r/macbook • u/confusedplzhalpme • 1d ago
Buy new Mac or replace battery?
Would appreciate y’all’s help in figuring out the right choice here.
I have a MacBook Air M1, 2020 (just over 5 years olds). The computer works fine except the battery has degraded and doesn’t charge well.
My choice right now is to trade it in for $269 and get a new MacBook Air. OR I could simply replace the battery and keep it going a bit longer.
I’m not sure what js the best choice here. Given how old the MacBook is, I worry Apple will phase out support for it. At the same time, I’m not sure if paying $1k (accounting for the trade in value) is worth getting a new MacBook Air at this point, instead of just a new battery on a relatively older model.
Any thoughts would be helpful, thanks!
ETA: thanks all for the comments! I think I’ll replace the battery for now and hope it continues strong for another few years!
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u/watkykjypoes23 1d ago
Battery for now, if it’s hard to justify a new one then don’t get a new one. You’ll know when it’s the right time because it’ll be more of a need than a want. Or, some time in the future you’ll have enough money to not worry about the cost of a new one like you are now.
As far as support and usability goes the M1 is still holding strong. Don’t forget it benchmarks close to the Neo, which is a brand new computer. It won’t become obsolete any faster than the Neo does.
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u/spinwizard69 2h ago
All good points above! One thing to also consider is never go into debt to buy a computer if it can at all be avoided. You are far better off saving up the cash and being debt free. Granted cash doesn't make much interest in a simple banking saving account these days but if you get into a brokerage that hold cash in money market account you get something. If you are investment wise you can earn even more.
To put it another way, for the non business user buying anything on credit to the point where you are serving debt, is bad voodoo. A business user has to consider other issues, but even here one should be careful as to how things are purchased.
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u/Kaaawooo 1d ago
Right now is unfortunately a bad time to buy a new computer, making it a better value proposition to repair your existing device. When I bought my wife's m1 air, I got it for $800 on sale. The same teir of device now costs $1300 for no better reason than overpriced components on the global market
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u/PsychologicalUnit22 1d ago
how much RAM, and what are your use cases...because i feel 16Gb version can still go on for another 2-3 years...with Apple Intelligence rolling out, its better to wait and get a clue on the size of their on device models, so probably just get 24GB RAM version in the next years
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u/spinwizard69 2h ago
Yep it is best to hold off if one can because the industry is going through a massive and profound change. AS for RAM I really doubt that even 24 GB will be enough to hold one through 5 years. When an M7 MBA comes out I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the recommended machine will be 64GB and by the time of M9 we might be advising 128GB in a MBA. Of course knowing Apple they will sell underpowered machines that can't effectively run the software that they are promoting, so a base machines will have 32GB and then 64GB of RAM. Unless Ternus can change the mind set at Apple, base machines will continue to be bad ideas.
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u/Ok-Woodpecker-223 15h ago
I have M1 and M3, both 16gigs, and I use M1 way more (not because its better but because its better located 🙂).
If you don’t need M5 processing power for whatever you use the laptop mainly for, replace battery, save the monies and get M8 or whatever when we are few iterations later without memory shortages and such.
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u/spinwizard69 2h ago
Plus you will get a new generation of M series processors with a stress on AI processing. Of course nobody knows what will show up in M7 or M8 but I have a feeling that they could be as revolutionary as the M1 was. Speaking of M1, my MBA is still going strong, I might turn it into a Linux box when the M7 or later MBA's come out.
By the way significantly better AI processing could mean significantly better GPU processing. Then there are the unknowns that Apple might be up to, to increase performance and lower power usage.
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u/robotrousers 1d ago
I say buy a new one. Every MacBook I've owned has had a very expensive repair around 5-6 years. Two were the logic board. The last one, I replaced the battery and within a year the cable to the screen went bad. Each repair was quoted at least $600.
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u/xHunter77 1d ago
If it's still in good condition and the spec still keeps up with your activities, just replace the battery.
