I love it when you upgrade devices and encourage people to get more affordable and environmentally friendly options instead of pushing mindless consumerism. Thank you!
im still using this macbook with a 27 inch thunderbolt display that i found on facebook for $200. and i bought a 256gb sd card for $60. sometimes it pays to not follow the masses
it's not about consumerism, just like power consumption. this is not how it works, how the product is made and how the power is generated is what counts. in Apple's case, this are by far the most environmental firendly devices on the planet. because of the insane numbers, literally most sold laptop of all time, the efficiency is literally the best in the industry, so much that repairing pollutes more than simply getting a new one, it is that efficient. so, we need to differentiate when talking about the environment. whats super bad is the windows world, plastic, short life span, low usage, extremely vast product catalog, all different. macs are so much more friendly its not even worth to talk about, it is that far ahead compared to the rest. people literally use them for decades, as seen here often. have a nice day
Hot take - I think this gen of Macbook Air is one of the best computers ever made. It doesn't have the best screen or the best performance, but it just works and continues to work. Pair that with the fact that the case design was revolutionary at the time, the keyboard is wonderful, it was thin light and it came in at a great pricepoint and you have a computer that is a pleasure to use, even 12 years after it was introduced. As Luke said, 50 trillion people bought one. I still use my 2012 Macbook Air (i7, 8gb) daily for basic tasks and it's great. That's a 10 year old computer! Crazy. Advice for anyone who wants to buy one of these - GET ONE WITH 8GB of RAM! It's essential in 2022 and beyond.
Hmm, I am not sure. I think that 50 trillion people figure is a tiny little bit over stated. Are you absolutely positive that there were 50 trillion of these sold? 😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I love how the 2012 MacBook Pros (Non Retina) were just as popular as these. I’m a sound engineer and I still have my maxed out, 10 year old MacBook Pro as the center of my workflow. These were way ahead of their time!
I have one - it’s pretty awful. The keyboard is good, the screen is decent, but doing literally anything other than opening Safari will basically kill the battery and overheat like crazy. With a brand new battery, I get 5-6 hours battery just browsing the internet. Plus, even with the 8gb version, which I have, I have around 80% usage the entire time. Other than it being a good deal, there’s really no reason to buy it.
Yewp the keyboard and the trackpad are still some of the best . Not sure why anyone would want or need a touch screen when a trackpad works as well as these do :)
I have a 2015 MacBook Air i5 8gb ram with 256gb storage. I upgraded the storage from 128 to a faster 256gb nvme drive, repaste the cpu, put cooling pads on the heat sink, and replaced the battery. It runs Monterey perfect and it’s connected to a 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display. Going on 8 years and it runs perfect gonna wait on M3 chips before I upgrade.
Hey Luke, After viewing this video about buying a MacBook Air at 1/12th the price of a new one, I looked on Ebay and, sure enough, there were many to select from. I decided to spend an extra hundred bucks and just bought a MacBook Air 13” Early 2014 model with 8Gb RAM and a 256Gb SSD, in excellent condition, including the original Apple packaging, for only $198. I’m an Apple collector and mainly bought this to add to my collection. But as you say, it’s a great all-around laptop and I’ll definitely pack it on trips because it’s so light and capable. I like your RUclips channel and watch it a lot. Thanks for all you do. Keep up the good work. John M.
I have a 2012 as my throw it in a bag and never worry about it and honestly I love it because I know I spent $75 on it plus a battery and that I can replace it for another $100 if I need to. It’s great for travel because there is no risk and nice port options.
@@motherof4540 I looked on eBay and didn’t have any luck so I found mine on Facebook Marketplace although they seem to have gone up price wise on there as well.
Luke was so much more calm and relaxed in this video compared to his normal angry mood when he cannot believe how unfairly expensive a second hand MBP was on eBay. Great video.
What’s funny is that this is still almost twice as fast as a modern $200 chromebook and has a better screen, more software support and twice the storage
@Medicine_Man1 they’re not that bad though. After I graduated i modded my Chromebook to have linux and it’s decently fast. The school sold it to us for 1 dollar so it was a good deal.
Luke- just so you know, the iFixit tool box cover acts as a screw storage when flipped over. Once flipped over, you will see squared-off dividers to help you separate screws as you wish. Really helps from accidentally having a random screw sliding under your computer and scratching the shit out of it.
I love how Luke still champions the older Macbooks. I'm using a 2012 Macbook Pro as my daily driver. I even use a 2010 Macbook Pro. 😁 Brilliant. Now I want one of these. 😃 😃
I used a dual core i7 with 8GB RAM…it was great for business use. I got tired of the low res display so moved up to Retina display. These are good machines. Sold mine.
2011 17" user here (again).Couldn't agree more.Despite recently getting a 2015 13" for about $180 I still can't get myself to abandon good old unibody.
@@Lightdog555 Managed to score it in my country's own ebay so to speak.All that was wrong with it was the staingate on the display.But since I knew how the ones that can be rubbed off look like I instantly bought it without a second thought.It came out nearly like new AND with a complete box.
I got one of these for my grandmother who was using a Walmart special HP windows 10 computer that really was e-waste from the get-go. She absolutely loves it. Hundred bucks on eBay and yes it is still stuck on an older version of macOS but security patches are still available and all the browsers and office stuff are still supported so really you can’t go wrong.
2:02 Hey Luke, I thought the 2016 13 inch MacBook Pro is the longest design as we still have it in 2022 with M2 chip now. I know it had the new magic keyboard and the Touch ID becoming its own button instead of being connected to the Touch Bar but essentially it’s the same MacBook Pro apart from again the chipset, SSD etc…
The slimmer non-Retina Airs had 5 generations (2012-2017) and were produced and sold from mid 2012 until mid 2019, so 7 full years, and Touch Bar Pros will only reach 6 in October of this year
This was my first macbook also, but I also purchased it a few years ago for about £280, believe it was a 2013 8gb ram. Excellent machine, was such a big upgrade over my old dell
I'm currently watching this on my 2013 MacBook Air 11inch with 8gb ram. I love this little guy. Rock solid and super speedy for everything in Mac OS and Safari. Its not my main computer but a great little companion device. Highly recommend.
I bought a mid-2012 13" MacBook Pro (non-Retina), pre-upgraded with a 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM and pre-patched with Catalina for AU$330 (~US$230) on Gumtree some time last year -- best $330 I've ever spent on a device. It runs Logic Pro X perfectly for recording and handles mixing well (main mixing I do on a 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 (flashed to 5,1) I scored for about AU$260 (~US$180) on eBay), the only problem I've found is that the battery is still the original one, and so it only lasts 1.5 hours when not plugged in. Doesn't matter as much since I have it plugged in whenever I'm recording. This is coming from a person who has used and still uses PCs for nearly everything else; when it comes to running Apple-developed software like Logic, it cannot be understated how much value you get by going second-hand. I'm shocked at how well the laptop runs Catalina (I think it actually runs it better than the '09 Mac Pro I have), though I don't think I'd want to try going any further than Catalina.
I got mine in 2013 as well (had the white plastic MacBook for high school, got a few years on you) and I still use it! It sits permanently on top of my piano for music recording. SD card, magsafe, USB ports, definitely holds up. It was and still is a great machine.
You are THE best Apple buyer account out there. You have our best interests in mind and you give us good options - and therefore I love supporting you so you can get money for your work in return.
