Buying used MacBook pro

[Sufforten]

Hi there,

I'm looking to buy myself a used MacBook, new ones are out of my price range, so I decided to buy used. I will use it mostly for blogging/power internet browsing/light photo and video editing. I'm UK based and my budget is around 800£ so as far as I've done research my options are 2017/2018 MacBook pro i5 dual-core(two thunderbolt 3 ports) or older 2014/2015 MacBook Pro i7 quad core. Which one would be a better choice? I'm worried about battery life in older one, but geekbench shows that it outperforms dual core mac in multi-core tasks(video editing eg). Or do You have any other suggestion for this price?

Martin

 

[cruisin]

Video editing is one of the tasks that takes advantage of multiple cores. So if shaving off a bit on video export time is important, you will want the quad core. Otherwise the newer CPU has better single core scores which will be better for just about everything else.

Do you need USB C? How much USB equipment do you have that need dongles? USB C is nice for charging (any port works for charging on MacBooks) and the cable is FINALLY replaceable, but on the other hand you lose MagSafe and you need dongles and/or new devices. USB C is still in transition, as iPads just got USB C on certain models and the newest iPhone cannot connect to the newest Macs as it still ships with the old charging cable.

The new thin keyboards are prone to stop working. Even on the 4th gen on the new Air people have problems. And a fix is very expensive as everything is glued in and you need to replace essentially the whole guts of the machine. See: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mba-2018–nooo-keyboard-failed.2168699/ There are others with these problems, which is why you should research the keyboards.

The 3rd gen got a silicone dust cover (officially for quieter typing) which is better than the older keyboards, but it is just a patch and doesn't fix the underlying problem. Namely that the key mechanism is so compact that it has no space for dust or crumbs. See: https://www.macrumors.com/2018/07/15/third-gen-keyboard-exclusive-to-2018-macbook-pro/

I would go for the older machine myself. Until these keyboard issues are fully solved, the design is just not dust resistant enough for many years of use. Unless you can find something in the refurbished store (and therefore get the extended 3 year warranty) it seems like a bad proposition.

 

[turbineseaplane]

If "more reliable" is a key thing, you can honestly stop the comparison right now and buy a 2014 or 2015 model.

I'd go 2015.
Typing on one now.

 

[PayDrew]

Hi there,

I'm looking to buy myself a used MacBook, new ones are out of my price range, so I decided to buy used. I will use it mostly for blogging/power internet browsing/light photo and video editing. I'm UK based and my budget is around 800£ so as far as I've done research my options are 2017/2018 MacBook pro i5 dual-core(two thunderbolt 3 ports) or older 2014/2015 MacBook Pro i7 quad core. Which one would be a better choice? I'm worried about battery life in older one, but geekbench shows that it outperforms dual core mac in multi-core tasks(video editing eg). Or do You have any other suggestion for this price?

Martin

I have a 14/15 iMac pro and the 07 MacBook both stuck on gray boot screen since osx update sucks