- Which Mac Is Best For College Student
- Which Mac Is Best For Photographers
- Which Mac Is Best For Me
- Which Mac Is Best For College Students
- Which Mac Laptop Is Best For College Students
- Best Apple Laptop For Students
- Which Mac Laptop Is Best For College Students
CNET's Forum on Mac hardware is the best source for finding help, troubleshooting, and getting buying advice from a community of experts. Discussion topics include MacBook Pro, MacBook, iMac. Best Answer: Just get the regular white 13' macbook it has a 10 hr battery, top of the line video card ect. This will be better for you over the mb pro for 3 reasons. Mb pro has back lit keyboard, has more ram so it can handle alot of intense use all at ONCE like recording a band. With a Mac, you get the best of both worlds! Colleges often specify—and students usually prefer—laptops instead of desktop machines. Although the iMac is a great machine with a gorgeous screen, it’s too big and unwieldy for the transient lifestyle of the typical college student.
The low-end MacBook/Pro 13-inch with DVD superdrive does not have a Retina display. All others have the high resolution Retina and graphics processors of a later version and capability. The MacBook/Air does not have a Retina display, and has lower specification graphic and processer than the MacBook/Pro Retina.
You can compare specifications and also CTO or custom order options or upgrades in the product selection page after you click on a 'buy' yet before committing to purchase. This also is where these models vary.
On the other hand, you can sometimes find a slight discount on Apple Refurbished macs and other products from the refurbished store pages; these do not offer a built to order or custom add-on choice. Their refurbs also qualify for optional Apple Care extended coverage.
Check on which models, if any, allow you to upgrade the total capacity of installed chip RAM; as this is something that if you cannot upgrade it after purchase, you'd have Apple install what you need for you. This can cost a bit more than going to OWC (macsales.com) or Crucial.com to get quality RAM, if you happen to get a Mac portable you could upgrade the RAM yourself.
If you are into radiology to the extent of needed to see high resolution images with great clarity, or high magnification images, then perhaps a Retina display may be of some value outside of a higher price. The need for higher processing capability is what drives some to consider the Pro rather than the Air.
The online Store gives you a few options a walk-in may not have. Check the specs and compare them online, and then if you can spend some time looking critically at content similar to what you may need either one of these for, on each of their displays; to see if you find added value for the expense in a Retina. Also note the specs between the 13-inch Pro w/Retina, a 13-inch Pro without, & the 13-inch Air -- do vary a fair bit.
Depending on where you are, your regional or country
Apple Store online may or may not offer Refurbished.
Contents online will vary daily as inventory changes.
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals refurbished
You may be able to find a discount on AppleCare plan, from an
authorized Apple reseller such as lacomputercompany.com so
if you consider the refurbished item discount can be about the
same as the cost of AppleCare extended plan, it can help some.
Be sure to activate the find my mac after getting your new portable
so as to help (or hope) to recover it should it be stolen. This is a
good reason to carefully consider what model you get because a
nice model could be seen as a theft magnet in some environs.
Good luck & happy computing! 🙂
Jun 4, 2014 3:50 PM
Most students looking for a new MacBook should pick up the MacBook Air. It's less expensive than other MacBooks, more powerful, and has a bigger display than the 12-inch MacBook while remaining lightweight. And though it might not be as powerful as the MacBook Pro, it should provide enough power for the average student to get through their day.
![Which Mac Is Best For College Students Which Mac Is Best For College Students](/uploads/1/2/6/0/126030348/153300988.jpg)
Our pick
MacBook Air (2018)
Hits the sweet spot of power, portability, and price.
More powerful than the 12-inch MacBook and more mobile than the MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air sits in the Goldilocks zone of Apple's portable Mac lineup, offering enough power for most everything you'll want it to do without the bulk of a MacBook Pro. Features Touch ID for easy, yet secure, authentication.
Who should buy this computer?
College students who want a Mac for writing papers, doing research, surfing the web, light photo editing and just entertaining themselves should get the MacBook Air. It should also be a great computer for you when your academic career is over and you're headed out into the world.
Is it a good time to buy this computer?
The current MacBook Air came out in October 2018, so now is a great time to buy this Mac. Some solid discounts are popping up at retailers like Amazon, and we're likely many months away from a potential refresh. It's been a while since Apple refreshed any of its Macs in less than a year.
Reasons to buy
- Great balance of price and power
- Light and portable
- Retina display
- Touch ID
Reasons not to buy
- Limited customization
- Butterfly keyboard may irk some
Which Mac Is Best For College Student
The MacBook Air is a great Mac for students, successfully riding the line between power and portability
For students, portability is a chief concern when it comes to buying a computer. Whether you're walking through your high school's hallways to your history class or sprinting across a college campus to make it your next lecture on time, you don't want to be lugging around a heavy computer. You want something fairly light. At the same time, you don't want a computer that's underpowered. The MacBook Air occupies the happy medium of that ideal. It's more powerful than the MacBook and thinner and lighter than the MacBook Pro.
