Don't forget TCB for a further 3% off bringing it down to $528.86
I'm planning to take it overseas within 60 days so with TRS should bring it down to $490.70 or maybe $458.96 depending on the 10% GST invoice amount.
Yeah, Internet searches indicate the batteries have held up well on this model even until now. There's also a an excellent instead of just good condition listing for $799 with the same specs but I can't see that improving the battery lottery.
Im using a Macbook air 13 right now, its holding well 😆 but dunno about these refurbished ones.
It should very similar. These laptops requires less charge cycles thanks to the arm processors and apple software optimisation (eherm windows sleep sucks eherm).
My own M1 air after all these years. Mild to heavy (recent) usages, including plugged in for days, then from time to time on to go for days kinda scenarios. https://i.postimg.cc/CxRPMhh5/SCR-20250610-mpyx.png
That's amazing.
My M1 MBP is at 84% health after 214 charge cycles, bought Christmas 2020.
My M1 MacBook Air is still above 94% capacity after 2 year of decent use, granted I used battery optimiser and and charged under 85, it just shows how new efficient chips and battery chemistry can last much longer if kept in the right conditions.
How much would a replacement battery be, I couldnt imagine the battery performance to be too good after 5 years
Think it's in the 250 range.. Or something
$100 DIY.
First party genuine apple battery or third party china?
probably chyna
I wonder if genuine batteries pair with the Macs like how iPhone and iPad batteries pair with their devices.
I'm not even sure you can get a genuine battery without being Apple certified, Apple still block you from buying official parts right?
@miicah: For M1 MacBook Air batteries, I think the answer is no pairing / no blocking, but best to check with MacFixit who have Apple-certified techs, or any of these guys that Apple list
Liar
Yeah this efft my warranty though. LVDS cable short. Even replaced genuine battery, serial didnt match the mobo, warranty denied.
Never bought apple again.
How is this different to any other manufacturer where you are attempting a self-repair? You can't expect them to honour warranty when you're opening it yourself …
@thrillhouse: Sorry for not being clear. It wasnt a self repair. It was a removable battery that i replaced 6 months earlier
It was a known issue / defect in that model too.
@Korban Dallas: How long ago was this? Apple haven't offered user-removable batteries on their MacBooks since like 2008.
@thrillhouse: Yeah that year sounds about right.
Told the apple tech guy if you dont fix it i will never buy apple again 😂 and i have kept that promise.
@Korban Dallas: Haha! No problems, that's your prerogative. A lot has changed in 17 years, but you do you :)
It depends on how well it's looked after. I have had mine 3 years and I'm at 93%. It was purchased refurbished at 95% battery capacity. Less than 400 cycles though.
Genuine one $279, if Apple chooses to replace it.
can we buy genuine separately ?
Outside of Apple and their AASPs, nope, all the online OEM parts are either used revamped or fake.
@Metre: Shame that their genuine parts program is still not available in Australia; its already in the EU, UK and US.
@stigsphilocousin: Yep, you can still apply for an independent repair provider outside of the authorised repairer program, provided you have a repair storefront. Individual repairs in AU will have to wait indefinitely, at this point.
@stigsphilocousin: that malicious compliance thing is so annoying, RCS support has been baked into iOS 18.x but only enabled for US and other carriers.
just keep a decent powerbank + usb-c cable in your bag.
I have the same question.
This is a 5 year old laptop, battery life is questionable by this stage in line with other Apple devices.
$545 is not cheap, but not overly priced either. Might be worth a try if you are into Apple brand.
My partner has one - 3 years and 88% health, i think that's pretty good.
Mind you it's kinda useless outside of basic word use and YouTube/internet use, so it hasn't been used all that much.
$139 for just the battery from MacFixit if you want to DIY. They sell a battery toolkit set for $20, or just ask them to install for $100.
Not associated with them, but I had email chats and bought an MBP battery (on my todo list), good experience so far.
Surface pro 7 i5 128gb A Grade $277.68 after eBay plus code also good price, but no keyboard though: https://ebay.us/m/AQDsgn
wont help the thermal issues, and the swollen batteries that inevitably happen
That processor isn't powerful enough.
Isn't powerful enough for what? Should be more than fine for most users.
Maybe ok for watching YouTube.
