I am looking for some recommendations on the best confirguration on a MacBook Air (13 inch) for a Univeristy student.
As a student most of the work will be done in cloud applications (Google, OneDrive) and some Python programming. I am trying to ensure some longevity and future proofing. I don’t really have a specific budget in mind but I would like it to be somewhat reasonable. (Canadian dollars)
Things I am considered
M1 vs M2 => I think I prefer the M2
8 core vs 10 core
8 GB vs 16 GB memory
256 GB vs 512 GB vs 1 TB
Without knowing how intense “some Python programming” will be, or what the student will be studying, the M2, 8 core, 16GB, 512GB or more (depends on their media collection size) configuration is most likley the sweet spot.
M1 is an amazing machine, and I recommended it a relative after the M2 came out. No regrets there. Lots of pundits went head over heels for the M2 because it has a new design and MagSafe as far as I could see, so if you value those for the price difference, go for it.
If there’s little to no advanced programming or scientific analysis, 8 GB is probably plenty and 8 cores will probably appear to perform as well as 10 cores.
Disk space is my first upgrade these days. My relative only used about 30 GB on her machine, so got the base model. I get 1 TB.
As you can tell, I’m of the opinion that modern M-chip Macs are all more than enough for most users, and I predict they will last ages. Power users will always push things.
I’ve always been a typical “office worker”. I have a base model M1 MBA with Drafts, Safari, Edge, Chrome, EagleFiler, Messages, 1Password, Arq, Google Drive, and Mail open all the time. I may need a replacement some day but I’m never going to need an upgrade.
M1 versus M2 only matters for longevity to carry the computer beyond a 4 year university career, with M2 having a longer lifespan. Alternatively said, if you envision that you will need a new computer in about three years (more powerful, larger screen …), go with a cheaper system now.
8 vs 10 only matters for heavy-duty parallel processing applications
Always go bigger on internal storage. Get as much as you can stretch your budget to afford at purchase time.
This reminds me how the base model only has 8 gb ram and that it’s works for most people, which is truly amazing. Personally, the 512 gb is minimum for disk space. Then bump up to 16 gb if you can afford it.
I’m a college professor (Political Science). I do some data analysis (so occasionally run Tableau Desktop, VS Code, or RStudio, in addition to Excel) and occasional screen casting (with ScreenFlow). Most of my day-to-day work is browser-based or in apps like Things, iA Writer, PDFExpert, Obsidian, and the like.
I have an M1 MacBook Air, 16 GB RAM, 1TB of storage. I almost never run into any issues. I suppose if screen casting were my main thing I might want something that could export video faster, but that’s about the only reason I could think of for ever needing an upgrade rather than a replacement.
I keep all my files on disk to ensure that Backblaze will pick them up. Currently, I’m using about 3/4 of my storage nearly three years in — but 219 GB of that is a separate volume running Sonoma. When we’re out of beta season, that will go away and I’ll reclaim the space. (And honestly, the betas in general have been so stable this year that I’m tempted to update the main volume to Sonoma, but I’m not sure whether ScreenFlow would work. I don’t use it super often, but when I need it, I need it.)
Apart from what everyone said here, if they will learn Python in university something tells me it’s ML or Data Engineering course. I would get the top tier CPU and RAM of M2 MBA.
The important thing to consider is how they will use Python. If they’re using Pandas or other libraries written in C then more cores is an improvement, as many Python libraries can take advantage of multi-core processors and GPU (e.g. PyTorch). However, if they are just learning to program, i.e. basic computer science, core Python is single-threaded so adding cores doesn’t make any difference at all.
I have taught both business and computer science students. The former will do with a low-end configuration for CPU/GPU and 16gb RAM. I recommend computer or data science students get at least a Pro processor/configuration.
I agree with increasing RAM, get as much as you can afford.
Looks good, but if your budget allows, go for the next increment up on disk space. Can never upgrade the machine, although you can use external disks. Mac’s last a very long time.
Still, it’s worth getting as much storage on board as you can reasonably afford, especially on a laptop. External drives are certainly workable, but they’re a bit of a bother on portable machines.
Unless the student plays lots of games (in which case they would much prefer a Windows computer!) or is in a program where they will be using pro apps like FinalCut, a minimal MacBook Air would be more than sufficient for all four years and grad school as well if pushed. And because of portability concerns, the 13" over the 15".
I checked my archives from 25 years of teaching part time and it took 150GB, 80 of which were video recordings of my lectures. And editing those videos was a heavier demand than doing any of the assignments. This was an Electrical Engineering program.
