Newb To Mac Needs Help On 2017 i7 Purchase Advice

[cfiiman]

Hey guys,

First time MacBook user here and I just purchased 10 days ago or so the 2017 MBA but I upgraded the processor to the custom i7 2.2 with turbo boost to 3.2 ghz. I had been waiting a long time for the new MBA to be released but my windows PC (which I hated) started to go wonky and I had to get something so I pulled the trigger. Like always as soon as I did they came out with the new one lol. Anyway I KNOW I'm in a minority, if not the only one on the planet but I love the look of the older MBA, even the "thick" bezels everyone complains about, I know I must be crazy but beauty as they say is in the eye of the beholder .

With that said I got the 2017 model with the upgraded processor through work for a discount, plus b/c apple screwed up the order they gave me a credit for my "trouble" which was nice, add this to the fact I can take it off taxes through my business and I got it for a great deal. I am still within the window to return it though (have until Wednesday this week) and want to be prudent by asking you experts what you would do. I know the new one has the wonderful Retina display but honestly on a 13" screen I'm not sure that matters to me that much. I don't like the way it looks compared to the old one aesthetically so it really comes down to the performance for me. I don't know about benchmarks and stuff except for what I've read on here but found this comparable score on Geekbench I think (see my copy and paste below). Problem is I don't know what I'm really looking at, can you guys tell me if performance wise the new one is much better or not than my i7 2.2? Everything on the 2018 model says "pending" I guess b/c it is so new. From what I'm understanding reading on here, the "y" series chip is only 7 watts, which means when it gets hot during hard tasks it would throttle correct, where my "u" series is 15 watts and has a good fan meaning my turbo boost should kick in and last? Don't know if I have that right or not which is why I'm asking, thanks for any guidance.

 

[tzd]

Hi, the benchmarks between these two models are pretty close (see my screenshot below, and check out more benchmarks on geekbench site yourself)

As an owner of a 2011 MacBook Air, I would say that the only thing I would have preferred on the new 2018 model is the Force-Touch trackpad. Additional plus'es on the new model for me are "Touch-ID on a non-Touchbar keyboard", Retina Display and ability to spec up to 16GB RAM. The things I love about my old model over the new one are the Keyboard, MagSafe connector and variety of ports. I currently use a new MacBook Pro for work and I can tell you the old keyboard is so much better.

I think with the new model you will probably get better battery life and better performance in tasks that involve graphics rendering (such as web browsing and video playing).

 

[cfiiman]

Hi, the benchmarks between these two models are pretty close (see my screenshot below, and check out more benchmarks on geekbench site yourself)

As an owner of a 2011 MacBook Air, I would say that the only thing I would have preferred on the new 2018 model is the Force-Touch trackpad. Additional plus'es on the new model for me are "Touch-ID on a non-Touchbar keyboard" and Retina Display. The things I love about my old model over the new one are the Keyboard, MagSafe connector and variety of ports. I currently use a new MacBook Pro for work and I can tell you the old keyboard is so much better.

I think with the new model you will probably get better battery life and better performance in tasks that involve graphics rendering (such as web browsing and video playing).

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Thanks for the reply. I totally forgot about the ports and keyboard as well in my original post, that was also a reason I got the one I did. I figured the 15watt i7 would be better for graphics stuff than the 7watt i5, thought I remember reading on here how the "u" series is much better than the "y", was that wrong? Thanks again for any advice/info everyone.

 

[Pugly]

It’s pretty hard to compare the two. It’s probably a wash, and they aren’t noticeably different. Their Geekbench scores are very close.

The new Air does have built in decoder for HEVC, so it’s more efficient working with new video encoding.

The differences come down to USB-A and classic keyboard vs Retina display, smaller and usb-c thunderbolt.

 

[tzd]

Thanks for the reply. I totally forgot about the ports and keyboard as well in my original post, that was also a reason I got the one I did. I figured the 15watt i7 would be better for graphics stuff than the 7watt i5, thought I remember reading on here how the "u" series is much better than the "y", was that wrong? Thanks again for any advice/info everyone.

Keep in mind it is a 3-year old i7 vs a current i5 design. Yes the i7 will keep up for the most part, but it will draw more power to do so.

 

[maerz001]

don’t forget about this 8year old screen which was even back in the days not a very good one.
If u really need the ports there is not much reason to keep it besides money. Don’t u have 14days return policy?