Disadvantages to buying older refurb Macs?

[tunacleaner]

Hello,

For an individual that just browses the web, uses office programs, and watches an occasional movie, is there a significant disadvantage to buying older (2011) Macbook Pros or Airs from third party sellers with 1 to 2 year warranties? How long does Apple provide OSX updates for older macbook models. I'm looking for something with no frills--I don't want a retina display or anything like that. This would be my first time owning a Mac but I've found that I like OSX a lot.

 

[lowendlinux]

You'll be fine just make sure the re-seller has a good reputation.

mac of all trades are good folks

http://www.macofalltrades.com/

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Well anything older than 2012 only has USB 2 so I would recommend 2012 models onwards so at least you have USB 3.

The main disadvantage is size and weight they are thick and relatively heavy for a modern 13 inch laptop, but stick in an SSD and they will run absolutely fine for your purposes.

Currently apple seems to be supporting older mobile computers for around 8 years on OSX updates but that does go up and down depending on the hardware needed for the new OS, it could be issues with wifi cards or bluetooth or most importantly graphics cards that makes a model unsuitable for the next update, I would say you can bank on 5 to 6 yeras of OS support but no more.

 

[2984839]

They are really good laptops for that purpose. There aren't really any disadvantages. I would avoid the 15" and 17" models if you are going with a 2011 due to GPU problems. The 2011 13" is fine though and would do what you want easily.