What should I buy? ~ £750

[LON:AAPL]

Hello everyone,

I am looking to get a new Mac

As a graduate I can get the discount from the Education Store (status expires next month!) and can stretch to £750/£800. I could go higher but there is not much point blowing savings on a laptop.

I am looking for something that is lightweight, will mainly be used for music, Netflix, YouTube and occasional word processing/spreadsheet work. Oh and of course backing up my iPhone.

Do I opt for an 11" MBA or 13" MBA? What are my other options? I previously had a 13" which I accidentally fried (I'm sure a few of you have been there), so don't know how a 11" would feel to use.

HOWEVER, I've left university now, so it won't be needed for writing a dissertation etc, could be a useful accessory for work (I will often be working outside).

So my question is, what do you recommend I go for? I CANNOT buy a PC (family suggested not getting anything as expensive as my MBA, but all my gear is Apple so kind of want to stay in the ecosystem).

Thanks a lot and any help will be very much appreciated.

 

[EmaDaCuz]

For 750 pounds, you can't get anything else than a MBA. The question is, do you need a PC? For you needs, an iPad Air (2) and a bluetooth keyboard, to use if necessary, will do the job. For occasional office use, you can get Office 365 for students which costs peanuts and should cover you for 3-4 years, IFRK. If you don't have the need to create and edit complex documents and/or spreadsheets, then even iWork should be enough.

If you don't want the iPad and you look for portability, then get yourself a MBA 11". I still have mine from 2011 and it rocks (bar Skype, that is a no-go).

 

[addictive]

If you are limiting yourself to £750 then like the previous poster says you can only buy the base model Macbook Air.

Ask yourself what do you want and what do you need which are two separate questions.

If you want a Macbook do you want it to have a Retina display. If so you'll have to spend a bit of savings on top of your budget or look for a refurbished model from the Apple store.

If you want an iPad then you can always get a bluetooth keyboard should you need to do a significant amount of typing.

Whatever you buy you are going to want to last several years. I support the idea of staying within the Apple Ecosystem since your other purchases are Apple. This makes sense and you want all products to work seamlessly.

 

[MRrainer]

I would try to reach for the 11" MBA, but with 8GB RAM. It will be more useful over a longer period of time this way.
Also, don't forget the external drive for TimeMachine - as the base model only has 128GB of RAM, it doesn't need to be too big.
What is your line of work, BTW?

 

[keysofanxiety]

Hello everyone,

I am looking to get a new Mac

As a graduate I can get the discount from the Education Store (status expires next month!) and can stretch to £750/£800. I could go higher but there is not much point blowing savings on a laptop.

I am looking for something that is lightweight, will mainly be used for music, Netflix, YouTube and occasional word processing/spreadsheet work. Oh and of course backing up my iPhone.

Do I opt for an 11" MBA or 13" MBA? What are my other options? I previously had a 13" which I accidentally fried (I'm sure a few of you have been there), so don't know how a 11" would feel to use.

HOWEVER, I've left university now, so it won't be needed for writing a dissertation etc, could be a useful accessory for work (I will often be working outside).

So my question is, what do you recommend I go for? I CANNOT buy a PC (family suggested not getting anything as expensive as my MBA, but all my gear is Apple so kind of want to stay in the ecosystem).

Thanks a lot and any help will be very much appreciated.

Well as you said, you've got an Education Store discount, which gives you 15% off RRP and free 3-year hardware warranty (essentially AppleCare but without the telephone support).

I always recommend the Retina MacBook Pro because it's got considerably better specs in every area, other than a couple of hours battery life and the lightness. However even with the discount the base 13" rMBP is still going to be about ~£870. If you can afford the extra £120 I'd really recommend it.

If not, you're stuck with the MBA and don't have much budget for a BTO. Base 11" and 13" have identical specs with £100 difference - except the 13" has better battery life, so I'd go for that over the two. Plus the 11" has a weird aspect ratio and looks 'squished' to me.

But again I'd really really consider shelling an extra £100 for the 13" rMBP. It has a better display, better GPU, better CPU, new Force Touch trackpad, more ports, more RAM as standard, quicker RAM as standard, and quicker Flash storage -- all that for an extra £150 or so (well, £120 with the discount) over the 13" MBA.

 

[LON:AAPL]

Thanks for your useful replies. I will certainly consider the rMBP in the future, it makes more sense to upgrade! If you see my latest thread you will find out my MBA has just 'recovered' from water damage, so for the time being I won't need to buy a new mac anymore!

Thanks again though

 

[MRrainer]

Thanks for your useful replies. I will certainly consider the rMBP in the future, it makes more sense to upgrade! If you see my latest thread you will find out my MBA has just 'recovered' from water damage, so for the time being I won't need to buy a new mac anymore!

Thanks again though

Always good to be able to wait some more.
Spring will see the Skylake chips finally arrive and your money will then buy so much "fresher" hardware....