Im no computer expert so i need u ozbargainer for some help.
So i am being offered a second hand macbook air 13 inch 2014 for $850.
3 month warranty left and 150 battery cycle count.
Im at uni so off course the more i save the better happier i get lol
Used IT gear depreciates like a brick… I would go even lower than what Cypher has said.
What is the storage capacity? 128 or 256gb? There is about $200 difference in the NEW price of the two.
128 gb
Not true. I just sold my 2011 MacBook Air 11 inch for $709 on eBay. Resale on Macs is good.
Not true. Bricks retain their value.
Lol…Maybe the op was refering to bricks already used into the building
Apple products tend to retain their value better than competing brands as they have brand recognition and because people who buy Apple products aren't usually very tech savvy or willing to go to the effort to compare it to other products on the market.
Not Apple gear. For whatever reason they hold their value quite well.
Not worth. My 13" was around $880 brand new.
Works out to around $880. Plus you get full warranty etc.
I would negotiate to around $650 because Macbook Airs are a low/mid range laptop with not much resale value.
What is this 7.5% off gift card scheme you speak of?
There was a scheme last year for Entertainment Card holders that allowed 7.5% off BigW gift cards. You can then go in store and use that gift card to buy JBHifi gift cards. Unfortunately, that seems to have disappeared now - only 5% exists.
Still a good deal nonetheless.
i work at myer so i can get 10% off. Thats about it
get the 10% off on a written quote.
go to officeworks and price match with 5% price beat and get them to write it down "to show the boss".
go back to myer and show the written quote from officeworks and get 10% off.
Officeworks is not going to price beat something that has staff discount applied to it (exclusive/conditional offer).
They're actually not, any comparative Windows laptop is around the same price if not more. Samsung 9 series etc.
Would you or anyone else mind giving a link to a comparable windows laptop instead of just saying it's not worth it? The macbook air's selling point is that it is thin, light, and great battery life.
Windows 8 and Microsoft Office imo is better than anything Apple has to offer, but their macbook line are pretty good value.
Re:
"The macbook air's selling point is that it is thin, light, and great battery life."
Erm, embarrassingly (looking at the ground and shuffling my feet a bit) after checking some facts/asking around, I must admit I was wrong about this. It seems there is no comparable 'non-Mac' product with all those features, for a cheaper price. My problem was I failed to consider/realise what the main 'selling point' of the MBA actually was; its lightness, and thin dimensions. I was (wrongly) focusing on 'running' specs (or whatever the specs relating to processor speed, RAM etc. are called).
Not only do I stand humbly corrected, I am actually enlightened. Until now I thought there was always a comparable or better non-Apple product for every user, for a comparable price or cheaper. While I still reckon that is probably usually true, I now know that re the MBA, it really does seem to be in a class of its own. And believe me, I hate to admit that! LOL.
Anyways, thanks for correcting me here guys, I am the wiser for it.
If you actually wanna look at thiness of the laptops, many laptops after macbook air have achieved to be thinner. Even before Macbook, Vaio X505 achieved to be thinner than Macbook Air. It's just that most of the comparative laptops are pricey and Macbook Air is not that bad considering the price.
I personally think Apple has comparative advantage in laptop market, due to their fanbase, marketing (as in their brand is considered to have good quality throughout the range to many people) and the fact that Macbooks are mass produced and therefore has advantages in cost due to that. Of course most Apple products are not decent in terms of bang for the buck, but I think Macbook Air definitely is reasonably priced.
Kudos for being open minded! If only more people in the world were like that :)
People love to hate Apple. Samsung's products are nearly always the same price yet I don't recall ever seeing them bagged.
Value wise IMO (to the general market, based on comparable quality/warranty and at RRP, not a mass discount once they've failed to sell and are being cleared).
iPod: Good
iPhone: Bad (BUT, Samsung Galaxy etc and most other 'high-end' phones are also in this category. Love hearing people with $800 phones bagging out how expensive Apple is. You can't get a cheaper iOS device, but you can easily grab a much cheaper Android with the same specs and OS). I personal love iOS over android, it also the eco-system (MBA, iPad, iPhone).
iPad: Medium. It was great, in fact every early competitor (10") I remember was the same, if not more expensive. Many had OS that weren't on par, battery life, rubbish screen. In fact I'd argue that iPad isn't actually that badly priced, it's more that other tablets are failing in droves, so they're constantly being sold at crazy prices.
