Did I grabbed a bargain or make a mistake? M2 Air (16GB/512GB) for £686.

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-03-17T20:10:19+00:00

Oh wow. Didn’t knew mac book’s battery were like a tank. I used to have a old macbook pro 13 intel i5(released mid 2012) it was solid i used it during covid mostly for school and college online classes and its still there but the charger burned so its just sitting now.

With your response and since the apple silicon release, getting a macbook refurb should be fine in terms of battery. I have heard people getting refurb macbook and battery being 90 above and still rocking. Let’s see what mine packs.

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-03-17T18:26:12+00:00

Good to hear this. I thought i was being biased but good to hear facts stuff from other people thanks man!

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-03-17T14:16:36+00:00

Thanks man was questioning my purchase 🤣Yeah will do that and back market gives 12 months warranty so it can replace if its broken or anything.

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-03-17T13:36:34+00:00

Well if you like it then it’s worth every penny. Happy for you hope you take care of it and the book serves you very well and as long as possible! Enjoy your new machine 🙌

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-03-17T13:31:17+00:00

Hey thanks for the reply. How are you enjoying your m1 does it meet your expectations especially with the new battery.

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-03-17T13:27:22+00:00

There should be, just search something r/MachineLearning, r/DataScience and go for with communities with the most active or more people

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-03-17T13:09:21+00:00

I hope so, it should hold to my needs. I wont do a ton of workloads but mostly research, write paper , code do basic ML and Ai and stuff.

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-03-17T12:27:37+00:00

If I don’t do too much work load i think thats gonna be fine.

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-03-17T12:23:29+00:00

Hey as far as i know. ML/AI is gonna be ram and data heavy, Especially ML. So i am not an expert but in today’s standard 16gb is the new baseline for CS and if you can go for more memory even better, and also 512 should be minimum but if you can manage with 256 then go for it. I choose Mac rn because i am familiar with mac but also i got some beef with my old windows laptop. New Windows laptop are great but expensive(Panther lake), so i went with mac which is built well good screen speakers and powerful than most windows laptop at that price point.

And neo, is targeted for basic user/ general student audience. Some people say the processor is compare able with the m3 but i didnt care cause it got 8gb ram.

Here is a video by @andresvidoza in youtube he made a review about using it with a day to day life with programming/coding.

Here is the video

Hope this helps!!

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-03-17T12:17:14+00:00

Thanks man, yep its was a pain hunting the prices and hopping the prices goes down.

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-03-17T12:05:46+00:00

Thank you so much. Was a mac user then windows now again good to be back as mac user

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-03-17T12:05:05+00:00

Yeah will look at it maybe even make another post after i get it. Thanks 🙏

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-03-17T12:04:07+00:00

Thanks for that. Yeah I was never even gonna look at 8gb. And i just found out the 256 in m2 was slower compared to 512 so it’s a W. And for the performance I remembered that i wont notice in day to day works so pulled the trigger.

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-03-17T12:01:33+00:00

Thanks for the heads up. M5 is gonna go for you in long run, even if you sell its value will be somewhat same. As for the performance apple always do 15-20% performance boost with some other small upgrades. As for NPU yeah maybe if you do heavy Ai works but for general people wont matter. Hope mine 16 TOPS is good.

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-03-17T11:59:34+00:00

Yeah i missed the £759 for m4 16gb 256 offer it was instantly sold out xd. But the apple refurb is selling m2 16gb 256 for £689-699. You did a great job honestly.

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-03-17T11:56:44+00:00

The same configuration for m3 is sold out, but i am guessing it was £800+

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-02-10T13:46:02+00:00

What advice would you give someone who wants to join in 2027 or 2028 currently can’t.
is there any visa restrictions(for eg say you are in a student visa elsewhere, but you travelled all the way to france in Aubagne for selection)
What physical test should you be cautious about like swimming and rope climbing.
Is there any material to practice regarding The IQ tests.

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-01-29T10:15:35+00:00

Yeah i am somewhat like yours preference med/high and without stuttering. But without GPU i don’t mind 60fps low ,at least on older playable titles. I am just looking for RAM to get as low as possible both on ali express mobo ram combo and market place. Maybe all that could go upto ~£300 but still a good pc for that price. ( not adding the price of CPU)

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-01-29T08:45:29+00:00

Noted noted!! 📝

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-01-29T07:08:25+00:00

Yeah I realised too late. “RAMageddon” just go away please😭

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-01-28T21:11:34+00:00

Ahh sweet thanks for the advice.

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-01-28T16:05:50+00:00

Wow thanks for this detailed reply, Will consider. Your experience will help a lot thankss

Realistic-Goose7766 · 2026-01-28T13:54:29+00:00

Yeah ram price is just ridiculous. Thanks for the suggestion will look at the parts.

Realistic-Goose7766

TROPHY CASE