My friend is looking to replace her old 2012 MacBook Air, Core i5, 4GB DDR3, Intel HD Graphics, running High Sierra (yikes) machine for a new one. Use case, internet browsing, Netflix, email, banking (yikes!). Given her basic usage just about anything new will easily outshine her old machine (not to mention be much more Secure). She is a Mac OS user only so no iOS iPad suggestions (which would probably save her money and be plenty for her use case but she doesn’t want to learn a new operating system). I’d like to go to an Apple Store, buy her a new MacBook and get her old Air data transferred to it. Any recommendations? Thanks!
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Advice: Replacement for 2012 MacBook Air
- Thread starter Codeseven
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New M4 MBA coming out in days. Refurbished M2 MBA will save $$ and still be a good choice.
15.x will be a very different experience. 13 years of change.
15.x will be a very different experience. 13 years of change.
Yup, thanks. Hoping with the new M4 version coming out that the older models will go down in price. Refurbished is a good option, thanks.
Wait a few days until the M4 Air is announced. Carefully look at pricing for the M4 vs the M2, then decide. Skip the M3 as that was not a major change. The M2 would be a major leap in performance over the 2012 MacBook Air, Core i5, 4GB your friend will be astounded. If she is using the 2012 MacBook Air, Core i5, 4GB and is getting what needs to be done on the machine, the M2 would perform admirably for several years. And check the pricing on the refurbished store for the M2 before making the decision. Same as Apple Store machines, probably better, as those machines are carefully checked by a human.
At the risk of over complicating things, your friend would also be well served with a refurbished or used M1/M2/M3 MacBook Air. Used M1/M2 MBA can be had for as little as $550 and would more than satisfy your friend's computing needs.
i would look for a great macbook air m1 since the chassis (beveled edges) are very similar.
the processor is perfect for her usual computing tasks plus ore.
i love my macbook air form that year since the design and power are great!
I like my M1 Air a lot and it's doing great. But I certainly won't be looking to use it for many years going forward.
The friend the OP is helping has held onto her previous Air for 13 years, so it's a fair bet she's likely to keep this next one for a long time. So the question becomes not "which Mac will work for the use case now?" but "which Mac is most likely to do so for a long time to come?"
With that in mind, my recommendation would be actually to overshoot a little and maybe even just get an M4 Air when they're release, knowing the user may be looking to keep it in service for a decade forward and it will be (hopefully) running a new and more resource-intensive OS every year.
It's more computer than necessary today, but it will stand a much better chance in the year 2030 of smoothly running macOS Ukiah or whatever. By then, the M1 may have aged out of OS updates and security patches.
I have one recommendation: make sure her data is backed up right now, if it's not already. Beg, borrow or steal a portable hard drive big enough, plug it in and let it run Time Machine. You can then migrate to the new Mac with Migration Assistant by either connecting both Macs or by simply plugging the backup drive into the new Mac.
If you’re going to buy new, I would say a base model straight up minimum spec M3 MacBook Air. You will get the best value with that.
You’re going to have the people here saying you need to upgrade everything. No you don’t. Her old computer is so old that even if you bought her the base model M1 MacBook Air it would be 100 times faster. You don’t need it to be 120 times faster. The only reason I recommend M3 is because 16 GB is standard with it and from my understanding, it has some power saving features over M2. It also has the new design vs M1 that in my opinion looks so much better.
Of course, if money is no object then that’s a different story and ignore everything I just said. Buy the most expensive MacBook Air Apple has.
Also, there is a possibility that there is a new MacBook Air coming out this week. Something with Air in the product name is coming out and the consensus is it’s a MacBook Air. You might want to wait because even if this new Air does not interest you, the release should cause the price of the M3 Air to drop. It would be irritating to think you bought it a few days before the price went down.
Wait to see what happens with the expected M4 MBA announcement. Refurbished is a great choice, but A) buy only from solid vendors and B) do not buy any box with less than 16 GB RAM, no matter how cheap it is. Even more RAM than 16 GB is a good thing if it is convenient. MBAs are cheaper and lighter but MBPs are better in every other possible way, including much better display and speakers.
Any M-series Mac with at least 16 GB RAM will meet her needs from a power standpoint. Along with the minimum of 16 GB RAM, probably having at least WiFi 6E should be the minimum as regards your break points on which older Macs not to consider. More RAM will simply extend the life cycle: how long her Mac will run smoothly as apps/OS become more demanding every year.
