The $300 MacBook Challenge

Do you need experience to get a good deal shopping on eBay? Today we hope to find out as I've brought my roommate Elise back for another challenge! With just $300 each to spend, can we both find a usable MacBook?
Follow Elise:
Instagram: / eliseplonski
Twitter: / eliseplonski
KZbin: / @eliseplonski1255
Follow me on Twitter: / lukemiani
Follow me on Instagram: / mianiluke
Join my Subreddit! / lukemianiyoutube
Gear:
Panasonic Lumix GH5: amzn.to/2SDQrYi
Blue Snowball Mic: amzn.to/2PwASD0
Sennheiser MKE 440: amzn.to/2JRwIRU
RODE VideoMic Pro+: amzn.to/2pOCkpl
Edelkrone SliderOne V2: amzn.to/33mTZmt
Zecti Camera Slider: amzn.to/2CWmeOI

[@lukemiani]

Polls are up on the community tab and over on Twitter @lukemiani! Who do you think got the better deal? Were they both good?

[@SankeshwarSivakumar]

Definitely you man The MacBook Air has a better Processor, GPU and faster Storage Drive so in many ways it's better I'm not considering the fact that it can run Big Sur

[@ldfox11]

Your room mate looks like a sister to me

[@Catsincages]

Hope you aren't unintentionally selling bitcoin over there :O

[@justakidtryingtolive4286]

Funny thing I saw that 39 dollar MacBook the other day too

[@TheKeggie]

Can you do more Ebay videos, they're the best videos you do imo.

[@NoahRubinCoding]

Elise is actually a MacBook whisperer and that Cinebench score was 100% legit

[@pikminicustoadius]

Imagine what that guy with the 48 core Xeon was like when a 10 year old core 2 duo scored 7 times as high

[@WarriorsPhoto]

😂

[@roborobo8370]

@@pikminicustoadius to be fair, the cores on a xeon are slow, but not that slow!

[@pikminicustoadius]

Odenta that makes sense, my 2008 MacBook Pro had a higher single core score on geek bench than a 48 core Xeon

[@walker4541]

Yes Noah!

[@alexclemence8685]

Not watched it yet but I'm going to presume that Luke somehow ends up with a 2019 16inch MBP with 2 TB storage.

[@lucadotti2928]

lol

[@fendifrance8859]

lmaoo

[@jouhajohnny]

Lmao

[@jessthebenjamin758]

No, he actually got a 2019 Mac Pro with a 28 core CPU and 1.5 TB of RAM

[@rashalstudio3101]

Ur sadly *w r o n g*

[@Omar-lx1er]

I got a macbook for free from my aunt. It doesnt start up and she doesn't know which one it is. I am hyped on fixing it!

[@dannyliles2315]

I’m in the same boat all I know is it’s a MacBook Air they is at least 2012 and it’s a 13”

[@dess.3761]

Danny Liles .0. good luck

[@dannyliles2315]

eggdog thank you, it’s very water damaged so I don’t know how much of it still works, but at least it comes with a charger 😂😂

[@tzr5864]

Mac OS \ or / Linux Manjaro

[@junipeayt]

ok petter griffin

[@william_playzzz]

13:32 i was just watching the phone thinking it was going to get knocked off the desk

[@leeizme]

smh the 2010 macbook does better than the 48 core xeon and he doesn't wanna accept it

[@timothybrown7792]

Core blimey!

[@maxmara9864]

122,046 points on cinebench would be like 10 AMD Epycs bundled together

[@richardc5100]

The cutie is back, oh and your roommate

[@Aren.s7]

Lmao

[@xX_cumtech_Xx]

LOL

[@xX_cumtech_Xx]

But nah, two cuties

[@Evie0133]

AAAAAAYYYYY Elise is back!! 🤩😃😲 You and Elise are such a good pairing, you guys need to do more videos together :)

[@sddrx6000]

Better yet they should become more than just roommates

[@MrJustin2105]

please no

[@Eidwood]

@@sddrx6000 he is gay

[@springbok4015]

Eidwood really? Never thought he was.

[@huseenzammam9516]

@@springbok4015 ehhhh i feel like we all knew it on some level

[@joshbampton3918]

I was recommended a video by luke on KZbin about a month ago, and I loved it. I have been watching all your videos over quarantine and there so good. Congrats on almost 200k. Love from South Australia

[@NoahAviation09]

Totally agree

[@tyronemcchicken]

I’m NSW

[@michelleh5474]

From NSW :) trying to figure out how much I should expect in AUD$

[@thebusinessfirm9862]

Adelaide. Beautiful.

[@Garrettdx1988]

I’m with Elise, I’d never get an Air. She wins.