I've seen some electronic specialists upgrade the ram on these to 16GB. If that became a wider option, I could see these being extended. The one issue is the 2012 versions (IIRC) are on their last viable OSX release, so it'll be Linux after that...
You can install Monterey with opencore legacy patcher and no it's not buggy or underperforming. I'm playing Fortnite and doing video editing with opencore installed monterey and it does not differ to native Mojave. But yes, linux is a better alternative since macOS sux.
I've installed Linux Mint Ubuntu and Debian editions on 2017 and 2010 Airs. So far so good. All the hardware seems to work. it was a little flaky when unplugging an external monitor, but it eventually figured it out. Works even with 2Gig as long I don't multi-task much. Bluetooth on the 2010 model is almost unusable, but that's true even under MacOS. Stick with the 2017 model for the best performance and it has USB 3.0 for faster installation. Honestly, I'm planning for the future. Google, Microsoft, Apple and the rest all make their money by making me the product. I'm getting really tired of all the tracking, advertising, simple things turning into monthly subscriptions and forced obsolescence. I see Linux in my future unless these trends change.
A couple of months ago, I bought a 2015 MacBook Air with dual Core i7, 8GB RAM, 500GB SSD, and I installed a new battery in it--for just over $200. It is PHENOMENAL for what I need it for! Thank you for your channel, Luke! ❤️
So after watching this video I decided to set out and buy one of these macbook airs. I have a M1 Max macbook pro and was interested in a laptop to take on vacation and throw around without risking my MBP. No regrets! The 2015 macbook air I got with 8gb ram works absolutely great and still has monterey support (I know that'll end with ventura). Just throw this laptop around, take it on a hike or on vacation to write some reports or edit some photos. It all works great. Thanks Luke.
Agree, been using my 2010 till 2021, changed battery 3 times, touchpad, keyboard and later changed to m1. 2010 is happily serving as a web browsing machine for my 60+ years old mom, she’s also happy about it
I got a 2013. SSD died in 2020. Replaced it and it was good as new. Battery died this year. Easy to replace. It's not my main laptop, but it's so easy to take on the road. And unlike a Mac Mini from the same era, these things are quite usable.
I have a late 2015 11" Air (the internals were upgraded after the logic board got waterlogged) that I still use, and even though it has only 4GB of RAM, it runs Monterrey like a dream, and doesn't feel sluggish at all, for typical web browsing and using typical tasks/apps like word processing. And at 11", it is super tiny and fits everywhere. It's lighter than my 9.5" iPad Pro with a keyboard, and it's slimmer. Highly recommend for writers, esp. if you want to pair it with an external monitor at the desk.
I bought this exact laptop in 2013 in China. I was a Windows user, but did not like Windows 8. I bought the Mac and fell in love. It survived from 2013-2019 and I travelled the world with it. This laptop helped me get through my Masters as well. What finally killed it was, it was beaten up beyond repair, the screen was getting spots, and the battery barely held a 2 hour charge. It seems whenever I had a Windows computer, I was replacing them every 3 years. I finally replaced my Air in 2019 with the next generation Macbook Air. I don't think I will go back to Windows. I still see pre-2018 laptops being used by my students. It is so cool that computer can still hold up.
I found one in the trash a couple weeks ago. I was surprised at just how usable it is. I even updated the os to Monterey. It has almost completely replaced my much higher spec windows laptop.
That's my boy! Mid-2013 MacBook Air, bought stock with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage in late 2013 for university. First ever Mac and first laptop, coming from a family Win7 desktop, it was a shock how good and fast it felt. In retrospect, I've been really lucky buying a Mid-2013 instead of a Mid-2012. Upgraded a couple years ago with a 512GB Sabrent NVMe, it still does the job for general usage, even if in 2022 4GB of RAM are surely few. Still supported for Big Sur and will be until fall of 2023, marking TEN years of security updates. Nuts. Monterey also very easily doable with Open Core Legacy Patcher and still some hope for Ventura. Collin aka dosdude1 has recently performed RAM upgrades for MacBooks of these era, even 16GB are possibile... who knows, maybe one day... :)
I know this is smaller, lighter and more beautiful but you can’t upgrade the RAM and CPU/ GPU in this thermal envelop are limited. I got 2 late 2012 13” unibody MBP for my sons’ primary school. Removed the DVDs, replaced them with caddies and shoved in the existing 512MB HDDs as TimeMachine drives. Installed 512MB SATA SSDs and 16GB LDDR3 RAM at 1600MHz and boom! They are alive. Super fast for most daily usage. Microsoft Office, Apple iWork, Adobe (Photoshop, Illustrator, Animate, Audition, After Effects), GarageBand, iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Programming (Scratch and Python). Running Windows 10 in a virtual machine for school and learning, even though I could install it separately in Bootcamp! In addition to browsing, researching, media consumption and bunch of emulators and Mac and PC old games. Haven’t replaced the old batteries yet but they surprisingly manage to provide 3-5hrs of usage even though they’re at a very high cycle count. Good screen, body, design, ports’ selection, portability and can even drive external monitors in case needed. Catalina is plenty good and beautiful with dark theme and it even supports airplay for AppleTV! At around £100 each (before the upgrades, lol.
I have a 2012 air 13” that I used for a good while after my grandmother gave it to me because she upgraded, however it began to start overheating and crashing at least once a day, I changed the thermal paste and cleaned the vents, but the issue persisted, despite the battery having less than 300 cycles, it would barely last 5 hours of light use. Im guessing this is a cpu issue and could not be fixed easily As much as I liked the laptop I just couldn’t deal with the instability anymore so I upgraded to the 14 inch base model MacBook Pro
Not a 4gb Macbook Air......my 2013 11.6 inch 4gb was crawling by the time I sold it (last November) for 250 euros here in Europe (It was mint and went to a collector, with box and everything original as it spent 8 years into a plastic hard shell case). On the other hand I upgraded with a fast SSD and 8 GB of memory-after a firmware update- my unibody aluminum 2007 macbook, I patched it and installed Big Sur and guess what.......it runs as charm in my sea side Greek island home. Funny story....I am using this very macbook for the second building project there and builders are using it next to water, cement, stones for understanding better the architect's plans....Massive computers!
Not relevant to you since you sold yours, but one thing about these older Airs is that the SSD performance was TERRIBLE. I upgraded mine with a drop-in Aura Pro SSD from OWC, and the SSD performance was almost 5x faster. This makes a HUGE difference on a RAM-constrained machine as they spend a lot of time dealing with the swap file on the SSD.
Just wanna say, great video! I recently bought a good condition MBA early 2015 with 8G of ram for my teenage son. The computer works just fine for all daily tasks on Monterey, the battery had 384 cycles, and can still hold for 6-7 hours of normal use. Best of all, I paid 170 Canadian$ for it, that’s about 130 USD, great price for a capable machine, I’m a happy camper
I just upgraded the SSD in 2015 MacBook Air i7 11”. It is still surprisingly snappy with i7. It is perfect for web browsing, storing my documents and photos, and movie editing in iMovie. The battery doesn’t last more than a couple hours. but all-in-all it suits my simple needs and is a perfect companion to an up-to-date iphone.
