Apple laptop - what to buy now?

Hi everyone.

In a nutshell, can someone please advise on the best choice of a secondhand MacBook for a new first year student?

My eldest is about to start college (how did that happen so quickly) and will need a laptop. Owning an iPad, child No1 wants stay within the Apple bubble. The obvious elephant in the room is Apple Silicon, so we don’t want to buy new. I’m torn between a cheap Air and use for six months or so, or preferably an older MacBook Pro and use for a couple of years until Apple make the full transition to silicon and iron out the inevitable wrinkles, and also allow time for the software developers to adapt…

I was considering a 2013 -2015 3rd gen, 15” retina for the better screen, or would the 4th gen Touch Bar be better? Would also need to support the latest MacOS. As the Mac will be running some of the the Adobe Creative Suite, power under the hood and a decent graphics card would be ideal. Which model and best graphics card for the task etc?

As always, thoughts and suggestions gratefully received as to what to consider, and also to avoid, as I’m out of the loop in terms of Apple’s recent laptop range.

I have a 15" MacBook Pro - a late 2013 model, which has been no problem at all. It was sold with Mountain Lion, I think, and it’s now running on High Sierra. I seem to remember that there were a few issues with early touchbar models.

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I have owned a number of MacBook Pros, but now I find the Dell XPS 13 or 15 or 17 are equally good, if not better, especially they are cheaper with the same specs.

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If you look at the Apple store they do refurbished laptops with a full warranty might be worth checking out.

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@anon56221831. A Dell is an idea, and we haven’t ruled out a PC - no axe to grind either way on the Apple vs PC debate, but there is definite preference for a MacBook, to be able to sync with iCloud / iPad etc.

@pcd. Yes, have already looked. Some good prices, but still a little too new really, especially with Silicon laptops due next year.

I bought my daughter a MacBook Pro in 2012 when she started at university and it is still going strong today. About 2 years ago we upgraded the memory and RAM and it is fine with latest versions of OS

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You need to avoid the MacBook Pros with the poor keyboards. I think that means anything from about 2018 up until the 2020 refreshes.

There are multiple Youtube videos giving you advice about this. I suggest spending some time watching those. If I had to make a decision for one of my grandkids right now, and it had to be Apple, it would be a new entry level MacBook Air, which costs about 1000 $s or £s. Don’t be tempted to spend more on the higher priced model with the upgraded processor because the cooling can’t handle it and so the laptop is always throttled back.

Best

David

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Having used Macbook’s daily for the last 10 years and giving them heavy use I can honestly say that they represent some of the best value for money purchases ever made. My previous one which was a 2013 high spec pro is still in use and is indistinguishable from the new 2019 top spec model in terms of performance apart from the very heaviest of tasks which I doubt it will be being employed to do as you are in desktop territory there. 2013/14’s represent a great deal. I dislike the new top bar And would much prefer a return to function keys. The keyboard on the newer ones is not as good either, the desire for slimmer and slimmer units demand compromise. Not a problem really for me as I almost always use it as a mobile desktop plugging into a big 32” 4k monitor at home and work with the relevant mouse/keyboard.

The Air models just don’t have enough clout in my experience. Fine for email and web browsing but anything more and it will be struggling to keep the heat down.

The ecosystem created by apple is one of a kind and I would never move away now. Your ‘life’ is without effort always backed up and available on any device. Lose a computer, no worries, get another and relink icloud and pick up where you left off. For me thats invaluable.

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The 2020 Airbooks and Pros have new keyboards which are the same as the older (pre-2018) Pros had.
Best

David

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I am the victim of the MacBook Pro keyboard, had to send it to Apple to fix it “three” times.

Before Apple acknowledged the issue, I spent 1/2 day with a Genius guys @ an Apple Store, he was not convinced of what I told him, and kept telling me that I set up something wrong with my MacBook, very frustrating and a pain on the neck. :frowning:

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Agreed - I bought one in March 2018, previous time March 2015. The 2018 purchase has been less good than any other I had. The keyboard has been a bit iffy (and I usually use a separate keyboard), the Touch Bar is generally annoying and the touch pad irritatingly sensitive, and now the battery has terrible life. Plus once it gets down to 16% it just dies without warning and then when you plug it in it appears showing 17%. The previous purchase is still in good nick at three years older and feels much more sturdy and well made

Not sure what I will do next year - I replace every three years but keep the last one as backup. A couple of times that has saved my business bacon! But I think I may trade it in this time and keep the previous one

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Items between 5-7 years are considered Vintage and can probably still be serviced.

