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rsg1010

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 8, 2014
72
18
Hi everyone,

I am in a dilemma on which computer to purchase and hoping I’m an get some guidance from all of you.

I previously owned a 2016 MacBook Pro 15” base model and to be honest I never used it to it’s full capacity. My primary usage was and will be the following:

- Basic tasks include email, web browsing, office use, and media consumption.
- I also plan doing a bit of photo editing and maybe occasionally some video editing but this is purely as a hobby and not something done regularly or often
- I do like to keep my music and photo library on the computer but I do have 2 external Samsung T5 SSD’s that I could keep my photo library on instead of directly on the MacBook OS. My iTunes library is about 25gb and photos library is approximately 30gb.
- I do some video conversions as well but again not all that often.

I would like to keep the laptop for 4-5 years ideally and not worry about performance drops with future OS updates.

Here are the models I am considering:

2018 refurbished MacBook Air - 1.6Ghz dual core, 8gb ram, 256 ssd. This option would be the cheapest

2019 MacBook Pro 13” - 1.6Ghz quad core, 8gb ram, 256 ssd.

2018 refurbished MacBook Pro 13” - 2.3Ghz quad core, 8gb, 256 ssd, intel iris plus 655.

2019 MacBook Pro 13” - 2.4Ghz quad core, 8gb, 256 ssd, intel iris plus 655, new keyboard version

I know the keyboard will be covered for 4 years under apple repair program if a problem occurs. But I am also concerned about the flex cable issues and I don’t think there have been reports of the 2018 models failing but if anyone could shed some light on that, I would greatly appreciate it.

So many options and I don’t mind spending more if I get laptop that will preform better over the years. Is 16gb ram needed for 4-5 years of use?

Suggestions please. Thanks in advance for everyone’s help.
 
Either of these

2019 MacBook Pro 13” - 2.4Ghz quad core, 8gb, 256 ssd, intel iris plus 655, new keyboard version

2019 MacBook Pro 13” - 1.6Ghz quad core, 8gb ram, 256 ssd.(but the 1.4 version / also has the new keyboard)

If you are going to upgrade anything do the RAM or SSD
 
Depends on budget.

If you can, the refurb 2018 Macbook Pro provides a lot over the 2018 refurb Air - namely, 4 cores vs 2 and much better graphics.

If you’d rather save, get the refurb 2018 Air.
 
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