New to Mac, looking for a basic machine

[Bucktroo]

Gave up PC gaming a while back and have been computer-less for about 6 months....getting tough to do things lol

We had an old Chromebook but that thing is so limited it drives me nuts. I'm looking for basic usability. No gaming, just web browsing, school work for the kids (high school level), I'm wanting to tinker in Xcode/Swift some, and basic stuff like home budgeting, trip planning, etc.

Would the M3 MacBook Air 13" (8gb) be solid? Best Buy has it for $849 right now.

 

[Bigwaff]

Would the M3 MacBook Air 13" (8gb) be solid? Best Buy has it for $849 right now.

Yes. Even the M2 MBA would be solid for your computing use cases. I would recommend you purchase w/ as much system memory as budget allows, as 8GB is base configuration.

 

[ChrisA]

Gave up PC gaming a while back and have been computer-less for about 6 months....getting tough to do things lol

We had an old Chromebook but that thing is so limited it drives me nuts. I'm looking for basic usability. No gaming, just web browsing, school work for the kids (high school level), I'm wanting to tinker in Xcode/Swift some, and basic stuff like home budgeting, trip planning, etc.

Would the M3 MacBook Air 13" (8gb) be solid? Best Buy has it for $849 right now.

For your intended uses any current model Mac would be more than enough

The reason to upgrade above a base model is if your "tinkering" with Xcode involves creating AI-based software or if you decide to start shooting and editing a lot of videos. Then I would say "any current Mac with 16GB of RAM". But doing only what you said, the base model is almost overkill.

 

[klspahr]

I love my 2020 M1 MacBook Air, it’s small, light, and does everything I need. You can get them quite CHEAP now. My only regret is I didn’t get 1 terabyte of storage.

 

[smirking]

I'm presuming you're not doing any heavy application development so yeah the base model will suit you fine. I had an 8GB early M1 and used XCode to compile an iOS app I maintain. No issues.

The lack of a fan in the MBA models could make it slow down a bit on anything sustained, but I'm guessing a few seconds lost in a compile job isn't going to cause you to lose sleep.

 

[Fishrrman]

I'll take flak for posting this advice, but...

... DON'T buy ANY Mac UNLESS it has 16gb of RAM.
8gb is "no longer enough".

It might SEEM to be ok for now... but I predict that in the longer term... if you get a Mac with only 8gb of RAM, you're going to be disappointed, and wish it had more. But by then it will be too late.

 

[Suzatlarge]

I love my 2020 M1 MacBook Air, it’s small, light, and does everything I need. You can get them quite CHEAP now. My only regret is I didn’t get 1 terabyte of storage.

I like mine too. It's not my main computer, but it can do everything my MacBook Pro does, with a minor exception. (The Air doesn't support the Photoshop Beta that has the fancy AI, but it runs Photoshop 2024 just fine.)

I do find the 256G internal storage is - snug. I try to keep the internal drive no more than half full, and it seems to fill up fast when I download videos, etc. OTOH I got it on sale at MicroCenter not all that long after the M1 Macs were released - a purchase I've never regretted. I just periodically clear the clutter off the internal drive and count my blessings.