MacBook Air Advice

[sk!mom]

DD is turning 18 and graduating in the same week. We have decided on the MacBook Air as her big gift. She needs a new laptop as she heads to college anyway.

We have decided on the 13" because of the 12 hour battery and now we're stuck. We want this to carry her through college but don't want to pay for unnecessary upgrades.

We will buy Apple Care. Opinions on the other specs please...

128 or 256 GB flash storage?

I'm thinking that with the Cloud, 4 GB memory is fine, right or wrong?

As far as software, we're thinking Microsoft Office 365 University. Opinions?

Anything else? Lo Jack?

Thanks for any help!

 

[justjulie]

Subscribing because I would like this information too but for a 15-inch screen model

 

[usnuzuloose]

I have the MacBook air... We run a business and find it has enough room for everything we do. I have not made any upgrades and no plan to. I like how it is light weight and easy enough to take any where. I am just not used to the keyboard, I like the numbers off to the right. I always keep hitting the caps button by mistake. It should be plenty of space for her work at school.

 

[SMD]

4 GB RAM has nothing to do with Cloud storage, that relates to the flash storage. I'd go 256. I had my most recent Macbook for almost 4 years before I passed 150 GB, but I'm not a college age girl who collects music and videos. Also, what's her planned major? If, for example, she's going to take photography and edit images, I wouldn't recommend the Air. If she's going to major in business, I wouldn't recommend the student version of Office.

 

[SueInBoston]

I suggest up the RAM to 8gb. As programs get bigger they need more RAM to run. I just up the RAM on my Macbook Pro from 4 to 8 and see a huge difference in run time.

 

[DisDance]

My 2009. Macbook (the white one) is about to die, hard drive is going I could repair everything for about $300, but the guy at the Genius Bar said that would only get me another year/ year in a half so I'm thinking about getting an air

 

[jrmasm]

My 2009. Macbook (the white one) is about to die, hard drive is going I could repair everything for about $300, but the guy at the Genius Bar said that would only get me another year/ year in a half so I'm thinking about getting an air

We were looking for a laptop last spring and dh's IT guy said not to purchase anything with only flash memory because unlike a hard drive, flash memory can't be replaced if it goes bad.


I have no clue if this is 100% accurate statement or not.

 

[clh2]

Does the college that she is attending have a preference if the students have a mac or a pc? Where my DD goes, about 1/2 the schools within the college prefer that the students have macs, the other 1/2 prefer that the kids have pc's.

Can't answer the technical questions - but just wanted to say - congrats to your DD. I am going to warn you - the summer between high school and college goes REALLY, REALLY fast!

 

[sk!mom]

Does the college that she is attending have a preference if the students have a mac or a pc? Where my DD goes, about 1/2 the schools within the college prefer that the students have macs, the other 1/2 prefer that the kids have pc's.

Can't answer the technical questions - but just wanted to say - congrats to your DD. I am going to warn you - the summer between high school and college goes REALLY, REALLY fast!

The College has no preference.

Thank you! I'm soaking in every "last" and celebration!

 

[TinkerBelled]

I've had Mac laptops all through college and beyond, and I love them.

My advice usually depends on what a person wants to do with it. My guess is that your daughter is going to use her Mac the way most college students do: word documents, email, photos, and iTunes, with a few extra programs thrown in.

If you have to choose between upping the memory and the RAM, I'd up the memory--chances are she's not going to be using programs that require a faster system capacity. (If she does a lot of gaming or she's thinking about running complicated programs, I'd up both of them.)

I find an Air great for college--lightweight, easy to get to lectures, etc. Baggu makes a super cute case that doesn't feel too tech dork: https://baggu.com/shop/laptopcase13inch.

Obviously, I'd also get an external harddrive for regular backups--it's always a good plan.

 

[Disneyluvr]

So glad you asked this. I was just thinking about one for DS.

What would you experts recommend for a student who likes to do mix their own music, make tracks and such?

