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macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 28, 2008
506
0
I have a 2014 maxed out macbook air. I can sense it slowing down a little and lagging when I multitask. The battery life has been slowly degrading, but now it will barely last an hour. I don't really do anything intensive.. just web browsing and multitasking.

Would replacing the battery speed it back up a little as well ? Or should I just buy a new macbook..
 

sracer

macrumors G4
Apr 9, 2010
10,402
13,282
where hip is spoken
I have a 2014 maxed out macbook air. I can sense it slowing down a little and lagging when I multitask. The battery life has been slowly degrading, but now it will barely last an hour. I don't really do anything intensive.. just web browsing and multitasking.

Would replacing the battery speed it back up a little as well ? Or should I just buy a new macbook..
When plugged in to an outlet, how does the MBA perform? Is it just as slow? If so, then it isn't the battery.

I think that it is more likely (assuming that you've owned this since 2014) that you have installed apps and services over the years that have had an accumulated effect on dragging down the system.

If you decide to buy a new one, make sure that you have a complete backup of your system, wipe it out, and reset back to factory and test to see how well it performs. You'll need to do the reset anyways if you want to buy a new macbook and end up selling/trading/giving away your current MBA.
 
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aakshey

macrumors 68030
Jun 13, 2016
2,932
1,385
I changed the battery of my MBA 2014, battery life increased manifold and it even became faster. More or less perfect for me now.
 

Macdctr

macrumors 65816
Nov 25, 2009
1,012
733
Ocean State
First I would replace the battery and if you're still using your original storage drive, I would update the storage drive to NVMe M.2 with a Sintech adapter. You will see close to 3x speed improvement with the new storage drive and your computer will perform better. Both of my 2015 Airs (11 inch and 13 inch) have NVMe M.2 storage drives in them and I use them as my main laptops (one when I'm traveling and the other as part of my photography kit).

Doing both will be much cheaper than buying a new laptop and would prolong usage of your 2014 Air.
 
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