MBA: Upgrade from '15 to '17 or get AppleCare?

[dmk1974]

My wife's 2015 MacBook Air 13 (8/128) has the initial Apple 1-year warranty expiring next week. I can still buy the additional AppleCare for $250 to cover years 2 and 3. OR was thinking I could buy her a new '17 MBA 13 8/128 from Best Buy (on sale for $750) and sell her current one on Craigslist for perhaps $600-$650.

On a per-year basis, each would cost me roughly $125 to do (the upgrade to '17 warranty to Feb 2019 and of course the AC covers the '15 til Feb 2020). Leaning towards upgrading to the '17 for her just to get a little extra speed and new machine of course. Which options would you do? Thanks!

PS: The 128gb of storage is perfectly fine for her since all of our family media is on a shared Mac Mini and she saves her files to the cloud. I think only 40gb of the 128gb is used.

 

[OldEditor]

You've already got the costs analyzed, and they seem to be a wash.
So, the question, I think, becomes which is more attractive to you:
(a) Stay with the current, known performer and extend your Apple car. It's a an almost no-hassle move.
(b) Put a brand-new machine in the wife's hands. Have to order the new one, sell the old one, etc ... but that's not really much trouble.
I might be tempted to go with B, as you'd be picking up a bit of speed. And you'd be extending out the time before your machine goes "Vintage," no?

 

[gobikerider]

My wife's 2015 MacBook Air 13 (8/128) has the initial Apple 1-year warranty expiring next week. I can still buy the additional AppleCare for $250 to cover years 2 and 3. OR was thinking I could buy her a new '17 MBA 13 8/128 from Best Buy (on sale for $750) and sell her current one on Craigslist for perhaps $600-$650.

On a per-year basis, each would cost me roughly $125 to do (the upgrade to '17 warranty to Feb 2019 and of course the AC covers the '15 til Feb 2020). Leaning towards upgrading to the '17 for her just to get a little extra speed and new machine of course. Which options would you do? Thanks!

PS: The 128gb of storage is perfectly fine for her since all of our family media is on a shared Mac Mini and she saves her files to the cloud. I think only 40gb of the 128gb is used.

Keep hers and add Apple Care you simply aren’t going to benefit from a new one. The difference is 200mhz, same generation of processor though. I see no reason to upgrade to a new version of a machine that will be EOL and off store shelves by EOY 2018 if not by WWDC. If her machine is working fine keep it, if you upgrade sell hers but try to get a Macbook or a MacBook Pro for some decent longevity.

 

[old-wiz]

Apple recently changed when you can get apple care - supposedly you can only buy applecare within the 1st 60 days..