Which Mac do I want?

[Kim in Appalachia]

My oldest dd graduates from college in a few weeks.  She is a Music Ed major (Just passed her Praxis 3 exam!! :) )  We wanted to get her an Apple computer as a graduation present.  She has a laptop, but it's not an Apple, and the school systems use Apple.

 

Anyway, we thought it would be a nice gift.  Which one do I want, the Macbook, the Air or the Pro?  I'm a bit confused about which would be best in the long run.

 

I've kind of ruled out the Air, but really, I'm unsure.  

 

We are not an Apple family and their stuff just confuses me. :D  

[Pen]

My brother has an Air he really likes, particular because light weight portability means a lot to him, but my mom had an Air that had problems and turned out to be basically impossible to work on it by a tech because of how it is built inside, apparently also true of the retinas.  I love my older Pro, a type no longer made, and apparently it would be easier to fix if needed.  I am not sure if Macs are as good (durable) as they used to be. But right now it feels like all technology is not what it used to be. Sigh. I did not know that plain old Macbook was still being made. Most of the teachers I currently know seem to have Pros.

[fraidycat]

Something with a disc drive. At least, that is my requirement when looking at computers. :)

[Evergreen State Sue]

My vote would be Mac & Cheese! :lol:

[The Girls' Mom]

Something with a disc drive. At least, that is my requirement when looking at computers. :)

 

Disc drives on Macs are hard to come by these days.

 

I have a Macbook Pro that I love.  It is really about processing speed and memory.  If she will be doing graphics heavy things (web design, a LOT of photo editing, video games, etc.) then I'd go Pro.  If she is just doing the run of the mill things like online class, word-processing, etc., then the memory and speed of a Pro isn't needed.  

 

You can buy external hard drives and external disc drives for relatively cheap.  I have both and they work just fine when I need them.  (the disc drive is VERY rarely used, and mostly only for getting pictures off of old CDs or for Teaching Textbooks)

[Suzanne in ABQ]

Something with a disc drive. At least, that is my requirement when looking at computers. :)

 

 

None of the new Macs have disc drives.  They sell the Superdrive, which connects by USB, and costs about $75.  You can still buy older MacBook Pros that have an internal disc drive.  Air never did have a disc drive.

 

If she is going to use it for video processing, or anything that requires a lot of working memory, she'll need a Pro.  If she's just going to use it for regular office type stuff, or Finale (composing on "paper"), or light duty stuff, like browsing the internet, an Air will be fine.  

[Okra]

I would just ask her which one she wants…..that way she can research and decided for herself what she wants.  

[fraidycat]

Disc drives on Macs are hard to come by these days.

 

I have a Macbook Pro that I love. It is really about processing speed and memory. If she will be doing graphics heavy things (web design, a LOT of photo editing, video games, etc.) then I'd go Pro. If she is just doing the run of the mill things like online class, word-processing, etc., then the memory and speed of a Pro isn't needed.

 

You can buy external hard drives and external disc drives for relatively cheap. I have both and they work just fine when I need them. (the disc drive is VERY rarely used, and mostly only for getting pictures off of old CDs or for Teaching Textbooks)

Interesting. I do have an external/usb drive for the iMac, but apparently I need to keep my old Pro chugging for a long time if I want portable disc reading ability.

[wapiti]

I vote for the Pro.  FWIW, I bought mine over a year ago at a black friday sale at Best Buy and the new version with virtually the same configuration still isn't any cheaper than I paid, even when it's on sale (sale price at Best Buy seems to happen once every few weeks).  I love the Retina display.  I have i5, 8 gb RAM, 256 gb SSD.

 

I would prefer to confirm with her that Apple is the best choice for her before buying.  What bugs me about Apple is that it's so difficult to get a better configuration without spending a *ton* more.

 

I recently bought a new family computer (mostly for my dd15's photography) and I couldn't bear to pay quite up to the Macbook price, yet I was looking for the build quality of my Pro.  I ended up ordering this new Samsung 15", skylake i7, 8 gb RAM, 256 gb SSD, windows 10.  It's super lightweight (2.84 lbs) and the screen is lovely.  We have only had it a few days so I can't comment on durability yet.

 

ETA, I would also have her research the specific music apps she will need and verify system requirements for those (i.e., google what others have found works best for those apps).

 

Also, FWIW, for my most recent purchase, I ruled out the regular Macbook (not air, not pro) because I wanted a better chip.  IIRC, the MacBooks have an M chip, which I had read a few negative things about someplace.  The Airs also had a configuration on the slow side, something less than 2 GHz.

Edited April 12, 2016 by wapiti

[DawnM]

Something with a disc drive. At least, that is my requirement when looking at computers. :)

 

We couldn't even find one in the PC my son needed for his program.

[Kim in Appalachia]

I would just ask her which one she wants…..that way she can research and decided for herself what she wants.  

 

 

My oldest child is the most computer illiterate person I know.  She's even a bit computer phobic. She uses them because she needs them.  

 

she knows she needs it for school.  Every school that she has been in, the teacher has needed Apple, even if it's just to hook with the Smart boards.  And she's music, so she will need to use Finale and Smart Music.

 

I'm leaning towards to Pro. 