[@connorml]

@@ellamorrison3404 You could upgrade the drive if you have a bit of money

[@steviestinks8070]

Jackie Morrison You got it on eBay?

[@jamalkhalid7964]

What’s wrong with airs?

[@SuperSireBoyYT]

@Sammy Cole the newset air: hold my m1 chip

[@SuperSireBoyYT]

well the air is for more casual users and a cheaper option

[@ChrisMX9]

300$ for a mid 2010 ? I bought my mid 2010 2 weeks ago locally for a 100€ only has a dent in one of the corners but that's pretty much it

[@rickster4627]

Yeah but eBay users love to milk every last cent out of what they sell, especially with MacBooks

[@jchubyt]

That was a lucky find

[@HoLDoN4Sec]

@@jchubyt no it was not, last year i bought a 2011 core i5 8gb ram 256gb ssd mbp 13" for 220$ - at the same time i lost another auction from a different seller on more or less the same config for 174$. i also bought a 2012 core i7 16gb ram 512gb ssd mbp 13" with all of its included accessories (extension power cord, microfiber cloth, plastic wrap, apple booklet, retail box etc.) for 370$ and it was all in extremely good near mint condition (the only defact it had was a single tiny scratch on the bottom plate - the seller told me it was used as a desktop machine in a lab on a university. you can find EXTREMELY good deals on eBay if you look participate in auctions. for 300$ i'm guessing you can even probably get a 2014 13" retina. for 300$ in auctions you can definitely grab a 2015 macbook air (which is essentially the exact same as a 2017 macbook air).

[@chrisparussin5359]

Wth, here in italy you cand find a 2010 macbook for under 700$

[@ChrisMX9]

@@chrisparussin5359 bought this one in France :)

[@ThePaulcarter35]

I'd take the unibody all day long - so many user-upgeade options. Plus 2010 13" unibody macs can actually take upto 16gb ram which is really impressive

[@remz90]

It’s so sweet to watch a common person next to a pro youtuber. I would start dancing in front of the camera too))

[@alexi6636]

“Roommate” yeah sure Luke 😂

[@NoOne-im3cs]

Sure. But in what kind ?

[@vipertt100]

Nice to see Elise back. You guys play good off each other. Great video. You should do more.

[@abraarmasud9194]

Would love to see more content with Elise, she's a fun person! Also, she's way more spontaneous here than the 500$ vid, great to see that!

[@ll-jq6nu]

When your 2010 MacBook outperforms a $30000 machine

[@itzrealzz1199]

Hahahahhahahahahahahahahahaahah

[@abdulazeez.98]

0:33 it's now *her* channel 🤣🤣

[@MrGameManIsCool]

WE NEED MORE ELISE SHES AMAZING

[@eltiochusma]

Maybe, but here she looks B O R E D

[@sh1701-A]

@@eltiochusma I don't blame her. lol.

[@NepgearGM6.1]

Aiden Duray nope

[@johngullo9420]

Cute but too much mugging for the camera for me.

[@bones3292]

Literally just watched the last Mac challenge yesterday. 😂 great timing 👍

[@justNGC604]

Yeah, Elise is back! :-)

[@simplyparticular]

Elise’s resemblance to my teenage daughter was striking in the first video, but her more casual style here makes it uncanny. That whole Insta pose was like looking 10 years into her future. One thing I haven’t seen discussed much in the budget Mac world is security. The Twitter hack and several major breaches through work and it’s feeling pretty relevant. Dark corners of the Internet are ramping up again and it’s unlikely these MacBooks will stay offline. From a security standpoint, the MBA has it. High Sierra loses security updates when Big Sur releases, unless Apple feels generous during the pandemic and decides to patch it a little longer for the good PR (I’m sure they know roughly how many machines stuck at HS are in use right now). But is Catalina even decent with 4GB, let alone Big Sur? I’m running High Sierra and it’s solid with 32GB RAM and a slow 7200 1TB drive but I have to replace this iMac 2011 in October or I won’t be able to connect to the work VPN by our security policy.

[@Windows-bq8xd]

next: $1 MacBook challenge Edit, OMG I HAVE NEVER HAD THIS MANY LIKES THANK YOU, GUYS!!!

[@drewski23_7]

Windows 8.1 And no limit on shipping! Haha

[@sagarkapasi099]

Hey, Windows 8.1, You're One Of The WORST OS

[@generalstep]

Apple Stickers 😅

[@vibhathakkar1883]

😂 haha that’s not possible

[@Windows-bq8xd]

@@sagarkapasi099 its a joke user lol

[@sharksbean]

I use the 7th gen iPad as my main device, and as things stand it’s all I need (Let alone all I can afford) at present.

