Buying for my daughter.

What's your budget? That said, a laptop is almost a guaranteed "need" for a college student; I would start with either the 13" Macbook Pro, or (if your budget allows" the 13" Macbook Air.

EDIT: If your in the US, don't forget to check the Refub section at http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac Same warranty as new. I see a 2012 13" MBA for $999.

denraepat said:

I need some advice. We have iPhones and iPods and we want to make the move over to Macs. To start, I want to get my daughter a Mac for a graduation present. However, I am unsure of which one is the best to take to college. This may have been addressed and I did "look" through some threads, I just need some good advice from users vs. sellers.

Click to expand...

That would depend on what she is majoring in, but I would recommend a 15" non-retina MBP. This way she still has a high quality computer with a superdrive(in case she wants to install non- Mac App Store software or watch a DVD) and a dedicated GPU in case she is majoring in something that would require a machine that is more capable when handling graphics applications.

Depends on her intended major but if it is non-engineering a MBA 13 would be the best choice.

Some schools recommend certain models.

If not, either MacBook Air and MacBook Pro would do, but make her lock the dorm room!

I guess the more important question is: how much storage space does she need for music and other files. If she needs a lot of space, than a MacBook Pro with harddrive is needed. Otherwise get Mac with SSD (such as MacBook Air or retina MacBook Pro).

Since she'll be studying, and carrying it around, a Macbook Air. The Pro is not that much faster, and for her studies, the SSD in the MBA will be much more useful.

I got my daughter a 13" MacBook Air and she loves it. She wants to study medicine.

I would suggest a 13" display as being the easiest to cart around at school without the extra weight and dimensions of the 15".

If she gets into graphic design, she could always get an external display for her room, and use that in conjunction with the MacBook.

Something a lot of college kids never think about is "backing up". It's neither difficult nor time consuming (I would recommend using CarbonCopyCloner instead of Time Machine), and a backup system can be put togther for not much $$$.

Also -- try to impress upon her the importance of safeguarding the laptop against theft, a common problem at school. You might even consider spending the $$$ for one of the "laptop recovery" apps out there -- "Undercover" has gotten good reviews.

denraepat said:

Great advice. She doesn't know what she is majoring in...yet. But she is interested in graphics. I think this is where we will start!

I want to stay around $1000-$1200. We are in the US and I will look here! Have you ever got a refurb? If so, what do you think?

Click to expand...

I LOVE Apple refurbished products. Same quality, same warranty, cheaper price.

If your budget is less than $1200, then the 13" MBP is what you might be limited to, but those are still more than capable machines.

Apple is currently selling a 13.3" MBP 2.5GHz i5 w/ 500GB HDD for $1,019.

----------

Fishrrman said:

I would suggest a 13" display as being the easiest to cart around at school without the extra weight and dimensions of the 15".

If she gets into graphic design, she could always get an external display for her room, and use that in conjunction with the MacBook.

Something a lot of college kids never think about is "backing up". It's neither difficult nor time consuming (I would recommend using CarbonCopyCloner instead of Time Machine), and a backup system can be put togther for not much $$$.

Also -- try to impress upon her the importance of safeguarding the laptop against theft, a common problem at school. You might even consider spending the $$$ for one of the "laptop recovery" apps out there -- "Undercover" has gotten good reviews.

Click to expand...

This is great advice. In addition to this, if you buy it with a credit card that allows you to replace it in case it gets damaged; that would be a good addition to also getting AppleCare. This way, it will be completely replaceable.

denraepat said:

I need some advice. We have iPhones and iPods and we want to make the move over to Macs. To start, I want to get my daughter a Mac for a graduation present. However, I am unsure of which one is the best to take to college. This may have been addressed and I did "look" through some threads, I just need some good advice from users vs. sellers.

Click to expand...

The low-end 13" MacBook Pro has a 500GB hard drive. Since she has tons of music, I would recommend it. That's the one I have. Although I would really consider a 15" if she's into graphics. I regret buying a 13" because my screen isn't big enough to really work with them without everything getting it in the way (menus). Wasn't an issue on my previous 15" model.

The MacBook Air is great, but the solid states in them are pretty low in space. And there's actually advantages to the black bezels on the Pros - They don't warp. They're also a lot easier to repair.

My Experience . . .

We bought my daughter a 15" MacBook Pro 2.5 years ago. She's a Chemistry major. We got the anti-glare screen. She's been fairly happy with it, or at least I haven't heard any complaints.

I liked the form so much I bought one myself about 6 months ago.

Love love LOVE Apple refurbs! I always recommend them, whenever they're an option. Also love the Air, too - whenever I replace my bulky 15" MBP, it will be with an Air (or maybe a 13" retina... not sure). The Air I linked was the 13" for $999, so you can definitely get in on the $1-1.2k range. I don't think I'd recommend the 11" Air for college, though; while a dandy machine, I think the small size would get old when typing lots of papers and doing research.

Like others have said, if she's looking into something heavily graphics-focused, it might be worth looking at the 15" with the dedicated GPU - but, I hate to say it, if she's looking at a program like that, the school will probably require/strongly recommend a particular (probably PC) laptop.

As others have said, if she has a lot of music, the 128GB SSD in the base 13" Air might be a bit small, but I can say this - I have been buying MP3s from iTunes AND have ripped my entire CD collection (not huge by anyone's standards, but probably 300+ discs) and my iTunes library is about 65GB. I do keep my Movies in a separate folder, though, as I have a metric ton of them. I'd look for a 13" Air with a 256GB SSD.

Check what deals the school she will be attending offers. I've seen some colleges offer MacBooks with a 4 year, on site warranty for a reasonable price, cheaper than AppleCare.

I love my 13" MBA and can't even tell when it's in my bag because it is so light. It is plenty fast for me but I do very, very little photo editing and nothing in video editing. I thought the 13" screen was going to be too small but it seems just as big as my old 15" laptop and I never have issues with desktop space. Also, the battery life is amazing, I can work on it for 5 hours easy on one charge, probably a lot longer but that is my standard work day.

As far as the question of storage space for her music and such, why not spend a few dollars and get an external hard drive? It gives her a back up of everything and allows her to download as many songs, movies, etc. as she likes without fear of running out of space.

edit: Don't forget you should be able to get a little bit of a discount through the education store.

denraepat said:

I need some advice. We have iPhones and iPods and we want to make the move over to Macs. To start, I want to get my daughter a Mac for a graduation present. However, I am unsure of which one is the best to take to college. This may have been addressed and I did "look" through some threads, I just need some good advice from users vs. sellers.

Click to expand...

13" MacBook Pro, non-retina, high-end model.

denraepat said:

I want to stay around $1000-$1200. We are in the US and I will look here! Have you ever got a refurb? If so, what do you think?

Click to expand...

I would highly recommend a refurb. I've purchased 2 MBPs and they have both been in pristine condition. They also carry the same warranty as a new machine.

One other recommendation, get Applecare just before the one year anniversary of your purchase. Since she's undecided, I would get the 13" Air but Applecare will not only protect from the rough miles this machine will likely see, if she goes into graphics and needs to sell, AC will sweeten the deal and help her unload it.