No budget and not used. For school I would use it for presentations and notes. That’s basic it. But I would also like it for personal use. (Gaming, web browsing, TV)
Thanks for all the replies! I wasn’t expecting much 😁
#1 thing for school, buy the lightest one you can, Macbook Air is the one you want. Actually my daughter did that and found it was still too big and then bought an iPad. The iPad is MUCH better because you can write on the screen with a pencil and it fits on those desk/chair things some rooms have.
For presentations, the iPad is really better. You can show slides and draw over them on screen with finger or pencil and you can hold the iPad in you hand as you talk and move around
#2 You probably do need a "real computer" with keyboard and mouse. But you can keep it at home on your desk. For that, a Mini would work but the Air is more flexible because you can take it with you.
#3 buy a large monitor for your desk at home
#4 Finally about performance. Even the low-end base model will be overkill and so much better than what you have. If you are rich and have extra cash, buy more RAM then you can do silly things like run a Linux server in a virtual machine while you are taking notes in class. But if funds are limited buy a 10th-generation iPad rather than the extra RAM.
If you have listed a few RAM-hungry apps, like perhaps you are studying AI in school and want to run experiments on the notebook or if you were in film school then bump the RAM up
Some people will say "to be safe, just in case, maybe in the future, you might, maybe need more RAM so buy it now. This is good advice so long as you can still afford the iPad. More RAM can do no harm.
Buy a plastic "skin" case.
When I first. went to school for a computer science degree, you needed professional movers if you wanted to move a computer. Even a small one would need a dolly. But more recently in "retirement" I went back to grad school and also taught high school. What a change, I never needed to bring my Macbook Pro to either school, iPads "win" if you are on your feet all day. But you still can't do serious document creation with an iPad. Best top have both.