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How much longer will an early 2015 Air be able to run macOS well for?
- Thread starter chillip
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It's difficult to say. A lot depends upon what you do with your system and what version of macOS you run... which depending upon what you do, you might be forced to a newer version of macOS if that software you use requires it.
Having said that, I'm still regularly running my early 2014 4GB/128GB 11" Macbook Air on Sierra. Runs great. Battery life is still fine. Video encoding, image editing, etc. all work fine.
Apple will probably drop support for reasons other than performance. Since around 2011 or so the CPUs have only been getting slightly better every year. The ram might be a problem eventually, but it'd still be usable.
And while the new MacBooks have been getting a lot faster, they still have the 2015 MacBook to support which was pretty slow.
I expect to use mine until 2020 at a minimum, and I wouldn't be surprised if it still gets OS support up to 2025.
And while the new MacBooks have been getting a lot faster, they still have the 2015 MacBook to support which was pretty slow.
I expect to use mine until 2020 at a minimum, and I wouldn't be surprised if it still gets OS support up to 2025.
That is a reasonable assumption but in reality that doesn't happen. Based on my experience, there is a 1:2 RAM ratio between macOS and Windows 10. 1 GB RAM with macOS = 2GB RAM with Windows 10. My 11" MBA w/4GB RAM performs as well as my Windows 10 system w/8GB RAM (and same Intel processor). Other people may have different experiences.
My 2011 11" MBA with High Sierra, 4GB and the moderate load I put on it these days runs just fine. It's a little slow compared to the iMac in my office when importing RAW images into Lightroom, but since I’m not a professional photographer a little extra time doesn't hurt.
I expect Apple to quit supporting my MBA with it's next OS revision or the one after. Even with that I think I can get this thing to run at least through the end of 2021 if I stick a new battery in it when it's time.
I like to write stuff. This is the best laptop keyboard anyone has ever made (my opinion). Unless Apple decides to make better keyboards than it is currently, I'm unlikely to get another laptop any time soon.
I expect Apple to quit supporting my MBA with it's next OS revision or the one after. Even with that I think I can get this thing to run at least through the end of 2021 if I stick a new battery in it when it's time.
I like to write stuff. This is the best laptop keyboard anyone has ever made (my opinion). Unless Apple decides to make better keyboards than it is currently, I'm unlikely to get another laptop any time soon.
As I stated. that is my experience. If that isn’t you experience, then my comment doesn’t apply for you.
And I did say that others will have different experiences. 
I'm still using my 2012 Air with 10.12 and 4G of ram as a personal machine. Gets a bit sluggish here and there, but not bad with a restart. Always amazed how long Macs can last. Would not try to run any high CPU stuff on it, but is great for most stuff.
I have a 2017 iMac w/ 32G, and a 2017 MacBook Pro w/ 16G for comparison.
I have a 2017 iMac w/ 32G, and a 2017 MacBook Pro w/ 16G for comparison.