I am looking to get my daughter some sort of macbook or macbook air for christmas. She will be using it for college. I have no idea what the difference between a a reg macbook and the air version? I want to try and stay around $6-800 for a used or refurbished one. Which one would be better for her needs? Which year model will suffice staying within my budget.
Thx in advance.
Hi
Paul....... -
Ashwin has already given you some excellent advice and you need to provide us w/ more information on your daughter's potential need for a computer in college, i.e. will she just be writing reports, checking email, and browsing the web, or more intensive work, such as complicated mathematics, complex audiovisual needs, etc.? The latter would obviously impact on wanting a more recent device w/ plenty of speed (i.e. more RAM) and excellent graphics just to mention a few considerations.
As you likely know Apple hardware is relatively expensive compared to PC computers and your budget of less than $800 is not going to buy much recent and powerful in the Apple world - just for 'sticker shock', the first pic below is a composite made from just visiting Apple's website - the 3 'new' laptops are offered currently and the prices at the bottom are just the starter costs (more if RAM & SSD are increased and faster electronics/graphics are desired; plus, don't forget AppleCare). The next 2 pics are from
Apple's Refurbished Site showing some MacBook & Mac Air offerings verifying that a thousand bucks might be your cheapest entry price - now of course you could look for offers on older Apple laptops w/o the warranty given by Apple, but the deals become more risky.
You might want to provide some further thoughts, e.g. can your budget be increased and/or are you willing to look at non-Apple computers? Good luck and please post back your thoughts. Dave
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