Hey Luke you are absolutely right. I bought M1 Mac Pro Max last year but my 2013 Mac air i7 8GB 256GB is still my daily workhorse. I also still keep my first Mac Air ,2011 model as a backup. :)
I gave this same model to my mom, with it acting like a mirror of her data on her iPhone via iCloud syncing. She basically can do all the "big screen" stuff on it at home, and use her phone when she is mobile. It can't run any OS newer than High Sierra, so the 4GB RAM is still sufficient. But the 2013 8GB/512GB MBA that replaced it as my spare "kitchen PC" struggles with only 8GB, because Mac OS is several versions newer. I've thought about wiping it and starting fresh, with just signing into iCloud and downloading the top 5-6 apps that I use, rather than having restored my 16" MBP's TimeMachine apps and user account which has slowed it down.
I got the early 2014 macbook air from a friend and its one of the best laptops that i have ever used. It's the cheapest computer that I can get running the latest version of mac os. Also a guy that uses android phones as their main device when going out iOS devices are good for me when I'm at home. So that I don't have to worry about trying to grab my phone to pick up that one phone call or answer that one text message.
Strangely enough, the only Mac type from the last twenty-ish years that I’ve never owned (not counting the Mac Studio, which is brand new and very expensive) is the MacBook Air, although my mother does have one. I’ve owned several Powerbooks and Power Macs, a few iMacs, iBooks, Mac Pros and MacBook Pros, my main computer is an M1 Mac Mini and my family had an eMac for many years, but never a MacBook Air.
Let me just take in the fact that you were GIVEN Macbook Airs, in high school. Given. Here in the UK high school kids aren't even GIVEN a pen and pencil. In fact a kid can be excluded from school for not bringing appropriate writing equipment. And you lot got GIVEN Macbooks. It's just a different world.
The Nvme now runs on all modern laptops of macbook series since it has faster capabilities and runs great..that is greater than older macbooks uses 2.5” ssd..
I have a friend who is an IT guy. He just gave me several items that were being retired from service. One of them was a 2011 MacBook Air. Now it's the Core2Duo version, and only has 2GB of RAM, but I really like it. The person who was using it had installed Manjaro on it. It was used, and it's still in good shape. I'm quite impressed with it. The weight, the battery life (considering the battery is over 10 years old), the keyboard, and more are still really good. Good enough that I briefly considered keeping it (I am selling it). I do want to buy a newer one to use at home. I like it better than the Lenovo Flex 15 that my company issued to me.
We've two of those MacBooks with degraded batteries, they all still work like new but I'm hesitating the hassle of dealing with Apple for the battery replacement.
My eldest daughter STILL uses the exact same MacBook Air! Why replace something that works? She does use a memory flush app so she never has to shut it down. But it really does do EVERYTHING she wants.
This device supports Metal, so if you are already running Big Sur, why wouldn't you patch it to Monterey? It's really not gonna cause any bug or anything like that!
I purchased a mid 12 MacBook Air from marketplace for $75 3 years ago. Turns out the keyboard was faulty at the top right corner keys. So I just tucked it under my desk, used a USB switch for keyboard and mouse from my main PC and I can switch between inputs on my monitor. So I had a Mac/PC combo at the press of a switch. Now, the keyboard palm rest price dropped to under $15 and ordered a new battery $20 Now it's portable again.... It does all I need it to do. Best purchase ever.
I bought the macbook air 2017 for €100 on ebay. Battery was dead. Ordered it (€40 euros) and put it in myself. Now 2 years later, i still use this machine. Works just fine!
My 2010 MacBook Pro still works fine I only had to replace the battery. The speakers could be replaced but it’s not necessary if only using headphones.
I used my 2012 base MacBook Air all the way till recently when I picked up an m1 MacBook Air for cheap and I never once had issues with the 2012 and it was a beast for almost 12 years
I have one of the early 2015 13 inch Airs with 8GBs of ram. Got it from my cousin as she didn't use it anymore and asked if I wanted it. My Lenovo laptop was kinda dying, so I took it, and i was astonished over how usable these things still are. Everyday tasks like browsing the web, Word, basic Excel, and content consumption (watched this video on it) are still very doable on here and don't feel that slow, and those are the only things I use it for really. So yeah, still very great laptops, even today, especially now with how cheap they've become!
MacBook Air 2017, bought from new, seen me through high school and college. Battery only just replaced today, still as fast as ever. Best laptop I've ever had not planning on getting rid of it. Gonna try the method of installing the latest MacOS on it
I'm using my 2017 MacBook Air right now! I've swapped out the hard drive twice, it was only 128GB which was very anxiety-inducing. It's alright if you ONLY USE Mac stock apps like Safari, Mail, iMessage. But Firefox heats it up and it's unusable with Chrome (even if Chrome isn't running at all, I had to uninstall it). I just ordered an M1 Pro to replace it, but I'm still keeping this as a little machine to use on the go.
I came from this macbook to MacBook Pro M1 Max was my first macbook and it served me all the way through university using archicad with no problem and I just recently changed the battery and I still have it
RAM isn’t upgradable, so I would recommend finding an 8GB model. Also, if you go with the 2015 version, it will support the current Mac OS Monterrey 12.x
For basic business stuff, streaming, and web browsing, my 2014 4 GB model does fine. Honestly, I don't notice a performance difference between that and my 8gb model.
The 8GB models are premium but its best to buy an upgraded laptop with the specs you want. More is better because laptops in general aren’t upgradeable so get the configuration that will serve both your present and future needs.
I just received My used 2015 13 inch MacBook Pro with 16gb ram for just 209$ and it's in brand new condition, because the previous owner had a silicon case on it all it's life, and I just applies a fresh coat of thermal past 1tb NVME ssd and it's running like a champ!
I bought the same Macbook Air in 2020 from the Apple store Refurbished section for school. I’ve had it 3 years still have apple care on it and used it for everything lectures, notes assignments, exams and watching shows. I love having all the ports, better keyboard, magsafe and the glowing apple logo.
Thumbs-up from here in 2023, my very first 'modern' Mac is a 2017 i5 1.8 8GB Macbook Air, I got on an impulse for less than £100 at a carboot sale. I popped in a new Samsung 970 NVME, and I swear it boots to the login prompt in less than a second. It runs Monterey, and has Thunderbolt 2, which can run a nice big external display. It's by far and away the nicest, best value computer I've ever owned !
The 2017 version of this MacBook is still surprisingly useable. My main laptop is far superior but this macbook is still great for school work and content consumption. I use it for school and have no complaints!
I just bought one ,and it was the best purchase decision I could have made. I will upgrade the motherboard to and I7 from I5 for more memory and speed along with increasing the flash drive. Money in my pocket.
watching this on my 2013 Macbook Air on MacOS Big Sur. Still rocking. The best part about it is that you can save the battery by blocking the middle port on your magsafe connector when using it connected. My battery is still on 94% health
I’ve just started a new job and bought my 2011 MacBook Pro out of retirement because everything we do is on the cloud and through browser. Slapped a new battery in to add to the upgrades I’ve done over the years and it works like a dream, and significantly better than the windows laptop of a similar age that I was provided
I could watch you take apart MacBooks all day. Shit, I think I have a few times. How is everyone not interested and excited to upgrade and tinker??? It’s so fun.
It's not correct to call this screen better than Pro's. While it has better resolution Pro has a far more vibrant screen with better viewing angles. So it really depends on what you prefer - better colour or resolution.
