Do we really need to buy an £800 Mac for DDs A Levels?

[BaublesinSummer]

My DD16 is starting A Levels in September in Graphics, Photography and Biology and has been told by the college that she needs a laptop. We have Macs at home - two laptops for me and DS19 and an iMac for my DH.

DH says we now need to buy a reconditioned Mac for DD, as it’s the best thing for creative work and because it will sync with our other Macs at home (we have Family Sharing etc).

A reconditioned Mac with the minimum spec requirements however is going to be around £800! We have a huge number of outgoings currently and I just didn’t anticipate this expense.

I was going to get the art department at her college to advise, but unfortunately the college has now closed for the summer, so I wondered if anyone here has had DCs who did similar courses and wondered what they bought for them.

@BaublesinSummer if she does need one then Apple do an educational discount. Just Google and you can see what discounts are currently available.

Adobe is no longer optimised for Macs the way it once was. There’s a stronger case for music editing and the like, but for photo editing you could go mac or pc equally.

check out the adobe webpage for their recommended specs for photoshop and use that to compare suitable machines.

dell and Lenovo both do educational discounts (including on dell outlet) and have extended warranty of 3 yrs for about £100/150 on top where they come to you / no returning the laptop.

Go for the best processor and as much memory as you can (32gb+). Gpu is needed (graphics) but you don’t need the latest/most powerful one.

Thanks for the helpful replies!

My DH yesterday bought her a 2021 14” Mac Book Pro with an M1 Pro chip (faster than an M2 chip apparently) for £900. It also still has two years of Apple care on it.

@SheerLucks That should be good for a few years.