MacBook Advice

[ShatteredPsycho]

Hello everyone,

 

So, my friend is looking to buy a MacBook (I advised against it but oh well), she is looking for a 13-14'' display one, not too expensive, mostly for university work

 

Any recommendations are appreciated

[FuzzyYellow]

is there a question to answer? what do you want us to recommend? for non-tech savvy people, a MacBook will do perfectly fine. 

[The Sloth]

budget? 

good build laptops 

get a older 2015 or 2014 MacBook pro 13 inch for pure school work 

a thinkpad for mac alternative with good build quality 

xps 13 

xps 15 

gaming laptop- decent build 

aero 14 a gaming laptop

dell Inspiron 

msi gt vr 

[ShatteredPsycho]

Just now, FuzzyYellow said:

is there a question to answer? what do you want us to recommend?

A Mac with a 13'' - 14'' display for university

[The Sloth]

Just now, ShatteredPsycho said:

A Mac with a 13'' - 14'' display for university

a 13 inch mac book pro non-touch or a older macbook pro 13 inch( more ports). 

[ShatteredPsycho]

Just now, nerdslayer1 said:

a 13 inch mac book pro non-touch or a older macbook pro 13 inch( more ports). 

Guessing they aren't sold on retail stores. Any recommendation for Europe?

[FuzzyYellow]

Just now, ShatteredPsycho said:

A Mac with a 13'' - 14'' display for university

http://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-air

[The Sloth]

Just now, ShatteredPsycho said:

Guessing they aren't sold on retail stores. Any recommendation for Europe?

new MacBooks non touchbar is sold at the apple store but older one with more ports from ebay, Newegg, amazon.

[The Sloth]

Just now, FuzzyYellow said:

http://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-air

avoid that, airs are the worst. 

[glitchmaster0001]

Macbooks will always be expensive no matter what. It's like going to a BMW dealership and asking to get a new M3 for the price of a Honda Civic.. it won't happen unless you buy a older one second hand. Try looking at MacBook Airs if you want a cheap used macbook. The pros used still hold alot of their resale value. Like a 13in mid 2012 macbook pro costs around $500 to $400 used on craigslist. 

[FuzzyYellow]

Just now, nerdslayer1 said:

avoid that, airs are the worst. 

not necessarily. batter battery life than the pro, and significantly cheaper. the person using this notebook is using it for school. an Air will do perfectly fine for that, and more.

[ShatteredPsycho]

1 minute ago, nerdslayer1 said:

new MacBooks non touchbar is sold at the apple store but older one with more ports from ebay, Newegg, amazon.

 

1 minute ago, nerdslayer1 said:

avoid that, airs are the worst. 

 

1 minute ago, glitchmaster0001 said:

Macbooks will always be expensive no matter what. It's like going to a BMW dealership and asking to get a new M3 for the price of a Honda Civic.. it won't happen unless you buy a older one second hand. Try looking at MacBook Airs if you want a cheap used macbook. The pros used still hold alot of their resale value. Like a 13in mid 2012 macbook pro costs around $500 to $400 used on craigslist. 

All right, thanks

[DocSwag]

13" 2015 Macbook Pro. It's one of the few Apple devices that I think are decent values.

[The Sloth]

1 minute ago, glitchmaster0001 said:

Macbooks will always be expensive no matter what. It's like going to a BMW dealership and asking to get a new M3 for the price of a Honda Civic.. it won't happen unless you buy a older one second hand. Try looking at MacBook Airs if you want a cheap used macbook. The pros used still hold alot of their resale value. Like a 13in mid 2012 macbook pro costs around $500 to $400 used on craigslist. 

 

unlike BMWs MacBooks don't break down after few months. 

[The Sloth]

1 minute ago, FuzzyYellow said:

not necessarily. batter battery life than the pro, and significantly cheaper. the person using this notebook is using it for school. an Air will do perfectly fine for that, and more.

