Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

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

davistld01

davistld01

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 6, 2008
508
30
Springfield, MO
I've got a chance to buy a 2010 MacBook Air a1369 model for cheap ($400) and gwanted to know about it. I know in the past, the Air had pretty crummy battery life, and they've imprived that in recent years.

Are there any real glitches or problems with this model, that I need to be aware of?

I'm on a strict budget, but even at $400, I don't want something thats not worth that.

Thanks! :)
 
That's what I have, but I want to get a newer one. The main one is that I had run out of storage. That won't be your probably. How much RAM does the one you are thinking of buying have. You probably don't want to settle for 2 GB. The battery is not good at all. Will yours have a new battery. On Amazon they cost $70 or so. the late 2010 doesn't have a thunderbolt port and the mini DVA port doesn't carry sound, so if you want to hook the laptop up to the TV, you need a workaround. if you check out my recent posts about my MBA, you will learn more about the solutions to that problem.

But I have loved my 2010 machine.
 
carizma22 said:
That's what I have, but I want to get a newer one. The main one is that I had run out of storage. That won't be your probably. How much RAM does the one you are thinking of buying have. You probably don't want to settle for 2 GB. The battery is not good at all. Will yours have a new battery. On Amazon they cost $70 or so. the late 2010 doesn't have a thunderbolt port and the mini DVA port doesn't carry sound, so if you want to hook the laptop up to the TV, you need a workaround. if you check out my recent posts about my MBA, you will learn more about the solutions to that problem.

But I have loved my 2010 machine.
Click to expand...

The 2010 MBA's mini-DVI port does carry sound. I used it as an HTPC for several months. Almost a year. Worked well.
 
davistld01 said:
I've got a chance to buy a 2010 MacBook Air a1369 model for cheap ($400) and gwanted to know about it. I know in the past, the Air had pretty crummy battery life, and they've imprived that in recent years.

Are there any real glitches or problems with this model, that I need to be aware of?

I'm on a strict budget, but even at $400, I don't want something thats not worth that.

Thanks! :)
Click to expand...

If it were a MacBook Pro I would say go for it but since it's a 2010 air it might be a little dated and battery life wasn't great in that generation of airs compared to now
 
Ehm... There is a quite a big difference in 2011 vs 2010 models so first I would check if there are good deals for a slightly newer machine which isn't slower than the rMB 2015. However if you settle on 2010, it would be much better if it's 4GB RAM machine rather than 2GB (if you absolutely need to, 2GB is fine for browsing/documents and work without much multitasking, but it will get you nowhere when it comes to reselling value). As for the battery, you just need to put up with idea that soon you will need it replaced. They are not particularly expensive though: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Spec...A1369-2010-Production-Replace/1212254674.html

Mine recently climbed above 1000 cycles as well, and from ~1050 battery capacity took a extremely steep dive into the 50s %. New one is on its way (from laptop_powers on ebay). :)
 
Last edited:
Meister said:
What will it be used for?
Click to expand...

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?
 
Last edited:
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!

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

Nope the memory is non upgrade able and trust me you will love a Mac over a windows machine any day
 
davistld01 said:
But that's enough memory for general usage? Is this year model relatively bulletproof?
Click to expand...

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
 
davistld01 said:
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.
Click to expand...

If you're going to sell it in any case, you might want a model that is easier to sell than the 2010/2GB one. As for cheapness, have you checked its value here:

http://www.mac2sell.net/

edit: it seems you already bought it according to your signature...
 
Last edited:
davistld01 said:
But that's enough memory for general usage? Is this year model relatively bulletproof?
Click to expand...

I have the 2010 MBA 13" base model (1.86GHz, 2GB RAM) running Yosemite. My wife uses this machine daily, but she is a light user, doing things like Facebook, general surfing, email, watching short videos, etc. She has no problem using it. When my son's friends come over, they use it for Minecraft. The fans spin up to maximum after a few minutes, but no locking/overheating that I've seen.

The 2GB RAM does limit which mods can be loaded into Minecraft, but I don't think you're worried about that. :) it also shows yellow at boot on the Memory page of Activity Monitor but other than Minecraft mod issues I haven't seen anything that could be described as RAM starved.
 
Well yeah, late-2010 model is close to 40% slower than 2011 MBA when it comes to processing power, 2GB of RAM doesn't help it either. But it should still be well enough for a entry level ultraportable mac for internet browsing and office apps.
 
Last edited:
xylitol said:
If you're going to sell it in any case, you might want a model that is easier to sell than the 2010/2GB one. As for cheapness, have you checked its value here:

http://www.mac2sell.net/

edit: it seems you already bought it according to your signature...
Click to expand...

Yeah, bid on it and didn't think I'd win the auction...but I guess I did. It's all good though. It's not the latest, greatest, fastest, most powerful or most advanced...but like I said, if I simply don't warm up to OSX and want to go back to the PC side of life, it won't be nearly as big a deal to me as if I'd spent $1000+ on the machine. I'm cool for now. This time next year, I might be a genuine Mac guy like most of you are on here, and I'll have a top line MacBook by then.

Thanks for the responses.
 
Enjoy it. It is a terrific computer - I had one for three years (from 2010 to 2013) when I gave it to my brother as his birthday present and I upgraded to a CTO 2013 MBA for myself. It was a superb computer, and it didn't give me a minute's bother; my brother uses it daily, and loves it - mainly for web browsing/surfing, emails, and writing.

At the end, my concerns were battery life (it never went over three hours), the limited RAM (2 GB) and the fact that the memory at the time was 128 GB SSD. But you know all that already, and it is a lovely computer. Mine travelled the world with me.

As a reliable, portable and fast computer, you will be amazed by it; I came to the SSD from the old style HDD and vowed I would never go back - the difference is that significant.

Good luck with it and enjoy it.
 
davistld01 said:
Are their any upgrades at all that can be done to the Air to bump performance?
Click to expand...

Only SSD is upgradable, so you can replace it with bigger one (mind you they are super expensive*) and that's pretty much it. :p

*256GB ones, used, are about $200!
 
SmOgER said:
Only SSD is upgradable, so you can replace it with bigger one (mind you they are super expensive*) and that's pretty much it. :p

*256GB ones, used, are about $200!
Click to expand...

You can get a 480GB Transcend JetDrive for $300 from Amazon. Just put one in my 2012 MBA 11" last week. 240GB models are $169.
 
Still, that's very expensive.

For extra storage for documents, photos, movies, music... IMO that's a better option:
http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-JetDrive-Storage-Expansion-TS128GJDL130/dp/B00K73NT0S

And if you need SD slot, in case you want to leave the jetdrive 'permamently' inside (what shouldn't be aproblem at all since it slots in practically flush with the body), there are PLENTY of compact USB external sd readers as well, some of them even come with usb hubs.
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back