<p>Hi guys,
I'm planning to head to college in a year (class of '15) and am planning to buy a computer this summer (partly for a summer camp and partly because I SERIOUSLY need one of my own). I've always been an Apple customer and never have been a fan of Windows - my Apple purchases have always been positive ones while my Windows computers tend to crash within a year or two of purchase. </p>
<p>So I was wondering which Mac I should buy? I really like the Air's minimal weight and durability, and the display and size is good enough for me. But my dad did point out the availability of upgradeable memory on the Pro as well as the presence of the optical drive, not to mention the slightly higher processing power. </p>
<p>I will be using this computer for all the typical functions of a college student - internet, word/powerpoint/etc., music/movies (big for me) and all that stuff. I'm not planning to major in engineering per se (I want to double major in International Relations and Applied Math) but will the Air fit all my requirements for this? Also, I'm not sure how much I will need an optical drive (I burn a lot of CDs for voice and musical theater auditions and the like, and I also watch a lot of DVDs...). So which product do you recommend?</p>
<p>The non-retina MacBook Pro is a waste of money. It’s a 2012 computer, and Apple is discontinuing it this year.</p>
<p>Any MacBook Air will be faster simply because the non-Retina MBP ships with an insanely slow hard drive, while the Air and Retina MBPs have SSDs. Ignore the processor speeds.</p>
<p>Both the Air and the non-Retina MPBs have pretty bad screens compared to Retina MPBs, but the Air justifies this by having 13 hours of battery life. The non-Retina MPB doesn’t.</p>
<p>I would get an Air and the Apple USB DVD drive. I think there’s also a Samsung one for $30 that works fine as well.</p>
<p>What did you mean by upgradable memory? If you mean RAM, you won’t need more than 4GB, although I’d get 8GB just to be safe. OS X has excellent memory management. I survived for a year with a 4GB Air and never had an issue, even when running heavy programs. If it’s Hard Drive space, I would get an external.</p>
<p>I don’t think you have to get an Apple external DVD drive. It just comes in a shinier case than the discount ones you can get, and it will only work with Apple devices. (I don’t know how they managed to make a DVD drive that only works with Macs, but it was a really frustrating discovery at work once…)</p>
<p>For RAM, there are two ways it can be “upgradable.” Either there are 2 slots so you can add more RAM, or there is 1 slot and you can replace the RAM. The problem comes when the RAM is sautered to the motherboard and not replaceable. I think this is the case with the Air but not the Pro.</p>
<p>Yes, you can’t upgrade RAM on the new Macs, but like I said, it’s not a problem. OS X now has excellent memory compression and usage, especially compared to Windows. You have to remember that Apple gets to tailor their OS to their hardware, so it performs well despite the seemingly lower specs. But yeah, I recommend a non-Apple DVD drive. They are much cheaper and still work fine.</p>
<p>Thanks guys! I think I am going to get a 13" Air with 4GB and 256 flash storage. I did want an 8GB but it’s out of budget for me (I’m paying for this computer myself). But do you think this model will last me through college, memory, durability, and otherwise?</p>
<p>I’m not very knowledgeable about laptops but wanted to give you a link to a buying guide for Mac to give you an idea about when to make purchases and when to hold off:
<a href=“MacRumors Buyer's Guide: Know When to Buy iPhone, Mac, iPad”>MacRumors Buyer's Guide: Know When to Buy iPhone, Mac, iPad;
<p>Apple usually has a back-to-school promotion starting in July. I would wait to buy your laptop then. Other stores like Best Buy often have promotions to compete with Apple’s. </p>
<p>Apple also has education pricing, so you can save a bit that way, too: <a href=“Buy MacBook Air - Education - Apple”>http://store.apple.com/us-hed/buy-mac/macbook-air</a></p>
<p>Also, just looked it up and apparently absolutely NOTHING is upgradable/replaceable on new MacBooks and even has tamper-resistant screws. Classy move, Apple…</p>
<p>^^ Thanks guys but I’m planning to buy it refurbished, so those deals still knock education pricing and discounts out of the park</p>