Looking to Purchase Macbook Air - Need Your Insight

[richyirich]

I'm looking to purchase a Macbook Air. I'll be using it mostly for editing photos in RAW format (I'm a hobbyist and not a pro photographer by any means). I'll also going to be using it for an occasional web surfing as well as MS Office. With an educator discount, I can purchase a brand new, latest, and cheapest MBA for approximately $900 with tax (1.8GHz i5, 8GB RAM, 128 GB SSD) through the Apple Store or Best Buy (with price-matching). However, I found a private seller in my area selling a gently used 2015 MBA equipped with high specs (2.2GHz i7, 8GB RAM, 512 SSD) also for under $900. The seller has taken the machine to the Apple Store recently, and their tech gave it a clean bill of health.

Both machines are within my budget, and am wondering if I should purchase a new machine with lower specs or older machine with higher specs.

Any insights/suggestions?

 

[old-wiz]

I wouldn't buy an MBA for photo editing due to the screen. It's likely that there will not be another MBA - will be replaced with something else.

 

[aengelbrecht]

MBA is probably not the best laptop for photo editing, but if those are your choices I would pick the older one with better specs. The 512GB SSD is a much better choice to work with media - the i7 CPU is also faster.

 

[sracer]

The MBA is fine for non-professional photo editing. I’m not a fan of used computers but that older MBA is a little beast of a machine that even I would consider buying.

 

[Hater]

There's a new MBA being released in October, i'd wait for that one.

 

[Dave245]

I would wait, a new MacBook Air (or whatever they decide to call it) is rumoured for September or October.

 

[sracer]

I would wait, a new MacBook Air (or whatever they decide to call it) is rumoured for September or October.

If one is going to wait for a new or replacement for the current Macbook Air, take the time while waiting to consider how important the following are to you:
Magsafe connector
SD card slot
USB-A
13 hour battery life
Current MBA keyboard
Current MBA trackpad
Illuminated Apple logo (yeah I know, not an issue for me, but there are some)

Unless the new MBA is going to use the existing chassis, all of the above will most likely not be part of the new MBA.

 

[Dave245]

If one is going to wait for a new or replacement for the current Macbook Air, take the time while waiting to consider how important the following are to you:
Magsafe connector
SD card slot
USB-A
13 hour battery life
Current MBA keyboard
Current MBA trackpad
Illuminated Apple logo (yeah I know, not an issue for me, but there are some)

Unless the new MBA is going to use the existing chassis, all of the above will most likely not be part of the new MBA.

To be fair I’m not that concerned about most the things on that list, the 13 hour battery life would be good. I like the butterfly keyboard (apart from the issues that have been reported) and the logo isn’t an issue for me either. What’s important more (for me at least) is a Retina display and more up to date specs.

 

[Non-Polar]

I highly doubt Apple will fix the keyboard issues with the current problems. The best, from what I can see, is the silicon cover over each caps. It's not as if Apple will introduce a dust-proof butterfly keyboard in their lower priced MacBook Air compared to the recently released, much more expensive MacBook Pro.