MBA: Good
MBP: Good to Bad (low-end models are good in general, soon as you add $500 for a slightly bigger SSD, CPU, RAM it becomes less so).
Mac Mini: Good to Medium
In general though there's a ton of products priced above and below Apple's offerings. The way some people talk it's as if you can get the exact same product for 10% of the price elsewhere which is simply not true.
@rochow: Hmmm, you've never been to Windows Phone Central, etc etc. People bag Samsung products a lot, just like how Apple products are being bagged.
I think there are fans out there for some products who bags anything other than their products: Android, Apple, Samsung, the list goes on and on. It's better to keep open-minded because of that. Also, iPod was decent, I just wish they renew the iPod Classic line with SSD and up the game with better DAC in it (which is likely to never happen.)
@AznMitch: granted I don't, only general.
The amount of downvotes for no reason throughout this thread is pretty crazy, only a few products or brands seem to be such a big deal (enloops etc)
@rochow: I went there for general information, once I made a mistake and scrolled down further. I have to admit, the replies there were fairly fiery on Samsung (actually any non-Nokia manufacturer) and Android in general.
@AznMitch: anything 1 sided is super annoying, or maybe I'm just getting older ;)
Lots of opinions yet 0 links to a better product for less money OP can buy, which is odd given how simple they should apparently be to find!
@rochow: Yeah, I completely agree with you. Healthy competition always brings better products than ever; what fanboys are doing is simply going to destroy what they like in the long run.
Samsung's products are nearly always the same price yet I don't recall ever seeing them bagged.
Have you ever seen a Samsung laptop out in the wild? Maybe you'd see one or two in Seoul….
@mrmarkau67: Haha Asia aside, it's mainly their phone & tablet line. They also sell appliances are towards the upper end, TVs in particular.
@mrmarkau67: I've seen fair bit of them… but from Korea, so I see your point. Though that being said, I've seen their premium ultrabook line, the Series 9 one, fairly closely; 2 of my family members use it for their work. It was decent, I would definitely put it on the list of laptops I want. If I can look over the price tag that is, that thing is expensive, unless you're a businessman who's buying a laptop for your work, I don't think it's worth it. It was really light, the build quality was amazing, etc etc. Though, that's what I would expect from the price tag.
I've seen Samsung Series 9 and the equivalent Asus as well. Both looked good. But in Australia you could never find stock at a decent price. I suspect Samsung was making very poor margins on them, so couldn't afford wide distribution.
@mrmarkau67: Possibly. I don't know, it might be that they focus more on B2B, technically that's how my family members got theirs. I don't know, I really want that laptop if I can get it for free.
I generally agree with your assessment, I think the Macbook Air should be "Very good" as it is the best value of the lot. The high cost vs low maintainability of the MBP Retinas bothers me.
@mrmarkau67: I've been using MBA's for about 4 years now, IMO it's unparalleled in price, performance, resale, and for me the ecosystem (handoff etc) is great.
However it's a sensitive subject for some so "YOU SAY IT SUCKS BUT REALLY IT"S THE BEST" is lacking some tact ;)
(looking at the ground and shuffling my feet a bit)
I legitimately cringed while reading that. Seriously… Was that even needed?
Well, your thoughtful approach certainly worked this time. If only grace and courtesy was more viral than trolling.
there used to be Vaio Pro 13, with comparable (slightly better) specs
Yea that was most similar to the mba. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWkG6wVWGds Good review here.
MBA has a pcie ssd, ac wireless, better graphics, battery, trackpad, and slightly better keyboard. and the base 13in model was $150 cheaper than the Vaio Pro 13.
Vaio Pro 13 is lighter, better display, and slightly better cpu.
Toshiba Chromebook 2 CB35-B3340
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8961/toshiba-chromebook-2-a-fe…
~$AU500 shipped to Oz.
Yes it's Chrome, not Windows. The Air is far faster and has more storage. But many Air/ultrabook users can be serviced by a tablet with far lower specs than even this Chromebook.
I agree that chromebooks are great at what they do and that many people could get everything done in a browser, but an OSX or Windows laptop can do so much more.
@ozhunter: I think his point is that many people that buy a MBA don't actually need those specs, they could easily get by with a Chromebook, buy are sucked in by the marketing/brand.
To install Linux on many Chromebooks you need to enter developer mode then run the installation media.
