MacBook Pro 13" 2014 - Keep, Sell, Return?

[ab225]

I wanted to get some advice from the forum on what to do with this MacBook I got the other day, I haven't been able to decide what's best.

I got what I thought was a great deal on a base MacBook Pro 13" 2014 (£120). It has some issues - the anti-reflective coating has worn away quite badly in some areas, there are some light spots to the backlight around a couple of corners, there's a tiny pin-prick stuck-pixel or puncture (not very noticeable when not black), plus some cosmetic bumps (not worried about those). I already have 2 M1 MacBook Airs (one from work, one my personal). I got this for my dad who just needs a laptop for web browsing, emailing, documents, photos. I already got him a base 2014 MacBook Air last year. This wouldn't be a huge upgrade but it's got double the CPU speed, double the ram, a Retina display and might last him longer.

Now, I recently received it from eBay. I could technically still return it (the uneven backlight and stuck pixel wasn't mentioned in the listing). Or, I keep it and sell the MacBook Air and maybe make £30-£50. Or, is it not worth the hassle and do I try selling it for higher than £120 even with the defects for profit?

 

[Sanpete]

I'd show it to your dad and see which he prefers. Hard to say otherwise.

 

[MBAir2010]

what is wrong with the MacBook air?

 

[mslilyelise]

Depends on what your dad wants to do with what machine. MacBook Air is built for lightness, MacBook Pro is built for workflow. Now we're talking about both laptops being 8 years old, but that "what they were intended for" still holds true. You cannot upgrade the RAM on either machine as Apple solders it to the mainboard, but you can upgrade the SSD on either of them.

I personally have found that 4GB is no longer sufficient for personal use. When pages like Facebook can eat up to a gig of working ram just by having the tab open, if you factor in social media, chat programs, music, and a word processor, that's just your average workflow these days and on 4GB it will start to stutter if you push it. On every Mac I've had, the jump from 4 to 8GB made a massive difference. Even on a 2010 MacBook Unibody, which it a bit underpowered by today's standards (don't hate me C2D guys). I also had a 2017 MacBook Air at one point, and now have an early 2015 Pro Retina, and it smokes the Air in pretty much every way.

So, again, base it on his usage, see what he needs. The Pro is a better equipped machine, but maybe he's happy with what he's got.

 

[ab225]

Thanks for the inputs. To be honest usage isn't that important because a 4GB ram 2014 MacBook Air is probably already above what my dad needs. I'd just like to give him something that is going to be reliable and hassle free for the next couple of years (I'm not going to start fiddling with OpenCore to get a Monterey installation). I think a retina screen would be better on his eyes. I also think the lightness is great on the Air.

So you think return it or sell it?

 

[Uddername]

In all honesty, the price you paid is very good for that era of MacBook. Although, it's unfortunate it has a few cosmetic issues - i still think you've got a good deal and considering what your Dad will use it for, I think it will be perfect and he won't notice the odd pixel issue.

For comparison, a MacBook Pro 2012 unibody model with 4gb RAM and a slow, old 500gb HDD sells on eBay for £130 (at the lower). So yeah, I think you're a few years ahead of the actual value of the 2014 machine.

 

[mslilyelise]

In all honesty, the price you paid is very good for that era of MacBook. Although, it's unfortunate it has a few cosmetic issues - i still think you've got a good deal and considering what your Dad will use it for, I think it will be perfect and he won't notice the odd pixel issue.

For comparison, a MacBook Pro 2012 unibody model with 4gb RAM and a slow, old 500gb HDD sells on eBay for £130 (at the lower). So yeah, I think you're a few years ahead of the actual value of the 2014 machine.

I concur with this assessment. I think the MBP is going to have a slightly longer shelf life because it’s a performance machine, so your dad won’t notice the issues. The scaling effect the Retina screen does is great if he’s having some sign issues. The MBP may be a bit dinged up but you got it for a good deal. I’d keep it, for him or for you if you can find a use for it.

Also of note, OCLP does work well on these machines. Anything that supports Metal API (so post 2012 Macs) can run Monterey pretty well. I had a 2010 MacBook unibody I used as a daily for awhile with Monterey on it via OCLP. Because that machine was too old for Metal a lot of apps didn’t work, but a Metal machine should work pretty flawlessly.

OCLO project is on hold development wise because their devs are in or around Ukraine. So I would wait until it’s resumed to be comfortable that it’s actively supported.

 

[Diablo360]

If the AR coating bothers you, they sell screen protectors on Amazon. Yes the AR coating is still bad underneath, but it does kind of hide the blemish. Depends on how bad the coating is though. On my older Macbook Air was only really able to see the blemish when the screen was off.