How to refresh your 5+ year-old MacBook for half price (teaser title)

[Tozovac]

I want to share my buying experience when upgrading my 2014 MBA at half the price I thought I'd spend and that's resulted in zero buyer's remorse, but which took a real shift in thinking to pull off.

I wanted to replace my 2014 MBA all year; it's just time. I almost pulled the trigger in the spring on a 16" or 13" MBP but would have spent $2000 to get the right "basic" setup. I wanted a 1TB drive to stop carrying around a portable SSD. My 2014 does 80% of what I need it to do but it's just aging and I needed some boost in performance and storage.

After a lot of hemming and hawing I pulled the trigger on a base Mac mini and started the $10/month 2TB iCloud Drive service.

I got in to a new M1 for under around $900 with Apple Care+; I already had enough keyboards, mice, and monitors around. 8gb is much more than enough, according to the reviews, and 256gb too was enough now that I have iCloud Drive.

I use my MBA when I need some portability, and I use the M1 Mac mini 90% of the time. Of course, I don't need a lot of horsepower away from my desk. Your mileage may vary, but it took a lot of self-convincing to go away from a new laptop, after being 100% convinced I needed it. More power and flexibility for less money, it's been great. I'm happier with this than I would have been with an M1 MBA since I want to use 2 screens.

If you already have a MacBook that should stay functional for a few more years and are feeling the need to upgrade but don't want to spend $1500+, give this paradigm shift a consideration...

 

[mdgm]

You can put a 1TB SSD in your MBA if you want and even higher capacities.

 

[Tozovac]

You can put a 1TB SSD in your MBA if you want and even higher capacities.

I hear you. I spent many hours 6+ months ago researching/considering that and came to the conclusion I would only want to use OEM memory, and 1TB’s won’t fit my MBA, so that route was out.

I’m infinitely happier having spent 2-3x the cost of a 512gb stick on the Mac mini + iCloud Drive since essentially iCloud is my 1TB+ drive, just with the limitation of needing to get connected to WiFi or a hotspot to access everything when out & about. Still surprised how glad I am with this decision.

The other thing I’m really happy with is being freed from the dongle bag as far as connecting power, monitors, and netrwork cable simultaneously. It’s sad how good it feels to have a few various ports built-in to a device, what a major convenience.

 

[mdgm]

There are some good 3rd party SSDs you can get (even higher capacities than 1TB) that fit. Support for 3rd party SSDs has improved dramatically with recent bootrom updates.

A good dock can mean less needs to be plugged in to a laptop but getting a new machine is always nice.

My newest machine is from 2014 and I’d like to get a newer one, but it’s much cheaper to keep the older ones going.

The M1 is a nice new machine. It’s great that it’s fast and silent and runs cool.

 

[Tozovac]

There are some good 3rd party SSDs you can get (even higher capacities than 1TB) that fit. Support for 3rd party SSDs has improved dramatically with recent bootrom updates.

A good dock can mean less needs to be plugged in to a laptop but getting a new machine is always nice.

My newest machine is from 2014 and I’d like to get a newer one, but it’s much cheaper to keep the older ones going.

The M1 is a nice new machine. It’s great that it’s fast and silent and runs cool.

Curious, what 3rd party SSDs might you suggest? From my last investigation in the spring, I decided I'd want to stay away from anything from OWC, for example, I think due to thermal/heat questions.

As far as a dock vs. dongles vs. built-in ports, everyone forgets that a good dock adds cost and is never as "easy" to use when moving from, say, desk to couch to table and back to couch with your supposedly portable laptop. I'll take an extra 2mm, few ounces of weight, and added cost (that I'd spend anyway on a dock & dongles and cables) on my MacBook Air or Pro, if only Apple put function first ahead of fashion/form/thinness.