Items considered Obsolete are over 7years and Apple are unlikely to repair them.

Take a look at:

The keyboard issue mentioned on recent Macbooks is a frustration, and in some ways I’m a little annoyed getting some for the kids last year, but they’ve been invaulable in lockdown for home schooling as each child has needed some sort of computer, though naturally a Mac was not needed and cheaper computers would probably be fine.

I have an old 2015 MBP that I really need to see if I can get repaired (liquid damage) as it was a fine machine.

If you can get an older machine for a great price maybe consider it, but if it’s cost that’s the concern there may be better non-Apple options.

One reason I prefer older Macbooks/MBPs is USB 2.0/3.0 and Firewire ports, as well as hybrid audio in/out ports (digital and analogue via same 3.5 mm socket), primarily as I have dozens of older USB/FW peripherals and hate Apple’s USB C dongles. Most youngsters however will perhaps not need many legacy ports and the USB C ports are more versatile.

As mentioned by others many Apple laptops are not brilliant in terms of thermal efficiency and I’ve seen relatively innocuous apps causing fans to ramp up on the kids Macbooks which would annoy me, and sounds as though power may be important.

I was a Touch Bar sceptic - hardly essential but works well if you’re not paying a premium for it (kids Macbooks have it).

I guess they want a portable laptop, though if iPad/iPhone is also used portability may not be essential and you might get better performance from one of the latest Mac Minis with bring your own keyboard/mouse/trackpads/monitor options.

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Very helpful indeed everyone - thanks for taking the time to reply! I am leaning towards a 2015 model, as I’ve been watching the Luke Miani Youtube videos this evening (since I first posted) and he seems to really rate that era Mac.

If we do go for a later model, to confirm, I need to avoid the early ‘butterfly keyboard’ model…

Are the 5th Gen much more reliable in this regard?

As a left field option, what about an iPad Pro?

Sat in my local BMW dealer, i noted these have become popular with serious business users

The key thing is the back up with iCloud so any unfortunate loss of machine it is easily recoverable. Unlike the iriot next door who lost his work…

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The 2020 MacBook Airs and 13 inch MacBook Pros have the better keyboard that first appeared in the much more expensive 2019 16 inch MacBook Pros.

Best

David

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You don’t have to rely on backup from an iPad Pro to iCloud. You can use all sorts of cloud services, for example Google docs or Dropbox or Microsoft’s OneDrive for example. The key thing is to back the work up somewhere other than the iPad. Same is true of a MacBook Pro of course!

Best

David

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I have a 2018 13” MacBook Pro and it works perfectly. No keyboard issues at all. It runs Catalina and is super quick even though it’s only the 2.3Ghz i5 model with 8gb RAM. I can’t say touchbar vs function keys is a major concern. Both are fine.

You might also want to consider an iPad Pro.

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Check this

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I’ve got a MacBook Pro (early 2013)…I don’t think I’ll be buying another. I’ve had multiple hardware issues with the device. The screen anti-reflective coating has come off and is impacting the display. Apple wanted in the region of £800 to replace it because I reported it outside of a replacement program period even though it’s clearly a hardware issue not wear and tear. I’m on my 3rd power pack for the device and currently it appears that the battery needs replacing.

If you are buying second hand it’s worth check all the known hardware issues with their kit and making sure that whatever you are buying is either OK or still within the free repair period.

To top it their software upgrade program has left me with a number of unusable software products due to incompatability between releases. I get why they do it and you could argue that it all helps with the stability and security of the software but be aware.

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Thanks, I just put stuff on my MacBook and it’s there on my iPad.

Really surprising and faff free. Even found material on my Apple TV .

Very impressed (but I am a card carrying Luddite)