Laptops reached maturity some 8-10 years ago. Everything with ssd and more then 4gb of ram feels pretty snappy. I still use my high school budget i3 laptop and it does everything i need. Only thing I did upgraded on it was RAM to 12 gb from 6 gb. It even got automatically updated to Windows 11. Was really surprised about that because processor is ancient i3 5005u.
9:08 I have some correction about the SSD in the MacBook Air from 2010 to 2017. Only SATA-based SSD with adapter can work on the MacBook Air between 2010 and 2012. From 2013 to 2017 MacBook Air will only take NVMe SSD with adapter. That due to the platform of those MacBook Air from 2010 to 2012 (mobile Penryn to mobile Ivy Bridge) does not support NVMe boot. Starting from Haswell which is released in 2013 will support NVMe booting.
I recently bought a "broken" 2012 11" model. Replaced the battery, installed Monterey and... I love it!! It cost me like 80-90$ to buy&fix it and for studying, where currently I've used iPad Pro (which hasn't keyboard) or M1 16" (which is a beast but it's huge) it's just brilliant. Word, Excel, simple web browsing is not super snappy, but the form factor gets me every single time I pick it up. How great would it be this tiny, beautiful computer with recent specs... Oh, and if it will be to slow I can always buy and fix broken 2015 board and put it into mine chassis without bigger problems. EDIT: And my mother uses her 13" model from 2014 with like 1400-1500 battery cycles, worn out keyboard, bent frame but it still goes and does everything she throws at it. Subjectively best computer ever made in terms of simple getting things done.
writing this comment on MacBook Air I bought in 2015, early 2015 MacBook Air still super useable, scratchless , just got battery replaced a month ago and everything works just fine, I'm about to end my high school and will probably easily use it through my university too, it isn't super fast on anything, but it just works and I see no reasonable explanation as to why I would want to spend so much on a new MacBook, also got its storage extended
I still use my 13" 2015 macbook pro. My only complaints are the dual core cpu and lack of gpu. The integrated graphics suck and the dual core can get bottlenecked pretty easily. I wouldn't even call it "pro" anymore. It just doesn't have the power for pro workloads but its perfect for daily using like watching youtube or browsing the web.
Hi Luke, I have an m1 MacBook Air base model and it’s been having a few problems. Should I upgrade to the m1 air with the 8core cpu and 8core gpu or just upgrade to the m2 air base model? I’ve only had it 3 months and have the warranty aswell.
@@ahujapradyut There’s dead screen pixels on the display, the esc key isn’t functional (apparently Siri crashes and “takes the esc key with it) but it’s all the time now, and lastly the hinge is very tight that I can’t open it properly. I’ve heard different things about the hinge, apparently humidity can expand the hinge cables. I live in Australia so it’s quite humid aswell. Just not sure what to do to be honest.
@@chickenstripz305 Oh that’s not pretty. Those problems can somewhat be solved, if you can get them fixed by a repair shop it would be good. However, it depends on the price, as fixing the entire macbook might or might not just cost an entire new Macbook Air. I would say you can buy a higher end M1 macbook Air (8 core GPU and CPU) for less than the price of a base M2 macbook air, as I don’t think the upgrade from M1 to M2 is really worth it. Cheers!
I do have it in most expensive version. Top of the line made it. Today purchased new one and not impressed only got it because can’t upgrade my excel or ms office. I don’t know battery still holds up to 8 hours! And it is not slow!!!!
Hi, Luke I got MacBook Air 13-inch Early 2015 Core i5 1.6GHz CPU 8GB of RAM for $110 just 1 month ago from yahoo auction in Japan. Like you say, it's completely worth worth getting it. It is running Mac OS Monterey natively. I use this 8-years-old Macbook Air everyday for web browsing, emailing, watching youtube, etc. Sometimes I run iMovie to edit some video clips. I just love it.
I’ve owned a lot of MBs, MBPs and MB Airs, but there is something really special about thin Apple laptops. I still use a 2011 11’ mid-spec and prefer to the 12” MB.
Yes, it's true. I have a 2013 Air and have upgraded to 1TB drive and it works fine, but it isn't eligible for the latest OS only updates, so that is a drawback. But I have had almost no problems with it. But going forward, I really don't know if I'll continue with Mac as they are nearly impossible to upgrade if needed/wanted in the future. Besides that Windows 10/11 has gotten nearly as user friendly as Mac OS. On top of that I'm really tired of all the Mac deceptive comparisons to PCs. If the product is really that good then all the deception isn't needed. The deception is really a big turn off.
My kids both use old MacBook Air machines, my older daughter has a 2011 13-inch model. My younger daughter uses an 11-inch model (not sure of the year). They both work perfectly.
I appreciate bringing attention to older that are still quite usable for many users and daily tasks. And showing how much we are programmed to needing to replace every year or two. Creating a Want instead of a need society consuming way to many natural resources and adding to toxic mountains of e-waste. And for many a 5yr. to 10yr. old laptop is really all they need.
I also really appreciate Luke telling us that older macs are still great! I personally think newer macs are worse than the older ones that were built to last!
I love it when you upgrade devices and encourage people to get more affordable and environmentally friendly options instead of pushing mindless consumerism.
Thank you!
im still using this macbook with a 27 inch thunderbolt display that i found on facebook for $200. and i bought a 256gb sd card for $60. sometimes it pays to not follow the masses
it's not about consumerism, just like power consumption. this is not how it works, how the product is made and how the power is generated is what counts. in Apple's case, this are by far the most environmental firendly devices on the planet. because of the insane numbers, literally most sold laptop of all time, the efficiency is literally the best in the industry, so much that repairing pollutes more than simply getting a new one, it is that efficient.
so, we need to differentiate when talking about the environment.
whats super bad is the windows world, plastic, short life span, low usage, extremely vast product catalog, all different.
macs are so much more friendly its not even worth to talk about, it is that far ahead compared to the rest. people literally use them for decades, as seen here often.
have a nice day
@@JohnSmith-pn2vlexaggeration when u say repairing pollutes more than getting another one
I still see this pre-2018 MacBook Airs everywhere. The design looks aged but still kind-of pretty, like most other MacBooks.
And now they won’t get Ventura, meaning many people will be left out on the newest macOS.
Where??!
i dont think its aged
@@sirsquirrel6176 wait until open core patcher comes out and side load it. I have a 2012 500g 16g ram running the latest os
@@phillgriffiths8752 Don’t use patchers. They’re unreliable and they slow down the computer significantly.
Hot take - I think this gen of Macbook Air is one of the best computers ever made. It doesn't have the best screen or the best performance, but it just works and continues to work. Pair that with the fact that the case design was revolutionary at the time, the keyboard is wonderful, it was thin light and it came in at a great pricepoint and you have a computer that is a pleasure to use, even 12 years after it was introduced. As Luke said, 50 trillion people bought one.
I still use my 2012 Macbook Air (i7, 8gb) daily for basic tasks and it's great. That's a 10 year old computer! Crazy.
Advice for anyone who wants to buy one of these - GET ONE WITH 8GB of RAM! It's essential in 2022 and beyond.
Hmm, I am not sure. I think that 50 trillion people figure is a tiny little bit over stated.
Are you absolutely positive that there were 50 trillion of these sold?
😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@cgi2173 …../s
I love how the 2012 MacBook Pros (Non Retina) were just as popular as these. I’m a sound engineer and I still have my maxed out, 10 year old MacBook Pro as the center of my workflow. These were way ahead of their time!