@ForkSnorter: I used MacBook air 2015 for software development job without any issues. so I assumed it is great for most people but gamers or heavy graphic users.
@ForkSnorter: 10th gen i5 is still plenty for normal desktop usage. RAM is the real limitation for this machine.
@AeymothSky: a few years ago and it would be still working fine now but I chose to upgrade for a bigger screen.
Yes it is, id be more worried about the ram lmao.
Rubbish, I use one for work and its perfectly fine.
11th gen i5s laptops are on the market for not much more now, best consider those instead, as they are a little bit more stable with their power tuning.
But really, neither are really good comparison. These will hold up better than any windows laptop will. Just that 8gb ram, even on macOS, is stingy as (profanity).
Was just announced that the previous (Intel) model won't be getting OS upgrades any more.
M1 will be next on the chopping board. When will that happen? Who knows, but something to keep in mind.
More likely than not unrelated. Not having to develop and QA for two different architectures is a big cost savings.
The cost of maintaining compatability on the same architecture would be negligible compared to the goodwill. The experience getting slow and laggy as things are optimised for better hardware is the historical and much more likely outlook.
Should be fine as M1 is apple silicon. It’s fair enough they aren’t supporting intel chips anymore
They're supporting Intel chips for one more year, just not in the Air.
The Air being the budget laptop, it's likely to be the first to go when they start culling support for the M1s too (which is next in line, but no one knows when).
It could be down to a difference in base spec, with the 2020 Intel-based Air coming with a Core i3-1000NG4 which is a 2C/4T chip with a 48 EU iGPU, while the 2020 Intel-based Pro (with 4 Thunderbolt ports) had a Core i5-1038NG7 as its base spec, which is 4C/8T and a 64 EU iGPU.
The differences between the M1 models are significantly smaller, basically boiling down to one less GPU core on the base model Air (7 vs 8) as far as I can tell. I'd be more likely to expect the whole M1 family to go at the same time, rather than piecemeal.
Usually depends on RAM. Lots of 8G RAM Mac on the market, so I’d say still way to go.
Probably same upgrade path as iPhones now it is Apple silicon.
Apple have been using their own silicon in iPhones since 2010
Yes, but we are talking Macs here. So 2019-20 as I recall.
So if an iPhone is 6 years of full OS upgrades, so one would hope same for M series chips.
I wasn't too happy with this last time:
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/900952
It was very worn out with scratches everywhere. It was more like Grade B than Grade A.
Grade A is always a lucky draw….
Some claimed grade B is a lucky draw too (might get grade C)
Sometimes the reseller would just send whatever is the closest to clear stock. You might get a perfect one or with clear worn condition under the same grade sticker. From experience.
From my experience, not from other sellers….
Other sellers claimed grade A and I received a grade A refurbished. ACT has gone down the hill….
Just bought a Dell refurb from SMG, with intel 11th Gen and 32GB. UN and ACT same model and grade with more premium. Will see how this goes.
@Metre: Hey mate can you share the link please? I'm thinking of buying a refurb one mainly for opening a lot of tab at the same time, while using canva, capcut as well. Thanks
Hmm to be fair having similar experience with refurbed windows laptops.
I think it's more likely the macbook would be more sturdy so hopefully the quality is better
Despite so many complaints, I would expect the last deal would have improved and buyers would get what ACT advertised…… Seems that my hope is futile ….
Yeah it's kinda sucky and risky.
I have less faith with refurbished from stores n sellers now.
Although the hassles with Facebook marketplace are annoying. Majority of my purchases with an inspection in person basically was happy with it close to near new used condition.
What makes me angry was it wasted almost 2 months of my time for the whole waiting and return process, I didn't even get an apology from them.
Ordering a grade A and received a grade C (deep scratches, sound and usb not working)
@edgar28: Yeah i found the battery health like maxiumim charge dropped so quickly as well suddenly like 6 months in or something.
That return process sounds like crap!
I regret not complaining about my two dells i brought from another store not this.
But it had issues with very weak hinges (x360 touchscreen dells) along with some keyboard keys acting up like not registering or being LIKE ACTUALLY STICKY!
But i didn't bother as it was only a few hundred. Next time though I'm definitely contacting or arranging for refund for my next purchases if it ends up like that.