Ideally get her to an Apple Store to see/hear the display and speaker differences between MBAs and MBPs, and experience the nano-texture displays. Those things can matter a lot to some users [me]. Personally I would never choose an MBA because my eyes/brain really appreciate the MBPs' better displays/speakers. Note that the MBPs have about double the brightness of the MBAs, and that can matter a lot to some folks (especially those with blue eyes).
Good luck! The good news is that about any Mac will work; any M-series Mac with at least 16 GB RAM .
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For the basic usage of the OP’s friend, 8 GB is fine. If a bargain 8 GB machine is available (eg. $300 less than 16 GB), it could be worth it.
No, 8 GB is not fine. Apple does not even make any new boxes with only 8 GB of RAM. Sure the Mac OS will make 8 GB work, but it will be forcing the computer into swap pretty much immediately, which is a very poor way to configure a new computer. This user does not sound like some young person chasing short life cycles, and RAM demands by OS and apps are constantly increasing.
OP's friend has “2012 MacBook Air, Core i5, 4GB DDR3, Intel HD Graphics, running High Sierra”.
Any M-series Mac will be a HUGE upgrade — and 8gb will work just fine for her.
Do like the comment that getting a new MBA M4 would be better to give her the longevity she displayed with her current laptop!
Any M-series Mac will be a HUGE upgrade — and 8gb will work just fine for her.
Do like the comment that getting a new MBA M4 would be better to give her the longevity she displayed with her current laptop!
8 GB is totally fine for light usage.
macOS uses compressed memory before swap, and even when swap is used, it isn’t usually really noticeable until there are several GB used.
My mother’s M1 MBA 8GB RAM Sonoma never swaps because she does nothing but email, web browsing, and reads/write Word and Excel docs.
Again, macOS uses compressed memory. Actual memory usage on a 16 GB machine for example cannot be directly compared to actual memory usage on a 8 GB machine, because the amount of compressed memory usage will be very different on the two machines.
We are not talking about today. Heck, today she is surviving using 4 GB on an i5 running High Sierra. We are talking about how to configure a new box for 2025-2035 running Apple's Unified Memory Architecture. For that, suggesting 8 GB is a very bad idea.
Meh. Yes, we are talking about today... and probably for the next 5 years if the usage stays similar. Maybe it won't be great past 2030, but the key variables are budget and cost.
I would have no problem buying a discounted 8/256 M3 MacBook Air today for my wife to use past 2030... if the price was right, meaning something like US$300 less than a 16 GB model. Her needs are similar to the OP's. There are some killer deals on specific 8 GB models popping up here and there these days.
To put it another way, if I came across a 13" M3 8/256 for $500 BNIB vs. a 13" M3 16/256 for $800 BNIB, I'd buy the M3 8/256 in a heartbeat. And then upgrade to a M7 16 GB after 2030.
1) Perhaps yes "...the key variables are budget and cost." Or perhaps not. E.g. although personally I am not wealthy, I value display, speakers, smooth trouble-free operation and longevity over budget and cost. Although I am a computer nerd, when I buy a new box I just want to use it without thinking about it for 5-10 years when it finally RAMS-out and no longer provides smooth operation. Which brings up my second point:
2) You are a very computer-aware person for whom it apparently makes sense to buy a low end computer bargain, observe your wife's computer usage every day and decide when in ~5 years it is time to again replace her computer. The user in question has 13 years on her current box, so I suspect she is not looking for bargain basement short life cycles. But that is just a guess.
3) No, we are never talking about today when we buy a new box. Thinking that way leads to bad decision making, because a new box is not used today, it is used only tomorrow and for the next 5-10 years.
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Good points being made here, thanks. I have always bought for the future. My new devices have typically been overkill for my usage just so in 5 years or more it ‘should’ still be able to run the software I typically use, handle the newest OS and be getting Security updates. When that fails (especially Security wise) then I upgrade. I’ll be doing the same for her.
you are very welcome!
there are too many "what if I get ...." in every product being sold nowadays!
Exactly. And conversely, the more memory a device has, the more it should be actively using.
Given that she’s getting by with a 13 year old Mac, the $699 M1 model still on sale at Wal-Mart is more than adequate, but for $300 more (and there will likely be discounts in a few weeks from resellers), the new base M4 model might be a better option as it will get a few more years of macOS security updates. If this is going to last for a decade an extra $200 upfront isn’t much in the grand scheme of things.