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Thinking about a mac for the first time

1BadManVan

1BadManVan

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Dec 20, 2009
3,288
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Bc Canada
Our household has slowly moved over to all Apple. Wife is finally moving from her android to iPhone, multiple iPads in the house as well, home pod mini coming. The only thing we’ve never owned is a mac of any kind.

I was always pc, she has a windows work laptop. But I haven’t actually owned a pc in several years. Just my iPhone and my iPad. Does a MacBook make sense for someone like me who would just use it to browse the web, email and videos?

The price gap is the biggest part turning me off. Living in Canada, the base model air is $1300, the base pro $1700! yet I can grab a windows laptop with an i5, 16gb ram and 1 Tb ssd for $800.

is it really worth this huge premium for my needs?
 
You don't need a Mac to browse the web, read email and watch videos - you can do all of that on your iPad & iPhone. If money is an issue, then don't spend it on an extravagant purchase that isn't a necessity.

If a new computer is a requirement then take a look at a Mac, but only you can decide if it's worth it.
 
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And resell value tend to be much better than for a PC. They also last for many years. I have a MacBook Air 11" from 2012 that is still in daily use for web browsing email and sometimes a bit of editing
 
Steve121178 said:
You don't need a Mac to browse the web, read email and watch videos - you can do all of that on your iPad & iPhone. If money is an issue, then don't spend it on an extravagant purchase that isn't a necessity.

If a new computer is a requirement then take a look at a Mac, but only you can decide if it's worth it.
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I can afford one just fine. But I have money because I’m generally smart with it lol. Just wondering what sets it apart

I don’t see the air as a heavy lifting work horse, so who does that suit?
 
UnLiMiTeD558 said:
I can afford one just fine. But I have money because I’m generally smart with it lol. Just wondering what sets it apart

I don’t see the air as a heavy lifting work horse, so who does that suit?
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I switched from PC to Mac 5,5 years ago. Still have PCs in the office but for my personal use, I prefer the Mac UI. With Corona, the Mac (MBP 13" early 2015 w/ external monitor) became also my daily workhorse. I like it even more since then because:
  • desktop can be organised in easily manageable spaces
  • window management is much more intuitive
  • routine work can be automatised with AppleScript
  • fonts, characters and the screen desing in general is much more refined
  • Spotlight search is great
  • at the beginning, I hated the Finder. But after I got a better understanding, I now prefer it over the Explorer
"heavy lifting" - what do you mean? The base M1 MBA should be able to do a lot of work. Only that kind where you say to the machine, here, take these x GB of data and make your calculations for the next hours, should not deliver the best results.
 
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A MacBook probably duplicates the iPad for your described usage, with the exception of device backups (unless you use iCloud for that anyway?). Maybe the Mac mini with a large display, or an iMac when available might offer something extra, though probably not any more than any old Windows PC you can get now which will open up different options and possibilities outside Apple's ecosystem.
 
I would argue that a MacBook Air/Pro is not more expensive than a PC with the exact same specification. I buy the top of the line Pro models, but when I last compared to a Lenovo with same specification, the MBP came out cheaper.

On top of the MBP tend to last longer and generally requires less maintenance. This is from a guy who has owned a long line of Thinkpads.
 
matram said:
I would argue that a MacBook Air/Pro is not more expensive than a PC with the exact same specification. I buy the top of the line Pro models, but when I last compared to a Lenovo with same specification, the MBP came out cheaper.

On top of the MBP tend to last longer and generally requires less maintenance. This is from a guy who has owned a long line of Thinkpads.
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Well I did give a price comparison in my original post. Not sure if that’s the case in the states, but it’s over double the price difference in canada. Especially with Black Friday sales.
 
UnLiMiTeD558 said:
Correct, but that costs more than a MacBook Air m1. Considering the air is based off the a14 tech, is that really a better jump to make?
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Yes I would probably wait for an A14X based iPad Pro if I was going to buy one. It is more expensive than the MBA when you add the keyboard but unlike the MBA has a touch screen and FaceID and you can configure it with an LTE modem and use the Apple Pencil if you wish.

Web browsing, email and videos don't really require a MacBook and it could be argued that an iPad is a better way to watch video anyway.
 
ADGrant said:
Yes I would probably wait for an A14X based iPad Pro if I was going to buy one. It is more expensive than the MBA when you add the keyboard but unlike the MBA has a touch screen and FaceID and you can configure it with an LTE modem and use the Apple Pencil if you wish.

Web browsing, email and videos don't really require a MacBook and it could be argued that an iPad is a better way to watch video anyway.
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Fair enough, appreciate the input

wasn’t dead set on getting a mac. I use Xbox for gaming and my phone and iPad for everything else

but some days I like to hop on my wife’s laptop to browse stuff etc
 
UnLiMiTeD558 said:
I can afford one just fine. But I have money because I’m generally smart with it lol. Just wondering what sets it apart

I don’t see the air as a heavy lifting work horse, so who does that suit?
Click to expand...
The MacBook Air is perfect for the following people:

1. People who use their computers to write/ research and collect information (i.e. with Scrivener, Zotero, multiple tabs open, multiple windows open, etc.)

2. People who prefer the Mac OS interface to the iPad OS interface.

3. People who do lightweight graphical work for fun/ edit Youtube or family videos, etc.

4. People who prefer the expandability of MacOS to iPad OS.
 
UnLiMiTeD558 said:
The price gap is the biggest part turning me off. Living in Canada, the base model air is $1300, the base pro $1700! yet I can grab a windows laptop with an i5, 16gb ram and 1 Tb ssd for $800.
Click to expand...

Except that $800 laptop it will have a crappy display, terrible battery life and every time you pick it up it will feel like it's falling apart. If you are considering a Mac, I'd recommend you to get the new Air. Excellent build quality, outperforms laptops almost twice of it's price, and now it's even good for some home gaming if you are into that kind of thing. Price-wise, you should be comparing it to the like of Razer Blade Stealth and XPS 13"
 
If you already have an iPad Pro - just get the Magic Keyboard with trackpad. It's SO good!
I actually prefer my iPad to any Mac. I use the Magic Keyboard as a sort of dock on my desk. When I want to chill I just grab it and use it like a tablet. When I want to write a long-form, I place it on the "dock" and write. I also have the other keyboard without the trackpad - and I use that one when going outside.
They are expensive, but it feels like the future :)
 
I mean, in truth, if you've come to MacRumors to ask then presumably you're already pretty set on a Mac? I ask because you're hardly going to get people here going "oh yes they're so overpriced and you should go with a PC".

With that said, it depends on what you want. Apple makes some really nice laptops, but I recently built a desktop PC and I have to say I'm far fewer issues with it than any Mac I've used in recent memory.

I think it really depends on what you want.
 
ElCidRo said:
If you already have an iPad Pro - just get the Magic Keyboard with trackpad. It's SO good!
I actually prefer my iPad to any Mac. I use the Magic Keyboard as a sort of dock on my desk. When I want to chill I just grab it and use it like a tablet. When I want to write a long-form, I place it on the "dock" and write. I also have the other keyboard without the trackpad - and I use that one when going outside.
They are expensive, but it feels like the future :)
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Currently just a base model 6th gen. Even a base pro 11” and that magic keyboard is more than the air

honestly the more I look into it, it comes down to more about the ipad Pro vs the air. Hell of a toss up
 
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