The recipient doesn’t do any video editing or other process intensive workflows, just online banking, facebook, email, etc.

I’m trying to decide whether to buy new on Black Friday or shop the second hand market. I want something that’ll keep getting OS updates for at least a couple years.

Can anyone advise me on how to get the best value for my dollar—should I shop Black Friday deals for something new or stick to the used marketplaces like Facebook, eBay, etc? We’re in the US in case that affects the answer. Thank you!

ETA budget info: I’d like to spend around $500 or so, which I believe would mean going used, but I can probably stretch my budget to a grand if buying something new is actually the best value play. But if I go used, can someone recommend what years I should look for or avoid? thx

  • jia_tan
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    13 days ago

    I’m a software developer and I have the base model M1 MBA, and it’s plenty enough for me (I just wish I had 16gigs of ram, but for the use case you’ve described 8 would be enough). I expect it to get updates for at least 4 more years (speaking from experience with my previous Mac, a 2014 Mac mini, which was supported up to macOS 12 Monterey, released in 2021). You can buy one of these used or refurbished for a very good price.