Buy an old Apple or PC

kah22

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I have an iPad and an iPhone.

Come September I’ll be doing a part-time language course, a computer these days is almost essential. But what sort?

My thoughts are I’d love an Apple but really couldn’t justify spending £800 plus on a new one.. Alternatively I could opt for a Windows based laptop and as it’ll not be used for any heavy work an entry level one would more than suffice.

The third option and the reason I’m really posting this is to get advice on going second hand or buying an older one e.g I see one from Amazon Apple MacBook Pro Retina Display 13" (Late 2013) - Core i5 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD (Renewed) at £365, a manageable price. To all you students out there, or those who use an Apple on a semi regular basis what are your thoughts? In the past I’ve always used a PC

As always many thanks for your thoughts.

EVIN
 
I would give the older MacBook a miss.

Two main reasons, firstly it's 8 years old and the battery is probably just about finished. Second reason is it will stop receiving IOS updates fairly soon.

They dropped updates from Late 11 MacBook pro last year, so probably not be too long.
 
Second hand Apple PCs also tend to be heavily overpriced compared with comparable models from most brands. Unless Mac OS is essential they're a bad buy.

I'd also be cautious about buying a new budget laptop, it's always been a market where there's a lot of poor quality products around.
 
Any PC/Apple that is old may have a bad battery, cost is around typically around £30. While I think the 2013 still receive updates the 4Mb might not make it the fastest. MAC books are solid premium products with many spares at very reasonable prices hence the high 2nd hand value.

Personally I would buy one with 8GB of memory without worry. I work in IT and use a Mac Book 13 pro 2014. It works perfectly with original battery which lasts 6 hours still. I had to purchase a new power supply because the cable broke which is a common problem and cost around £25, I could have go the cable fixed I guess.

At work we bin many PCs after 3-4 years as parts expensive or not a available. Very few Apple get binned as even broken we sell them on eBay. We have around 21,000 pc's and Macs out in the world.
 
A big, big thank you for your advice but wonders will never cease.

Way back in 2009 I sat my laptop on top of my hob ☹️ and well it melted a brave bit of the base. I’d really forgotten all about it until my sister reminded me.
Like most, ‘I’ll see to that later projects,’ it was stored safely in the attic and promptly forgot about! Does that ring a bell with anyone?

So up I go into the attic and there it was hid behind a suitcase, Christmas decorations and books I was using while studying with the OU.

So down it came, plugged in and with a little bit of pressing this key and pressing that that key and saying a quiet prayer at the same time back she came to life 😎. The only thing wrong it doesn’t recognise the battery but I’m ok with that as it will be full time in my study and I’m thinking that the run in with the hob was probably to blame !

Im pretty happy this afternoon, and again a big thank you

Kevin
 

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