[Updated July 19, 2019.]
Best laptops for college students: The MacBook is just the start. Include the Acer Chromebook and the HP Chromebook14. The 13-inch MacBook Pro is a top pick for college students because of. With companies like Windows, Lenovo, HP, and Dellall working on products for Windows, there’s lots to choose from. Windows is the most widely used operating system, so being familiar with it is key both in college and after graduating! Quicken 2018 deluxe for mac. Ports: the Pixelbook, XPS 13, HP, and MacBook Pro all do a decent job with ports considering how thin, compact, and light all the laptops are. They all have USB Type C Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.X.
As a parent of children aged 17 and 14 who writes and talks about technology all day, all of a sudden I find myself being asked all the time by fellow parents for advice about buying laptops for their kids. Some of them have kids going off to college this fall, and others are buying a laptop for a new high-school student. (This year, I’m the one with a student going off to college!)
Parents are often apologetic about asking me, which is sweet. “This is what I do for a living,” I say. I’m happy to help friends out. 1 So here’s what I tell them:
As with every single technology buying decision you’ll make, there is no one right answer. It’s all about the person is who is going to use the computer, and what they need. That said, today there is a clear default choice for most Mac laptop buyers, and it’s the 13-inch MacBook Air.
The MacBook Air provides a great balance of size and functionality. Best free software for backup mac. This is still a small, light laptop, but it’s got two Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports—which is especially important since you’ve got to use one of them when you need to charge your laptop.
If you used the old 13-inch Air, you’ll be surprised at how much smaller this model is. Apple’s shaved off all the space that was taken up by bezels around the old, non-Retina screen. This laptop is almost an inch narrower and half an inch less deep. It’s not as tiny as the MacBook, but it’s tiny.
The MacBook Air is a modern Mac through and through, with a Touch ID sensor and T2 processor for security—good news if you’re toting a laptop around a college campus. The display is bright and high-resolution. The speakers sound good, with proper stereo separation.
And the keyboard? Well, it’s the same keyboard that Apple’s shipping on all its other laptops right now. My own teenagers don’t seem to mind it, but you might want to ship them off to school with a can of compressed air just in case a key gets stuck. (The current MacBook Air ships with a slightly modified keyboard design that Apple says is more reliable, and Apple’s covering all keyboard repairs on this model for four years after sale.)
This MacBook Air lists for $1099, which is $100 more than the old 13-inch Air. Fortunately, if you watch Amazon for sales you will find that it’s frequently available for $999, which is the perfect price. All education buyers should get the $999 price.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro with two Thunderbolt 3 ports has had a lot of its thunder stolen by the MacBook Air, but it only costs $200 more and is a more powerful and customizable laptop for students who need those features. While I think most students don’t need a Touch Bar laptop, if you want to splurge on a more powerful laptop for your student, the low-end 13-inch MacBook Pro model is a good choice.
A word about upgrades: If you’re going to invest in an upgrade in storage or memory from the base model, I’d consider what your student plans on doing with the laptop. The base model, with 128GB of SSD storage and 8GB of memory, is a little lightweight—I’d recommend upgrading to at least 256GB of storage. Don’t go overboard, though—you can always buy an external USB-C SSD drive for them if you’re worried about them running out of storage.
For friends who are excited about buying their kids a MacBook but who are put off by the price tags, I will often point them to the Apple Refurbished Mac page, which features deals on refurbished Mac models. You can save $200 or more with a refurbished machine, and they all come with a one-year warranty.
(An aside about dongles: Your kids might need them, though it’s not a sure thing. We grown-ups are more likely to be obsessed with connecting all of our old peripherals via an assortment of adapters, but your kids may not care. I know you might feel better sending your kid off to school with a bag full of white Apple USB-C adapters, but they might be better off buying them as they need them.)
Finally, does any kid need a new laptop for school? Certainly not. I tend to roll my technology down through the family, which extends the life of our laptops and iPads for several years. If you’ve got a family laptop, that might do the trick. Used laptops can also be had for bargains and can serve students quite well—I installed new RAM and an SSD in my mother’s old MacBook Pro and sold it for a few hundred dollars to a local community college student, who should be able to use it for several years.
And as always, it depends on a student’s needs. If typing in Google Docs is all that’s necessary, the system requirements are awfully low. (And yes, you could buy them a Chromebook in that case—though my daughter is finally showing signs of frustration that she can’t run real apps on her Chromebook. I’m so proud.) There are plenty of options out there depending on a student’s needs and your budget.
But if you do want to buy a student in your family a new MacBook, the choice is almost certainly the MacBook Air.
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And, apparently, to use their questions as fodder for Six Colors posts. ↩
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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.
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. https://yucsf.over-blog.com/2020/10/smart-mac-software.html.
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
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. Video editing pc 2018. 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. Best free photo editor for mac 2018. 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. Windows 10 mac os download. 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
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.
![College College](https://www.laptopmag.com/images/uploads/4431/g/apple-macbook-pro-retna-2015-w-g01.jpg)
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.
![Mac vs hp for college 2018 calendar Mac vs hp for college 2018 calendar](/uploads/1/2/6/4/126448585/368041687.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.
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.
Mac Vs Hp For College 2018
https://milucfec.hatenablog.com/entry/2020/10/16/065345. 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
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