Year 7 Computing: MacBook Air or Pro

GLO on 30/11/2014 - 14:06

Hi, My son is going into Year 7 Highschool next year and the school is now giving the parents to BYO a Macbook Air or Macbook Pro.

Personally we are Windows/Android everything and the MacBook proposition has skews this.

Whilst I can see the specs between the Air and the Pro, I'd say he would best be served by a 13" or 15" size and this is mean to last him 3 years.

Have any other parents who have been down this path please comment.

I have a small presumption that the Macbook Air would be adequate for highschool studies.

Appreciate all comments in advance.

Computing

Comments

  • momoslayer95 on 02/12/2014 - 17:31

    13" Air base model

    Also don't get applecare…

  • sleet on 02/12/2014 - 21:32

    Back in my day, I had to carry a paper and a clipboard.

    • scrimshaw on 02/12/2014 - 23:07

      And back in my day, if we wanted to take music with us, we had to record it from the radio on a spool of magnetic tape, then stick it into a heavy box that hung from our belt with headphones that didn't even fit inside our ears.

      Now you guys have these "eye pods" or whatever schmanzy panzy gadgets you young whipper snappers like to use.

  • El Hefe on 02/12/2014 - 22:54
    +4

    I work in School IT. I have managed a fleet of over 1000 MacBooks.

    Personally, I am not a fan of Apple - their business ethics, holier-than-thou attitude, stupid ideological decisions reading just about everything, terrible support for education, weird billing for Educational apps, pathetic communication, walled garden, general smugness, culture of ignoring utility and good design in favour of looks, product placement in just about every US film and TV series etc really turns me off.

    Having said that - I do like quite a bit about their hardware. As previous posters have written, battery life is just streets ahead of the competition.

    They are pretty damn robust, up to a point. Saw a staff member lose her grip on her Air yesterday, flew about 2 metres across the room, and kept on ticking. Having said that, screens are VERY fragile - the old "Unibody" MacBooks had a flexible (up to a point!)screen, while the Pro's and Airs have a very thin glass coating. last quote I got for the screen on a 13" Pro was around $600.

    USB ports are stupidly close together. Damaged keyboards are very expensive to replace, think about $350 if required.

    (While I obviously support technology in schools, as OldMateNate mentioned, there are more important skills that need to be the primary focus in Primary schooling. Many high school students can not tell the time from an analog clock. Most do not know their times tables. Reading ages are about 4 years behind, compared to the 1980's. Mostly down to poor parenting, and an education system that doesn't make kids repeat school years they fail, because it is "bad for their social development". Pity no one considers that an adult life, on minimum wage (if employed at all, which is pretty unlikely)is bad for one's social development too!)

    Anyway, back on topic :)

    Get the Air 13". Performance will be fine, and more than fast enough for most school student tasks. Install Windows 8.1 on it via Bootcamp and it will be very good.

    The pricing for schools to purchase Apple gear is pretty close to retail. many schools advise parents to purchase from Big W etc, as when they have sales on, it works out cheaper!

    Oh, and I REALLY hate their obsession with stupid "hip" names - "Airport" "iSight" etc. :)

    • mrmarkau67 on 03/12/2014 - 08:30

      Great post. If you think its bad being an Apple customer, you should try being one of their partners or suppliers.

      Have you also had the joy of managing 1000 non standard Windows machines? How did that compare?

    • Unrvl on 03/12/2014 - 10:52

      agree with this post 100000x you spoke my mind.

    • foolball on 19/12/2014 - 19:48

      Never thought the day will come when I'll have to shop around for an Apple device (and the dreaded Apple ecosystem & $$$), but my son is starting yr 7 next yr and I'll have to get him a Mac book as dictated by the school. To me, something like the Asus T100 is a much better option for all high school students.

    • existence on 27/12/2014 - 16:39

      I would find it worse to manage a fleet of different Windows laptops. We had done a rollout of all same/similar Dell PC's so there was less support headaches. Also threw away (recycled) PC's in good working order as they were a different model with different drivers etc.

      I prefer all/mostly Mac workplaces, but sometimes there are very specific software or other needs where PC's are preferred. And Apple tend to be less conspicuous with their branding while other brands have these blazing logos. I'm a big fan of simple (but not simplistic) design, and Apple is better at this.

      I agree about the poor education the kids are getting. Educators can also have it wrong about technology replacing some traditional use of books, handwriting etc., and from my own experience and leading psychologists would say the brain does not digest the learning as well, or can even reverese it. Memory and concentration can get messed up after a while. I can hardly read books myself because I have an extreme chemical sensitivity to the inks used in the printing, so after years of reading ebooks I know that learning is inferior to learning from actual books. The psychology is very complex about how the brain intereprets electronic information but the research about this still isn't mainstream. By then we would have lost a generation of kids.

  • Unrvl on 03/12/2014 - 10:50

    the 2013/2014 macbook air 13" are amazing. I work in IT in a BYOD school and out of all the devices we see, the macbooks are the easiest to setup on our BYOD system and have the least issues. 'they just work'.

    I recently purchased a macbook air, hooked it up to a 27" 2560x1440 res monitor and its amazing, i'm so surprised how that 1.4ghz dual core can work that well, but it does. battery life is a huge thing too with BYOD and the macbook air does it the best.

    • GLO on 03/12/2014 - 20:01

      Is that via hdmi or thunderbolt?

  • Dr Techno on 03/12/2014 - 15:58

    Wished I had parents back in the day that would buy me a laptop :)

    • GLO on 03/12/2014 - 19:58
      +2

      You were lucky if you had a set of encyclopedia Britanica's at home otherwise it was off to the library!

      • Dr Techno on 03/12/2014 - 23:42
        +2

        Ha! I did have a Encyclopedia Britanica set, but being a kid in the 90's with a 70's Encyclopedia it was a little out of date. Neighbours kids would come over to research though.. haha! those were the days.

  • OzJD on 04/12/2014 - 01:17

    So I bought my daughter a Macbook Air 13" 128GB today. Not only is it for school, but I'll pass it off as the best Christmas present ever.

    My credit card gives 6 months insurance, any suggestions on where to get insurance after that?

    P.S. Mac Edu store pricing is decent, and OW may price beat by 5% (or 20% if it's on your school list). That brings the price down to about $914.60 excl. AppleCare.

    • GLO on 04/12/2014 - 19:11

      Hi,
      What do you mean by- 20% if it's on your school list?

      My credit card give 12 months extended warranty.

      • OzJD on 04/12/2014 - 20:05

        See office works promo on their website.

        I mean insurance, not warranty (drop etc)

        • 18 on 21/01/2015 - 00:01

          Do ow price match school pricing?

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