I have one - it’s pretty awful. The keyboard is good, the screen is decent, but doing literally anything other than opening Safari will basically kill the battery and overheat like crazy. With a brand new battery, I get 5-6 hours battery just browsing the internet.
Plus, even with the 8gb version, which I have, I have around 80% usage the entire time.
Other than it being a good deal, there’s really no reason to buy it.
Yewp the keyboard and the trackpad are still some of the best . Not sure why anyone would want or need a touch screen when a trackpad works as well as these do :)
I have a 2015 MacBook Air i5 8gb ram with 256gb storage. I upgraded the storage from 128 to a faster 256gb nvme drive, repaste the cpu, put cooling pads on the heat sink, and replaced the battery. It runs Monterey perfect and it’s connected to a 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display. Going on 8 years and it runs perfect gonna wait on M3 chips before I upgrade.
Hey Luke, After viewing this video about buying a MacBook Air at 1/12th the price of a new one, I looked on Ebay and, sure enough, there were many to select from. I decided to spend an extra hundred bucks and just bought a MacBook Air 13” Early 2014 model with 8Gb RAM and a 256Gb SSD, in excellent condition, including the original Apple packaging, for only $198. I’m an Apple collector and mainly bought this to add to my collection. But as you say, it’s a great all-around laptop and I’ll definitely pack it on trips because it’s so light and capable.
I like your RUclips channel and watch it a lot. Thanks for all you do. Keep up the good work.
John M.
I have a 2012 as my throw it in a bag and never worry about it and honestly I love it because I know I spent $75 on it plus a battery and that I can replace it for another $100 if I need to. It’s great for travel because there is no risk and nice port options.
where do u buy these for so cheap I can only find it for $ almost $300 refurbished
@@motherof4540 I looked on eBay and didn’t have any luck so I found mine on Facebook Marketplace although they seem to have gone up price wise on there as well.
Luke was so much more calm and relaxed in this video compared to his normal angry mood when he cannot believe how unfairly expensive a second hand MBP was on eBay. Great video.
What’s funny is that this is still almost twice as fast as a modern $200 chromebook and has a better screen, more software support and twice the storage
@Medicine_Man1 they’re not that bad though. After I graduated i modded my Chromebook to have linux and it’s decently fast. The school sold it to us for 1 dollar so it was a good deal.
Luke- just so you know, the iFixit tool box cover acts as a screw storage when flipped over. Once flipped over, you will see squared-off dividers to help you separate screws as you wish. Really helps from accidentally having a random screw sliding under your computer and scratching the shit out of it.
I love how Luke still champions the
older Macbooks.
I'm using a 2012 Macbook Pro as my daily driver.
I even use a 2010 Macbook Pro. 😁
Brilliant. Now I want one of these. 😃 😃
I also have a 2010 and it is still kicking. It's not a daily though.
my 2012 mbp still going strong
I have my 2012 13” pro that lend to my sister while I’m using that rapid heating mid 2015 pro for coding and zoom work
Replacing batteries in 2 2015 Macbook Pros this week. They keep on ticking.
I have a late 2009 unibody macbook pro that i use as a plex machine
if luke had his way we'd all own about 16 macbooks from 12 to 4 years ago
That’s so true
I used a dual core i7 with 8GB RAM…it was great for business use. I got tired of the low res display so moved up to Retina display. These are good machines. Sold mine.
I have an 11 inch 2015 version of this. Great little machine. Solid as a rock.
2011 17" user here (again).Couldn't agree more.Despite recently getting a 2015 13" for about $180 I still can't get myself to abandon good old unibody.
thats the one with the GPU issues right?
Well… yes.And it failed on mine too.Lasted very long time though.
I LOVED those 17 inch MBPs.
Where are you finding such cheap prices?
@@Lightdog555 Managed to score it in my country's own ebay so to speak.All that was wrong with it was the staingate on the display.But since I knew how the ones that can be rubbed off look like I instantly bought it without a second thought.It came out nearly like new AND with a complete box.
I got one of these for my grandmother who was using a Walmart special HP windows 10 computer that really was e-waste from the get-go. She absolutely loves it. Hundred bucks on eBay and yes it is still stuck on an older version of macOS but security patches are still available and all the browsers and office stuff are still supported so really you can’t go wrong.
2:02 Hey Luke, I thought the 2016 13 inch MacBook Pro is the longest design as we still have it in 2022 with M2 chip now.
I know it had the new magic keyboard and the Touch ID becoming its own button instead of being connected to the Touch Bar but essentially it’s the same MacBook Pro apart from again the chipset, SSD etc…
The slimmer non-Retina Airs had 5 generations (2012-2017) and were produced and sold from mid 2012 until mid 2019, so 7 full years, and Touch Bar Pros will only reach 6 in October of this year
Touchbar pro had keyboard upgrades.
This was my first macbook also, but I also purchased it a few years ago for about £280, believe it was a 2013 8gb ram. Excellent machine, was such a big upgrade over my old dell
I have the 2010 model and is still lightning fast and the battery is still holding a good amount of charge
I'm currently watching this on my 2013 MacBook Air 11inch with 8gb ram. I love this little guy. Rock solid and super speedy for everything in Mac OS and Safari. Its not my main computer but a great little companion device. Highly recommend.
got my early 2014 MBA and it still works and still has a decent backup on it! It is an incredible machine in terms of longevity.
I bought a mid-2012 13" MacBook Pro (non-Retina), pre-upgraded with a 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM and pre-patched with Catalina for AU$330 (~US$230) on Gumtree some time last year -- best $330 I've ever spent on a device. It runs Logic Pro X perfectly for recording and handles mixing well (main mixing I do on a 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 (flashed to 5,1) I scored for about AU$260 (~US$180) on eBay), the only problem I've found is that the battery is still the original one, and so it only lasts 1.5 hours when not plugged in. Doesn't matter as much since I have it plugged in whenever I'm recording.
This is coming from a person who has used and still uses PCs for nearly everything else; when it comes to running Apple-developed software like Logic, it cannot be understated how much value you get by going second-hand. I'm shocked at how well the laptop runs Catalina (I think it actually runs it better than the '09 Mac Pro I have), though I don't think I'd want to try going any further than Catalina.
I just got a 2017 mba for £195 delivered absolute mint condition
Ended up getting mba m1 2017 was crap for music production / video editing
@@Itzambitiousofficiallol, what was the problem the 21017 had.
Ideally anything with 8Gb of Ram and core i5 can do the things you mentioned
I got mine in 2013 as well (had the white plastic MacBook for high school, got a few years on you) and I still use it! It sits permanently on top of my piano for music recording. SD card, magsafe, USB ports, definitely holds up. It was and still is a great machine.
You are THE best Apple buyer account out there. You have our best interests in mind and you give us good options - and therefore I love supporting you so you can get money for your work in return.
I've seen some electronic specialists upgrade the ram on these to 16GB. If that became a wider option, I could see these being extended. The one issue is the 2012 versions (IIRC) are on their last viable OSX release, so it'll be Linux after that...
You can install Monterey with opencore legacy patcher and no it's not buggy or underperforming. I'm playing Fortnite and doing video editing with opencore installed monterey and it does not differ to native Mojave. But yes, linux is a better alternative since macOS sux.
