Help with buying a Mac

[MKCP5]

DD just graduated from high school and is headed to College on the fall. Although we have always had PC's she really wants a Mac for school. My family all got together and gave her a huge gift card to put towards it as her graduation gift. Can anyone give us good info on what to buy? They don't ever discount their products, right? Is the main difference between a macbook and a macbook pro the retina display and disc drive? And what is retina display? LOL Completely at a loss here! Thanks so much!

 

[MKCP5]

PS My DH is a teacher, if that helps for a discount

 

[oneandonlytara]

Your daughter should get a student discount when buying her Mac. I'm not sure what that entails, but probably just proof that she's enrolled in college. I don't believe newer Macs come with disc drives anymore, so if that's important, she'll need to get an external one that connects via usb. She'll probably want a laptop if she plans on using it in class. I'd look at Macbook airs in that case. They're super thin and lightweight. I have one of the last Macbook pro laptops to have a disc drive, but I can tell you, I think I've used the drive less than 10 times in the three years I've had my Mac. Airs have never had them because they are so thin. Retina display means that the resolution of the screen is the same as what your eye would see (so, less pixelated) but personally for me, I don't notice much of a difference to want to pay for a retina.

Above all, get AppleCare. It's $250 extra, but trust me, it will come in handy. You get a one year standard warranty, and AppleCare extends that by two years, which makes three years of warranty. It will cover things like hard drive failure, logic board failure, hardware issues but not drops or spills. It saved my wallet when my hard drive died less than a year after owning my machine. I was still within the one year warranty period so the repair was free. You don't have to purchase AppleCare upfront and have a year to decide to enroll in it, but I strongly recommend it.

Hope she enjoys her new Mac.

 

[Best Aunt]

I ordered a Mac a few years ago by calling Apple on the phone. They asked if I had a student in the family. I said I had a nephew who was in college. They said that was good enough, and gave me the student discount. No proof required.

Best Buy sells Macs now, so be sure to check their prices.

 

[tvguy]

I ordered a Mac a few years ago by calling Apple on the phone. They asked if I had a student in the family. I said I had a nephew who was in college. They said that was good enough, and gave me the student discount. No proof required.

Best Buy sells Macs now, so be sure to check their prices.

Education discount is about the only price break you will get. Now, Best Buy often throws in extras that Apple doesn't. They threw in their extended warranty and an iPod Touch, so we bought there instead of from Apple.

 

[DawnM]

When did you have the iPod thrown in? Recently?

Education discount is about the only price break you will get. Now, Best Buy often throws in extras that Apple doesn't. They threw in their extended warranty and an iPod Touch, so we bought there instead of from Apple.

 

[tvguy]

When did you have the iPod thrown in? Recently?

No, not recently. 4 years ago when DD went off to college.

 

[DSNY4ever]

Macbook Air. Light and easy to use laptop (easy for her to pack in her backpack...get one of those backpacks with a protective slot for the laptop!). And tell her to be SUPER careful bringing it places or even leaving it out and visible in her dorm room. College kids are notorious for leaving their dorm room doors open or unlocked as friends come in and out, and things can get snatched easily!

 

[DawnM]

Ok, the year after that they stopped doing that. They now give $100 app store gift cards.

Dawn

No, not recently. 4 years ago when DD went off to college.

 

[Hisgirl]

I also only used a PC and after all the headaches about viruses and malware, I finally decided I was done.

Bought a macbook pro and I love it. I chose it over the air because I do use CDs and I like to burn CDs for the car. I take my mac with me and didn't want to have to bring a separate disc drive everywhere I went. This was the thing that defined my decision.

It's been a bit of a challenge to learn to use it. I paid the $99 for the year worth of lessons and it has been worth it. I found that I relate to the girl teachers better. The guys seemed to have a teaching agenda and wanted me to learn the topic for the week, but I have just been writing down my questions as they come up, and the gal answers my questions and show me how to do what I need to do.

It's such a pressure-free way to own a computer. Oh! One more thing. I bought mine through a store called Peach Mac. They actually came down on the price when I chose to get a few extras.

 

[dawnball]

A Retina display has many more pixels per inch. That means that the display is sharper and can show more detail. Specifically, Retina displays are designed so that the human eye can't discern individual pixels at standard viewing distances.

That isn't the only difference between a macbook and a macbook pro, though. I like the 13" size, as kind of the sweet spot between usability and weight, and it's where there's the most variety in models, so that's what I'll cover. In 13" you have the macbook air, the macbook pro and the macbook pro with retina display.

The macbook air weighs just under 3lb. The macbook pro weighs 4.5lb, and the macbook pro with retina display weighs 3.5 lb. Go to an apple store and lift them all. Look at the sizes too - a macbook air is notably smaller than a macbook pro - not so much smaller than the pro with retina display.

