Is Mac a good option?

[Ulol60]

So ill begin studying in a month and i need a school laptop. I heard a lot of goods and bad about Mac lately. And it's hard to find true "sources" that isnt biased in both directions. I also travel a lot so i need a computer to bring with me at times. Is there any modells i should stay away from that is "generally" bad. Been looking at Macbook Air M2 2022 256GB or Macbook Air M1 256GB 2020. Not sure if M2 is like crazy good compare to M1. But the price is 400 euros difference. But i need some feedback, also throw in some other laptops with similar size/weight as the ones above. 

[Agall]

9 minutes ago, Ulol60 said:

So ill begin studying in a month and i need a school laptop. I heard a lot of goods and bad about Mac lately. And it's hard to find true "sources" that isnt biased in both directions. I also travel a lot so i need a computer to bring with me at times. Is there any modells i should stay away from that is "generally" bad. Been looking at Macbook Air M2 2022 256GB or Macbook Air M1 256GB 2020. Not sure if M2 is like crazy good compare to M1. But the price is 400 euros difference. But i need some feedback, also throw in some other laptops with similar size/weight as the ones above. 

I use and own both, but mostly PC because of my normal workload.

 

The M1/M2 macbook airs are great general purpose computers, I would argue the best laptops on the market. Their battery life and overall quality is hard to beat, even at the relatively high minimum pricing.

 

If your school isn't going to require any specialized programs, then its likely the best choice, especially if you're not grossly familiar with Windows or MacOS already enough to be asking whether Mac or Windows laptops are better.

 

Any Apple Silicon macbook is great, even the M1 versions if they're cheaper new-ish. The battery life is beyond reasonable where you're charging it maybe every few days, depending on your use. I upgraded my mother's +10 year old macbook air with an M1 for Christmas one year and she'd go a month without charging it, being her primary computer for various personal/work related tasks.

 

Your school's program should have a recommendation, if applicable, and if it doesn't, then an M1/M2 macbook air is basically peak laptop for general use.

[Ulol60]

Thanks i think ill buy a M1 as i just going to study Economics, and maybe Pilot school if i get in. And my when i travel it's not like i do any programming and use special programs except the basic word, excel and powerpoint apps. So i think i'm going to go for the less beefy ones (M1) and see if i can find one with a big monitor or more 512GB. Not sure how many different versions there are. 

[NinJake]

M1 Macs are still more than enough for most workloads.

[Angusticlavii]

Apple Silicon MacBooks have some main advantages over any Windows laptop:

 

1. Battery Life - Not only does the battery last for more than one day of work, if you dont use a MacBook for one week and just leave it in standby it will lose like 10% battery at max while any Windows laptop will be dead. 

 

2. Low maintenance - You will have less problems with installing drivers, system-updates and you can leave them running without a reboot for a long time.

 

3. Build-Quality - This might not bee important for everyone but MacBooks are just build very well, they feel more like a premium appliance / analog device than a laptop

 

 

Now the Disadvantages:

 

1. Price - While the base price of most MacBooks is pretty reasonable any upgrade is gonna cost a lot and it might be worth looking for a diffrent device rather than spending 200$ for another 8GB of Memory or 128GB of storage.

 

2. Compatibility - You may not be able to run the software you want to use on a mac - there are ways around it (e.g. VMs) but at that point you might aswell buy a decent Windows Laptop

 

3. Closed-System - You cant upgrade anything on it and if Apple does no longer provide OS-Updates you wont get any Software-Updates. 

 

Edit: The main reason to get a M2 MacBook Air over an M1 MacBook Air is the better Display. Performance is almost the same.

[Agall]

Just now, Angusticlavii said:

Apple Silicon MacBooks have some main advantages over any Windows laptop:

 

1. Battery Life - Not only does the battery last for more than one day of work, if you dont use a MacBook for one week and just leave it in standby it will loose like 10% battery at max while any Windows laptop will be dead. 

 

2. Low maintenance - You will have less problems with installing drivers, system-updates and you can leave them running without a reboot for a long time.

 

3. Build-Quality - This might not bee important for everyone but MacBooks are just build very well, they feel more like a premium appliance / analog device than a laptop

 

 

Now the Disadvantages:

 

1. Price - While the base price of most MacBooks is pretty reasonable any upgrade is gonna cost a lot and it might be worth looking for a diffrent device rather than spending 200$ for another 8GB of Memory or 128GB of storage.

 

2. Compatibility - You may not be able to run the software you want to use on a mac - there are ways around it (e.g. VMs) but at that point you might aswell buy a decent Windows Laptop

 

3. Closed-System - You cant upgrade anything on it and if Apple does no longer provide OS-Updates you wont get any Software-Updates. 

 

 

I've tested 8GB M1 mac mini's with some of my coworker's more advanced workloads and they can handle it quite nicely. For general use, 8GB is fine, 128GB storage on the other hand may not be.

4 minutes ago, Ulol60 said:

Thanks i think ill buy a M1 as i just going to study Economics, and maybe Pilot school if i get in. And my when i travel it's not like i do any programming and use special programs except the basic word, excel and powerpoint apps. So i think i'm going to go for the less beefy ones (M1) and see if i can find one with a big monitor or more 512GB. Not sure how many different versions there are. 

M2's gave more performance, but somewhat unnecessarily for most of its users. The Air versus Pro versions aside from the newer 14" are simply passive versus active cooling, which can matter with sustained heavy workloads. The 14" version with the notch and magsafe are quite fancy comparably, but expensive.

[Ulol60]

I ended up with 2 options the MacBook Air 13 (2020) 256GB which is 1224$ and the MacBook Air 13 (2022) 256GB which is 1576$. So i think i will spend the 350$ on the 2022 Edition for 0.3" Bigger and better screen. And you also get the M2 aswell. And it's also newer so the OS update system you  guys mention will like accure later in it's lifespan. 

[Amp9k]

2 hours ago, Ulol60 said:

Thanks i think ill buy a M1 as i just going to study Economics, and maybe Pilot school if i get in. And my when i travel it's not like i do any programming and use special programs except the basic word, excel and powerpoint apps. So i think i'm going to go for the less beefy ones (M1) and see if i can find one with a big monitor or more 512GB. Not sure how many different versions there are. 

I don't think you'll regret this decision. I purchased an M1 macbook air with 16gb RAM a few months ago. First mac ever. It's so nice. I use it as my secondary computer at work.

[saintlouisbagels]

6 hours ago, Ulol60 said:

I ended up with 2 options the MacBook Air 13 (2020) 256GB which is 1224$ and the MacBook Air 13 (2022) 256GB which is 1576$. So i think i will spend the 350$ on the 2022 Edition for 0.3" Bigger and better screen. And you also get the M2 aswell. And it's also newer so the OS update system you  guys mention will like accure later in it's lifespan. 

Is purchasing from Apple Refurbished an option for you?

As much as I love the M1 and M2 MacBook Airs, they feel a little overpriced when you upgrade them.

https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished/mac/macbook-air

 

There is Tax Free weekend coming up in some locations (I'm a Massachusetts boy).

But we also don't know if you're a USA-based person.

[Guest]

6 hours ago, Ulol60 said:

I ended up with 2 options the MacBook Air 13 (2020) 256GB which is 1224$ and the MacBook Air 13 (2022) 256GB which is 1576$. So i think i will spend the 350$ on the 2022 Edition for 0.3" Bigger and better screen. And you also get the M2 aswell. And it's also newer so the OS update system you  guys mention will like accure later in it's lifespan. 

That'll work spectacularly.
Especially since Economics uses a bunch of Microsoft Office programs which all work on the Mac.