My Friends Always Ask Me What MacBook to Buy. Here's What I Tell Them

We each have that 1 friend who's tech-savvy that everyone turns to for advice, particularly up of large waste events for illustration Amazon Prime Day. Well, that's me. I'm that guy.

When group find retired what I do for a living, everything gets turned up to 11. I reappraisal laptops for my job, and almost everyone needs one. If group don't cognize wherever to begin, here's really I guideline them done nan process of picking nan correct Apple MacBook—where I urge you start.

Start With nan MacBook Air

You mightiness deliberation narrowing your prime of laptop down to a MacBook would help, but these days, choosing an Apple laptop isn't arsenic elemental arsenic it ought to be. You've sewage 2 sizes of MacBook Airs, 2 sizes of MacBook Pros, and each nan spot configurations, ranging from nan M4 to nan M4 Max. That doesn't moreover see nan plethora of older models that flood nan hunt results of online retailers.

That's why I for illustration to support it simple. When personification comes to me, asking which MacBook to buy, I commencement them pinch nan 13-inch MacBook Air M4. It's nan laptop astir group should buy, which is why it's astatine nan apical of our Best Laptops and Best MacBooks guides. The unit value is $999, but it's almost ever connected waste for astatine slightest $899, and astatine nan clip of writing, it's down to $849. While it doesn't travel pinch overmuch retention (only 256 GB), it does commencement pinch 16 GB of RAM (or unified memory, arsenic Apple calls it).

From there, I make them springiness me reasons they should get thing bigger aliases much powerful. I don't want my existent friends and family spending a dime much than they should, and I cognize immoderate will think they request to upgrade to nan MacBook Pro, moreover if it's conscionable nan M4 model.

Let's beryllium real. You apt don't request nan other capacity of nan M4 Pro aliases M4 Max chips. Unless you edit video, nutrient music, aliases sprout photos for a living, it's not worthy spending hundreds (or thousands) much to velocity up video renders. The M4 MacBook Air is tin of acold much than group realize. Upgrading to nan M4 Pro and M4 Max is chiefly astir improving graphics and multicore CPU performance, but it's only thing imaginative professionals will get overmuch retired of.

Reasons to Upgrade

A portion of nan problem is that we're still operating arsenic if it's 2015. A decade ago, it wasn't conscionable that definite tasks were faster connected a 16-inch MacBook Pro; it was that nan aged MacBook Airs couldn't execute these astatine all. If you were an amateur musician, artist, aliases programmer, you were forced into redeeming up for a MacBook Pro aliases forgoing those hobbies for nan clip being. Apple Silicon changed that equation entirely, and procreation aft generation, its M-series chips get much capable. Now, we're astatine nan constituent wherever nan M4 is rather capable, moreover successful nan fanless assemblage of nan MacBook Air.