Should I get 2017 or 2018 MBA??

[b738]

Hi everyone, im looking for advice to get a new MBA for a family member. As soon as they released the new MBA i had no doubts that i was going to get the new one, but now, after reading so many problems related to the keyboard my doubts get bigger and bigger.

I have a 2013 MBA and I needed to replace the keyboard after 5 years because a few keys stopped working,but at least it was after 5 years, not after months of usage!

So I want to get a new MBA that shows to be reliable, so I dont want to get a 2000€ MBA that is going to need a keyboard replacement after 1-2-3-4 years you know??

Is this keyboard the same as the new macbook pro? I think we need to see how it develops in time...

Any thoughts? Thank you!

 

[CheesePuff]

Yes its the same keyboard as what is in the 2018 MBP. I have a 2017 MBP 15" with the 2nd generation butterfly keyboard, using it full time for work and personal use for well over 6 months and haven't had a single issue. In fact it feels like I type faster on it compared to my 2014 15" MBP.

 

[Isamilis]

2017 MBA design and screen is too old. Unless you have budget limitation, I'd suggest to pick MBA 2018 or get a used / refurbished rMBP.

 

[b738]

I think I will get the 2018 MBA... and because of this uncertainty with the keyboard im forced to pay an extra 250€ for the applecare, to avoid problems for 3 years... dissapointing to pay this premium price and get the worrying feeling that things might break earlier than it should.

 

[Isamilis]

Just curious, is keyboard issues in MBA 2018 have been experienced by many users? That might help to justify extra $$ for applecare.

I think I will get the 2018 MBA... and because of this uncertainty with the keyboard im forced to pay an extra 250€ for the applecare, to avoid problems for 3 years... dissapointing to pay this premium price and get the worrying feeling that things might break earlier than it should.

 

[lyngo]

Just curious, is keyboard issues in MBA 2018 have been experienced by many users? That might help to justify extra $$ for applecare.

Im going to get AppleCare. I don’t have it yet. It’s coming soon though just like any laptop.

 

[b738]

Just curious, is keyboard issues in MBA 2018 have been experienced by many users? That might help to justify extra $$ for applecare.

Not yet, but its the same keyboard of the new MBP which has got a few users with problems, so we can expect the same in the new MBA

 

[Boyd01]

I just pre-ordered a base model 2018 MBA from B&H's Black Friday sale as a christmas present for my daughter's family. Was tempting to go with the 2017 model and save some money, but this will probably be their primary computer for a number of years (gave them an iMac in 2007 that they used until 2016) so the 2017 model just seemed too dated.

Gave them my 2012 Mini two years ago, but it died recently. Was going to give them a 2018 Mini (which would have been more than $200 cheaper) but they decided they really want a laptop instead. The older MBA's are great machines - my 2013 maxxed out 11" MBA is still going strong - but I just felt the 2018 was a better investment.

 

[AlexJoda]

I just pre-ordered a base model 2018 MBA from B&H's Black Friday sale as a christmas present for my daughter's family. Was tempting to go with the 2017 model and save some money, but this will probably be their primary computer for a number of years (gave them an iMac in 2007 that they used until 2016) so the 2017 model just seemed too dated.

Gave them my 2012 Mini two years ago, but it died recently. Was going to give them a 2018 Mini (which would have been more than $200 cheaper) but they decided they really want a laptop instead. The older MBA's are great machines - my 2013 maxxed out 11" MBA is still going strong - but I just felt the 2018 was a better investment.

The problem ist that although the 2017 MBA seems dated the 2018 seems even more "dated" but cost about 50% more for a usable 256GB version if you compare street prices. There are many reduced offers out for the 2017 MBA. The specs and performance for the 2018 MBA are not better in real life, for some things like GPU usage and video it is even worse.

When you compare the 2018 MBA and its gelded Y CPU (that has not much in common with an i5 - apart from the marketing name) with the 2011 MBA and the than new "real" i5 /i7 CPUs the 2018 MBA looks definitely "dated". The standard SSD at that time was already 128 GB...So if you translate that to 2018 with all the improvements we had since than a third gen MBA should start with a 512 GB SSD option, 16 GB RAM and a CPU/GPU that is at least twice as fast as the 5th gen Broadwell i5 which is not the case.

Because of that (and other aspects like the crappy keyboard, the dim display and limited interfaces) the new 2018 MBA will age much faster than the old one and you will loose less money and get a better deal if you buy the much cheaper 2017 MBA which I did yesterday....