How do Airs age?

[J&JPolangin]

Thanks for all replies! I have pretty much decided on 13" with 8 GB RAM and 128 GB SSD. 11" is too small. It's lovely but it's just too small. The 12" Macbook is GORGEOUS, tiny, cute, lovely screen and the worst keyboard I have ever tried. I tried to type a sentence and somehow managed to miss half of the keys. The 13" is going to get one of those flush SDXC bays with a 256 GB card inside. I don't mind the non-Retina screen at all, especially when it costs 350 euro to have it and I lose a lot of processing power in return. The Pro is too heavy (and pricey) for what I want to do with it.

Now I hope Apple don't manage to either take it off the market or bump the price before I've got ca$h to buy it

I have a 2013 11.6" MBA that was not may main machine until I went to a remote tour...it's a base 4Gb RAM/128Gb SSD machine so I added a 64Gb Sandisk USB3 flash drive to it since it didn't have a SDHC slot (being an 11.6" machine) and its been fine for daily use coupled with a 24" external monitor.

The portability has been great!

 

[whodatrr]

Keyboard died on my woman's 2012 11.6 MBA, a couple months after Applecare expired. Trackpad is intermittently sticking on my work issued 2013 MBA, which I guess I'll have to bring in for repair soon?

So, there's that...

Also, when checking with my company's IT team about a refresh (I'm about 6mos away from my upgrade), they said that company policy is now just MacBook Pros, because we've had too many issues with MBAs. Not saying they are more knowledgeable the anyone, but that's the opinion our guys have formed.

 

[chasonstone]

Hi all,

I am thinking of buying a maxed out Air 11". I am worried Air will be removed from Apple's line-up in March, and I definitely don't want the rMB with its toy processor. My goal is to have a laptop which will still be with me in five years. While obviously nobody can tell me if the 2015 model will still work in 2020, what are your experiences with Airs? What tends to break (or not)? Is it realistic to hope that an Air will still work in five years?

Thanks for any response!

I have a 2010 MacBook Air, no signs of quitting on me any time soon. I could actually seeing it lasting me at least another 2-3 years, or longer. My desire for a new "shiny toy" will probably get to me before the Air quits on me.

 

[navaira]

I have an additional question

I found a website of an Apple reseller who gives me a 5-year warranty for €54... BUT the battery is not covered. AppleCare costs €249 for three years. How does the battery hold after three years? I read somewhere that Apple will replace the battery if it runs below 80% capacity; but battery replacement by Apple costs €149 which would mean that the €54 option makes more sense... What would y'all suggest?

Thanks in advance

 

[quackers82]

I like hearing that. Really hope they don't take them off the market before I get the money to buy one!

I do not think they will. I believe the Macbook Air is Apples best selling Macbook. I watch the Refurb store regularly (normally every weekday i have a browse when i get to work) i see all the Macs coming in and out and i see no category get re-stocked more than the Air, i also see the Air the most in the wild. Its popular with students due to its price, and when i have asked Apple employees in the store they tell me the Air is the most popular Macbook they sell. Based on this i think the Air makes close to half of all Mac sales.

The Mac is on a roll at the moment, a big one, shifting well over 5 million Macs a quarter, for Apple to kill the Air now would be a really bad move. Im going to say it will stay around as the entry Macbook , get yet another price drop with it not being retina to try and get more onto the Mac platform. When i got the 13" entry 2011 Air it cost me £1150. A year later the 2012 cost me £999 you can now get a 2015 one for £849.

I also at a personal level hope the Air stays. Its my favourite Mac. I have a 15" 2013 Macbook Pro , but still prefer my 13" 2012 Air, but I'm not fussed over the retina, infact Id rather my Pro was not retina. I have a few apps , one called 2X for example that run silky smooth on the Air, but on the Pro with retina it jerks and lags because of the scaling it has to do with the retina screen.

 

[navaira]

This is unfortunately why I expect them to kill Air off. Apple is repositioning itself even further up the price ranges, more higher class than middle class. They (Cook) might decide that it's better to sell less rMBs with 75% profit (or whatever it is) than Airs with 50% profit (or whatever it is). I sincerely hope I am wrong.

The rumours around Air update say, basically, that it will either get killed off or that it will become thinner. I really really don't want it any thinner since I believe that would mean that horrid keyboard from the rMB.

I wanted an Air since the moment it got introduced. I could never justify the purchase though. Now I am on the brink of getting quite some ca$h and while most will go into my savings account I want to spend a chunk of it on the Air. Dear Apple, please don't murder my dream, love, Ray.

 

[Boyd01]

I watch the Refurb store regularly (normally every weekday i have a browse when i get to work) i see all the Macs coming in and out and i see no category get re-stocked more than the Air

Using your logic, wouldn't that imply that the MBA has more problems? I mean, the machines in the refurb store were returned to Apple for some reason, right?

Personally, I love my 2013 MBA, it's my primary computer and has been trouble free. I have no plans to replace it anytime soon.