[Kim in Appalachia]

I vote for the Pro.  FWIW, I bought mine over a year ago at a black friday sale at Best Buy and the new version with virtually the same configuration still isn't any cheaper than I paid, even when it's on sale (sale price at Best Buy seems to happen once every few weeks).  I love the Retina display.  I have i5, 8 gb RAM, 256 gb SSD.

 

I would prefer to confirm with her that Apple is the best choice for her before buying.  What bugs me about Apple is that it's so difficult to get a better configuration without spending a *ton* more.

 

I recently bought a new family computer (mostly for my dd15's photography) and I couldn't bear to pay quite up to the Macbook price, yet I was looking for the build quality of my Pro.  I ended up ordering this new Samsung 15", skylake i7, 8 gb RAM, 256 gb SSD, windows 10.  It's super lightweight (2.84 lbs) and the screen is lovely.  We have only had it a few days so I can't comment on durability yet.

 

ETA, I would also have her research the specific music apps she will need and verify system requirements for those (i.e., google what others have found works best for those apps).

 

Also, FWIW, for my most recent purchase, I ruled out the regular Macbook (not air, not pro) because I wanted a better chip.  IIRC, the MacBooks have an M chip, which I had read a few negative things about someplace.  The Airs also had a configuration on the slow side, something less than 2 GHz.

 

 

Yes, it needs to be Apple. I'm going to be watching prices for the next couple of weeks (for the Pro, I'm fairly convinced now that I want that one).  They also go on sale on an ebay store.  I missed a good deal 2 weeks ago because I wasn't ready to think about it.  Maybe I'll see it again. 

 

I'm also frustrated by Apple's stinginess, which is why we never get them.  And my 2nd dd (18) who loves her Apple phone, refuses to use a Mac.  She wants a new laptop too (she's graduating from high school).  I like the Samsung that you linked. I've been looking at a Dell for her. 

[wapiti]

And my 2nd dd (18) who loves her Apple phone, refuses to use a Mac.  She wants a new laptop too (she's graduating from high school).  I like the Samsung that you linked. I've been looking at a Dell for her. 

 

We have had a lot of Dells in the past and they were ok.  The reason I didn't go to Dell this time around is that there are rumors (negative reviews) of issues around the $700-900 level, with (1) Dell drivers not working well with Windows 10 and (2) something about poor quality of the network cards.  Plus, I'm miffed that Dell is not supporting Windows 10 for our older machine that still has a lot of life (it was a very popular version).

 

So, I'd research carefully.  Current offerings can change in a short amount of time so I recommend waiting as long as possible before actually buying a new non-apple laptop.  At some point, you just need to jump, but if it isn't needed until late summer, I'd try to wait because new stuff seems to come out around back-to-school.  Maybe Dell will fix their issues.  Bumping up to the XPS line, it would have cost more to get the same configuration as what I got on the Samsung.  Ds13 really wanted to get the pro version of the Samsung (has an Nvidia graphics card) but I didn't think it was necessary and that one was much heavier.

 

I would also suggest getting one with a SSD rather than a spinning hard drive - faster and quieter.  They are much more widely available than even a year ago.  (All the newer MacBooks are SSD, solid state drive aka flash storage)

 

I kind of wanted to get the 13" Samsung - it's only 1.9 lbs.  There are some minor differences between the 13 and 15" models.

 

ETA, in hunting down reviews, besides CNET, I liked this site in particular:  http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebook.htm, especially the one that compares Samsung Notebook 9 to Dell XPS

Edited April 12, 2016 by wapiti

[Kim in Appalachia]

We have had a lot of Dells in the past and they were ok.  The reason I didn't go to Dell this time around is that there are rumors (negative reviews) of issues around the $700-900 level, with (1) Dell drivers not working well with Windows 10 and (2) something about poor quality of the network cards.  Plus, I'm miffed that Dell is not supporting Windows 10 for our older machine that still has a lot of life (it was a very popular version).

 

So, I'd research carefully.  Current offerings can change in a short amount of time so I recommend waiting as long as possible before actually buying a new non-apple laptop.  At some point, you just need to jump, but if it isn't needed until late summer, I'd try to wait because new stuff seems to come out around back-to-school.  Maybe Dell will fix their issues.  Bumping up to the XPS line, it would have cost more to get the same configuration as what I got on the Samsung.  Ds13 really wanted to get the pro version of the Samsung (has an Nvidia graphics card) but I didn't think it was necessary and that one was much heavier.

 

I would also suggest getting one with a SSD rather than a spinning hard drive - faster and quieter.  They are much more widely available than even a year ago.  (All the newer MacBooks are SSD, solid state drive aka flash storage)

 

I kind of wanted to get the 13" Samsung - it's only 1.9 lbs.  There are some minor differences between the 13 and 15" models.

 

ETA, in hunting down reviews, besides CNET, I liked this site in particular:  http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebook.htm, especially the one that compares Samsung Notebook 9 to Dell XPS

 

 

Thank-you! That is really helpful.  We had been looking at the XPS, so I will look more closely at the Samsung line.

[Katy]

Get the Pro.  More important than the model is getting the extended warranty though.  My current laptop has been fine, but the Apple Care plan more than paid for itself with the one I had several years ago.  They ended up basically giving me a new computer because of the work needed on it (it was the older cheap model with a plastic case - that case kept breaking and causing issues.  If nothing else it will pay for itself in new power cords when they fray.