It's not just sucky. It's scammy as well.
Shame that Dell cheaped out with the paint on the Latitude 5000 series, comes off really easily.
I had the same issue!
Not sure if the same model but was a dell.
Precision is the same. They should be sued for this. How can they get the paint wrong?
They don't even make their own laptops they outsource to ODMs
Really? I think my work provided laptop is one of those. I treat it like shit and it seems to hold up recently.. other than one weirdly dented corner.
Is it not just brushed aluminium?
Disgusting tempting pricing oh my.
Been wanting to get one for years at $800 but this price??
Dropped that idea due it to being 5 years old buuuuuttt.
Not a bad price. I bought a broken one for $350 and replaced the screen for $300 a couple years ago, so a full $100 less ain't bad.
I’ve had mine since launch, and it’s been faultless. 8gb ram was enough despite the naysayers for my use case (multiple chrome tabs) and still a joy to use. Build quality phenomenal, still sitting at 90% battery after 3.5 years.
You just broke the minds of many OzBargain users by stating 8GB ram is enough.
8gb is fine for Chrome tabs. If you're doing anything like photo/video processing it'd be painful though.
No doubt. But wouldn’t someone doing that get an MBP?
Wasn’t launch more like 5 years ago?
Ahh yeah. It’s been since Nov 2020 since I’ve had it so nearly 5 years
Can the refurb unit do TRS? I thought TRS only allowed new products?
TRS allowed on anything that has GST component
I'm typing this on the same model. 4 years old!
Still great performance. 8GB doesn't affect me for office use and browsing, no RAM issues in my usage at all. Battery is at 85% health and 412 cycles (it's mostly plugged in when at home). 1 defect: left speaker started to sound crackly at higher volumes, I changed the right left balance and it's okay now (but definitely a defect).
Hi, the 85% can last how long? Will this be good for kids school to last for another say 4-5 years? Ta
These have around 12 hours screen on time at full battery life, so these things will still have better battery than any new windows laptop (non arm version) with its degraded battery
Not sure why you got negged for asking a question.
They should be fine generally. That being said if it's for at school work, keep in mind the environment they work with at school too. If they work on say windows workstations then you may end up with some compatibility issues on some programs..
If it's just for home school work and study etc yeah they're decent machines for that.
Our kids’ school is BYOD. The MBA would be the most common laptop.
Private school.
Thanks. School uses macbook not windows based. You reckon still good for 4-5 yrs?
@psychoacid: On the caveat that it's a refurb model so YMMV, but yes they should be fine for another few years for school work. Apple hasn't explicitly stated how long they're supporting M1 though so you'll need to take that into account. Given it's all in-house now it may very well still get updates til 2030, we just don't know.
@psychoacid: In 4 or 5 years these will be 8 or 9 year old systems, and pretty much at the end of their life for most users.
Do you reckon still good?
I would use one for home use then, but would expect someone else would reasonably be hoping for an upgrade by then. They will also likely be out of support and no longer getting security updates.
Again, that is fine for me and I will use opencore legacy patcher, but nobody will tell you a 9yro Mac is going to have no drawbacks.
@mskeggs: Thanks. Perhaps I was too ambitious. Perhaps will let the kid use for next 2-3 yrs before upgrading and will keep going if its still going without interfering with the studies.
@psychoacid: 2-3 years probably acceptable for very basic use - the very limited ram being the biggest hurdle here.
It is still a Mac though - if apple stop supporting it, then release an update with some grand ambitions, you'll quickly discover the dark side of Apple - 0 legacy support.
Couple years at this price is good though
I'd agree with this, I'm on an M1 too with same specs and its fine for anything I throw at it, battery works a full work day too(83%).
If it’s mostly plugged in use a charge limiter. I use the one on github by godly_devotion
Oh well, bought a M2 6 months ago so the elder one could use and her M1 could be handed over to younger one. This would have saved me $500.
The 5 year old M1 is still pristine and faultless.
![[Refurb, eBay Plus] Apple MacBook Air 13.3" M1 (2020) 8GB RAM 256GB SSD Delivered $545.22 @ Aus Computer Traders eBay](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/11/909811.jpg?h=307b7346)
That’s a good price. If battery holds well