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What laptop to buy?
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this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
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There’s no way to answer that question without knowing what you want to do with your laptop.
If you want anything but gaming, go for a Mac, especially if you are a musician (every Mac comes with GarageBand, is silent and has crazy battery life). You’ll also find the iWork suite installed for office work. No hidden cost.
For photo editing, built-in Photos app gives a good alternative to Lightroom.
For more advanced stuff you can also buy Affinity Photos or Pixelmator Pro, which are great alternatives to Photoshop, without the cost and the weight on the system
Little built-in apps like Reminders and Notes can be life-changer if you’re in GTD stuff.
The feature that impressed me the most back in the day was preview. Select any file and press the space bar. You’ll get instant preview (whatever the file is) without launching an app.
If you want to game, it depends on the games you play.
I would just be doing general use and for my studies. I was considering playing some games on it, like Escape from tarkov and games like that. Why do macs not work well for gaming? Also do you have a recommendation for what type of mac to get?
Macs are not good for gaming because it wasn’t delivered with a proper graphic card for years, so game developers left the platform.
Apple silicone Mac are pretty good for gaming now, if compared to similar form-factor PCs. Besides, Macs doesn’t lose any power when unplugged, contrary to PCs.
But the catalog is still lacking. There are good games (BG3, Metro Exodus, Resident Evil Village, Lies Of P, World Of Warcraft if it’s your jam) but nothing merely enough for a true gamer.
You could play Escape From Tarkov on a Mac using virtualizing software like Parallels Desktop, CrossOver or Game Porting Toolkit, but it won’t run natively, and I can’t make any promises on that subject.
You’ll have to do some research if you want to play some games on a Mac.
Otherwise it’s truly the best computer you can get. Not necessarily the most powerful (depends on what you’re doing) but definitely the best user experience.
Have such a hard time upvoting this, solely because OP posted their budget and they could get something much better. Apple is nice, but you'll be paying out the wazoo to be limited to their ecosystem. Nice, intuitive ecosystem, wont lie. Really pays to be in it, but getting out is hell.
Honestly I'd rather do the extra leg work of finding good enough replacements for basic mac functionality than getting an apple product. I'm hella biased though.
Oh I see. Do you have any recommendations of your own then?
Others have recommended good recs, inc linux options. Personally, I'm not nearly tech enough for that. I got a Lenovo Legion in my first college year and it lasted right until a month after I turned in my thesis. Using multiple Adobe programs at the same time, and gaming in the afternoon when I had time (Rimworld, Hunt: Showdown, Rocket League, and a bunch of other games). Spent about 1300 in 2016 I think. Battery was garbage tier though. Less than half an hour, so if that's an issue, look at tons of reviews.
Thank you for the detailed response. it seems like a good choice for me and it'll probably be the one I end up buying. Do you think macbook airs are better or pros? Also is there a noticeable difference for M1 and m2? Im not sure which model to buy
You won’t play BG3 comfortably on a MBA, otherwise it’s a good general purpose laptop.
MBP is more expensive but more powerful and comes with 16Gb of Ram and a much more powerful GPU.
There isn’t a big difference between M1 and M2 on the CPU side, but M2 GPUs are significantly more powerful.
Finally, Pro models have better sound system, 120Hz ProMotion display, and more battery life.