MacBook in 2020

[a.Lias]

Thanks for the insight, guys. 7Do I pull the trigger @$650 for the 2017 12" or put that towards a future purchase? I'm not sure that counts as really cheap. The form factor, like you guys mentioned, is really what stands out to me. If we knew for sure that they were refreshing it with an M1 this year, it would be a lot easier to hold off.

 

[infernoguy]

Hey all, still rocking my original 2015 1.2Ghz 512GB SSD. It's holding up extremely well for me as a personal laptop. I'm debating whether to update to Big Sur (currently on Catalina 10.15.7) and also whether to possibly go dual boot with Linux to add 32 bit support back (I have a few old 32 bit games like Morrowind that I miss playing on the Macbook). It still does everything surprisingly well. I've recently started using the chromium based Edge browser due to some sites not liking Safari and I'm liking the performance.

I'm definitely considering whether this is the year to get a new laptop, but other than uninspiring battery life, this little MacBook is still a great computer.

I have this same MacBook but running Big Sur. It actually runs Big Sur pretty well.

 

[posguy99]

Thanks for the insight, guys. 7Do I pull the trigger @$650 for the 2017 12" or put that towards a future purchase? I'm not sure that counts as really cheap. The form factor, like you guys mentioned, is really what stands out to me. If we knew for sure that they were refreshing it with an M1 this year, it would be a lot easier to hold off.

Don't buy a 12" *at all* in 2021. That form-factor machine is gone.

 

[a.Lias]

Thanks for the insight, Posguy. Really sad that the form factor is gone. I guess maybe I should consider an iPad?

 

[Violet_Antelope]

Thanks for the insight, guys. 7Do I pull the trigger @$650 for the 2017 12" or put that towards a future purchase? I'm not sure that counts as really cheap. The form factor, like you guys mentioned, is really what stands out to me. If we knew for sure that they were refreshing it with an M1 this year, it would be a lot easier to hold off.

I’d have to say absolutely not at that price. That pays the majority of a base M1 Air. I personally don’t find the iPad a suitable replacement, though it’s a nice adjunct. Honestly the Air seems the much better choice, and we’ll likely get used to it quickly enough. Of course it depends on how you use your machine but I couldn’t replace a mac with an iPad, and by the time you’ve bought stand, case, keyboard, mouse and apps, the M1 is a sweet deal I think.

 

[zblomstrom]

Thanks for the insight, guys. 7Do I pull the trigger @$650 for the 2017 12" or put that towards a future purchase? I'm not sure that counts as really cheap. The form factor, like you guys mentioned, is really what stands out to me. If we knew for sure that they were refreshing it with an M1 this year, it would be a lot easier to hold off.

Honestly, I would say that $650 for a 2017 12" is what they are going for and is fair. Which processor, amount of RAM, SSD size, and how many battery cycles does the laptop have? For reference, I purchased my 2015 for $415.

The MacBook has always been a tough sell because even when you could buy them new they were $300 more expensive than a MacBook Air. However, if you compare the 12" to the MacBook Air's of the time they offered many more premium features than the Air until the 2018 model was released.

If you can go a little bigger and haven't absolutely fallen in love with the form factor of the 12" I'd definitely recommend going for the M1 MacBook Air.

 

[izzy0242mr]

I hadn't heard of Turbo Boost Switcher but it looks promising. I'm not sure keeping the GHz at 1.2 will do battery life or the thermals any favors but it may be worth a try to see what the software can do. Battery life has been one of the more disappointing parts of this purchase. Maybe my laptop is still indexing as I've only used it a couple of hours since setting it up but it just seems to drain very quickly.

I have a 12" MB (2016) and I can confirm that using Turbo Boost Switcher to disable turbo boosting increases battery life by at least a couple hours. It does make the MacBook very slow, though. It's not unusable, but it makes multitasking kind of a pain. I would disable Turbo Boost if I'm working somewhere without a charger for a longer period of time and I just want to kind of focus on a single task (watching a movie; writing a paper; browsing; etc.).

I spent $150 on it (2016, m3, 8 GB) and that's the most I'd spend today, 4 years later. Probably a little expensive honestly. I just found a good one (under 100 battery cycles) and I do like the form factor for traveling, even though the M1 Air is way faster.

 

[izzy0242mr]

Do you think using something like Turbo Boost Switcher to keep the Ghz at 1.2 will prolong its life and help with the battery?

I have a 12" MB (2016) and I can confirm that using Turbo Boost Switcher to disable turbo boosting increases battery life by at least a couple hours (got an estimate of like 3 hours with turbo boost on; that went up to about 5.5 to 6 hours with it off, and while I didn't test it for that long, the battery was draining very slowly with turbo boost off).

Disabling turbo boost does make the MacBook very slow, though. It's not unusable, but it makes multitasking kind of a pain. I would disable Turbo Boost if I'm working somewhere without a charger for a longer period of time and I just want to kind of focus on a single task (watching a movie; writing a paper; browsing; etc.).