My first Mac was a base 2010 11" MacBook Air with the 4GB RAM upgrade. After being a lifelong Windows user, I remember being so impressed about everything with it, and it's only been Macs for me since. I gifted it to a family member in 2010 after I got my 2012 15" rMBP, and it ran fine until a few months ago when it met its demise after being dropped.
Last week I found a 2010 11" model for sale for only about $180. The seller said it was banged up, had no charger, and had no idea about what model it was or if it would even work at all. He had no knowledge about Macs so was selling it as-is for parts.
I like tinkering, so I took a risk and bought it. Yesterday it arrived and it was very dirty and it wouldn't turn on. The first nice surprise was that it has an English keyboard, a rarity among used machines where I live. I left it charge with my Thunderbolt Display overnight and the second surprise was that it came to life this morning!
After some effort I was able to get El Capitan installed and then checked the system info. A third surprise: it is a fully specced out CTO model for the time, with a 1.6GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. Even more surprising was the battery only has 157 cycles on it! Given it is six years old I don't expect the battery to hold much of a charge, but I think it's evident that this machine either wasn't used much at all or wasn't used away from a desk very often.
As for being banged up, it turned out all of it was just various gunk that cleaned up very nicely. There are a very small scratches on the bottom, but otherwise the case, screen, keyboard, and trackpad are all in excellent condition. It looks like it was rarely used.
I'm surprised how smoothly this machine runs El Capitan. I'm typing on it now and it hasn't had any issues so far. Six years after its release, it still runs the latest version of OS X really well.
Now I'm conflicted what to do with it. I have a lot of nostalgia with this particular machine as it was my first Mac. Part of me wants to keep it, but I have four other Macs between home and work and do not need this machine. If I kept it, it wouldn't see much use. So another part of me feels it's better to sell/donate/gift to someone, but I'm not sure how much use it has left. Any ideas?
TL;DR: got a 2010 11" MacBook Air with unknown specs/condition for cheap; turned out to be the highest specced BTO model; great for nostalgia but don't need it so trying to find a use for it.
Last week I found a 2010 11" model for sale for only about $180. The seller said it was banged up, had no charger, and had no idea about what model it was or if it would even work at all. He had no knowledge about Macs so was selling it as-is for parts.
I like tinkering, so I took a risk and bought it. Yesterday it arrived and it was very dirty and it wouldn't turn on. The first nice surprise was that it has an English keyboard, a rarity among used machines where I live. I left it charge with my Thunderbolt Display overnight and the second surprise was that it came to life this morning!
After some effort I was able to get El Capitan installed and then checked the system info. A third surprise: it is a fully specced out CTO model for the time, with a 1.6GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. Even more surprising was the battery only has 157 cycles on it! Given it is six years old I don't expect the battery to hold much of a charge, but I think it's evident that this machine either wasn't used much at all or wasn't used away from a desk very often.
As for being banged up, it turned out all of it was just various gunk that cleaned up very nicely. There are a very small scratches on the bottom, but otherwise the case, screen, keyboard, and trackpad are all in excellent condition. It looks like it was rarely used.
I'm surprised how smoothly this machine runs El Capitan. I'm typing on it now and it hasn't had any issues so far. Six years after its release, it still runs the latest version of OS X really well.
Now I'm conflicted what to do with it. I have a lot of nostalgia with this particular machine as it was my first Mac. Part of me wants to keep it, but I have four other Macs between home and work and do not need this machine. If I kept it, it wouldn't see much use. So another part of me feels it's better to sell/donate/gift to someone, but I'm not sure how much use it has left. Any ideas?
TL;DR: got a 2010 11" MacBook Air with unknown specs/condition for cheap; turned out to be the highest specced BTO model; great for nostalgia but don't need it so trying to find a use for it.
