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Is €900 a good price for a used Macbook air?

Modrisco89

Modrisco89

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 13, 2015
20
2
Cork
Hi,

I'm from Ireland and my friend is selling me a 13” MacBook air with 256GB of solid state storage, 8GB of RAM and an i7 processor has the most recent software updates and still has the original box and charge, it's a 2012 model.

Do you reckon €900 is a good price?
 
Modrisco89 said:
Hi,

I'm from Ireland and my friend is selling me a 13” MacBook air with 256GB of solid state storage, 8GB of RAM and an i7 processor has the most recent software updates and still has the original box and charge, it's a 2012 model.

Do you reckon €900 is a good price?
Click to expand...

You can check closed auctions on eBay to see what the market value is for these machines.
 
Modrisco89 said:
Thanks for the reply, but it was worth €2000 when he bought it, it has a 2.0ghz processor.
Click to expand...
Macs don't hold the value as much as they used to.
Things may be different where you are but I still feel that it's not a good price.
Look up ebay for completed listings in your market to get an idea of its value.
 
Modrisco89 said:
Thanks for the reply, but it was worth €2000 when he bought it, it has a 2.0ghz processor.
Click to expand...

People will always overvalue their products as they spent so much on it back in the day. However the 2012s are just not worth that much any more. Furthermore the fact that you can practically buy a brand-new MacBook Air for what he's wanting is a testament to how much he's asking.

FYI, you can buy the same spec machine for under £700.

I guess mate rates aren't a thing any more, either. He shouldn't be selling to you for more than 650 Euro.

I spent £1500 on my 2012 MacBook Pro, and it's upgraded with a 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM which puts the total price spent to about 2K. Yet I'd be exceptionally lucky to get ~£900 for it, were I to sell it.

The MacBook Airs have depreciated even more than the 2012 MacBook Pros. The reasons being:

- Newer models have 2x the battery life
- Newer models have 4x the SSD speed
- Apple have consistently lowered the prices of the MacBook Air. In 2012 I think it cost ~£1100 just to buy a base 13" MacBook Air, now you can get them brand-new for £849. So the fact he spent €2000 on it back in the day doesn't mean anything.
- Non-upgradeable so what you've got is what you've got
- Failure rate: if any component fails, it's practically all soldered so you're left with a brick.

If he's not willing to sell it at prices synonymous with eBay, or even knock off more for a friend, I wouldn't buy it. If you want a dirt-cheap portable Mac that runs pretty smoothly, buy a 2010 Core 2 Duo Unibody MacBook White for under £300 and throw an SSD/8GB RAM in it.

TL;DR: as others in this thread have confirmed, €900 is just far too much to ask for it.
 
Thanks for taking the time to write the large reply, ill have to have a word with him to see if he can knock it down to 700 at least, I'm wondering if I buy the mac book air new, would it still be able to run Microsoft office and spotify and Internet browser at the same time with out lag?
 
Modrisco89 said:
Thanks for taking the time to write the large reply, ill have to have a word with him to see if he can knock it down to 700 at least, I'm wondering if I buy the mac book air new, would it still be able to run Microsoft office and spotify and Internet browser at the same time with out lag?
Click to expand...

700 is still overpriced to me. I would try to get a 2013 MBA - much better graphics, double the battery life, has PCIe SSD which is triple or more the speed of the 2012 SATA SSDs, plus 802.11ac wifi, all of which will futureproof it better. As stated, check completed ebay.ie sale prices for an idea. My own macbook is a 2013 model, and I love it.

2013 MBAs are powerful machines (the early MBAs were woefully underpowered but that isnt the case anymore) and will do everything you ask. You don't need the i7 version, the i5 version will be fine. FYI, in a disk speed test, my 2013 i5 MBA does 400MB/s read on the internal SSD, and roughly 500MB/s reading from an external SSD via USB3. I have 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD which has been remarkably cramped. Looking back, I'd rather have gotten a 256GB SSD.
 
Modrisco89 said:
Thanks for taking the time to write the large reply, ill have to have a word with him to see if he can knock it down to 700 at least, I'm wondering if I buy the mac book air new, would it still be able to run Microsoft office and spotify and Internet browser at the same time with out lag?
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, the current-gen MacBook Air is a real workhorse, much more powerful than people give it credit. SSD speeds also easily exceed 1GB/s both read and write. TBH with the significantly quicker Flash the real-world performance is likely to exceed that of the 2012 i7 model anyway. It'll run much quicker, and will almost certainly have double the battery life.

Plus with regards to the CPU:

The i7 in the 2012 is the Core i7 (I7-3667U), which clocks at a score of 3938.
The i5 in the 2015 is the Core i5 (I5-5250U), which clocks at 3706.

