Student asking for advice on upgrading or repairing.
Hi everyone,
First post on Reddit, so sorry if I’m doing this wrong. Anyway, I am a university student student English education to be a teacher. I use my devices for my schooling. I have to write a lot of papers for the English part of my degree and lesson plans for the teaching part. The two devices I use are:
- MacBook Pro (Retina 13” mid -2014).
Model: A1502,
Operating system: macOS Big Sur 11.7.10.,
Processor: 2.6 GHz Dual-Core Intel i5
Storage: 121GB
I’ve had it since 2014 so it’s 12 years old. I’ve gone through some issues through the years and when I first started collage a few years ago I completely wiped the whole thing so I could basically start fresh with it. It’s done well for me and I just got a message a few months ago about the battery needing to be serviced but I’ve noticed the shortened battery life for a little longer than that. Nothing major, before I could get maybe like 2-4 hours without it on a charger but now I could get more like 2-3, maybe less. I don’t know what most of the technical stuff means. It does say my battery cycle count is 1080 and service is recommended. One thing that has been not a complete issue but I’ve noticed for many years is my computer gets really hot really fast and the fan gets really loud. Idk if that’s normal but just wanted to make sure I have everything covered.
Now I also use my iPad.
It’s the iPad Pro 1st Generation 9.7th, from 2016.
Model: NM1A2LL/A
iPadOS Version: 16.7.12
Storage: 256gb
I got this iPad in January of 2017, so it’s about 10 years old. I use this to take my notes and read my textbooks. It’s been slow for years and dies very very quickly but takes all day to charge. It can die within an hour, sometimes less.
Here’s my need for advice: I was just going to replace the batteries on both devices. Together, as of right now I’m looking at around $300. Which already is expensive but not too much. When I told my brother this, he said I could get refurbished devices for not much more and would last me longer. I searched those up and they are quite a bit more expensive and at the point I should just upgrade to new devices over all. I’ve been talking about upgrading my devices for years but every time I do, my dad always tells me that the minute I get rid of the old laptop he’ll take it because while the software might be better on the new stuff, the hardware is better on my computer. I joke it’s probably some version of reverse psychology but I mean at the time I said that I wanted to upgrade he didn’t really have a reason to want me to keep my old stuff because he wouldn’t be paying for it, I would.
So I reached out to the expert support thing Apple has and we spent a few hours going over what I use my stuff for and what I want and they came up with a whole new set up for me. They recommend I get:
-14-inch MacBook Pro in Silver with M5 chip
-11-inch iPad Air Wi-Fi 256GB
This is obviously way way way more expensive than just a repair and the only way I can finance it is if I get the Apple Card as they don’t allow financing any other way (😑😑😑) but let’s put that aside for a second and just say in a perfect world I could make it work and pay for it outright.
My question is, is it worth it? Should I do it right now? Should I wait a few more years? Or if I get battery replacements for my old devices how much longer could i reasonably use my stuff for? I told the rep that when I do eventually upgrade, I want my new stuff to pretty much last me another 10 years. Will the new Apple stuff be able to do that or is my dad right and the old stuff was made to last longer?
Any and all advice welcome!!!
Thank you😊😊