 

- bad screen quality

- cpu barely keeps up 

battery life is great but not worth its price in the long run 

[DocSwag]

1 minute ago, FuzzyYellow said:

not necessarily. batter battery life than the pro, and significantly cheaper. the person using this notebook is using it for school. an Air will do perfectly fine for that, and more.

Pretty sure battery life is quite similar, screen is WAY better, force touch trackpad is definitely nice, and not having the starting option be 4gb is also pretty nice.

[ShatteredPsycho]

Just now, DocSwag said:

Pretty sure battery life is quite similar, screen is WAY better, force touch trackpad is definitely nice, and not having the starting option be 4gb is also pretty nice.

 

Just now, nerdslayer1 said:

- bad screen quality

- cpu barely keeps up 

battery life is great but not worth its price in the long run 

Well, scratch what I said about budget, apparently she is loaded

Price range is at 1500-1700€

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

1 minute ago, DocSwag said:

13" 2015 Macbook Pro. It's one of the few Apple devices that I think are decent values.

I would even say the MacBook Air would be a good choice as it's nearing it's end of it's life and still has the I/O you'll need.

[The Sloth]

Just now, ShatteredPsycho said:

 

Well, scratch what I said about budget, apparently she is loaded

Price range is at 1500-1700€

 

13 inch macbook pro would be worth it for her but a collage student spending so much on a laptop so one can assume. 

[FuzzyYellow]

4 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

- bad screen quality

- cpu barely keeps up 

battery life is great but not worth its price in the long run 

1440x900 isn't the greatest, but it's not awful

cpu barely keeping up is BS. i use a 2011 MBP with a Sandy bridge i5 and i can run VMs and other demanding tasks all day long.

 

4 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

Pretty sure battery life is quite similar, screen is WAY better, force touch trackpad is definitely nice, and not having the starting option be 4gb is also pretty nice.

the starting option is 8GB.

[DocSwag]

Just now, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

I would even say the MacBook Air would be a good choice as it's nearing it's end of it's life and still has the I/O you'll need.

Disagree. Screen is still crap, hinge is way flimsier than that of the pro (talking from personal experience), and IO isn't the best.

1 minute ago, ShatteredPsycho said:

 

Well, scratch what I said about budget, apparently she is loaded

Price range is at 1500-1700€

Still say 2015 13" Macbook Pro, though if they don't need USB ports then a 13" 2016 Macbook Pro with touch bar could be considered. People are gonna yell at me for it but if you don't need USB ports or an SD card reader or whatever and all USB Type-C is fine with you it's pretty nice, the display REALLY pops (I've looked at both 2015 and 2016 ones and the display on the 2016 one looks way nicer, most likely because of DCI-P3).

[The Sloth]

Just now, FuzzyYellow said:

1440x900 isn't the greatest, but it's not aweful

cpu barely keeping up is BS. i use a 2011 MBP with a Sandy bridge i5 and i can run VMs and other demanding tasks all day long.

 

3 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

 

if OP has the budget why not go for something much better. 

[glitchmaster0001]

4 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

unlike BMWs MacBooks don't break down after few months. 

depends on how you use it though lol. I've seen a couple of BMWs with 400,000 miles on the original engine never rebuilt. 

[DocSwag]

1 minute ago, FuzzyYellow said:

1440x900 isn't the greatest, but it's not aweful

cpu barely keeping up is BS. i use a 2011 MBP with a Sandy bridge i5 and i can run VMs and other demanding tasks all day long.

 

the starting option is 8GB.

Oh wat they chopped off the 4gb version.

 

It's really nearing macbook pro prices though, hence why I still don't recommend it. I think the XPS 13 or macbook pro is a way better deal.

[FuzzyYellow]

Just now, nerdslayer1 said:

if OP has the budget why not go for something much better. 

i agree, but we didn't have a budget when i posted that, so you can't use that against me. I just think for a college student, that money might be better used elsewhere. this person is asking for help to find the right Mac, so they can't be too tech savvy, or require a lot of computing power.