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Started By
Message
Apple Mac
Posted on 12/18/23 at 2:22 pm
Posted on 12/18/23 at 2:22 pm
Is the M1 chip good enough for college or should I spring for the M2 chip? 13 or 15 inch?
Posted on 12/18/23 at 2:43 pm to tigger4ever
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.
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.
This post was edited on 12/18/23 at 2:45 pm
Posted on 12/18/23 at 2:47 pm to tigger4ever
I have a M1 Macbook Air, still blazing fast to this day. Spring for 16gb ram, you will thank me later. These computers are ram hungry and they will swap memory like crazy.
This post was edited on 12/18/23 at 2:48 pm
Posted on 12/18/23 at 3:13 pm to tigger4ever
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.
This post was edited on 12/18/23 at 3:14 pm
Posted on 12/19/23 at 12:10 pm to tigger4ever
m2 air, or wait for m3 next year.
Posted on 12/19/23 at 1:29 pm to tigger4ever
M1 is fine, plenty fast enough, but do get 16 gig of Ram.
Posted on 12/19/23 at 3:07 pm to j1897
quote:
m2 air, or wait for m3 next year.
if you need it sooner than later don’t wait. If you can wait , do that.
Also the m2 air base storage and I believe the regular m2 base storage has a sort of paging problem and will have poor speeds.
Users have been advised to get the non base storage to see better speeds on m2
Posted on 12/20/23 at 2:15 pm to deltadon
quote:
if you need it sooner than later don’t wait. If you can wait , do that.
Also the m2 air base storage and I believe the regular m2 base storage has a sort of paging problem and will have poor speeds.
Users have been advised to get the non base storage to see better speeds on m2
It's for a college student lol. They not recompiling their kernel.
Posted on 12/21/23 at 11:42 am to Fat Batman
quote:
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.
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).
Posted on 12/21/23 at 1:12 pm to Pettifogger
I think the 15" MBA would be a good fit for me if it wasn't limited to 8GB RAM. I'm hoping they will change that before the next time I upgrade.
Posted on 12/21/23 at 2:24 pm to tigger4ever
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
LINK
Posted on 2/19/24 at 9:22 am to tigger4ever
We had a topped our 2019 MacBook Pro with the i9, 64gb ram, etc. the M1 Out benchmarked it in several categories and was $3k cheaper.
Posted on 2/19/24 at 7:10 pm to tigger4ever
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.
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.
Posted on 2/20/24 at 7:27 am to tigger4ever
Mine is an i5 with 16 GB of RAM. More than fast enough for what I do which is word processing, surfing, and watching videos. I don't game.
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