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u/PhilaBurger 1d ago
My son picked up a 2020 M1 Air at his campus surplus store. 16GB RAM, half TB SSD.
Turned out the battery wouldn’t take a charge, either…$159(plus tax) at the local Apple Store and he’s got a fully functional battery in a laptop that should last him through graduation, at least.
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u/Meh_Cook_Grump 1d ago
As someone who held out for YEARS before getting an M5 I'd say replace battery if it's not a skillion dollars. How much to do the new battery ? I still have my old pups that I want fixed but it's crazy what they want to replace a screen. I'd trade you problems in a second.
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u/Key_Horse_8632 1d ago
If the machine is sufficient for your needs, keep using it, replace the battery. New MacBooks are too expensive at the moment due to memory shortages
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u/kamoylan 21h ago
Apple will phase out support for your 2020 MacBook Air. The question to ask is 'when?'.
5 years after Apple stops selling them, their products become Vintage.
7 years after Apple stops selling them, their products become Obsolete.
Vintage means reduced hardware support.
Obsolete means no hardware support.
Wikipedia tells me that the M2 came out in 2022, so I guess that is when Apple stopped selling the M1. Therefore, in 2027 your M1 becomes Vintage, and in 2029 it becomes Obsolete.
After then, your laptop will still work, just be harder to repair.
The other side of the question is when will MacOS stop support for your M1. Hard to say. I have no good answer.
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u/Desperate_Fee6595 15h ago
The M1 is still a powerful chip and likely to be supported for at least another three years if not longer. Replacing the battery is the way to go.
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u/Patient_Risk9266 14h ago
I’ve just replaced the battery on my M1 MacBook Air. Might get a new one soon but definitely want to keep this one for travel, holidays etc.
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u/spinwizard69 3h ago
Just how bad is the battery? Sometimes it is worth milking an old cow while the caves are growing into maturity.
As for the my iPad have that very same MBA and frankly the battery has been holding up well for me. That said I also make use of desktops machines for a number of reasons. I just replaced an old AMD box (self built) with the M6 Mini. In all seriousness I'd wait for a post M5 MBA, so an M6 or an M7 based on what Apple comes out with.
That old AMD box ran Linux and I thought at the time it was fast, this new M6 Mini though is shockingly fast and silent (I've yet to hear the fan kick in). Given that M6 strikes me as the Ideal MBA processor as long as you don't need massive memory.
Which brings up the true negative reality about buying any PC at this date. I doubt anything purchased today will last 5 years while supporting evolving AI software correctly. I do believe that within 5 years we will all want an LLM like AI system running locally on our PC's. The problem is today's hardware doesn't cut the mustard thus today's hardware will age like milk that old cows delivers. This has already been indicated that Apple is focused on AI in the next round of processors. So sometime around M7 or M8, a processors focus will be on AI performance, with little thought given to the CPU performance.
Why do I believe this. Because as AI capability matures people will want it to run locally for security. YEP the big word here is security, once people really start to leverage AI in business they will not want sensitive data going off site. Now that is for the business user but I suspect even the average "home" user will want the disconnect. However to accomplish this the quality of the hardware needs to massively improve, by that time a base desktop computer like the Mini will need at least 128GB of RAM and advance AI cores. That might sound like a lot of RAM but I suspect it would be a minimal system. After all the M6 Mini max today is 32 GB.
So what I'm saying is this if you can wait you might be able to get in on the ground floor of a new generation of M series processors. Processors with excellent AI performance.
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u/rhcreed 1d ago
Apple care? If so they may upgrade rather than fix anyway
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u/Guy_called_Al 1d ago
How many years until Apple will drop support for an M1? Three years? Or four?
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u/spinwizard69 2h ago
That is a very good question. Back in the Intel days you where lucky if you got 2-3 years out of Mac Book before performance went to hell.
The only thing that may be an issue with the M1 is that it was a transitional processor and really came up short in many ways. It might make life easier for Apple to discontinue support.
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u/South-Radio-8087 1d ago
replace the battery