You can take it to apple, but they are not very helpful if your warranty is up. They will just tell you that you can spend a grand on repairs or buy a new laptop. I will say the actual stores are nice, but not always helpful.
Actually don't know anyone who's gone into an Apple store and not had anything fixed. Closest thing was my sister trying to return a phone case but she had to do something first before they'd swap it. But they did swap it.
I do agree that you definitely should backup your data. I have a server dedicated to it. The problem is that i would bet that most MacBook owners dont.
It does it automatically through iCloud, I've turned it off because it irritated me and back out up manually but it's something you have to turn off and the storage capacities if you want to back up a lot are fairly cheap.
But you do.
What if I want to plug in a USB mouse? dongle
Want to plug in an HDMI monitor? dongle
What if i want to plug in a keyboard when one of my butterfly keys fails? dongle
Want to charge your iPhone with OEM cable? dongle
It's not so portable when you have to carry dongles around now, is it?
But at least it has a headphone jack
You can get one dongle with all of those connectors on it https://www.amazon.co.uk/FITFORT-DUAL-Display-Aluminum-Ethernet-Compatible/dp/B07MKC5Z1D/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=37OF5YMM4MQTL&keywords=thunderbolt+3+dongle&qid=1564308286&s=gateway&sprefix=thunderbolt+3+don,aps,165&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1
On top of that, I believe some MacBooks won't recognize 3rd party dongles on purpose forcing you to spend a ton on an apple branded one.
They do recognise 3rd pats dongles. Dunno if its still right but they didn't recognise a previous gen Thunderbolt 3 standard from Texas Instruments. But anything USBC works too.
I won't argue that 8 years isn't bad. It's actually incredibly good compared to something like an android.
With Windows, you could get over 15 years of support with the latest os for your old hardware, but it would be slow and definitely not much of a value adder. But it is a benefit.
Is a bit of a benefit but talking 8 years ago the top of the line desktop chip was a 970 and the mobile variant I wouldn't want to run. Mobile devices have a limited shelf life they're not like desktops where you can swap out anything you want because why not. I mean the last laptop I had before this one I got back in 2013, it is horrendously slow now even though I've factory reset it twice and uninstalled all of the bloatware (something MacBooks don't come with may I add). My PC since I rebuilt from scratch in 2016 is now on its 3rd case, 4th motherboard, 4th CPU and 5th GPU if you could the 2400g as an APU. It's a different type of device.
From the mindset of an enthusiest, I have a hard time reccomending Apple MacBooks. Apple phones are great if you can afford them.
I can see the appeal of an easy to use a laptop, but there are so many drawbacks that nearly always end up in you paying apple money for a repair, replacement, upgraded model, or accessory. He isnt using other apple products, so those advantages are gone.
Apple laptops are the best you can get for productivity, the trackpad means you can use it anywhere, the build quality is solid, the screen excellent, you have software that never needs replacing unless you need something specific or high end, you don't have to pay for office, you won't get your data deleted by a rogue update, it's less likely to run into malware issues and you get exclusive software. It's one of those things where if you've tried one for a decent period of time you won't want to go back. Obviously you won't be editing 4K video in iMovie on a MacBook air but you can easily edit 1080p to a high grade in FCP and it will destroy any windows laptop with a similar form factor because they just don't have FCP, you have Xcode for programming, compressor, iBooks author, Logic Pro X. they're all professional grade apps that you can't get on windows and work so well on a Mac.
For something upgradable.
If you want to compare thin and lights I come back to my previous recommendation, the Dell XPS13.
4c/8t I5 8250u 1.6ghz up to 3.4ghz (similar clocks to MacBook air but double cores and threads)
8GB ram
128gb NVME
4k touchscreen with tiny bezels
Windows 10
UHD graphics 630
The ram is soldered, but your data is stored on an upgradable m.2 drive. This doesnt make the machine thicker either, as it is thinner than a macbook air.
IO is better, but not much. Still would need dongles, but not for an sd card.
2 thunderbolt, 1 USB c
sd card reader
headphone jack.
The XPS 13 weighs 2.7lbs but the MacBook air 13in weighs more at 2.9lbs
The XPS 13 is between 0.3 and 0.5in thick, less than the 0.6in thick MacBook air 13 in.
Small, but the XPS13 is better at being both thin and light.
Worse battery life than MacBook, likely due to 4k panel.
Great speakers and thin webcam.
Good touchpad and ok keyboard.
No fingerprint scanner, but windows hello.
$899, $200 cheaper than MacBook air
https://www.newegg.com/p/2WC-0009-0...8KI9Lc-DnmBInT_wdahoC0-8QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
A lot of these things come from here:
https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/dell-xps-13-2019
https://www.windowscentral.com/xps-13-9370-review
Some things about spec are different tho, so i tried to omit them.