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Advice: Replacement for 2012 MacBook Air
- Thread starter Codeseven
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I am in the same boat/story as OP. Going to upgrade my 2012 air. I’m excited. I think everyone has swayed me to get the M4. I was thinking about getting the top M3 but can get the education discount + no tax so the M4 will work out. It seems like I should get the 16 GB combo or should I bite the bullet and get the top M4 combo? I need this to last 10+ years and my current 2012 does still run and I do my emails but it can’t update anymore. It won’t update anything (chrome, office, etc) ….. so do I just go big now knowing it will last be awhile? I know people might say “because of your usage you don’t need that much” but I am thinking long haul. What are your thoughts?
24 GB is complete overkill for you. Considering an 8 GB M3 likely would work fine for you for many years, a 16 GB M4 will be good for you for even longer unless your software requirements change. So the question about memory is settled, just get 16 GB.
The bigger question is what to do about storage. How much do you need now? Do you use iCloud?
BTW, while future proofing does make sense to an extent, usually future proofing for a 10-year horizon is a really bad idea, because even if your memory and storage are sufficient, there are just too many other things that can change over that time frame. For example, some who future proofed a 2018 MacBook Air purchase with 512 GB and 16 GB RAM ended up purchasing a new MacBook Air in 2022 anyway to get Apple Silicon with faster speed and better battery life, and a brand new form factor too.
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I don’t use my computer for anything but email, writing basic papers, just normal stuff. I don’t use ICloud. Occasionally I store photos from my DSLR camera. would still be using my 2012 if it would update the operating system but there just isn’t enough space. Even the “slowness” doesn’t really bother me. I had to delete my spotify, zoom, and a couple other apps to make room for even the last update I was able to do.
In short I just want to be able to do the Apple updates in the future without having to delete zoom/spotify etc.
How much free space do you have? If you have more than 50GB free then I would go with the base model. If you have less then that consider the 512GB model.
I think 16GB RAM is sufficient for your use case. If in 5 years it turns out not to be enough, then you can upgrade “early”. Your 2025 MacBook Air will still be worth something in 2030. Maybe $225 from Apple and $350 from a personal sale if my mom’s 2019 13” Pro is any indication. The base models retain more of their value than upgraded models because in 2030 no one will care about 24GB or 32GB because we’ll be on the M8 or M9.
Actually I just looked. This is embarrassing lol but I have the MacBook Air, Early 2014 version.
Processor: 1.4 GHz Dual Core Intel Core i5
Memory 4GB
For flash storage it says I have 121 GB. I am using 14.49 but can’t download updates of any sort anymore. Can’t update software or the normal updates for Google chrome. And then like I said, had to delete zoom, spotify and iTunes just to get my photos to download from my phone.
Holy crap! 4 GB is terrible! 😳
Your OS is too old, and the software is no longer supported.
Anyhow, 16 GB RAM and 256 GB storage would be sufficient.
An M2 or M3 MBA would be the best choice to replace a 2012 MBA. I certainly wouldn’t recommend an M4 machine, the user would be wasting money on features and power that this user may never benefit from. 13 years of change.. yeah this user may as well just move to iPadOS now.. the learning curve isn’t going to be that much more.
Each time I look at getting an M2 or M3 machine I keep going back to the idea of getting an M4. This is because the M2 so old now it’s already burned through 3 years of macOS updates, while the pricing around here is too high on the clearout M3 models. Note that I’m comparing against M4 edu pricing though.
It really depends on the user’s needs. If I were to buy a laptop, the base model M2 or M3 MacBook Air would be perfect. But that recommendation would be very different for someone who is coding or video editing. I think, for the user in the OP, the M4 would be overkill.
I don't think you understood my point.
Performance is not an issue here. M1 would be totally fine. The issue is BNIB M2 and M3 on closeout is only around US$50-$150 less than edu pricing, with the $150 cheaper ones being M2 models. The M2 MBA came out in 2022, meaning that it will get 2-3 years less of macOS updates going forward, as compared to the M4 MBA which came out last week in 2025.
I'd much rather have the major macOS updates extend to 2030 or whatever than save $150 and have those updates end 2-3 years earlier.
Meanwhile, the new sealed BNIB M3 models might be all of $50 cheaper than M4 edu, which makes the M3 discount pointless IMO.
YMMV with regards to pricing in your location.
Hahaha.
Thank you for the advice. Been thinking about what choice to make and someone said “just go on this website and ask the gurus”
Actually, I am still somewhat unclear on this part. Were you really only using 14.5 GB? Cuz that seems too low, as it's less than a basic install of macOS plus MS Office. And how much storage do you need for your photos? Your post suggests you may have around 100 GB of photos or something like that.
If you use iCloud storage at the 200 GB tier, that's $3 per month in the US. With that you can keep much of your SSD storage space free, and have real-time backups for your iPhone, with all the originals for your Photos Library in the cloud, accessible anytime from all your machines.
However, if you don't want to pay for iCloud, and your Photos Library alone is already 100 GB now and you want to keep all the originals local on your MacBook Air, then getting a 256 GB SSD might be too tight after a few years. In that case, a 512 GB SSD might come in handy for some breathing room.
I don’t use iCloud because I don’t like having my photos on multiple devices. iCloud has always been confusing to me. I like only having my photos on one device. I don’t like my devices syncing. Attached is what my Mac says right now. I just deleted some phone backups from 2021 I didn’t know existed. Right now I don’t have the spotify or zoom or anything installed other then the Microsoft office package and some other basic stuff.
Attachments
It looks like you're using 90-100 GB storage, not 14.5 GB. And that's after a purge.
256 GB storage could work if your budget is very tight, but it may get restrictive after a couple of years. If you can swing it in your budget, then I'd lean heavily toward getting a 512 GB drive if you plan on keeping this machine for a long time with all your photos downloaded to it (especially since you don't want to use iCloud).
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It depends on priorities. If saving every penny is the priority, then yes, grabbing a 16/256 M2 for $699 is the better deal as it is a great replacement for a 2012 or 2014 MacBook Air. Much better CPU, display, battery life, etc. But if you are eligible for the $899 education pricing (or can wait a few more weeks for the reseller deals to emerge) then an extra $200 for the M4 isn’t that much in the grand scheme of things for a computer to last another decade or so. The M4 will get at least 1 and maybe 2 more years of macOS and security updates. It supports 2 external monitors (which ironically so did the 2012 and 2014 models but not the M2), and it has the Center Stage camera.
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I agree. If this is a Mac for the next decade then get 512GB. Movies, videos, pictures, etc. will only get bigger as resolutions increase. Plus your collection will get bigger.
I'd go with the 2022 MBA 13" M2 8GB RAM 512GB SSD that goes for $699.
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Thanks for the help everyone. I wanted to follow-up…..we went into an Apple Store convinced she actually just needed an iPad however, the Salesman reminded us that using iCloud to ‘simply’ copy everything from her MacBook Air into an iPad wasn’t going to happen. Also, after also purchasing a new Magic Keyboard and Microsoft Software to be able to view the type of Documents she need to save we could actually SAVE a few hundred bucks by buying a new 13” M4 MacBook Air and then using iCloud easily directly transfer everything over. She LOVES the new Air. It’s super fast and looks great! 👍