 

[quackers82]

Using your logic, wouldn't that imply that the MBA has more problems? I mean, the machines in the refurb store were returned to Apple for some reason, right?

Personally, I love my 2013 MBA, it's my primary computer and has been trouble free. I have no plans to replace it anytime soon.

Nope, my logic is they sell more Airs if they had the same failure rate the following would happen, sell 100 Pro's with 1% failure, you will have 1 in stock. Sell 1000 Airs with 1% failure and you will have 10 in stock.

 

[bingeciren]

Airs age very well in my opinion. My first 11" Air was a maxed out 2010. My daughter use it and it runs very nicely with the El Cap. My second Maxed out 11" Air is used by my son and it runs perfectly. My current maxed out 11" 2012 Air runs beautifully with the El Cap. Very fast, and perfect for my connectivity needs.

To me the trade-off between the connectivity and the less than ideal display quality is quite acceptable.

 

[yoak]

My 11" 2012 runs like a Champ. The hinge us getting a little weak though. Sometimes it opens completely if I just move it a little

 

[dogslobber]

Hi all,

I am thinking of buying a maxed out Air 11". I am worried Air will be removed from Apple's line-up in March, and I definitely don't want the rMB with its toy processor. My goal is to have a laptop which will still be with me in five years. While obviously nobody can tell me if the 2015 model will still work in 2020, what are your experiences with Airs? What tends to break (or not)? Is it realistic to hope that an Air will still work in five years?

Thanks for any response!

I bought a 2010 13" MBA with 4gb and 128mb SSD. Those specs are still valid 5 years later. I'd generally buy a minimum 8gb and 256gb SSD for future insulation of 5 years. Is my 2010 MBA slow? Nope, it flies and is still amazing. The display is ace so you can keep your posh retina displays.

 

[Nia3088]

I have the late 2010 13" MBA with 128 GB SSD and it's still going great. I upgraded to 4GB Ram and and it's handled being lugged around for work and school, editing videos, Football Manager, and a dozen different tabs and apps being open at the same time. In fact, it's done so well, I'm debating whether to keep this or an early 2011 MBP.

My usage has changed now so I do most of my work-on-the-go on an iPad Air and I'm looking to get an iMac for home-use, but if I were to buy another MBA now, I would definitely go for the 256GB SSD because OS X's "Other" is taking up so much of the storage.

 

[rampancy]

How does a MacBook Air age? Quite well, in fact, in my experience. My original 2010 11.6" MacBook Air (1.4 Ghz, 2 GB RAM/64 GB SSD) is still going strong, and it even does well when running older Windows games through WINE.

My only regret was upgrading to 10.10; 10.9 was far superior in my experience, with regards to performance.

 

[navaira]

I just ordered a 13"/8GB/128GB from a reseller offering 2 year warranty. Suddenly all BTO models disappeared from most resellers and the basic 4/128 are on sale with 100-150 euro discounts. I have a feeling we might indeed see a new Air within a week. If that happens, I have 14 days to return mine. If it doesn't, I'll be happy with what I got. The main selling point for me is the keyboard, the nMB keyboard is terrible (that's an understatement). If there is a new Air within a week and it has the nMB keyboard I will be extremely pleased with my purchase. I don't own anything with a Retina screen, so I don't have the "now that I've seen it..." problem.

 

[SmOgER]

This is unfortunately why I expect them to kill Air off. Apple is repositioning itself even further up the price ranges, more higher class than middle class. They (Cook) might decide that it's better to sell less rMBs with 75% profit (or whatever it is) than Airs with 50% profit (or whatever it is). I sincerely hope I am wrong.

If they will introduce new features like force trackpad or retina to MBA expect the price to increase.
Otherwise, I would imagine the production efficiency has progressed pretty damn great in 5 years time with such a high unit volume. It now costs Apple to make MBA much less than let's say for ASUS to make ZenBook with same specs and similar materials. This, and the fact that intel U chips actually became less expensive in the recent years, meant that Apple could drop prices on MBA without actually losing profit per single laptop.

 

[navaira]

Do Apple really drop prices anymore though?

 

[SmOgER]

Unlikely, but they are already very reasonable. In fact, it would make a total mess if they dropped them further, since already the prices in 2nd hand market for 1-2 years old Airs aren't that much lower than for brand new ones as it is. And if we take into account special discounts (for students, sales, etc..), then that price difference can disappear altogether.

 

[Mainsail]

I think MBAs really do stand the test of time.

We got my son a base 13in MBA for the laptop program at middle school 4 years ago, and he is still using it in high school. Middle school boys can be pretty rough on laptops when they carry it around in a backpack all day. Nevertheless, it still looks great and runs perfectly....no problems.

I have had one at work for 4 years, and it has held up really well. I took it where ever the job required. I liked it so much that I bought a base 13in model for myself 2 years ago, and it is my primary personal computer.

My daughter has used a base 13in MBA at university for 3 years. No complaints and no problems. She carries it all over campus and really relies on it.....as college students do.

There are some screaming deals on MBAs right now.