Apple Mac

What exactly do you mean by college student?

A computer much worse than a M1 will run word/excel/power point and surf the internet to research for the generic college student, but are they going to be doing anything that actually requires decent power? Video editing/engineering programs/stuff like that.

Wife has a 13" M1, it's pretty decent and I use it from time to time. I always ending up missing my multiple bigger screens from my desktop that 2" of screen size won't cure. I think the difference in size and weight for portability would be more important to me over the 15", but you should probably ask your student what they want and prefer.

I had 13" macbook pros for work for years. I hated working from them when away from my desk and external monitors because the screen was just too small for me. I got sent a 16" mackbook pro a while back and I was blown away the difference it made when working from just the laptop. I carry it in a backpack when traveling and I don't really notice any downsides versus carry around the 13"ers. This is just my experience though and some may prefer the smaller screen.

M1 is fine, plenty fast enough, but do get 16 gig of Ram.

quote:

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I had 13" macbook pros for work for years. I hated working from them when away from my desk and external monitors because the screen was just too small for me. I got sent a 16" mackbook pro a while back and I was blown away the difference it made when working from just the laptop. I carry it in a backpack when traveling and I don't really notice any downsides versus carry around the 13"ers. This is just my experience though and some may prefer the smaller screen.

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this is/was me

But then I bought an M2 Air a couple months ago which I also use a lot. I'd been trying to use an iPad Pro as a travel/light computer but gave it up and got the Air. Great decision. In the living room/home office the MBP16 was fine, but I just spent two weeks living in a hospital and the MBA proved its worth.

Will probably keep this setup going forward (clunky large screen MBP, light duty MBA or equivalent).

Take a look at the Apple refurb store - here's a link to Air/Pro models with 16GB of memory, which start at $1269 for a 15" Air:

LINK

In case you haven't gotten the message yet, get as much RAM as you can. If the kid was in engineering or something, you most likely would have gotten a spec sheet with 2 or 3 options that meet the requirements of CAD, etc. The chip doesn't matter nearly as much as it used to. Does it burst to 3.2GhZ or 2.7? Who cares? It's not like it's 1990 and we're arguing between 16Mhz and 33Mhz. They're going to be using web applications like Blackboard, they're going to be using Word, etc.

I would suggest the 13 inch, since they're going to be hauling it all over. I'm a devotee of the 13 inch (Ultrabook, not Mac) since I used to travel so much. A 15 inch was a pain in the arse to haul from the hotel to the client, let alone through an airport. Your kid will be hauling that thing between multiple locations, probably every day.

Computers end up sucking because of what they install and click on, otherwise it'll be fine either way.