[@David_Bellows]

she got one hell of a deal, 122,000 score, my 300 dollar mac only scored 1106

[@Techranology]

Cinebench wasn’t working properly on that MacBook

[@DylanSmith-dy6lj]

RNVRH Gaming & Tech Reviews oh no really?

[@David_Bellows]

@@Techranology YEA I know its just a joke lol.

[@RonnieAT]

RNVRH Gaming & Tech Reviews r/woooosh

[@joeyg2488]

7:24 the phone on the edge gives me anxiety

[@renragged]

Both pretty good deals. I bought a 2012 unibody a couple months ago and paid $480. I think the only way to pick a winner would be to ask what they're supposed to be used for. Just browsing the internet and simple stuff? The Air wins. But if you're wanting to do things where you need large storage, the unibody wins hands down.

[@BobbyWoody429]

Let’s face it, with both laptops you’d only be looking at basic web browsing and documents, maybe for school or study or work

[@NintenDrake]

Luke definitely won. I bought an 11” 2015 MacBook Air with the i7 and 8gb of ram for around $450 and it is probably the best purchase I’ve made in awhile. It’s pretty awesome

[@xX_cumtech_Xx]

We NEED more videos with Elise. Super fun ;)

[@Desktop31]

6:45 jesus christ that phone is about to fall

[@videosdecomputacion8396]

🤭

[@KanykaAiM]

I was looking for a comment like this ;)

[@Khyree_Holmes]

I wanted to rescue it.

[@hardcorecampinggear]

You guys have really good on-screen chemistry.

[@vicentearaya1386]

7:55, “hahaha look at that, fully updated” 😂😂😂

[@Daydayday7]

😂

[@Deeznutsmynamejeff21]

If you didn’t include shipping, you could have bought multiple $39 i7 macbooks haha

[@bkoleff]

i like how this girl doesn't have a clue what's going on

[@mellamoakshay]

Yo wtf

[@THEONEWHOKNOCKS697]

@Vicious stop what?

[@bkoleff]

Akshay Singh sorry, gurl :(

[@mellamoakshay]

@@bkoleff No it wasn't for you it was for this THE ONE WHO.. guy.

[@THEONEWHOKNOCKS697]

@@mellamoakshay what did I do wrong though?

[@SankeshwarSivakumar]

9:31 more like intel trying to flex their muscle on the core 2 duo

[@Errcyco]

I think this was the first videos of your KZbin suggested to me. It’s what I was doing.. searching for a cheap one lol. But, I ended up at Best Buy getting a base MacBook Air M1 for $899. I still use it like 5-8 hours a day most days. Love this thing.

[@danielpitts4667]

I love how you have so many apple products!! It makes me so happy to watch these videos 😄☺️

[@Hugodra]

Elise's Macbook - Having this computer as an entertainment center with a SSD is amazing....I owned a 2008 Black Macbook and and Unibody Macbook both max out on ram plus with the SSD is a pretty solid machine. Keep in mind I leave the OG operating system so Front Row is there, OG iTunes, Aperture works great (Bring it back apple) plus I use a third party browser...

[@endi3386]

Haha makes me feel so lucky that my cousins wife gave me a late 2015 27” iMac for only $300 cause she doesn’t know anything about technology

[@youtubrone1411]

You knew! Silence can be a form of dishonesty if it placed anyone at a disadvantage or loss bro.

[@sonnyohara8784]

Youtubr one agreed. You ripped off ur cousins wife knowingly man haha would be a bit of a no no for me

[@keifferrowe5189]

If they don't know what the value of the stuff they're selling is that's their problem. I probably wouldn't do it to family though.

[@RWL2012]

only your cousin's wife...? not your cousin's wife's mother's father's brother's sister's husband's daughter's son...? :P (sorry, couldn't resist)

[@endi3386]

Sonny O'Hara It’s not ripping off my cousins wife. She set the price, I had $280 at the time... did you want me to say “actually, no - it’s worth about $800”. Would you really do that if the only thing that you had at the time was an early 2009 21.5” iMac? I never told her how much it was worth, she even did some research and came back with that number (though I have no idea how). Anyway, if Luke Miani does it to people on eBay and everyone calls it a steal, why is it different if it’s my cousins wife? Just because she’s related in law? That’s an arbitrary and meaningless thing.

[@filip3148]

She’s baaaack! I’m so happy.

[@Dyl_Apple]

“Oh yeah I did a video with you... do I know you?” I f*cking died

[@dexgray4581]

God I freakin love her haha she’s the best. Great video man!

