Apple Laptop for college

[Cycleops]

I’d also consider a iPad. It’s now virtually a laptop and you can add a keyboard or there’s mouse support. Might be more useful for talking notes plus you can keep all your other stuff on it. I don’t think she’d need the iPad Pro version.

View: https://youtu.be/xnpjH9xt9zQ

The video brings up some other important points.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Any laptop with Google drive set up. Save your documents to the drive in the cloud and doesn't matter if your laptop is nicked or eaten by the dog. Your docs are still there.

I'd seriously be looking at Chromebooks for my next laptop.

I think this is a good call. In terms of bang-per-buck, you get an awful lot for your money.

 

[fossyant]

Music Magpie is good. Bought daughters Apple phone from them and recently an ipad pro 12.9" which was perfect, for £400 off new.

 

[Pale Rider]

A general rule is tablets are good for consumption, but you need a laptop for creation.

Students will be doing a lot of the latter, so I think an iPad, even with a snap on keyboard, will be too small, unless you get one of the ludicrously expensive big screen ones.

What type of course is daughter doing?

Apple kit is still regarded as better with graphics.

Another consideration is what type of kit the educational institution uses.

If they are still welded to Microsoft Office/Word there may be some compatibility problems, although you can get Office for Mac - more money.

Laptop thefts from students are a big problem, so the common sense solution would be a £200 Chromebook or cheapish Windows laptop.

Whatever she gets, impress on her the need to back stuff up regularly.

I've known of several Durham students who have been put in genuine difficulty by losing their near completed dissertation due to laptop theft.

 

[Gunk]

We’ve had hit and miss experiences buying second hand or non-Apple approved refurbed macs. My daughter is also starting university this year, we felt she worked so hard this last year we invested in a new MacBook Pro for her, it will then last the next three years without any issues.

 

[fossyant]

Other option is a windows laptop ! Only my daughter is 'apple' in our house but we went for the big ipad pro for her college art and she's looking for a career in that direction. The ipad is great for digital art. She was saving up for herself, but my wife treated her to it for her 18th.

 

[oldwheels]

If you have an acquaintance/relation who is a teacher, you may be able to get a substantial reduction, via Apple's Educational Discount scheme. They may have some discount for students too, worth a visit to an Apple Store, and/or their website to see what is available.

I assume you will be looking for a laptop, rather than a desktop? I have a MacBook Pro (my second one), very happy with it, one niggle, they do not have USB socket(s), so, you will almost certainly need to buy a suitable connector (I bought mine from EBay, not expensive).

I have a Macbook Air. Don’t have it with me but am sure it has USB socket. My ipad does not have USB.

 

[Gunk]

Other option is a windows laptop ! Only my daughter is 'apple' in our house but we went for the big ipad pro for her college art and she's looking for a career in that direction. The ipad is great for digital art. She was saving up for herself, but my wife treated her to it for her 18th.

I agree, my son hates Apple so we bought him a i7 Dell Inspirion instead, it’s a very impressive bit of kit

 

[StuAff]

Daughter will be starting college in September and wants a Apple laptop/tablet ? Kids and Apple ! I'm not buying new I don't think...too expensive.So anything to avoid ? Or is there a reputable second hand market for this.We have a decent laptop,but she wants her own
Thanks for any pointers

+1 to previous suggestions to making sure you check the Apple refurb store, and educational discounts.
RE software: Apart from Pages being included with all new Macs, which (like pretty much every word processor in existence) can open & save in Word .doc format, Office 365 is available free to students https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/education/products/office If she needs to use Windows at any point, Intel Macs can natively boot Windows 10/11 (because they literally are Intel processor PCs), Apple Silicon models (e.g. M1, the first of many) need the ARM processor version of Windows (not currently available for retail purchase but there are test versions) & can run that in a virtual machine. Compatibility with whatever she wants to run is a non-issue.
Would strongly recommend picking spec carefully. RAM and SSD are non-upgradeable on current portable Macs. Apple's not alone in doing this- many portable systems from many manufacturers are the same (why most models are so thin...). An 8GB RAM model will probably be OK for most tasks, but 16GB will be better for anything really demanding. You might (operative word) pay less for (say) a Dell or HP, but beware. Dell's webstore seems purposely designed to confuse and 'upsell' product to the bewildered punter. The cheaper systems have pathetically underpowered processors and hard drives, not SSD (Windows 10 runs like a sloth on valium if installed on a hard drive). HP- slightly better…Apple's certainly got form for this (the base model iMac currently on sale is obsolete, overpriced…). If you're really comparing like with like, easier said than done admittedly, the 'Apple tax' is much lower than sometimes claimed. And let's face it, she doesn't need a new laptop for work, does she? The 2009 MacBook I'm typing this on would probably do her fine most of the time. However, rather you than me to suggest that!!