So in all honesty the performance difference is negliable, the i7 in the 2012 is barely more powerful than the i5 in the 2015 because it's 3 generations older.

Hope this provides some reassurance.
 
Modrisco89 said:
Thanks for taking the time to write the large reply, ill have to have a word with him to see if he can knock it down to 700 at least, I'm wondering if I buy the mac book air new, would it still be able to run Microsoft office and spotify and Internet browser at the same time with out lag?
Click to expand...

You will be fine regarding MS Office, Spotify and Safari, but I would advise against buying a 2012 MBA, especially at that price (wouldn't even recommend buying it for 700).

The reason being that the battery life is gonna be horrible. Buy at least 2013 (=Haswell processors, 2012= Ivy Bridge and there's big difference in energy efficiency between the two). The Haswell processors are what brought the MBA it's famous "all day" battery life.

If you really need it to be useful for portability. I would suggest buying 2013 or newer. You want the use on the battery to be minimal (if your goal is to use it for long periods of time without a charger). You'd probably be able to get a 2014 MBA for 900.

note: I have an 11" mid 2012 air.
 
keysofanxiety said:
Oh yeah, the current-gen MacBook Air is a real workhorse, much more powerful than people give it credit. SSD speeds also easily exceed 1GB/s both read and write. TBH with the significantly quicker Flash the real-world performance is likely to exceed that of the 2012 i7 model anyway. It'll run much quicker, and will almost certainly have double the battery life.

Plus with regards to the CPU:

The i7 in the 2012 is the Core i7 (I7-3667U), which clocks at a score of 3938.
The i5 in the 2015 is the Core i5 (I5-5250U), which clocks at 3706.

So in all honesty the performance difference is negliable, the i7 in the 2012 is barely more powerful than the i5 in the 2015 because it's 3 generations older.

Hope this provides some reassurance.
Click to expand...

Thanks everyone for the replies, I've learned alot in the past day of just asking 1 question so kudos:)

I've decided not to buy the used one altogether, I'm going to buy the 2015 mac instead...since I'm very impressed with the battery life....

Just one more question:

Should I upgrade it to 8 gb ram if I buy it new? or will the 4gb ram do?

and should I get the 256gb SSD storage as opposed 128gb?

I'm just a student, I wouldn't be looking to do any gaming really..(perhaps a small bit of AOE II) but other than just for browsing, office and spotify really.

Thanks again for all the answers guys, this will be my 1st ever mac as I've always been a windows user and I just want to make the 1st correct step.

Would a macbook pro be too much for my needs? I wouldn't mind purchasing that if you guys think it would do me better in the long run, but I think alot of the applications I'll be using in college will be low running anyway.

I just want something that has a 13 inch screen and will last me a long time!
 
Modrisco89 said:
Thanks for taking the time to write the large reply, ill have to have a word with him to see if he can knock it down to 700 at least, I'm wondering if I buy the mac book air new, would it still be able to run Microsoft office and spotify and Internet browser at the same time with out lag?
Click to expand...

Oof, if you're asking this question, you clearly have no comprehension of how powerful computers are these days. The computer I had 10 years ago could easily do this.

Any MacBook you can buy today can do this workload twice and have CPU power left over to work on curing cancer.
 
Modrisco89 said:
Thanks everyone for the replies, I've learned alot in the past day of just asking 1 question so kudos:)

I've decided not to buy the used one altogether, I'm going to buy the 2015 mac instead...since I'm very impressed with the battery life....

Just one more question:

Should I upgrade it to 8 gb ram if I buy it new? or will the 4gb ram do?

and should I get the 256gb SSD storage as opposed 128gb?

I'm just a student, I wouldn't be looking to do any gaming really..(perhaps a small bit of AOE II) but other than just for browsing, office and spotify really.

Thanks again for all the answers guys, this will be my 1st ever mac as I've always been a windows user and I just want to make the 1st correct step.

Would a macbook pro be too much for my needs? I wouldn't mind purchasing that if you guys think it would do me better in the long run, but I think alot of the applications I'll be using in college will be low running anyway.

I just want something that has a 13 inch screen and will last me a long time!
Click to expand...

Go 13" Retina MacBook Pro. Although it's not necessary for your usage, the trackpad is great and the display is stunning. If you're looking for something that'll last you a long time you might as well spend the extra for the plunge. It's got more ports, a better CPU, better GPU, more RAM as standard, quicker RAM than the MBA, a quicker SSD, a better display, and a better trackpad.
 
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keysofanxiety said:
Go 13" Retina MacBook Pro. Although it's not necessary for your usage, the trackpad is great and the display is stunning. If you're looking for something that'll last you a long time you might as well spend the extra for the plunge. It's got more ports, a better CPU, better GPU, more RAM as standard, quicker RAM than the MBA, a quicker SSD, a better display, and a better trackpad.
Click to expand...

