2010 Macbook Air Thoughts

[sunsetblow]

Anyone have one these (MC505LL/A) and running Yosemite? Is it smooth? I mean it's only 2GB of RAM so I'm concerned... but I'm picking it up for $300, which to me is a crazy steal.

I'm a little worried about how it'll run El Capitan, though.

Any other weird and random things I should know about this model?

Any advice is much appreciated!

 

[tom vilsack]

Anyone have one these (MC505LL/A) and running Yosemite? Is it smooth? I mean it's only 2GB of RAM so I'm concerned... but I'm picking it up for $300, which to me is a crazy steal.

I'm a little worried about how it'll run El Capitan, though.

Any other weird and random things I should know about this model?

Any advice is much appreciated!

I have same air...I did a clean install of Yosemite and it runs just fine....I also have tried El Capitan on it,and had no issues at all......I find people that have problems are those that don't do a clean install.

ps: good price as long as it's in good cond and battery still healthy.

 

[quackers82]

Not sure if its important to you, but for me it would be a deal breaker ,the 2010 Air was the one where they removed the backlit keyboard. (Came back with the 2011 model).

 

[zhenya]

Considering the brand-new Air is available starting at $750 in the Apple refurbished store or at retailers like Best Buy I'm not sure that $300 for a 5 year old model that likely has little battery life left and will be quite slow in use is a screaming deal. Even if $750 is out of reach, I'd think that $400 or so should get you into a 2011-2012 model that should be much faster with better battery life.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Not sure if its important to you, but for me it would be a deal breaker ,the 2010 Air was the one where they removed the backlit keyboard. (Came back with the 2011 model).

Well, I bought a brand new MBA in September 2010, and it had a backlit keyboard. (It was the old Rev-C).

Considering the brand-new Air is available starting at $750 in the Apple refurbished store or at retailers like Best Buy I'm not sure that $300 for a 5 year old model that likely has little battery life left and will be quite slow in use is a screaming deal. Even if $750 is out of reach, I'd think that $400 or so should get you into a 2011-2012 model that should be much faster with better battery life.

On this, I think @zhenya's argument is worth considering.

Actually, given what I was offered two years ago for my 2010 MBA (I ended up giving it to my brother as a birthday present), I would be inclined to think that $300 is perhaps a little on the steep side for a 2010 computer.

 

[Boyd01]

IMO that is no bargain at $300. As others have said, it will turn into a $450 computer when the battery dies.

 

[AFEPPL]

walk away....

 

[Woodstockie]

I bought this summer a 13" MBA 2010 (2GB/128GB) for $375. Was really the lowest price I could find for a MBA in my area on Craigslist. Maybe I overpaid according to some, but a 2011 below $600 was hard to find. If you are spending that kind of money you can better buy a new or refurbished one. So, I bought the 2010 and glad I saved the $500. I had Yosemite, El Capitan and now I run Mavericks. From the 3 I think the latter runs the best. I also tweaked it a lot so memory consumption is lower (no dashboard, no window animations, no notification center, etc). Also installed Memory Monitor that can free up memory if I run tight (usually run Safari, Mail, Outlook plus some other programs). Now it runs pretty good all together. Once El Capitan is GM I will give it probably an other try.

 

[SRLMJ23]

I have a Late-2010 MBA, it is the computer I am typing this post on. It runs absolutely fine with Yosemite and El Cap. The person who said that you should do clean installs is absolutely correct. I always do a clean install of OS X and it just runs better with no problems. I love this Mac! OS X handles memory so well that having just the 2gb of RAM is not really an issue at all, also it has the NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB. Personally I have never had an issue with any of the versions of OS X, and for being a 5 year old computer it runs everything absolutely fine. I do not use any of these "Memory Optimization" tools because you DO NOT need them on ANY Mac. As I said, OS X handles memory fine, plus if you do get to a point where things start getting slow just open up Terminal and use the "sudo purge" command and it will clear the memory. People hate on this computer for some reason but it runs just as good as my 2013 MBA (obviously my 2013 has better specs) but the 2010 can compete. Sorry for my long rant!

 

[sunsetblow]

Thanks for the feedback all! Glad to know Yosemite runs fine and I'll do a clean install for sure.

As for pricing, I should note I'm in the LA area... everything seems to be priced higher around here... :/ If I were in neighboring Vegas, I think I could pick things up for cheaper.

I'm not sure where some of your pricing estimates come from though. I mean I scoured eBay and craigslist and the cheapest MBAs were in the $400-500 range, with most reaching into the $600-700. Plus, I paid no tax. I was seriously considering the 2015 MBA from BB since I had a coupon and edu discount but the tax absolutely kills the deal.

This laptop wouldn't suit my needs I think and it certainly doesn't have the best specs but it's for my mom so all she needs is for it to be able to open a browser and maybe be able to watch some videos+view photos.

 

[motrek]

Thanks for the feedback all! Glad to know Yosemite runs fine and I'll do a clean install for sure.

As for pricing, I should note I'm in the LA area... everything seems to be priced higher around here... :/ If I were in neighboring Vegas, I think I could pick things up for cheaper.

I'm not sure where some of your pricing estimates come from though. I mean I scoured eBay and craigslist and the cheapest MBAs were in the $400-500 range, with most reaching into the $600-700. Plus, I paid no tax. I was seriously considering the 2015 MBA from BB since I had a coupon and edu discount but the tax absolutely kills the deal.

This laptop wouldn't suit my needs I think and it certainly doesn't have the best specs but it's for my mom so all she needs is for it to be able to open a browser and maybe be able to watch some videos+view photos.

It will have no problem doing web browsing and email and basic low-quality YouTube videos.

If you want to do any sort of higher-quality streaming video (e.g., Netflix), it will get hot and loud and might drop frames.

 

[SRLMJ23]

It will have no problem doing web browsing and email and basic low-quality YouTube videos.

If you want to do any sort of higher-quality streaming video (e.g., Netflix), it will get hot and loud and might drop frames.

I can watch a full HD movie on Netflix or iTunes and it runs fine. Yes it gets hot but thats how its designed, and the fan will crank up a bit but its not that loud and generally you have headphones on so you will not hear it anyway. It is a more powerful machine than you think.

 

[motrek]

I can watch a full HD movie on Netflix or iTunes and it runs fine. Yes it gets hot but thats how its designed, and the fan will crank up a bit but its not that loud and generally you have headphones on so you will not hear it anyway. It is a more powerful machine than you think.

Not really, since I owned one for 4 years, so I know exactly how powerful it is. I used it as a HTPC for 4-5 months and was unable to watch streaming HD video on it.

It sounds like you are watching the video on the laptop screen instead of an external monitor so maybe you weren't getting a 1080p stream. The laptop might be able to manage 720p.

 

[SRLMJ23]

Not really, since I owned one for 4 years, so I know exactly how powerful it is. I used it as a HTPC for 4-5 months and was unable to watch streaming HD video on it.

It sounds like you are watching the video on the laptop screen instead of an external monitor so maybe you weren't getting a 1080p stream. The laptop might be able to manage 720p.

Oh yeah, I was definitely using the laptop screen not an external monitor. It can definitely handle 720p, actually pretty easy. The NVIDIA GeForce 320M helps a little.

 

[sunsetblow]

My mom will definitely not be watching 1080p shows on Netflix... but good to know that it can somewhat handle it