which Macbook Pro out of these choices help

happyhero

Hi I am a PC man but the rest of my family is Apple hooked and my 18 year old daughter is about to do a degree in an Art based class. They said she needs to get a Macbook in the first year and most of the students manage that, amazing considering their prices and they are only students but anyway the Macbook Pro keeps being suggested as the best with its screen quality etc.


I am pretty reasonable on a PC but a little clueless on Apple Macs so can anybody guide me a little please?


We went into a Stormfront shop and the ones we looked at were a 13inch 3.1GHz 256GB Iris Plus 650 with 8Gb Ram and touch bar priced at £1799 and the other cheaper one was a 13inch 2.3GHz 256GB with lower Iris 640 and 8Gb ram for £1449 will there be a notable difference between the 3.1 and 2.3 GHz, i.e. is it worth the extra money?


I could go cheaper and pick a smaller storage of 128GB to save money but I am worried it is not enough considering she will be using it for 3 years and lots of graphics, especially when I am used to PC’s with Terabyte drives, what you think?


With Pc’s I learnt to buy the biggest drives and fastest PC to be future proofed but with Apple that gets expensive very quickly, help please.

flashg67

I'm a PC man too but my stepdaughter is doing a graphic design type course and 'had to have' a MAC (big chunk out of her loan!). She manages with a small SSD and the 13" screen, but went for 16gb of RAM as she uses Photoshop etc - is that an option for you? She left the other features like touch bar & faster processor as unnecessary luxuries.
I bought her a cheap external hard drive for backups, but If there is a 256Gb SSD option, might be worth looking at if affordable.

happyhero

flashg67 wrote: »

I'm a PC man too but my stepdaughter is doing a graphic design type course and 'had to have' a MAC (big chunk out of her loan!). She manages with a small SSD and the 13" screen, but went for 16gb of RAM as she uses Photoshop etc - is that an option for you? She left the other features like touch bar & faster processor as unnecessary luxuries.
I bought her a cheap external hard drive for backups, but If there is a 256Gb SSD option, might be worth looking at if affordable.

Cheers flashg67 for the info, so how much odes it work out for an external drive? I know with PC's all you need is a drive and a USB cable but arnt Apple awkward with having ordinary USB's, I mean what do you need extra with a drive to make it all work and so what is total cost for say a 1TB external drive for a Macbook?

wongataa

happyhero wrote: »

Hi I am a PC man but the rest of my family is Apple hooked and my 18 year old daughter is about to do a degree in an Art based class. They said she needs to get a Macbook in the first year and most of the students manage that, amazing considering their prices and they are only students but anyway the Macbook Pro keeps being suggested as the best with its screen quality etc.

I would question the course administrators why she needs an Apple computer. Will she be using software only available on Apple computers (probably not)? If she will be using cross platform software such as Photoshop then surely she could use a Windows computer which would broaden what machines you could look at.

Chino

happyhero wrote: »

but anyway the Macbook Pro keeps being suggested as the best with its screen quality etc.

It appears that the keyboard on a modern MacBook isn't as resilient to day to day use as one might reasonably expect from such an expensive machine:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/pool-macbook-pro-13-15-2017-keyboard-issue.2109154/#post-26001363
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgc69MAdYE0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KuVvb9DTaU

JP1978

Can you buy a 2nd hand (refurb) MB Pro? I believe (please correct me if I am wrong) that the newer machines are non upgradeable for SSD/RAM so you are kinda forced into 'future proofing'

I have a late 2011 MBPro (13", 500GB, 4Gb when new) and is now 256GB SSD and 16GB RAM - 2.3Ghz Intel i5 and is running just fine and looks as new.

suki1964

John Lewis have been selling Mac Pros with interest free credit if thats any help once you have chosen

knightstyle

Ask Stormfront if they have any refurbished Macbooks and will they match Apple UK refurbished prices.
If not get one direct from Apple UK. The refurbished ones are indistinguishable from new and come with full warranty.
Also ask Stormfront about Applecare at a reduced price.
I am now on my third Macbook, all bought from Apple UK refurbished and I get Applecare from Ebay but it must be an actual package, posted to me, not just a code or there is no Ebay buyers protection.

Carrot007

Don't forget about the apple education discount if you buy direct.

flashg67

Any external HDD will do, the mac will format it. I made my own from a spare laptop hard drive & cheap ebay caddy.

To those asking if a mac is needed - probably not, but to buy a Windows laptop with similar spec is still best part of £1000+. I have to agree that the mac is a neat machine and the screen is lovely to look at!

es5595

If she *must* have a Mac, consider getting an old one and refurbishing, at least initially.
My MacBook pro is now 8 years old is a 13 inch mid 2010 model, and a similar one can be picked up for a couple of hundred £. Mine has a DVD drive, and i've upgraded it to 16GB ram, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 256GB SSD, and NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB graphics card, and it runs fast. No issues at all.
Well worth considering if she's never used a macOS before. However, i'd echo what previous posters have said, apple are no longer cutting edge for graphics, and simply cost more, so this should be seriously considered before spending £££ on a brand new, top-of-the-range model.