I've installed Linux Mint Ubuntu and Debian editions on 2017 and 2010 Airs. So far so good. All the hardware seems to work. it was a little flaky when unplugging an external monitor, but it eventually figured it out. Works even with 2Gig as long I don't multi-task much. Bluetooth on the 2010 model is almost unusable, but that's true even under MacOS. Stick with the 2017 model for the best performance and it has USB 3.0 for faster installation.
Honestly, I'm planning for the future. Google, Microsoft, Apple and the rest all make their money by making me the product. I'm getting really tired of all the tracking, advertising, simple things turning into monthly subscriptions and forced obsolescence. I see Linux in my future unless these trends change.
You can install Windows 11, you just need to bypass the Secure Boot and TPM checks
Just yesterday I bought a 2014 MacBook Air for $50. Nothing wrong with it at all. I love these kind of videos!!!!
A couple of months ago, I bought a 2015 MacBook Air with dual Core i7, 8GB RAM, 500GB SSD, and I installed a new battery in it--for just over $200. It is PHENOMENAL for what I need it for! Thank you for your channel, Luke! ❤️
I had the same in my highschool as well, the first time I used a Mac, and changed me into a Mac person.
So after watching this video I decided to set out and buy one of these macbook airs.
I have a M1 Max macbook pro and was interested in a laptop to take on vacation and throw around without risking my MBP.
No regrets! The 2015 macbook air I got with 8gb ram works absolutely great and still has monterey support (I know that'll end with ventura).
Just throw this laptop around, take it on a hike or on vacation to write some reports or edit some photos. It all works great.
Thanks Luke.
Agree, been using my 2010 till 2021, changed battery 3 times, touchpad, keyboard and later changed to m1. 2010 is happily serving as a web browsing machine for my 60+ years old mom, she’s also happy about it
I got a 2013. SSD died in 2020. Replaced it and it was good as new. Battery died this year. Easy to replace. It's not my main laptop, but it's so easy to take on the road. And unlike a Mac Mini from the same era, these things are quite usable.
I have a late 2015 11" Air (the internals were upgraded after the logic board got waterlogged) that I still use, and even though it has only 4GB of RAM, it runs Monterrey like a dream, and doesn't feel sluggish at all, for typical web browsing and using typical tasks/apps like word processing. And at 11", it is super tiny and fits everywhere. It's lighter than my 9.5" iPad Pro with a keyboard, and it's slimmer. Highly recommend for writers, esp. if you want to pair it with an external monitor at the desk.
I have a mid-2013 11-inch Air and I agree 100%. It still works great and there's just no other Mac like it. Cheers, //Rick
I bought this exact laptop in 2013 in China. I was a Windows user, but did not like Windows 8. I bought the Mac and fell in love. It survived from 2013-2019 and I travelled the world with it. This laptop helped me get through my Masters as well. What finally killed it was, it was beaten up beyond repair, the screen was getting spots, and the battery barely held a 2 hour charge. It seems whenever I had a Windows computer, I was replacing them every 3 years.
I finally replaced my Air in 2019 with the next generation Macbook Air. I don't think I will go back to Windows.
I still see pre-2018 laptops being used by my students. It is so cool that computer can still hold up.
I found one in the trash a couple weeks ago. I was surprised at just how usable it is. I even updated the os to Monterey.
It has almost completely replaced my much higher spec windows laptop.
who on earth throws a perfectly working computer in the trash?!
That's my boy! Mid-2013 MacBook Air, bought stock with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage in late 2013 for university. First ever Mac and first laptop, coming from a family Win7 desktop, it was a shock how good and fast it felt.
In retrospect, I've been really lucky buying a Mid-2013 instead of a Mid-2012. Upgraded a couple years ago with a 512GB Sabrent NVMe, it still does the job for general usage, even if in 2022 4GB of RAM are surely few.
Still supported for Big Sur and will be until fall of 2023, marking TEN years of security updates. Nuts. Monterey also very easily doable with Open Core Legacy Patcher and still some hope for Ventura.
Collin aka dosdude1 has recently performed RAM upgrades for MacBooks of these era, even 16GB are possibile... who knows, maybe one day... :)
RAM Upgrades we're done years ago by Rewa technologies and they did an upgrade to 16gb too.
I know this is smaller, lighter and more beautiful but you can’t upgrade the RAM and CPU/ GPU in this thermal envelop are limited.
I got 2 late 2012 13” unibody MBP for my sons’ primary school. Removed the DVDs, replaced them with caddies and shoved in the existing 512MB HDDs as TimeMachine drives.
Installed 512MB SATA SSDs and 16GB LDDR3 RAM at 1600MHz and boom! They are alive. Super fast for most daily usage. Microsoft Office, Apple iWork, Adobe (Photoshop, Illustrator, Animate, Audition, After Effects), GarageBand, iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Programming (Scratch and Python).
Running Windows 10 in a virtual machine for school and learning, even though I could install it separately in Bootcamp!
In addition to browsing, researching, media consumption and bunch of emulators and Mac and PC old games.
Haven’t replaced the old batteries yet but they surprisingly manage to provide 3-5hrs of usage even though they’re at a very high cycle count.
Good screen, body, design, ports’ selection, portability and can even drive external monitors in case needed.
Catalina is plenty good and beautiful with dark theme and it even supports airplay for AppleTV!
At around £100 each (before the upgrades, lol.
I have a 2012 air 13” that I used for a good while after my grandmother gave it to me because she upgraded, however it began to start overheating and crashing at least once a day, I changed the thermal paste and cleaned the vents, but the issue persisted, despite the battery having less than 300 cycles, it would barely last 5 hours of light use. Im guessing this is a cpu issue and could not be fixed easily As much as I liked the laptop I just couldn’t deal with the instability anymore so I upgraded to the 14 inch base model MacBook Pro
Not a 4gb Macbook Air......my 2013 11.6 inch 4gb was crawling by the time I sold it (last November) for 250 euros here in Europe (It was mint and went to a collector, with box and everything original as it spent 8 years into a plastic hard shell case). On the other hand I upgraded with a fast SSD and 8 GB of memory-after a firmware update- my unibody aluminum 2007 macbook, I patched it and installed Big Sur and guess what.......it runs as charm in my sea side Greek island home. Funny story....I am using this very macbook for the second building project there and builders are using it next to water, cement, stones for understanding better the architect's plans....Massive computers!
Not relevant to you since you sold yours, but one thing about these older Airs is that the SSD performance was TERRIBLE. I upgraded mine with a drop-in Aura Pro SSD from OWC, and the SSD performance was almost 5x faster. This makes a HUGE difference on a RAM-constrained machine as they spend a lot of time dealing with the swap file on the SSD.
Just wanna say, great video! I recently bought a good condition MBA early 2015 with 8G of ram for my teenage son. The computer works just fine for all daily tasks on Monterey, the battery had 384 cycles, and can still hold for 6-7 hours of normal use. Best of all, I paid 170 Canadian$ for it, that’s about 130 USD, great price for a capable machine, I’m a happy camper
I just upgraded the SSD in 2015 MacBook Air i7 11”. It is still surprisingly snappy with i7. It is perfect for web browsing, storing my documents and photos, and movie editing in iMovie. The battery doesn’t last more than a couple hours. but all-in-all it suits my simple needs and is a perfect companion to an up-to-date iphone.
