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For those of you who have Apple - MacBook Pro 14" Laptop - M3 chip - 8GB Memory - 10-core GPU - 512GB SSD - real world thoughts and hands on.
- Thread starter kp98077
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$400 cheaper than what? Another model? Or do you mean they are on sale for $400 less?
Does your kids’ workflow require a Pro device? Would the M2 Air work for them, for example?
The Air is a great machine that works well for a lot of tasks. If you are going to spec it up really large, then at some point it makes more sense to move to a base Pro model. But if their workflow doesn’t require it, the Airs would be a good machine and would save you a fair amount of money.
Does your kids’ workflow require a Pro device? Would the M2 Air work for them, for example?
The Air is a great machine that works well for a lot of tasks. If you are going to spec it up really large, then at some point it makes more sense to move to a base Pro model. But if their workflow doesn’t require it, the Airs would be a good machine and would save you a fair amount of money.
Yes, I'm citing the Best Buy sale of $1399 USD vs. $1799 USD for 16 RAM, true about air... thx
An M2 Air 15 inch would probs be a better call as I’d imagine there’d be limited space in a college dorm for a dedicated monitor and that extra inch of screen space does surprisingly make a fair bit of difference. That said, depending on the courses and the programs they may need to run towards the latter half of the degree, it may or may not cap the 8GB RAM out but I’d imagine there would be cloud / uni labs available for those edge cases.
Probs should be able to handle 90% of the workload.
Also, I dunno if this is still the case but I think there used to be some cases where the authorised Apple resellers at unis sometimes had better deals so wouldn’t hurt to shop around.
Probs should be able to handle 90% of the workload.
Also, I dunno if this is still the case but I think there used to be some cases where the authorised Apple resellers at unis sometimes had better deals so wouldn’t hurt to shop around.
LOL, the 3D animation majors would like to have a word with you.
Back in college in the late 2000s I took 3D animation as an elective and I remember so many kids in my class had Mac Pro towers in their dorms and apartments and they still complained about render times and we were only rendering 640x480. That class murdered my 2008 15” MBP which was one of the highest specs at the time and I had to get my work done well in advance so I could render out my sequences or spend all day in the lab workstations. With how realistic and high resolution things are expected to be nowadays, I could see these kids still needing a pretty beefy system. Especially something with a good chunk of unified memory and a decent amount of GPU cores.
biology students run very complex programs, data sets, etc. that's why I get so annoyed when apple says the "pro" is just for artist... lol.. the one I am referring to is the base M3 8 gig (everyone dislikes basically), I do feel that a sweet spot between an air and a pro.. esp. onsite for 1399
If the programs are so complex i guess a M1/2 Pro wich comes with 16GB makes more sense. I see them 30% discounted
I bought for $1399 MacBook Air M2 512 gb and 16 of Ram. I having the same headache now for the same price I could go back and switch it for a pro but 8gb of ram is a ridiculous it will be a sort term device; strategy from apple to make you jump to a $ 2000 laptop. I wish I could like windows but I can't !
