What MacBook to buy?

Hi there, I hope one or many of you all can help me decide what Mac I should purchase, and what amount of storage I should need.


I am a second-year college student, and I'm trying to decide between getting the MacBook Air or the MacBook Pro, and I have reasons to get or not get one of them. For the Air, I hear the battery life is amazing, having USB ports is extremely helpful, and the price is obviously nice for a student like me. I plan on upgrading the processor to the i7 for the extra $150 if I get it. For the Pro, I like the screen resolution, power, and overall look of it. What I hate is the USB-C ports being not very student-friendly for flash drives and the cost is much much higher, especially if I am looking to upgrade from the i5 to i7 like I would the Air. I will not be editing any videos, making music, or anything outside of watching Netflix, Youtube, and for class purposes.


As for the storage argument, I use apps like Spotify and Google Drive to get through my days, and I use flash drives often too. I have a very small amount of pictures on my phone and little to none on my current laptop. Because I don't have any need to store documents or music on my laptop, would I be able to get by with the 128GB SSD? Or is the upgrade to 256GB worth the money? All reviews I have read point to the 128GB, but will it be enough to last me a few years?


I truly want a laptop that will last me until the rest of college, so any outlook on this would be amazing. Thank you!

Posted on Aug 27, 2018 6:36 PM

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3 replies

Aug 27, 2018 6:54 PM in response to loljer123

Your argument against the more expensive MacBook Pro is excellent. Don't pay the premium for that.


The 128GB drive is half-committed when you get it. about 30GB of System and Apps, 10GB to start MacOS, and you need to leave 20GB or so free to avoid fragmeting files and slowing everything down.


If I were King, I would only let them sell that in Middle schools.


Remember that everything in these models you buy now is soldered down for maximum reliability. So go a little larger than you think you need for longest life.


You also need:

• A backup drive, but it does not have to be fast for Time Machine.

• AppleCare, unless you are willing to pay full price for a broken screen out-of-pocket in year two and three.

Aug 27, 2018 7:07 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thank you for the response! You said I shouldn’t pay the premium for the Pro, and then you say 128GB isn’t enough space.


So should I go for the Mac Air? Like I said I planned to upgrade the processor but unfortunately I would most likely have to choose between a storage and processor upgrade. The i5 it comes with is better than my current i3, so is the more storage the way to go? Thank you.

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What MacBook to buy?

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