Six Colors
Six Colors

by Jason Snell & Dan Moren

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Linked by Jason Snell

Updated: Which Mac laptop to buy for a student?

Today I updated my story about which Mac laptop to buy for a student. When I wrote it in 2017, I was torn between the MacBook and the low-end 13-inch MacBook Pro. Today, the answer is a lot simpler: it’s the MacBook Air.

I wish I understood the status of my previous picks, which haven’t been upgraded as the rest of the MacBook line has been. And I suspect that anyone with a student who needs the kind of power that only a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar will provide has already heard from that student about their specific tech needs. This advice is meant to be more broad, and is based on what I get asked frequently by fellow parents.

(Also, yes, I recommend you send them with a can of compressed air and they should scope out where the Apple Authorized Repair center is on campus. Imagine how much stuff a college student can spill onto a keyboard…)