Much too big.
 
For your needs I would consider the retina Macbook if you are looking at buying a 13" upgraded Air. The price will be very similar, but the Macbook is a much more modern device that is plenty powerful for what you want to do. The effective resolution on the Macbook is higher than on the Air, so you actually get more workspace, and you get a super-sharp screen at the same time. I don't think you need the power of the Pro line so why bother carrying around nearly double the weight everywhere?
 
Modrisco89 said:
You saying that would be too much for what I want to do?
Click to expand...

No, sorry, I just meant that the retina MacBook Pro is physically too large and heavy... in absolute terms, it isn't that big or heavy, but compared to an 11" MacBook Air it's much less portable. So getting a rMBP is not all champagne and roses.
 
That is too expensive. I would also look for at least a 2013 model as that is where the Battery life improvements started, plus AC wifi, BT 4.0 and fast SSD speeds.
 
I'm so sorry for annoying you guys, I'm actually considering purchasing this Macbook air from my friend, I don't mind the price...I just need something to last me the next 3 years at least (By then I'll have a job and can afford a brand new one). I just don't think I can fork out anything more than a grand at the moment.

Here are the

Processor Type: Intel Core i7 3rd Gen.
Release Year: 2012 Processor Speed: 2.00GHz
Product Family: MacBook Air Memory: 8GB
Screen Size: 13.3" Hard Drive Capacity: 256GB
Operating System: Apple Mac OS X 10.10, Yosemite

Now he never took it anywhere, it sat on his desk for the entire time, he used it about 50 hours a week if I were to estimate (since he's in a 40 hour week job)....

I'm just wondering, if I go for this...will it last me the next 3 years at least? I'm worried as it's almost 3 years old now.

Again, I appreciate all the feedback

If you think it's a bad idea, I'll go for a brand new macbook air, which I have been advised will be faster than the 2012 model, it's just the 4gb ram that worries me. which is why I'm so impressed with the 2012 model.
 
zhenya said:
How much is the base model brand-new one over there again?
Click to expand...

1.6GHz Processor
256 GB Storage
  • 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor
  • Turbo Boost up to 2.7GHz
  • Intel HD Graphics 6000
  • 4GB memory
  • 256GB PCIe-based flash storage1
  • Delivery:
    • In Stock
    • Free Delivery

  • €1,379.0
Am I better off just buying that? It's just that I'm worried it won't be as good as the 2012 model (bar the battery ofcourse)
 
Hmm. I doubt you will notice any difference one way or another in the CPU. The RAM might or might not be an issue, depending on your use. It's not ideal at 4GB, but then the new SSD's are so fast that caching to hard disk is nothing like it was in the old days.

The thing is, if you buy the 2012 model, when you are done with it in 3 years, it will be a 6 year old model then worth probably 2-300 Euro. The new one will then only be 3 years old, and will probably still be worth at least 600 Euro or most of the cost difference, plus you will have had a newer laptop for all those years with much better battery life...
 
zhenya said:
Hmm. I doubt you will notice any difference one way or another in the CPU. The RAM might or might not be an issue, depending on your use. It's not ideal at 4GB, but then the new SSD's are so fast that caching to hard disk is nothing like it was in the old days.

The thing is, if you buy the 2012 model, when you are done with it in 3 years, it will be a 6 year old model then worth probably 2-300 Euro. The new one will then only be 3 years old, and will probably still be worth at least 600 Euro or most of the cost difference, plus you will have had a newer laptop for all those years with much better battery life...
Click to expand...

Thank you, I'll be using it for visual basic so I don't know how that will handle it, plus I'll be using office, spotify and webbrowsing, maths software.....I don't think I'll be running all these at the same time..but if I were would it handle it? that's why I'm tempted to go for the 2012 model since it has the ram, I don't mind if it spontaneously combusts after 3 years, I'll be able to afford a new on at that stage....my apologies I'm a complete noob when it comes to differences in specifications. P.S I'll be looking to run windows on it for programs that are not available on the mac.
 
Running Windows will definitely benefit from the additional RAM. That's a tough decision. I see you can upgrade to 8GB for 120 Euro, although at that point you are at a 600 Euro difference...

Could you get away with the 128GB new model but with 8GB of RAM? Normally I would not suggest this tradeoff, especially if you need to run Windows, but it's another possible option.

How about a new 11" with 256GB/8GB RAM for 1299?

Ideally you could get something refurbished, but I see that there is nothing listed at http://www.apple.com/ie/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac

Any education discount available to you?

The big concern I have about the 2012 model is the battery life. It was already poor when new. It will be worse now. I guess if battery life is of little concern to you, then it might be an ok deal. However, having a computer with real all-day battery life frees you in ways you might not even realize if you've never enjoyed it before.
 
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