Air is lighter, thinner, but not as good for certain processing and heavy multitasking

Also: see above with reply #1, compare the different prices, models, and see which meets your needs. My general statement stands.

arguing politics on social media. lurking on Democratic Underground. I use Microsoft Office for word and excel. I use facetime on laptop. Share videos from youtube with my tv. Dabble in stock market.
Can't think of anything else.

I did checkout the link and unfortunately my understanding of those things are limited.
Would the Air suffice for my use?

I went from Pro to Air upon retirement and it's perfect. Similar uses.

and accessories you want without paying new prices. I'd done it for my last two Macs, a desktop and MacBook Pro.

Actually, you six-year-old Air should still have a few years of live left in it. But can external drives etc be used on them?

The battery is about used up. I keep getting messages telling me to get my computer repaired, battery is wore out. Just thought I should replace it prior to a complete crash.
Now i have to see if I can transfer data from old to new. Do not want to transfer everything just some of the stuff.

Migration Assistant can take everything you have including passwords and settings from an older mac to a new mac.

However, I'm still using my 2013 Macbook Pro without worries, but I do need to dump large files.

I have a newer one, too, but the old one is fine.

Good luck whatever you do-- I am not sure if your battery is truly dying of if you have downloaded something malicious telling you this.

Look for a reputable battery condition diagnostic tool from the Apple help websites.

Short story for me is that for your "joe computer user" tasks, the Air is fine.
MBP is for people doing video editing, developing software.

Now and then, I back up each computer in total with SuperDuper. So, no matter what, I can copy files over to another computer.

The MBA will still be fine at basic stuff with a new battery. Mine is some 12 years old, but I use it very little any more, and the battery seems fine. TBH, I use an iPad Pro with keyboard case, and it's basically a laptop (you might check it out?). If you need "touch", then no contest.

My two main interests other than DU and other web surfing are photo-editing (so I go for a 27 inch display) and reading music scores, so I use an iPad pro for that. Note: screen size and resolution are my main drivers.

Your usage is simpler and that's exactly what the MBA was made for.

Little money, full warranty, brand new condition.

if they haven’t already