6:11 (in old man voice) I can still provide entertainment for you
Hey Luke you are absolutely right. I bought M1 Mac Pro Max last year but my 2013 Mac air i7 8GB 256GB is still my daily workhorse. I also still keep my first Mac Air ,2011 model as a backup. :)
I gave this same model to my mom, with it acting like a mirror of her data on her iPhone via iCloud syncing. She basically can do all the "big screen" stuff on it at home, and use her phone when she is mobile. It can't run any OS newer than High Sierra, so the 4GB RAM is still sufficient.
But the 2013 8GB/512GB MBA that replaced it as my spare "kitchen PC" struggles with only 8GB, because Mac OS is several versions newer. I've thought about wiping it and starting fresh, with just signing into iCloud and downloading the top 5-6 apps that I use, rather than having restored my 16" MBP's TimeMachine apps and user account which has slowed it down.
I got the early 2014 macbook air from a friend and its one of the best laptops that i have ever used. It's the cheapest computer that I can get running the latest version of mac os. Also a guy that uses android phones as their main device when going out iOS devices are good for me when I'm at home. So that I don't have to worry about trying to grab my phone to pick up that one phone call or answer that one text message.
Strangely enough, the only Mac type from the last twenty-ish years that I’ve never owned (not counting the Mac Studio, which is brand new and very expensive) is the MacBook Air, although my mother does have one.
I’ve owned several Powerbooks and Power Macs, a few iMacs, iBooks, Mac Pros and MacBook Pros, my main computer is an M1 Mac Mini and my family had an eMac for many years, but never a MacBook Air.
Small correction: I've also never owned an Xserve.
Let me just take in the fact that you were GIVEN Macbook Airs, in high school. Given. Here in the UK high school kids aren't even GIVEN a pen and pencil. In fact a kid can be excluded from school for not bringing appropriate writing equipment. And you lot got GIVEN Macbooks. It's just a different world.
The Nvme now runs on all modern laptops of macbook series since it has faster capabilities and runs great..that is greater than older macbooks uses 2.5” ssd..
I have a friend who is an IT guy. He just gave me several items that were being retired from service. One of them was a 2011 MacBook Air. Now it's the Core2Duo version, and only has 2GB of RAM, but I really like it. The person who was using it had installed Manjaro on it. It was used, and it's still in good shape. I'm quite impressed with it. The weight, the battery life (considering the battery is over 10 years old), the keyboard, and more are still really good. Good enough that I briefly considered keeping it (I am selling it).
I do want to buy a newer one to use at home. I like it better than the Lenovo Flex 15 that my company issued to me.
We've two of those MacBooks with degraded batteries, they all still work like new but I'm hesitating the hassle of dealing with Apple for the battery replacement.
Buy the batteries in eBay, it's very very easy to replace the battery..
My eldest daughter STILL uses the exact same MacBook Air! Why replace something that works? She does use a memory flush app so she never has to shut it down. But it really does do EVERYTHING she wants.
Time flies, to see such upgradable macbook again, feels like yesterday, makes me question myself what I've achieved all these years
I love the seriousness with the element of still being a joker, it’s one of my favorite elements of Luke
2017 Air user here. It is perfect for email/web/youtube/Excel etc
This device supports Metal, so if you are already running Big Sur, why wouldn't you patch it to Monterey?
It's really not gonna cause any bug or anything like that!
I purchased a mid 12 MacBook Air from marketplace for $75 3 years ago. Turns out the keyboard was faulty at the top right corner keys. So I just tucked it under my desk, used a USB switch for keyboard and mouse from my main PC and I can switch between inputs on my monitor. So I had a Mac/PC combo at the press of a switch. Now, the keyboard palm rest price dropped to under $15 and ordered a new battery $20 Now it's portable again.... It does all I need it to do. Best purchase ever.
I bought the macbook air 2017 for €100 on ebay. Battery was dead. Ordered it (€40 euros) and put it in myself. Now 2 years later, i still use this machine. Works just fine!
My 2010 MacBook Pro still works fine I only had to replace the battery. The speakers could be replaced but it’s not necessary if only using headphones.
I also have one of these. Well 2 actually, and a 2012 MBP.
I remember the good old days of Luke dunking on the non-Retina Airs for being dang expensive, how times have changed haha
Have a 2011, sat on it like in 2013 and it didn’t get bent, but rather just a broken LCD
I used my 2012 base MacBook Air all the way till recently when I picked up an m1 MacBook Air for cheap and I never once had issues with the 2012 and it was a beast for almost 12 years
I have one of the early 2015 13 inch Airs with 8GBs of ram. Got it from my cousin as she didn't use it anymore and asked if I wanted it. My Lenovo laptop was kinda dying, so I took it, and i was astonished over how usable these things still are. Everyday tasks like browsing the web, Word, basic Excel, and content consumption (watched this video on it) are still very doable on here and don't feel that slow, and those are the only things I use it for really. So yeah, still very great laptops, even today, especially now with how cheap they've become!
I have an 11" macbook air from 2014.. got it for $200 and replaced the ssd (1gb) and battery.. and it's awesome. I love it. 8 gb of ram, too!
1gb ssd :D
I have this same mid 2013 macbook air with 13inch display 4gb of ram and 1tb storage upgrade from 128gb and it's running mac os big sur
MacBook Air 2017, bought from new, seen me through high school and college. Battery only just replaced today, still as fast as ever. Best laptop I've ever had not planning on getting rid of it. Gonna try the method of installing the latest MacOS on it
Just because YOU got one for $100 doesn't at all mean anyone else is going to find one for anywhere near that low. But happy hunting to all!
My mistake, Luke - sorry. You claimed 1/12 the price of - NOT $100 that you were very lucky to find. :D
back market
True@@luhdawger
6:21 i do not take care of my electronics but this hurts for some reason
Have a 2013 MBA. Works great, can upgrade M.2 and relatively much less theft/lost anxiety as in M1 or M2 device especially while travelling
I'm using my 2017 MacBook Air right now! I've swapped out the hard drive twice, it was only 128GB which was very anxiety-inducing. It's alright if you ONLY USE Mac stock apps like Safari, Mail, iMessage. But Firefox heats it up and it's unusable with Chrome (even if Chrome isn't running at all, I had to uninstall it). I just ordered an M1 Pro to replace it, but I'm still keeping this as a little machine to use on the go.
I use a Early 2015 Macbook air 13 inch as my main computer.
I came from this macbook to MacBook Pro M1 Max
was my first macbook and it served me all the way through university using archicad with no problem and I just recently changed the battery and I still have it
Hi Luke, where did you find it for $100? I looked on eBay and only the beat up 11-inch ones are around that price.
RAM isn’t upgradable, so I would recommend finding an 8GB model. Also, if you go with the 2015 version, it will support the current Mac OS Monterrey 12.x
For basic business stuff, streaming, and web browsing, my 2014 4 GB model does fine. Honestly, I don't notice a performance difference between that and my 8gb model.
The 8GB models are premium but its best to buy an upgraded laptop with the specs you want. More is better because laptops in general aren’t upgradeable so get the configuration that will serve both your present and future needs.
I just received My used 2015 13 inch MacBook Pro with 16gb ram for just 209$ and it's in brand new condition, because the previous owner had a silicon case on it all it's life, and I just applies a fresh coat of thermal past 1tb NVME ssd and it's running like a champ!
I bought the same Macbook Air in 2020 from the Apple store Refurbished section for school. I’ve had it 3 years still have apple care on it and used it for everything lectures, notes assignments, exams and watching shows. I love having all the ports, better keyboard, magsafe and the glowing apple logo.
