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MBP for a highschool student

you should try out the butterfly keyboard if you write alot, i was pre law major and the butterfly keyboard gave me constipations. ofcourse your miles may vary.

i returned my 2016 13inch and got a 2015 13inch and couldn't be happier.
 
pshufd said:
Just give me a 2015 with updated CPU, RAM, SSD, Video, add two TB3 ports and I'll be happy.
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And removable, upgradable SSD, not this on the primary Logic Board nonsense. Like the rest serves to reduce Apple's production cost and enforce overpriced upgrades. Anyone with sensitive data is totally screwed with the 2016 design, whole thing was designed by someone clueless to such matters...

Q-6
 
just fyi:
the butterfly keyboard first come out late 2016.

Currently Apple has done everything in its power to kill MBP sales but some grand parents still buy their grand son one for school.
 
I read all the replies and I think I gotta use a windows laptop. I don't want an unreliable machine. I'll probably look into xps 13 or thinkpad. Thanks everyone. It's a shame I don't have any continuity features to use between my laptop and my iPhone and airpods but oh well.
 
dapa0s said:
But it won't be more reliable.
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I would have to disagree with that. I think there are many windows machiens that are in fact more reliable then the MBP. Apple's track record sadly is not the best, though their customer service is tops.
 
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Dell has a much higher failure rate in their high end laptops than Apple. People just talk a lot about Apple, because it's popular to classify them as unreliable, especially by youtubers&media that get clicks that way. No one cares if a Samsung or Dell laptop brakes. Hell, Samsungs phones have exploded and started fires, but still no one cared, but if it was Apple, it would be deemed as the biggest catastrophe in tech ever.

A lot of people, especially here, love to classify Macbook Pros as unreliable junk, however, when looking at statistics that is far from the case. As a matter of fact, they have the lowest failure rate of all high-end laptops. But again, confirmation bias, you only hear from people that have problems and from pure Apple haters.
 
I think Apple is finally getting their act together on the keyboard thing. It has been a real disaster and they know it. If you get a new MBA 2018 (or Pro), it comes with a 4 year keyboard warrantee. The word is that replacement keyboards (if needed) will get the latest switch mechanism in the 2019 MBP. Personally, I think that is enough insurance for a high schooler. If you were living away from home at college, it might be a different thing.

If you are still really worried about reliability, get a 2017 MBA. Those computers were incredibly reliable, and you can get one new for $750 on sale. It will last you more than 5 years for sure. With the money you save, get a base iPad (on sale for $250) and Apple Pencil ($60 on sale recently Amazon) for note taking, drawing, reading etc... For a little over $1,000 in total, you are set for at least 4 years. That's a long time in the tech world.
 
ilikewhey said:
i used to, returned it within 2 weeks and got 16gb. never ran into system slow down due to ram shortage again.
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I suspect user error or hardware error. I run 8GB, as do the majority of 13” MBPro users, and 8GB is fine for more than just a couple of chrome tabs.
 
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Howard2k said:
I suspect user error or hardware error. I run 8GB, as do the majority of 13” MBPro users, and 8GB is fine for more than just a couple of chrome tabs.
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Agreed. My son just finished a double major in economics and math at university using a base 2015 MBP with 8GB. I really don’t see why this would be an issue for a high schooler.
 
Mainsail said:
Agreed. My son just finished a double major in economics and math at university using a base 2015 MBP with 8GB. I really don’t see why this would be an issue for a high schooler.
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my brother just graduated high school and he constantly exceeds 16gb on his 15inch mbp 32gb. he does computer science so everyone's usage is different.

when you are taking multiple classes and have 3-4 tabs open per subject for research, with word and powerpoint open along with everything else, you can easily push that 8gb barrier.
 
ilikewhey said:
my brother just graduated high school and he constantly exceeds 16gb on his 15inch mbp 32gb. he does computer science so everyone's usage is different.

when you are taking multiple classes and have 3-4 tabs open per subject for research, with word and powerpoint open along with everything else, you can easily push that 8gb barrier.
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Well, maybe the OP has special computing requirements. I don’t know. The vast majority of high schoolers do not need 16 gb. I have 3 kids that have recently been through college and high school. None of them had more than 8 gb, and their computers all cost about $1,000 or less. I am also on our school district bond oversight committee, and the district just bought chrome books for all of the middle schoolers and high schoolers. Kids are getting their homework done just fine with these $250 chrome books.