For the longest time, the MacBook Air was Apple's thin-and-light computer. Many credit MacBook Air with paving the way for the 'ultrabook' genre of computers that gained prominence in the early part of this decade. But Apple has since introduced the 12-inch MacBook, which debuted with a Retina display and was even thinner and lighter than the Air. Surely, if portability is your main concern, you should get the MacBook, right?
The MacBook Air sits in the happy medium between the portability of the MacBook and the power of the MacBook Pro.
Well, let's take a look at the modern MacBook Air. It now also (some would say 'finally') has a Retina display, without adding any bulk. And no, it's not as small as the MacBook, but it's almost as light. The MacBook Air comes in at 2.75 lbs, less than a pound heavier than the MacBook's 2.03. You're not making much of a sacrifice on weight. If the footprint of the computer is a concern, check out the MacBook, but you're gaining only about half-an-inch each on width and depth, so maybe the larger Air won't present much of a size problem.
The other consideration the MacBook versus the MacBook Air is power. While the MacBook Air's eighth-generation Intel processor won't really keep up with those found in the current generation of MacBook Pro, it's more than a match for the 7th-generation processors found in the MacBook. For everything from web browsing to photo editing, the MacBook will find itself outmatched by the Air, all while the MacBook Air is priced at least $100 under the current MacBook.
Speaking of power, the MacBook Pro is probably overkill for most students. Sure, some will be able to take advantage of its more powerful processors available to it, but if most of what you're doing is writing papers, putting together presentations, or doing research on the web, you probably don't need the level of power a MacBook Pro offers. And again, you'll be saving a bit of money if you get the MacBook Air, which is always something to consider.
Ultimately, when looking at the current MacBook lineup through the lens of a student, the MacBook Air successfully rides the line between the thin-and-light MacBook and the powerful MacBook Pro. It will meet the needs of most students, and should still be a great Mac to have when you're ready to leave academics behind and head off into the world.
Alternatives to the MacBook Air
Which Mac Is Best For Photographers
The MacBook Air might be the best MacBook for most students, but different people have different needs. If you're looking for more power, then check out the MacBook Pro. It'll be a more capable machine for almost everything you want to do, with more expensive models offering an ever-increasing amount of power for tasks like photo and video editing, app development, scientific programs, illustration, and music production. It will last longer than the MacBook Air and perform at higher levels the entire time.
If you're looking for more of a budget option, unfortunately, you're going to have to settle for something older from Apple. It's still a MacBook Air, but it lacks the Retina display of the newer model, and its processors are older. But, it still has all-solid-state storage, which means a lot when it comes to boot times. If budget is your chief concern and you still want a Mac, the older MacBook Air that Apple still sells should work just fine, if not quite as well as the new model.
More power
MacBook Pro
More power for whatever you need to do.
More powerful and versatile than the MacBook Air, the Pro lineup offers more customization options so you get the exact machine you need for photo and video work, scientific programs, music production, or other intensive tasks.
The MacBook Pro offers a lot of customization options that allow you to create the computer you need. Offers everything from a seventh-generation dual-core Intel processor to an ninth-generation, eight-core i9 beast, configurable up to 32GB of memory with AMD Radeon graphics for the most intensive tasks. If power is what you want, that's what you'll get with the MacBook Pro.
Value pick
MacBook Air (2017)
A capable computer for the money.
While it hasn't seen anything other than a spec bump in the last couple of years, the 2017 revision of the MacBook Air is still a capable machine. It may lack Thunderbolt and a Retina display, but it'll still get you through most of your tasks without hassle.
Apple quietly bumped the specs on the MacBook Air in 2017, introducing a couple of new processors to choose from. Despite its lack of Thunderbolt 3 ports or a Retina display, the older MacBook Air should still be able to meet most of your needs. It even still has an SD card reader, something many Mac owners thought was lost to the ages (or at least the Mac).
Bottom line
If you want an excellent 'medium' Mac laptop, get the MacBook Air. Offering enough power to meet most of the needs of student life while being almost as portable as a MacBook, the Air strikes a great balance between the other offerings in Apple's laptop lineup.
It's also among the most affordable of the portable Macs, especially when you start getting into the upper echelons of what that MacBook Pro has to offer and even compared to the 12-inch MacBook.
Our pick
MacBook Air (2018)
Hits the sweet spot of power, portability, and price.
More powerful than the 12-inch MacBook and more mobile than the MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air sits in the Goldilocks zone of Apple's portable Mac lineup, offering enough power for most everything you'll want it to do without the bulk of a MacBook Pro. Features Touch ID for easy, yet secure, authentication.
Credits — The team that worked on this guide
Joseph Keller is a senior writer at iMore. An Apple user for more than a decade and a half, he spends his time learning the ins and outs of iOS and macOS, always finding ways of getting the most out of his iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Rene Ritchie has been covering the personal technology industry for a decade. An outspoken analyst and critic, he writes at iMore.com/vector, podcasts at applepodcasts.com/vector, and you can find his show at youtube.com/vector. Follow him @reneritchie on Twitter and Instagram
Which Mac Is Best For Me
Which Mac Is Best For College Students
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Which Mac Laptop Is Best For College Students
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