1080p MKV videos) it has worked like a champ. I can play Blizzard's latest games (HOTS, Starcraft, WOW, Diablo) fairly good (lowest settings) and I can also play some older games using emulators like OpenEMU.

If you are in the market for an old MBA, I would strongly advise you to get either the 2011 as there shouldn't be such a big price gap and the performance increased is totally worth it. (Major step was going from Core 2 Duo to Sandy Bridge and a twice as fast SSD although the GFX card was an Intel one instead of the NVIDIA the 320M has).

tmarks11 said:

How do you know that Ebay seller is selling ones made in the same place as the Apple ones? $57 would be a good deal if that were true. Indeed, $100 would be a good deal if that were true.

At least buying from the Amazon storefront, there is an 18 month warranty (assuming the company selling them still exists in 18 months... which it probably won't... at least not under the name it is selling now). Do I seem a bit too cynical here?

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Don't know about you, but if ~80% out of 500+ people (aliexpress and ebay combined from the same seller of the same item) ordered are fully satisfied and many are claiming around 7 hours battery life out of it with no more than 5 cycles, no negative reviews/feedback (the missing 20% of people simply didn't give one), and the seller has 99,5+% feedback and is top rated one with a gold medal... THEN THAT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME.

by the way, I have just received it!
Everything is legit and it has a Apple serial number on the back, when I will take apart my MBA I can take some photos with it laying besides the old battery.

EDIT: In particular I'am referring to the MBA 2011 13" battery I've received, but it's similarly priced like the one for 2010 MBA.

Here we go!

New one for $50 (58?) vs old one:

http://imgur.com/NiakIik,CPRZiEE,zm...p8n,NrQnMau,GZo3mjH,vptdzsI,WgOyWHx,erv9RqP#0


Old one is dusty and has a 'recycle bin' sticker on the back. New on is cleaner, has a small white sticker on the back near the s/n (for seller for identifying purposes) and has that transparent plastic protective 'thingy' on the connector (as far as I know all newer Apple batteries have one, I was slightly surprised that my old one didn't have it). I couldn't spot any other differences besides unsurprisingly slightly different S/N.

Reasambled the machine with new battery:



(really impressed by the manufacture date, I was expecting to be it at least one year older! )

SmOgER said:

Don't know about you, but if ~80% out of 500+ people (aliexpress and ebay combined from the same seller of the same item) ordered are fully satisfied and many are claiming around 7 hours battery life out of it with no more than 5 cycles, no negative reviews/feedback (the missing 20% of people simply didn't give one), and the seller has 99,5+% feedback and is top rated one with a gold medal... THEN THAT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME.

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The difference between a good and a bad battery will generally show up between 12-18 months, so just because the users are initially happy, this means nothing. In all reality, many/most of the no-brand battery retailers on Ebay or Amazon storefronts will be long gone between any users have a chance to try to force them to make good on "18 month" or "1000 cycle" warranty.

You make your choice, you take your chances. I purchased a $60 battery from Amazon, you purchased a $50 battery from Ebay. The battery I installed looked identical to the battery I took out. So far I am happy (which as I said above means nothing).

davistld01 said:

Generally just typing out of lecture/teaching papers, web browsing, email, and run of the mill things. I have never learned Mac OSX, nor do I claim to be a "computer guy", only putzing around on various PC's , using programs at work and knowing how to surf the Internet. I thought this would be a great way to educate myself in how to operate a "real Mac" and see if I like it without spending $1000-1300 on a new one. Heck, I figure at $400, I can always recoup my money invested if I hate it! If I love it, and can justify the cost, I'll trade up to a newer Air or Pro. If I find that portability is a moot point...I may buy an iMac in the future instead of a Macbook.

Oh yeah, it's a 2gb model. Can it be upgraded on memory or other ways?

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My 2011 MBA is my first and one and only mac thus far and I learned it fast. I was hesitant to switch over as I always had a Sony Vaio Z series laptop - flagship model. But now that Sony is no longer making computers, I'm glad I made the switch. There were, however, programs I loved using on my Vaio which I need to repurchase on this MBA. I sort of miss it, but my MBA is always with me. I love it more than my 6+ and iPad.

davistld01 said:

Well, the 2011 Air is now in the hands of my girlfriend...and she loves it. So, whether is was the best for me or not, it was worth it. I appreciate the feedback...even the posts that had nothing at all to do with my topic.

I'm now looking at a choice between a 2011 MBP and a 2013 MBA...but I started another thread on that.

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Why didn't you keep it?
What apps did you run and how did it perform?

2010 was the year they took away the backlit keyboard. I hated that aspect of my 2010 11". Glad they added it back the following year. My 2013 MBA is the best computer I've ever owned.