Sorry, MR is full of hyperbole about what you need for tech.......often vastly overstated.
 
Mainsail said:
Well, maybe the OP has special computing requirements. I don’t know. The vast majority of high schoolers do not need 16 gb. I have 3 kids that have recently been through college and high school. None of them had more than 8 gb, and their computers all cost about $1,000 or less. I am also on our school district bond oversight committee, and the district just bought chrome books for all of the middle schoolers and high schoolers. Kids are getting their homework done just fine with these $250 chrome books.

Sorry, MR is full of hyperbole about what you need for tech.......often vastly overstated.
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vasty majority of high schoolers and college kids don't need macs either and yet i see them everywhere on campus.

having extra ram on hand is always handy and probably makes the biggest difference if you plan on holding on to your laptop for a long time.

op might want to use VM in the future, who knows,
 
If I had a kid in high school I'd probably get them the 15" for the screen real estate.

Currently I use a 2019 15" and it's great.

I don't use the horsepower tbh. I mainly use it for Youtube, mail, calculator, calendar, and basic stuff like that.

But that large screen is AWESOME :)

I will say though, the negative is the size. This thing is bulky and heavy. I don't even take mine anywhere much and it's still a pain. If I had to take it around, I'd probably go 2019 13" pro

But I can't stress enough how awesome this screen size is. I was on the 13" for almost 6 years and I love this screen size. Very useful.
 
Hieveryone said:
If I had a kid in high school I'd probably get them the 15" for the screen real estate.

Currently I use a 2019 15" and it's great.

I don't use the horsepower tbh. I mainly use it for Youtube, mail, calculator, calendar, and basic stuff like that.

But that large screen is AWESOME :)

I will say though, the negative is the size. This thing is bulky and heavy. I don't even take mine anywhere much and it's still a pain. If I had to take it around, I'd probably go 2019 13" pro

But I can't stress enough how awesome this screen size is. I was on the 13" for almost 6 years and I love this screen size. Very useful.
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I’m still debating on going MacBook Pro 15 or Dell XPS 15

I also don’t need the Horsepower but when you start loading up on the 13 it’s almost a no brainer to get the 15 giving the minor price difference
 
Hazmat401 said:
I’m still debating on going MacBook Pro 15 or Dell XPS 15

I also don’t need the Horsepower but when you start loading up on the 13 it’s almost a no brainer to get the 15 giving the minor price difference
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Thinness matters in my opinion. If the 15” 2019 was thick, I wouldn’t have bought it. Like it I said, it’s pretty heavy despite being REALLY thin.

I don’t know what the 15” dell is all about, but I doubt for me it’d be something I’d buy. Not because of windows or anything like that. I just don’t see myself going any thicker or heavier than my 15” MBP. Of course, I’m assuming the Dell 15 is heavier and thicker...
 
Hieveryone said:
I just don’t see myself going any thicker or heavier than my 15” MBP.
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Dell 0.45-0.66 inches 4 lbs with the smaller battery and 4.5 with the larger
MBP .61 and weight 4.02 lbs.

The Dell is .05 inches thicker and depending on your configuration it can be a scosh lighter or a tad heavier (.03 lbs) I will say that those differences will barely be perceptible Also with the dell you get a better GPU and can configure it with a higher resolution (4k vs. retina).

One thing you may not realize that many pc makers have been designing thin, fast laptops for a heck of lot less then what apple charges.

Hazmat401 said:
I’m still debating on going MacBook Pro 15 or Dell XPS 15
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Also consider the Lenovo X1 Extreme, if you hunt around you can find some decent discounts (I snagged a 30% discount)

Hazmat401 said:
I also don’t need the Horsepower but when you start loading up on the 13 it’s almost a no brainer to get the 15 giving the minor price difference
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I prefer the 15" for the larger screen, better GPU and while I don't need them the extra cores. I find having a dGPU has made my life a lot better in the short run and I expect it to be better in the long run.