Were it me, buying now for a hypothetical student daughter: M1 MacBook Air, 16GB, 8 core GPU (fractionally faster graphics), 512GB SSD.

 

[Adam4868]

Thanks for all the suggestions,I'm way behind on prices ! We've Apple at home as my partner has one from work,don't see the big deal myself.Saying that I hardly use them.Plenty to think about though

The 2009 MacBook I'm typing this on would probably do her fine most of the time. However, rather you than me to suggest that!!

Want to sell it Stu

 

[Tenkaykev]

+1 to previous suggestions to making sure you check the Apple refurb store, and educational discounts.
RE software: Apart from Pages being included with all new Macs, which (like pretty much every word processor in existence) can open & save in Word .doc format, Office 365 is available free to students https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/education/products/office If she needs to use Windows at any point, Intel Macs can natively boot Windows 10/11 (because they literally are Intel processor PCs), Apple Silicon models (e.g. M1, the first of many) need the ARM processor version of Windows (not currently available for retail purchase but there are test versions) & can run that in a virtual machine. Compatibility with whatever she wants to run is a non-issue.
Would strongly recommend picking spec carefully. RAM and SSD are non-upgradeable on current portable Macs. Apple's not alone in doing this- many portable systems from many manufacturers are the same (why most models are so thin...). An 8GB RAM model will probably be OK for most tasks, but 16GB will be better for anything really demanding. You might (operative word) pay less for (say) a Dell or HP, but beware. Dell's webstore seems purposely designed to confuse and 'upsell' product to the bewildered punter. The cheaper systems have pathetically underpowered processors and hard drives, not SSD (Windows 10 runs like a sloth on valium if installed on a hard drive). HP- slightly better…Apple's certainly got form for this (the base model iMac currently on sale is obsolete, overpriced…). If you're really comparing like with like, easier said than done admittedly, the 'Apple tax' is much lower than sometimes claimed. And let's face it, she doesn't need a new laptop for work, does she? The 2009 MacBook I'm typing this on would probably do her fine most of the time. However, rather you than me to suggest that!!

Were it me, buying now for a hypothetical student daughter: M1 MacBook Air, 16GB, 8 core GPU (fractionally faster graphics), 512GB SSD.

Our daughters partner had a work provided Dell, it was a nice machine but the battery life was less than spectacular and it got quite noisy under high workloads. Its performance dropped off after a short time if not connected to the power supply. ( He used to half joke that it should come with ear defenders )

 

[nickyboy]

We got son #2 a £400 HP laptop for university and it was plenty. Unless she has very exacting technical requirements on her course a £1300 laptop is not necessary

 

[StuAff]

Thanks for all the suggestions,I'm way behind on prices ! We've Apple at home as my partner has one from work,don't see the big deal myself.Saying that I hardly use them.Plenty to think about though

Want to sell it Stu

It'll get recycled when it's replaced (hanging on for forthcoming MacBook Pro refresh expected October). Cracks in the top case, battery (replaceable, but you can't get genuine Apple ones any more) is down to 75% of original capacity- and it was much shorter life than newer models. Fan's a bit noisy. At boot it's like the Mac equivalent of an arthritic pensioner, though it works fine after a few minutes. Hopeless at anything slightly demanding (720p YouTube is hard work). You really don't want it. In fact, because I like you, I wouldn't even give it to you They seem to go for £100-150 on eBay if you want to wind up the poor girl…
Oldest machine I'd go for…one of these https://www.musicmagpie.co.uk/store/products/apple-macbook-pro-core-i7-2-9-13-mid-2012-8gb-750gb (but get an SSD to put in it). Will run all macOS versions up to 10.15 Catalina, and Windows 10, reasonable turn of speed, upgradeable memory, upgradeable HD, battery removeable.

 

[fossyant]

I agree, my son hates Apple so we bought him a i7 Dell Inspirion instead, it’s a very impressive bit of kit

My daughter doesn't take the ipad to colleg

We got son #2 a £400 HP laptop for university and it was plenty. Unless she has very exacting technical requirements on her course a £1300 laptop is not necessary

2 HP laptops in this house that we 'bought', 2 work Lenovos, and MrsF has a fancy Asus with a dual touch screen (on a laptop).

Refurbed Lenovo - well built laptops, not very stylish though.

 

[Craig the cyclist]

My daughter is starting at Uni is September, she has been using a Chromebook for a few years now, and will be getting a new one for Uni. £300 for a 15" screen and all in the cloud.

Apple is the lifestyle though! Good luck not paying £900ish on an iMac