The macbook pro has the most powerful processor. It will be fastest for anything that's processor-bound. It's only slightly faster than the macbook pro with retina display, but notably faster than the macbook air. If she's going to mostly be writing papers and browsing the internet, it probably doesn't matter. If she's a science, math or computer science major (compiling, modeling, statistics, etc), it's likely to make a difference. Video editing, photoshop, etc will also take a lot of processing power.

The macbook pro with retina display can take more RAM. RAM also influences speed - especially if you're doing many things at once. If she'll be working with large files (graphics editing, analyzing data sets, etc), having more RAM is a benefit. As I recall, you can't upgrade the RAM in a retina mac book pro, so unless you were planning to buy the one with 16GB of RAM - it's a moot point. The RAM in the regular macbook pro is upgradeable, so she could start with 4GB and upgrade to 8GB.

The regular macbook pro can still use a spinning disk. The air and retina can only use SSDs. An SSD is faster, and a little more reliable due to a lack of moving parts. Spinning disks are pretty reliable these days, so I'd think more about the speed than the reliability. Spinning disks can also make a little bit of noise.

Battery life - the Air gets you 12 hours of battery life. Macbook pro has 7. Retina macbook pro has 9.

I noticed some other minor differences when I was in the apple store. Things like - the keyboards are differently responsive, and have slightly different key spacing. They're subtle differences and a matter of personal preference. Some of the differences I didn't care about, and some were considerations. I count the superdrive in "minor differences" because I haven't ever needed the external superdrive we have - you might consider it a more significant factor.

I have a 13" Retina macbook pro. My second choice would have been a 13" macbook air (and I almost bought one the week before the retina macbooks came out). Battery life, size and weight mean a lot when you're carrying your laptop to class, or even when you're carrying it around the house. For most purposes, they can all be configured to be sufficiently powerful. The screens are all pretty nice. I went to the apple store 2-3 times and played around with them before I made my choice.

If you're looking for a discount, student discounts are your best bet. If your state offers a tax-free day for back to school, that's a good time to buy. I'd buy a refurbished macbook, but I know not everyone would. They get the standard 1 year warranty, and you can buy applecare on them.

 

[Mommee]

DS went with the 13 inch Macbook pro after doing a ton of research. He was going to get the air, but something about his math classes and making it through the next 4 years made the choice for him (can you tell I'm not computer literate? Lol). He couldn't find a better deal than the student discount. It arrived yesterday and he's in heaven!

 

[danygirl]

See if her college has a purchase program

 

[KCmike]

Without question get the Macbook air and the student discount. My daughter printed off a coupon to use at best buy.

 

[greentea]

I'd say it depends how she plans to use it and what she's going to be studying in college.

I have a Macbook Air. Super lightweight, very nice to use, don't miss having a disc drive at all (I have an external drive and I think I used it once). Great if she plans to take it to class or carry it around often.

Macbook Pro -- If she does computer gaming, if she'll be going into a computer-related field (programming or something) or graphic design, she might want the extra power and the retina display.

I'd take her to an Apple Store and let her try out the display models in person, see what she thinks. It's helpful to see them in person and she can also ask questions there.

 

[mom2att]

Don't be afraid to buy a refurbished model directly from Apple. The discount on refurbs usually comes out to more than the educational discount, plus you can find models that have extras (bigger HD, higher processing speed) for the same as a new base model.

And a refurb is essentially a brand-new machine. They are returns that Apple wipes and makes new, backed by the exact same warranty that comes with a new Mac. They might come in a plain cardboard box instead of a cool looking white box that says "MacBook Pro," but inside the box everything is the same.

We bought a 13" MBP with retina display at Christmas for dd's combo Christmas/graduation present. I got one as well, and I love it. Had a MacBook before, so it wasn't a huge change for me, but the retina display is awesome and I like the smaller size. It is also VERY quiet. Both dd and I like having a disc drive, so we bought the external Super Drive and haven't had any problems with it.

 

[allison443]

DS went with the 13 inch Macbook pro after doing a ton of research. He was going to get the air, but something about his math classes and making it through the next 4 years made the choice for him (can you tell I'm not computer literate? Lol). He couldn't find a better deal than the student discount. It arrived yesterday and he's in heaven!

My DD (also heading to college in the fall) also picked the 13 inch Macbook Pro. We used the student discount as well. She absoutely loves it!

 

[ArmchairDetective]

I'm not sure how soon you need it, but be sure to check if your state has a tax-free weekend. I know in MO it's the first weekend of August. Combined with the student discount it can be great savings. Also, check Best Buy for any open items that have been discounted.

I got my 27" iMac as an open item and saved nearly $800. My wife got her Macbook Air as an open item and saved nearly $400!

The iMac was returned because the person who bought it couldn't get the Bluetooth Keyboard to work. Works fine for me!