Need the faster transfer rate usb 3 has to offer. Which model did apple started to put the usb 3 in this line? Something to edit photos and family videos on that I can pick up at the apple refurb store or on eBay.
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Looking to get a MacBook Air '13 inch w/usb 3
- Thread starter YsoSerious
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USB 3.0 was added in 2012. But IMO, the 2013 model is the sweet spot. They greatly increased battery life in 2013 and also added fast 802.11ac wifi.
Agree, have 2013 13" MBA and it is great! Truly has all day battery life so I can leave brick and other accessories in my backpack when I go for full day of meetings. Also has TB if you need even faster transfers.
I have the 11" 2013 i7/8gb/512gb MBA and will not replace it anytime soon. Very powerful and incredibly compact machine with excellent battery life. Last year I watched movies on it all the way from Newark to Heathrow and still had plenty of power left afterwards.
The 802.11ac wifi is great if you have a compatible router (I have an Airport Time Capsule). The Blackmagic disk test reports about 60 MBytes/Sec copying files to my Mini using the MBA with 802.11ac (the Mini is on gigabit ethernet). Compare that to my previous 2011 MBA that only had USB 2.0. A direct connected USB disk only got about 35 MBytes/sec on that machine. Also great for streaming video from the mini (running iTunes home sharing). I can scrub through movies just like they were on a local disk.
The 802.11ac wifi is great if you have a compatible router (I have an Airport Time Capsule). The Blackmagic disk test reports about 60 MBytes/Sec copying files to my Mini using the MBA with 802.11ac (the Mini is on gigabit ethernet). Compare that to my previous 2011 MBA that only had USB 2.0. A direct connected USB disk only got about 35 MBytes/sec on that machine. Also great for streaming video from the mini (running iTunes home sharing). I can scrub through movies just like they were on a local disk.
I have the same model and it truly is fantastic. I know some people can't deal with the screen on the MBA but I go back and forth between it and my iPad and it doesn't bother me at all. It's a beast of a computer in a very small package.
As someone else mentioned, you can get USB 3.0 on 2012, but get a 2013. The refurb 2013 MBAs that pop up are the best MacBook deal around if you don't need a retina screen and you can get a maxed out machine for the price of a base current model. The changes from 2013 to 2014 to 2015 have been very minor, but 2012 to 2013 was a major upgrade.