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Upgrading elementary school kid's 2012 Macbook Air - 2020 pro or air?

T

tjx

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 13, 2012
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My son's 2012 13" macbook air is on its last legs and I was thinking now was a good time to get a new laptop, since he spends half of his day on it for school. He does do some gaming on it, mainly Minecraft and Roblox, but I'm unsure how important the different macbook configurations would be for him. I'd like to not have to upgrade his computer again for a while.

I was thinking of:

2020 Macbook Air with 1.1Ghz 10th gen i5, 512GB SSD, and 16GB ram for $1379
2020 Macbook Pro with 1.4Ghz 8th gen i5, 512GB SSD, and 16GB ram for $1489
2020 Macbook pro with 2.0Ghz 10th gen i5, 512GB SSD, and 16GB ram for $1699

Would one of these be reasonable? It seems like the Air with the 10th gen may actually be better than the base pro because of better graphics performance, and has the benefit of being cheaper.

Does anyone have thoughts on what's appropriate for an elementary school kid?
 
I would recommend the 2020 Air with the Quad-Core i5 as the best computer for an elementary school student.

The high end Pro is clearly the best of the three, but it far exceeds the needs of a child. Better to spend the extra $300 on an accessory like the AirPods Pro which he will use all the time. The i5 Air is better than the low-end Pro for this use case for the reasons stated below.

  • The 10th Gen i5 in the Air has a higher single-core score than the 8th Gen i5, which will result in snappier day-to-day performance than the MacBook Pro.
  • The 10th Gen i5 in the MacBook Air has much better integrated graphics than the 8th Gen chip in the MacBook Pro (Iris Plus G7 > Iris Plus 655 >>UHD 617). The Air will also benefit more from future optimizations in software (graphics, AR, etc.), and remain 'current' a lot longer.
  • The Pro's greater ability to dissipate heat would give it an advantage in CPU intensive tasks, but even that advantage is reduced since MacOS off-loads most high intensity tasks, like video encoding, to the integrated graphics and the T2 chip.
  • The lighter Air would be easier on his back than the MacBook Pro. It does make a difference in day-to-day use, especially for the 'little people'.
  • Finally, I just bought the 2020 Air for my daughter in elementary school. So, I am a bit biased .......
Check out this review on YouTube for more details.

For details on the heat issue with the i5 Air see this video from the same guy. Bottom line, he recommends getting the i3 over the i5 version.
 
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For a child, the previous gen MacBook Air i5 will be fine to honest, save your money. If you want to spoil your child then get the latest base MacBook Air (i3/i5)
 
mbaire said:
that's because the MBP has a 128GB SSD and the MBA a 256GB, the 256GB MBP gives the same or higher speed than the MBA
Click to expand...

I don't get your point. The video that you linked to compares the 'low-end vs high-end' MacBook PROs, not the Air vs Pro.

My opinion is that the 2020 Air is the best choice for a child because the high-end 2020 MBPro is overkill, while the base 2020 MBPro is slower than the new Air in common tasks.
 
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I gave my daughter's family a base model 2018 MacBook Air when it came out and my granddaughter basically claimed it as her own :). Last week, she spilled water on it. Gave them the best advice I could about what to do, but also ordered a new base model 2020 MBA for her from B&H right away. My daughter is working from home and needs to use her MBP all day. They made-do sharing her MBP for a few days until the new MBA arrived.

They love to new MBA and I can't imagine that a 10-year-old needs any better computer than this. B&H still had the 2019 MBA in stock but it was only $50 cheaper, so the new one seemed like a better value. I got the 2020 for $949, but it appears the price has gone up a bit since then. Apple did not have any refurbs when I checked. Was also surprised that it would cost quite a bit more to get an iPad with the new keyboard/trackpad (it was around $1300 IIRC).

They waited three days for the old computer to dry out, and they say it works now but is "flakey"... not exactly sure what that means. I think they learned the lesson about not using liquids near computers and they need my support in these difficult times, not a lecture. :)
 
My daughter is also working from home doing graphic arts/advertising. They issued her a 2018 MacBook Pro and she has her own MBP as well.

While I'm not working from home (FedEx), I do some business myself on a 2010 MacBook Air. It's still in fine shape but it's getting a bit long in the tooth. Mainly I use email, Adobe Acrobat Pro, and MS Office. I just installed a battery monitor app and it reports my battery is in 90% condition. Still holds a charge for 4-5 hours with screen brightness turned way up. But because the fan is coming on more and more, and because the OS is limited to High Sierra, I've ordered the 2020 MacBook Air (i5 16GB 512GB) to take over.

I believe in buying the tech I need now and in the future. I tend to go up-market a bit more than my present needs dictate because I invariably end up using things for more than I originally planned. So I future-proof my computer by going a little overboard. That said, for a young student in elementary school, I think the MacBook Air is above and beyond for now and the years to come. I would advise the OP to get the Air.
 
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tjx said:
My son's 2012 13" macbook air is on its last legs and I was thinking now was a good time to get a new laptop, since he spends half of his day on it for school. He does do some gaming on it, mainly Minecraft and Roblox, but I'm unsure how important the different macbook configurations would be for him. I'd like to not have to upgrade his computer again for a while.

I was thinking of:

2020 Macbook Air with 1.1Ghz 10th gen i5, 512GB SSD, and 16GB ram for $1379
2020 Macbook Pro with 1.4Ghz 8th gen i5, 512GB SSD, and 16GB ram for $1489
2020 Macbook pro with 2.0Ghz 10th gen i5, 512GB SSD, and 16GB ram for $1699

Would one of these be reasonable? It seems like the Air with the 10th gen may actually be better than the base pro because of better graphics performance, and has the benefit of being cheaper.

Does anyone have thoughts on what's appropriate for an elementary school kid?
Click to expand...

I think it really is up to how much he does on it, for a kid in elementary I would say the Air is enough. I used my MacBook Pro when I was doing my MBA and it was great. My kids use their iPads for schoolwork and they seem to like it. One of them is in middle school and is awesome to see her use the pencil to write all the answers on the assignments, save, and submit all from her device, wouldn’t be able to do that on the MacBook. But, each situation is different so hopefully whichever one you pick it works great for him.
 
Seanm87 said:
What about an iPad? Does an elementary school kid really need a full desktop OS?
Click to expand...

Probably not, and that is why I looked at iPads. But when you choose a model that supports the new keyboard/trackpad the combination is quite a bit more expensive than a base 2020 MacBook Air. I have a 2018 iPad with a Zagg rugged book keyboard case. I really like it, but there's no way it could take the place of a laptop for me, and I wouldn't want a kid to be limited this way.

I think you need a trackpad to work effectively editing text - or at least I do. I have an Apple pencil, and that helps somewhat but is still pretty awkward. An external mouse or trackpad would be good, but that's additional expense and not quite as portable.
 
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