[@masterthetraper2376]

7:06 this is probably the best part of this video, just put thyat aaaa in loop 🤣

[@BigPaco213]

2012 Macbook pro was the best 16GB of RAM 1TB SSD

[@Joshtheweatherman]

I would have to choose the Unibody over the Air. I would much rather have a mid-2012 13" Unibody, since they were the very last ones Apple made. It was also one of the longest production MacBooks, made from mid-2012 to late 2016. The MacBook Air is very nice, but the thermal throttling issues and lack luster battery life is the biggest deal breaker for me. Having a disc drive is a big advantage too, since I can use it to burn music to CD's, or install device drivers onto my Mac.

[@AndyAndrei123]

This is not a challenge. This is a lifestyle.

[@lovemadeinjapan]

Elise wins. She has a floppy drive. She can play CD-i discs from Philips. Hell Yeah!

[@michaelconroy5668]

Luke your being polite to your friends purchase. The Air is the clear winner.

[@youraverageavgeek2918]

Luke: there is a ✨pandemic✨ Elise: is that’s why we aren’t leaving the house?

[@mrbrent62]

Watching your videos inspired me to get a 15' Macbook Pro on Ebay... love it.. I'm getting used to the Butterfly keyboard

[@joeyg2488]

elise is so funny on insta like she’s such a mood

[@gumiteam3625]

i bought mine for 380 canadian dollar +upgrades. its a 2012 mid aluminium i7 2.9ghz 16gb ram (used to be 8) 512gb ssd (used to be 750 hdd and going to buy a adapter to swap out the dvd drive to the 750 the use as a 2nd drive.) hd 4000 1536mb vram :)

[@buddhabrot3]

Well i bought a 400€ Macbook pro 2012 refurbished (30month guarantee). With 500gb ssd 8GB RAM. i5 2.5 Ghz. Under catalina it runs smoothly. And for surfing and normal laptop stuff perfect. Better then a new windows for 400€. The problem with old retina devices is there is no upgradability in any way. And to be honest old devices need repair at some point. You get a new screen without retina for 40 Bucks. So i would recommend no retina.

[@saleitasmith9294]

I love the way you edit your video I love watching your video You make awesome video I'm your biggest fan you make an amazing video

[@user-bx2xc4ng2o]

I watched this video just now and you said „and we will power them on“ and my Apple Watch did the charging sound at the exact moment

[@Landon_Hughes]

Ahh! You're SO close to 200K subs! Congrats man! You're my favorite apple youtuber :)

[@hatelovergaming7656]

When Elise started modelling in front of the camera 😂😂

[@awesomeiphone597]

Yea ikr

[@trotman000]

Simp

[@hatelovergaming7656]

@@trotman000 ??

[@sowsow6677]

“You don’t have to go somewhere or meet someone and get murdered” 😂😂😂😂😂

[@monicadelgadillo8056]

Omg the whole video I was anxious for the iPhone for the edge of the table.

[@markharrisllb]

If you go on Ali Express for electronic tools and consumables and look at the sellers from different countries, you'll always find Italy the cheapest. An 8 channel Keysight oscilloscope £50...postage £9,023. You should see who can make the most profit selling cheap Macs on after upgrades. I’d put money on an amateur as they’d be restricted in what upgrades they can do and won’t get carried away.

[@monkeyman8265]

I like the Macbook Air better because I always wanted an Air even with the upgradability of the MBP. Even being that old it still looks sleek and current.

[@willjeffrey2285]

Lucrative Luke with some more of his Miani Magic!

[@FerdhianAkbar]

0 watch and 19 likes already lol

[@spencerrodgers]

The funny thing is Elise is getting more confident in the KZbin videos for presenting herself XD

[@fstap]

Just bought my 2015 MacBook Pro 15 inch with the X370M and a new battery for $300 and im really surprised by how good it is. Ive never had a Mac before and im pretty happy with it so far

[@Mrhoaf]

Luke's Air is better for sure. Not being able to run a current OS is a big deal for me. There is NO WAY I would pay $1 for that 2010 MBP, let alone $300.

[@CompuKonstantin]

If you are willing to tinker a little you can get incredible deals. For example: I bought two late 2013 dual graphics 15‘ MacBook Pros. One was completely working except the motherboard. I paid 300€. The other one was missing the screen and battery but the Logicboard was working. I paid 100€. Swapped the Logicboard and sold the spare parts for 100€. So I basically got a late 2013 15‘ dual graphics MacBook Pro for 300€.

[@ddtalk]

Dude! Marry this one! She's cute, humorous, and likes Mac...what else do you need!😎❤️

[@luluyouidiot]

that trackpad smack luke did was hilarious

[@michaelmode]

This was extremely helpful. I’m not a techy but I’m also not a novice techs. And I’ve never owned a Mac and would like hop over from Windows to Mac very soon. Thanks so much!

