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Macbook Air 11 2012 vs 2015

johnothy

johnothy

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 10, 2012
190
47
Midwest
I currently have a 2012 Macbook Air 11. It has always been one of my favorite (if not the favorite) Apple products. The only complaint I have about it is that on some video streaming sites, the fan runs like it needs more power and the battery life over all is around 3-3.5 hours. If I get a newer 2015 Macbook will I see a big improvement in battery life? A friend said they get 9-10 hours on their new Macbook Air 11. I also will get 8GB RAM this time.

I'd considered a 12 inch Macbook, but the fact they are first generation sort of makes me want to stick with the Macbook Air product line.
 
You'll definitely see an improvement battery-wise. The mid-2012 is Intel's Ivy Bridge generation. The 2013 MBAs got the Haswell chipset, that had a 25% and higher battery improvement. And the 2015 MBAs have Broadwell, another similar improvement in power usage.

You're getting two generations worth of improvements.
 
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Absolutely the 2015 one will be a big improvement.
Also, keep in mind that both the air and the MB pro are due for a refresh (check macrumors buyers guide), so if you can wait (hopefully <6 months) you'll likely end up with a much better machine.
 
You'll get an improvement simply because the battery is newer, and the battery capacity hasn't degraded yet.

Disregarding the improvements you'd see due simply to having a new battery from 2015 as opposed to one from 2012, I think the improvement in battery life will be small -- maybe 1 hour due to the battery alone, and another hour due to it being a faster, better computer.

When my 2011 11" MBA was new, the battery capacity was roughly 4700. Now it's around 3900. I forget the units. I think it's in mAh. Anyway, that's a significant drop over the years!

It's likely that the newer wireless chip inside the new MBAs consumes less power, and the cpu would have an easier time with the processing.

I think you'd get 6 hours of video streaming on the 11" MBA.

FYI, you can check the capacity of your battery by going to the Apple logo at the top, clicking on "About this Mac", and checking the "Power" settings. I can't remember the exact method though because I'm trying to remember off the top of my head. :eek:
 
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My current MacBook Air 11 is a Mid-2013 model with the base 1.7GHz, Intel Core i5, 4GB RAM. A few people have asked about buying it if I get a newer one. What would you say a fair price to ask for it is? It is in excellent condition overall and always had a protective case on it with a keyboard cover. I also have the original box.
 
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