This Chromebook needs a single SATA driver ported from an open software repository to run Linux.
Linux can do many things Windows and OSX can't. Chrome OS has security by obscurity like OSX did when first released. Chrome OS also provides around two extra hours of use when compared to similar hardware running Windows or OSX.
Many .APK files can be converted to Chrome OS. Adobe programs can be streamed to a Chromebook, offering both better performance and battery life compared to running locally on most laptops (private beta test).
This laptop has better build quality and screen compared to almost everything up to an Air or Surface and is half the price.
Yes its specs suck. And it is Chrome. But this laptop could be just as useful as an Air to many beginners or power users (although most corporate employees would lynch their IT staff if given one of these).
Adobe programs can be streamed to a Chromebook, offering both better performance and battery life compared to running locally on most laptops (private beta test).
The fact that it has to be streamed is a big downside imo
Yes its specs suck. And it is Chrome. But this laptop could be just as useful as an Air to many beginners or power users.
I agree
Streaming may open a Air sized device up to video work. Air's generally arn't even recommended for photo work:
"The key is that I load the images into Media Pro One, go have a coffee, and when I come back the viewable files are made"
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/content/pro-photographer…
I had MBA before and liked it a lot. When I replaced it with Surface Pro 3, I was delighted.
But Surface Pro 2 was pretty good as well. Brand new SP2 on eBay up for $850. And it has 256Gb SSD and i5 CPU. Think this one is 4Gb of Ram???
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=2216879…
Check it out of this helps.
Are you paying what its worth?
NO - they are worth considerably less but people pay more because they have this perception that they are in some way better.
Fools and their money are easily parted.
Whatever you get and whatever you learn at Uni lets hope English, spelling (spell check) and punctuation are part of the deal.
Are you paying what IT'S worth?
NO - they are worth considerably less but people pay more because they have this perception that they are in some way better.
Fools and their money are easily parted.
Whatever YOU get and whatever YOU learnED at Uni LET'S hope English, spelling (spell check) and punctuation WERE part of the deal.
Watch out everyone. Godwin can't be too far away now.
for that particular model, the price is pretty fair.
I would grab it :)
having 3 months left on warranty means you can also add apple care and get another 2 years
i think you meant to post on ozripoff
With spelling like that, do you think you really are a Mac user type? Maybe you should listen to the guy that said 'sommat'.
FYI I sold my early 2014 Macbook Air 11" for $890 on ebay so I think $850 for the 13" is reasonable. Best to check the condition of the Mac and get the original receipt for tax and warranty purposes.
be aware that a new macbook air with retina is rumored to come out, might be as early as next month, this will lower the price on older generation models. Also the last refresh for the air was April 2014, so even if the retina will be further delayed then a refresh on a current model is likely again resulting in lower prices for older models.
most people already have 2 working retinas a third is not usually necessary
These things hold their value: i sold a 2010 11" model on ebay about 3 weeks ago for drum roll $600!
Bought one at last years train lost property auction for $300 no psu and some scratches Caught a plane asked in the qantas lounge for a psu and the chick said I could have it people leave them here all the time lol.
Shop around, bound to find it cheaper elsewhere.
i sold one for $950 last week brand new unopened 9 months warranty left
i bought mine last year in a dick smith sale for $840 so id say that price is a bit high.
1) Get on eBay
2) Search "Sold Listings" for equivalent year, specs and condition
3) Take the average of the last 10 that sold
4) Knock off 10% if you're buying from Gumtree etc
eBay has done all the market research you'll ever need.
Look buddy, do yourself a favor and go get a real laptop. Macbooks are a big waste of money.
i dont want to sound like a$$ but pls suggest sth that is 13 inch with the equivalent battery life and price. i dont really think u can.
Latitude E7240 / E7440 is a nice alternative to a MacBook air. Dell has refurbished ones here http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/product…
They're like new and they have free shipping that only takes around 2-3 business days.
E7240 and E7440 are good laptops, but you can't buy them any more - except maybe on eBay or the Dell outlet if you are quick.
The replacement for the e7440 is the e7450. It starts at $2499 for 128GB, 4GB RAM.
http://www.dell.com/au/business/p/latitude-e7250-ultrabook/f…
The replacement for the e7240 is the e7250. It starts at $2599 for 128GB and 4GB RAM.
http://www.dell.com/au/business/p/latitude-e7250-ultrabook/f…
You get more flexibility in terms of batteries, upgrading SSD etc, but you pay a lot for it.