[@JuanDiaz-qj6bj]

Honestly assuming the battery is in good health, under $300 for a 2013 macbook air is great for a high school/college student who just needs something portable to do school work. I’ve managed to go through most of high school and my first year of college with the base model 2012 macbook air. I even produced several songs with Logic Pro on it (although I would get the occasional system overload).

[@realAmongy]

7:31 Best chime ever

[@jasongoulet-lipman7308]

300$ for a core 2 duo? I recently bought a thinkpad T480 with 8th gen quad core for $450 on the used market. That's crazy how expensive macs are!

[@roberty.9569]

I passed my Mid-2010 13" MBP to my teenager a few years ago when I upgraded. I might have to stick Cinebench on it and run a test ha.

[@wthbad3571]

Videos with Elise are much more entertaining lol

[@ludvigblad1838]

that video was the first i watched and i loved it lol the one 7 months ago

[@thatrandomtechperson440]

I found a 2009 Plastic MacBook with a Core 2 Duo for 50$. It runs macOS Sierra fine and it does what it needs to do.

[@The_realgenesis]

Itsssss crazy how he could just look at her laptop and know every speck GENIUS

[@troubledpickle5986]

Yo I love videos with Elsie! You two are awesome!

[@joescollen]

I just bought a MacBook Pro mid 2012 for £280, with a 500gb ssd, intel i5 3rd gen & 8gb ram. I’d say that’s a good deal!

[@joescollen]

May I add, excellent condition other than the usual wear & tear

[@FloydDiamond]

I don´t know. I just see there pinks feelings between you guys and I like it

[@lukedstaten]

Yeah! 13 thousandth view. You have the best videos Luke!

[@christopherangeli1141]

I just ordered a MacBook Pro from 2010 with 8gb ram and an old HD Drive. I’m replacing a 2010 white unibody that my friend spilled wine on... it worked pretty well for 10 years almost was ripped from me in a second by a glass of wine 🍷 and over gesticulation

[@janphilip4743]

My little sister is still on that MacBook Elise got. It's more of an MacOs Chromebook that can be used for web-browsing and typing documents. For any kind of more demanding task this machine ist really too slow + it easily get above 90° C doing it

[@tw3nz0r]

Now we just need the epic crossover featuring RandomGamingInHD and his sister.

[@SufisoulSaim]

luke you speak well. god bless you brother.

[@ivanf.144]

Hey Luke, right now I'm using Macbook Pro 15 inch Late 2011 with 12gb of RAM and 256ssd for only $275 and it has matte screen option , but the VGA already been bypass permanently and it's works great! Thinking about keeping the 2011 than my current MacBook Air 2013 with i7 too because I don't need portability now in this conditions

[@chrishalle1982]

Yeah i bought a macbook air early 2015 this week to have support fo at least 1 or 2 os upgrades.

[@theartistchair_]

I want to see a 1000 dollar budget MacBook video!

[@ConnorPritchard__1999]

I got a 2013 Macbook Air for 200 on ebay, i7 and 8GB ram, buffed out a dent on the bottom, re-did the thermal paste and it runs like an absolute dream!

[@HotepOurobo]

Time here; This challenge is way more plausible now.

[@levi.m1_]

When she said “ma’am” to the MacBook I died

[@bru-ri5es]

For my Christmas u got a MacBook but the previous owner didn’t treat it well it had scuffs and marks all over it but luckily I was able to repair it for cheap

[@PTsR]

Thanks for video, it is helpful for me, cuz I was searching for a 300 bucks macbook

[@exidy2290]

Luke, don’t be the one to let Elise get away.

[@all2funnycomments724]

Easy. She won. Her laptop is upgradable and has more options. His is basically stuck.

[@kingneutron1]

Core i5 is a significantly better CPU than Core 2 Duo but agreed, it's underclocked for the Air and that non-upgradeable 4GB RAM will probably have him swapping

[@philipraimondo]

Elise, I just upgraded my mid-2012 and have a brand new battery that I purchased but did not use and maxed my RAM to 16 and have my two 4 gig cards for a total of 8 if you are interested....

[@animalcell3872]

simp

[@n1ghtr4v3n6]

Get this, I got a 2015 MacBook pro with an i5 and 8 gigs of ram for $338! Greatest buy ever!

[@SpedSpedding]

Congrats on the 200k Luke! Massive achievement.

[@lukeweeks3470]

7:55 "Look at that, fully updated" Me: *Laughs while he uses macOS Big Sur*