Agreed. Most people don't need the latest ones. I'm still happy with my 2015 13 inch macbook pro.
Thumbs-up from here in 2023, my very first 'modern' Mac is a 2017 i5 1.8 8GB Macbook Air, I got on an impulse for less than £100 at a carboot sale. I popped in a new Samsung 970 NVME, and I swear it boots to the login prompt in less than a second. It runs Monterey, and has Thunderbolt 2, which can run a nice big external display. It's by far and away the nicest, best value computer I've ever owned !
The 2017 version of this MacBook is still surprisingly useable. My main laptop is far superior but this macbook is still great for school work and content consumption. I use it for school and have no complaints!
I just bought one ,and it was the best purchase decision I could have made. I will upgrade the motherboard to and I7 from I5 for more memory and speed along with increasing the flash drive. Money in my pocket.
watching this on my 2013 Macbook Air on MacOS Big Sur. Still rocking.
The best part about it is that you can save the battery by blocking the middle port on your magsafe connector when using it connected. My battery is still on 94% health
I’ve just started a new job and bought my 2011 MacBook Pro out of retirement because everything we do is on the cloud and through browser. Slapped a new battery in to add to the upgrades I’ve done over the years and it works like a dream, and significantly better than the windows laptop of a similar age that I was provided
I could watch you take apart MacBooks all day. Shit, I think I have a few times.
How is everyone not interested and excited to upgrade and tinker??? It’s so fun.
Thank you for showing love to this old buddy who served its purpose well :)
It's not correct to call this screen better than Pro's. While it has better resolution Pro has a far more vibrant screen with better viewing angles. So it really depends on what you prefer - better colour or resolution.
Laptops reached maturity some 8-10 years ago. Everything with ssd and more then 4gb of ram feels pretty snappy. I still use my high school budget i3 laptop and it does everything i need. Only thing I did upgraded on it was RAM to 12 gb from 6 gb. It even got automatically updated to Windows 11. Was really surprised about that because processor is ancient i3 5005u.
9:08 I have some correction about the SSD in the MacBook Air from 2010 to 2017. Only SATA-based SSD with adapter can work on the MacBook Air between 2010 and 2012. From 2013 to 2017 MacBook Air will only take NVMe SSD with adapter. That due to the platform of those MacBook Air from 2010 to 2012 (mobile Penryn to mobile Ivy Bridge) does not support NVMe boot. Starting from Haswell which is released in 2013 will support NVMe booting.
I recently bought a "broken" 2012 11" model. Replaced the battery, installed Monterey and... I love it!! It cost me like 80-90$ to buy&fix it and for studying, where currently I've used iPad Pro (which hasn't keyboard) or M1 16" (which is a beast but it's huge) it's just brilliant. Word, Excel, simple web browsing is not super snappy, but the form factor gets me every single time I pick it up. How great would it be this tiny, beautiful computer with recent specs... Oh, and if it will be to slow I can always buy and fix broken 2015 board and put it into mine chassis without bigger problems.
EDIT: And my mother uses her 13" model from 2014 with like 1400-1500 battery cycles, worn out keyboard, bent frame but it still goes and does everything she throws at it. Subjectively best computer ever made in terms of simple getting things done.
writing this comment on MacBook Air I bought in 2015, early 2015 MacBook Air still super useable, scratchless , just got battery replaced a month ago and everything works just fine, I'm about to end my high school and will probably easily use it through my university too, it isn't super fast on anything, but it just works and I see no reasonable explanation as to why I would want to spend so much on a new MacBook, also got its storage extended
I just bought myself an 2015 Macbook 12" and I am super happy with it!
It does everything I need and it costed me only 300$
I have the 2015 11-inch MacBook Air. Let me tell you, it's still fast on the internet. It's a little slow on Outlook, but everywhere else, it's fast.
I still use my 13" 2015 macbook pro. My only complaints are the dual core cpu and lack of gpu. The integrated graphics suck and the dual core can get bottlenecked pretty easily. I wouldn't even call it "pro" anymore. It just doesn't have the power for pro workloads but its perfect for daily using like watching youtube or browsing the web.
Hi Luke, I have an m1 MacBook Air base model and it’s been having a few problems. Should I upgrade to the m1 air with the 8core cpu and 8core gpu or just upgrade to the m2 air base model? I’ve only had it 3 months and have the warranty aswell.
If they allow you to trade it in and get credit I don't see why not.
What problems does it have?
@@ahujapradyut There’s dead screen pixels on the display, the esc key isn’t functional (apparently Siri crashes and “takes the esc key with it) but it’s all the time now, and lastly the hinge is very tight that I can’t open it properly. I’ve heard different things about the hinge, apparently humidity can expand the hinge cables. I live in Australia so it’s quite humid aswell. Just not sure what to do to be honest.
@@chickenstripz305 Oh that’s not pretty. Those problems can somewhat be solved, if you can get them fixed by a repair shop it would be good. However, it depends on the price, as fixing the entire macbook might or might not just cost an entire new Macbook Air. I would say you can buy a higher end M1 macbook Air (8 core GPU and CPU) for less than the price of a base M2 macbook air, as I don’t think the upgrade from M1 to M2 is really worth it. Cheers!
@@ahujapradyut Thanks so much! I’ll definitely take this in thought when deciding!
I do have it in most expensive version. Top of the line made it.
Today purchased new one and not impressed only got it because can’t upgrade my excel or ms office.
I don’t know battery still holds up to 8 hours! And it is not slow!!!!
What's going on with the KEYBOARD BACKLIGHT at 2:33?!
Hi, Luke
I got MacBook Air 13-inch Early 2015 Core i5 1.6GHz CPU 8GB of RAM for $110 just 1 month ago from yahoo auction in Japan. Like you say, it's completely worth worth getting it. It is running Mac OS Monterey natively. I use this 8-years-old Macbook Air everyday for web browsing, emailing, watching youtube, etc. Sometimes I run iMovie to edit some video clips. I just love it.
I’ve owned a lot of MBs, MBPs and MB Airs, but there is something really special about thin Apple laptops. I still use a 2011 11’ mid-spec and prefer to the 12” MB.
Yes, it's true. I have a 2013 Air and have upgraded to 1TB drive and it works fine, but it isn't eligible for the latest OS only updates, so that is a drawback. But I have had almost no problems with it. But going forward, I really don't know if I'll continue with Mac as they are nearly impossible to upgrade if needed/wanted in the future. Besides that Windows 10/11 has gotten nearly as user friendly as Mac OS. On top of that I'm really tired of all the Mac deceptive comparisons to PCs. If the product is really that good then all the deception isn't needed. The deception is really a big turn off.
My kids both use old MacBook Air machines, my older daughter has a 2011 13-inch model. My younger daughter uses an 11-inch model (not sure of the year). They both work perfectly.
I appreciate bringing attention to older that are still quite usable for many users and daily tasks. And showing how much we are programmed to needing to replace every year or two. Creating a Want instead of a need society consuming way to many natural resources and adding to toxic mountains of e-waste. And for many a 5yr. to 10yr. old laptop is really all they need.
I also really appreciate Luke telling us that older macs are still great! I personally think newer macs are worse than the older ones that were built to last!
Where exactly did you find this laptop at this price? Please answer, I need it!
I've had MBAirs for ages. This one is from 2018. My new M1 is coming, God willing, through the customs, somewhere. It is another world.