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Laptops · Apple MacBook Air

Apple MacBook Air 2012

11owners with an opinion
75%of verdicts positive
5/0positive/negative since 2024
6 yrslongest happy owner
2happy after 3+ years

Praised for durability and reliability; criticized for battery and software.

What owners wrote

NeutralOwned 10 yearsStill going
> Considering the age of the battery, I decided not to charge it again, because there is a risk that it would swell and damage the OP-1. > Their suggestion was to keep using the original battery. > Would I have to throw away my OP-1 which is still looking almost pristine? Why not just charge it? Am I crazy to think, if it swells it swells? You turn it off, remove it then and get to the problem then. I've used a MacBook air from 2012 with a swollen battery since 2014, every day pretty much. It's not a nuclear bomb.
Likes itOwned 6 years
Been using Airs since 2011, 2012 model lasted me to 2018 upgrade (Retina finally) but now I snagged the m4 pro Mini and it’s so small I brought it to the birthing inn with me and (with the help of a universal remote) just used the room TVs as a monitor. It’s so small that I can just throw it in a bag with a mouse/keyboard/HDMI and even a PS5 controller which I do appreciate my wife tolerating Jedi Cal joining us in the postpartum wing over PS5 streaming from the console at home, quite doable and the Mini’s built in speaker is quite a charmer all things considered! I ran it from inside a drawer under the baby “kiosk” and it definitely outgunned the in-room speakers that were clearly gimped (similar to putting your phone into the right enclosure amplifies the sound). At home when not at my desk I’ve been using screen share to remote in from the 2018 Air, this is the first time since 2018 I bought a new computer and it’s oddly nice having it not be a laptop, don’t have to worry about the precious built-in screen or keyboard. Caveat may be if I wasn’t working remote perhaps it would be different but not sure, using the 2018 Air as a client for the M4 Pro has been pretty solid for my current purposes and it’s nice still having an Intel Mac for the edge case backwards compatibility development needs. Whoops didn’t mean to make a blog post in here…
Recommends itOwned 5 yearsStill going
> MacBook air. Still on my first 13" 2012, i5 cpu, 4 gb mem, 128 gb ssd model. The battery is shot, but otherwise it took a beating and is still running like a champ. Hopefully next year they will still be selling these puppies. Because I can not find something with similar price, spec and build quality. Air is really one of your best priced ultrabooks. Otherwise I recommend you don't settle for a i3, you are going to regret it. Had to give my brother-in-law advice on buying a notebook for writing docs and surfing, etc. Said a i3 should be fine for his needs... did I regret that at our next "free technical support session" :/ get a i5 atleast! > It's 'nix but it's really not Linux. Also, macOS is a Unix[0]. gnu/linux is the 'nix like os around here ;) [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_UNIX_Specification#macO...
Neutral
I think it was fine 20 odd years ago. I had a Thinkpad T41p in 2004 and it was a great laptop. Even my Sony Vaio Z was nice in 2008 compared to the competition (although it had serious issues with the screen flexibility causing it to fail multiple times). Since 2012 I've had 3 Macs, a 2012 Air, a 2020 M1 (this was a massive upgrade and the nicest laptop I ever used, even compared to my relatively new work thinkpad). I just cracked the screen on my M1 so bought a discounted M4 air on black friday. I can't tell the difference other than I like having magsafe back and only miss the touch bar slightly.
Likes it
I had a 13" M1 MacBook Air. It was an OK machine to move to from my 2012 MacBook Air, but the thing was super fragile. Let's just say it's been retired while my 2012 is still going strong (my not-so-technically-inclined partner uses it for basic browsing). I now have a 15" M2 MacBook Air and I have to say: this machine is the laptop of my dreams. It could be one of the best computers I've ever owned. Now I'm just holding out for a 27" or larger iMac. I have a 24" M1 iMac and while I have gotten used to the screen being smaller, I still really could use the extra real-estate. I am a web developer and media producer. These machines handle Premiere Pro and Blender just fine for my purposes. I have zero interest in getting the Studio.
Doesn’t like it
There is this really weird hindsight about Apple products that I just don't understand. Apple products have always had weird quirks and defects. Always. All of them. The joke about Apple was to make sure you ALWAYS got AppleCare, because the odds of a failure within three years were high and for most repairs you were looking at a minimum of $300. Any repair of a logic board was $600+. I've been using a Mac as my primary machine since the Intel transition in 2006. Every single one has had an repair bill covered by AppleCare that was larger than the cost of AppleCare itself. The video card on the logic board on my first Core Duo iMac failed at some point. $800 repair. My polycarbonate MacBook had the super drive fail. That was like $250 alone. Something else failed with that one but I can't remember. Battery or trackpad maybe. My MacBook Air from 2012 — the screen delaminated — $300 for a new screen + labor that I don't recall. Had it replaced right before the warranty expired, but it's happened again with the replacement as well. And it will eventually happen to every single MacBook Air ever made. Mac products are not designed to last (that's not saying that they can't, but they aren't designed to). They are not designed to be repaired. Never have been. They are designed to get you into a 3-5 year upgrade cycle. Once you realize that it's actually quite freeing because you just don't worry about it the same way you don't worry about the quirks in a leased car. You buy a $3,000
Doesn’t like it
I'm a writer. I write around about 2000 words a day, and I'll be getting the new MacBook Pro for a few reasons: - The screen is better than the Air. That matters when you're staring at it for 8 hours a day. - However over-priced the MacBook Pro is, that goes double for the small MacBook. It's just too expensive for what you get. - I want to be able to run photoshop and have it deal with the RAW files from my Sony A6000, My current machine — a 2012 MBA — can't manage it without becoming a noisy radiator. - If I'm paying top dollar for a laptop, I want it to last for at least four years, and I don't see the small MacBook satisfying me for that length of time with its current resource limitations. - The extra screen real estate might not seem like much, but when I want my work and a browser next to each other, it makes a difference. Unusually for writers, I use Vim, and the lack of a hardware Escape is a small concern, but I've remapped it anyway, so I don't think it will pose much of a problem. The keyboard also worries me, but I've played with the smaller MacBook and It's OK, not awesome but I can deal with it. Edit: Of course, I could just buy a Windows laptop, but I haven't used Windows regularly for about fifteen years. I used Linux for about a decade, and then OS X. I won't move to Windows, and I'm too busy for the sort of fiddling Linux generally requires. Plus, I'm not a of fan of any current Linux UI — none have the polish of MacOS. So, in addition to everything else, M