And they run slower than Macbook Airs because of their old SSD technology.
Sure are a lot of Apple elitists down-voting posts here that are completely relevant
No, there are comments here which are just ignorant and unhelpful like "Macs suck and/or are too expensive!" No they're not. If you look at ~$1000 range, the MBA 13" is the most well-rounded laptop on the market in terms of build quality, specs, price, and battery life. I dare anyone to find anything that falls within this price range but doesn't have some compromise (6hr battery, hybrid drive, etc). The Windows machines which do meet it generally start at $1400, at which point we're now in rMBP territory. There are certainly Apple products which are bad value bought outright (e.g. iPhones), but even if you dislike Apple, the MBA is not the fight you want to pick.
Locked down soldered frisbee trash, locked down OS, can't upgrade, can't do anything. Stuck with what you are buying and the rubbish screen still isn't 1080p in 2015.
Locked down soldered frisbee trash […] can't upgrade
You realise that most ultrabooks don't allow users to upgrade anything but maybe RAM right? And even that's very uncommon.
locked down OS
OSX is no more 'locked down' than Windows is. You can download the same programs, or you have the choice of getting apps from the App Store, just as Windows Store.
can't do anything
What can you do on Windows that I can't do on a Mac?
rubbish screen still isn't 1080p in 2015
This is the only point you make that has any merit and even that depends on personal preference and whether someone wants to shell out more for a FHD+ screen, or take a battery hit.
Stooge. Look at Logical Blue One and Horize ultrabooks. Upgradeable RAM and CPU. Apple is utter trash. I wouldn't wipe my ass with it.
If you think that OSX is no more locked down than windows then you obviously know nothing about OSes. OSX is like a 'dummies guide to an OS' - you can only modify settings and see things at a level that Apple deem you are allowed to - which isn't a lot. For most people that is probably fine but don't compare one to the other when all you do is install and run apps.
@ethereal88: Calm down cowboy, take a breather and hang up the fedora. But congratulations on making my point. Upgrade-able laptops are such a niche feature that virtually no OEM offers it. You had to name two laptop models from an obscure brand, that appeal to only a tiny sliver of the market, and most configurations of which, exceed a MacBook Air 13" in price. So how is that the same thing?
If you think that OSX is no more locked down than windows then you obviously know nothing about OSes. OSX is like a 'dummies guide to an OS'
I wish people who don't use OSX, stop talking about OSX. I also build Windows rigs, and anything that can be done on PC, you can also do on Mac too (outside, platform-specific programs). You just need to know where to look, and how some things like the 'cmd' command line shortcut is now 'Terminal' in the application folder. It's all there.
you can only modify settings and see things at a level that Apple deem you are allowed to - which isn't a lot.
Again. I'm going to need to ask for an example of something you think I can't do.
Dude u probably don't know a thing about Mac and what it is capable of so please don't make things up.
13" Horize models start at $1600 including Windows. Occasionally you can get a bargain on a run out or introductory model.
13" Macbook Airs start at $1200 and you'd have to be very impatient to miss out on the frequent 10% reductions.
Not really comparable.
@mrmarkau67: You're right, they're not. They're marketed at completely different demographics, and no non-Apple OEM sells a comparable ultrabook at the price point the OP is suggesting.
If you need an upgrade-able laptop, then buy a $1600 machine. But to 'wipe your ass' with an entire company's product line, believe it 'trash,' and deny that it has anything of worth to someone else is some petulant fanboy bullshit.
Man this going out off topic really quick.
First answer is probably the most logical answer.
So who's having chicken tonight?
You should be able to buy it new at that price with the following tricks -
1/ Purchase from Apple's educational website for cheaper price
2/ Use a cashback referral website to get a little bit more back (cashback.com.au, etc)
3/ Purchase just before a international flight and claim GST back if u happen to go overseas.
From memory by $1800 (Higher Spec) Macbook Air turned more into a $1500 one with the above tricks :)
if you're into hardcore savings on apple products, then i would substitute step1 with either:
* buy from apple certified refurbished; or
* buy from dicksmith / jb hifi / any other retailer during their regular 10% off sale
I like cake!!
Everybody loves cake. Cake has layers.
Wait don't you have university discount?
Ive seen brand new Mac Airs for $900, I think $850 is a bit of a rip, $700 max