 

[Domo]

256GB storage should be adequate for most usage. Bear in mind that it being flash in nature rather than a standard HDD will speed up the computer no end. 4GB RAM is enough for regular usage but if you can afford 8GB it could be worth it, allowing more tasks to fly by at any one time. As for MS Office, look at Amazon - you can get a very good price there.

[EDIT] ETA: For $150 you can upgrade from a 1.4GHz i5 processor to a 1.7GHz i7 processor. Consider this carefully - the upgrade is rather significant for power usage.

[EDIT 2] ETA: Just noticed on the specs page that you need to choose between 256GB and 512GB Flash storage, not 128GB. The difference is $300, so quite hefty. You may save money to get the 256GB and an external Hard Disc for back ups.

 

[disneyslp]

I just purchased DD a MacBook Air for her to take to college with her. When we went to Best Buy the guy waiting on us asked if she was going to college and if she had a .edu email address. She already had her email address from her school and he had her sign up for some program through best buy and we got a coupon for a substantial discount on her computer. All in all we saved about $300 on a Mac I was very happy. I thought I would pass this on because I had not really considered BestBuy but their discount was better than Apple's student discount.

 

[Albort]

256GB storage should be adequate for most usage. Bear in mind that it being flash in nature rather than a standard HDD will speed up the computer no end. 4GB RAM is enough for regular usage but if you can afford 8GB it could be worth it, allowing more tasks to fly by at any one time. As for MS Office, look at Amazon - you can get a very good price there.

[EDIT] ETA: For $150 you can upgrade from a 1.4GHz i5 processor to a 1.7GHz i7 processor. Consider this carefully - the upgrade is rather significant for power usage.

[EDIT 2] ETA: Just noticed on the specs page that you need to choose between 256GB and 512GB Flash storage, not 128GB. The difference is $300, so quite hefty. You may save money to get the 256GB and an external Hard Disc for back ups.

I agree with Dom... 256gb is to way to go... 4GB RAM is plenty to a regular use. 8GB RAM is nice, but 4GB RAM is pretty good already.

MS Office, see if you can find a copy of it around college, student versions can be as low as $10-$50 range.

i5, i7, i5 is plenty...

128GB is just not enough imo. 256GB sound perfect, like what dom said, buy a 2TB external drive(usually $100 or less).

 

[diznygirl]

If you want it to last get the 8 GB. Even now 4 would be too slow depending on what she's running.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

MacBook Airs are nice, the 13 is the perfect screen size in my opinion. It just seems that the 11's are a bit too small. I have a 13 Pro, my only complaint is that it is a bit too heavy (yea I know first world problems) whereas the Air is going to be really light.

If at all affordable, I would bump it to 8gb of RAM instead of 4.

 

[TinkerBelled]

A couple more things: yes, if she has a .edu address, you can get cheaper pricing--if you're going to an Apple Store or another b&m store, then tell them; if you're doing it online, go to their educational store.

Second, in terms of education discount, check with the university to see if they have a software library for downloadable software for their students. Mine did--not so much a library as an online store with subsidized licenses--and they had Office for under $30. Worth a check--you can usually just google for it.

 

[sk!mom]

Thanks for all the opinions...

We are doing the 13" Air and buying through Apple's Education store. We will upgrade to 8GB RAM as several have suggessted.

We're still torn on whether 128GB Flash is enough or if we should pay $200 more for 256?

 

[Domo]

Thanks for all the opinions...

We are doing the 13" Air and buying through Apple's Education store. We will upgrade to 8GB RAM as several have suggessted.

We're still torn on whether 128GB Flash is enough or if we should pay $200 more for 256?

256GB would be the minimum for me. Anything over can overspill into a cheaper external drive. However, many things in life you want to keep close to hand, so the more storage the better. Sadly with flash storage, prices rise sharply, so you need to balance capacity with space. The most you would ever truly need on one laptop would be (I estimate) 512GB.