I also like the fact that while I'm not a huge game player, the quantity of games available on steam for windows is huge and its nice to have that, but that's me.
 
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ilikewhey said:
my brother just graduated high school and he constantly exceeds 16gb on his 15inch mbp 32gb. he does computer science so everyone's usage is different.

when you are taking multiple classes and have 3-4 tabs open per subject for research, with word and powerpoint open along with everything else, you can easily push that 8gb barrier.
Click to expand...

The more RAM the system has the more it will use. That’s totally normal. It doesn’t mean that the system requires that amount. Again, the vast majority of 13” devices are 8GB, it’s obviously ok.
 
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Hieveryone said:
If I had a kid in high school I'd probably get them the 15" for the screen real estate.

Currently I use a 2019 15" and it's great.

I don't use the horsepower tbh. I mainly use it for Youtube, mail, calculator, calendar, and basic stuff like that.

But that large screen is AWESOME :)

I will say though, the negative is the size. This thing is bulky and heavy. I don't even take mine anywhere much and it's still a pain. If I had to take it around, I'd probably go 2019 13" pro

But I can't stress enough how awesome this screen size is. I was on the 13" for almost 6 years and I love this screen size. Very useful.
Click to expand...

I would never have given my kids a $2500 15inch MBP to carry around school for email, calendar, web and basic applications just to do high school homework and papers. That’s ridiculous. They would be the laughing stock of the school. Others kids would be using free district supplied $250 Chrome-books that are issued to each student and can be taken home. I would feel like an idiot spending this type of money on a MBP......total overkill. There are some kids that still use MacBook Airs, since the district only recently started providing the chrome-books. For a high schooler, I would consider a 2017 MBA on sale for $750.
 
ilikewhey said:
my brother just graduated high school and he constantly exceeds 16gb on his 15inch mbp 32gb. he does computer science so everyone's usage is different.

when you are taking multiple classes and have 3-4 tabs open per subject for research, with word and powerpoint open along with everything else, you can easily push that 8gb barrier.
Click to expand...

Web browsing can consume a ton of RAM these days. I've modified Firefox to use fewer processes so my Firefox is only using 2 GB of RAM on my system but, if I cranked it up to 8, then I Firefox would use 6 GB of RAM. It would be faster too but I don't need things to be faster by split-seconds. So there is tuning that can be done to decrease RAM requirements. That said, it's always better to have more RAM as it means that your system will be usable for longer.
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Mainsail said:
I would never have given my kids a $2500 15inch MBP to carry around school for email, calendar, web and basic applications just to do high school homework and papers. That’s ridiculous. They would be the laughing stock of the school. Others kids would be using free district supplied $250 Chrome-books that are issued to each student and can be taken home. I would feel like an idiot spending this type of money on a MBP......total overkill. There are some kids that still use MacBook Airs, since the district only recently started providing the chrome-books. For a high schooler, I would consider a 2017 MBA on sale for $750.
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I got my kids 15 inch MBPs but that was when they were under $2,000. A 13 inch is fine for a high-school student; just provide them with an external display at home.
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Queen6 said:
And removable, upgradable SSD, not this on the primary Logic Board nonsense. Like the rest serves to reduce Apple's production cost and enforce overpriced upgrades. Anyone with sensitive data is totally screwed with the 2016 design, whole thing was designed by someone clueless to such matters...

Q-6
Click to expand...

Not going to happen.
 
Mainsail said:
I would never have given my kids a $2500 15inch MBP to carry around school for email, calendar, web and basic applications just to do high school homework and papers. That’s ridiculous. They would be the laughing stock of the school. Others kids would be using free district supplied $250 Chrome-books that are issued to each student and can be taken home. I would feel like an idiot spending this type of money on a MBP......total overkill. There are some kids that still use MacBook Airs, since the district only recently started providing the chrome-books. For a high schooler, I would consider a 2017 MBA on sale for $750.
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Well, I went to a private high school and while idk yet I’m thinking I’ll probably send mine to one as well.

At my high school you kind of HAD to have fancy stuff. Everyone drove BMW, Range Rover, Mercedes. And no not the just 3 series & c class. I’m talking high end. So a $2500 MacBook wouldn’t be an issue socially
 
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