MacBook Pro for GCSE

[GreySheep]

Does anyone know if a MacBook Pro will be a good laptop to use for GCSE years?

I’m clueless on this but DD is into photography so know it’s good for that but wondering if it’s good as an all round laptop for the GCSE years too?

I’ve tried googling but it’s all so technical. I’d love to hear from any parents whose DC have used a MacBook Pro during GCSE courses or hear if any other laptop recommendations.

Is the macbook pen enabled? I would seriously make sure whatever you have is, if you want longevity

But depending how much money you have, I'd look at any laptop in terms of it having a 4 year lifespan, so you might want to spend half now and half in four years! It won't be broken by then just a bit out of date, if the wow factor is important

My dd is 15 and we bought one last year. I’m not going to explain or justify why - none of anyone’s business.

It’s been brilliant, it’s light to carry in a padded sleeve and fits in her school bag. It appears to have survived nearly two years which is longer than a cheap Lenovo!

She loves it, she has the windows package on it, most of school work is written in it and she takes notes in class. She had pop up reminders, post it note things that are on the screen when she opens it. Films are fantastic on it.

Hopefully it will last through GCSEs. It really works well for her.

Ps I work in a uni and it is interesting to note that the MacBook is their laptop of choice and I asked a few students before getting dds

To be fair my dd has had a cheap Lenovo for 3 years!

We've never had macs but the surface pro is brilliant.

I bought my daughter a MacBook Air last year for Christmas (John Lewis Black Friday) and she uses it for moray things. She does have to use my Dell laptop however for some of the revision sites school use, including a Maths one the school mark their end as it doesn’t work on the Mac. Not sure why, I have no tech knowledge.

moray? Lots of, bloody autocorrect.

That’s interesting @FAQs as in primary DD had an iPad and we had to download a never heard of before browser app called “puffin” to be able to access the primary schools maths homework site. but it was free and it worked when safari wouldn’t allow access.

So try googling Puffin Browser app to see if that will work for your DD’s school sites.

Dd, Y11, uses a MacBook Air. It's great and does everything she needs and more.

I've a 2 Year old MacBook Air which I use for photo editing with photoshop and Lightroom which I'm guessing your DD will use. I've also got Microsoft word, excel and PowerPoint downloaded. I watch movies in bed on it every night (I'm a grown ass woman) I think it would be a great purchase as she'd get years out of it if she took good care of it. Would recommend getting it covered with AppleCare for accidental damage and home insurance in case it got stolen. I defo think it would have the wow factor.

Thanks so much for the feedback. I really think DD deserves something with the wow factor (the bereavement has hit her hard so it would be something good out of something horrible) but also wanted it to be able to support her through her GCSE years which she’s just started.

From this I’m definitely going with a MacBook. I’ll have to decide on air or pro but I’ll see what offers are on at the time.

Thank you all.

Bit late on this but yes we bought DD a MacBook Pro for her gcse courses. Mainly because she studied music and it was then easier for her to use Apple software she needed for her composition work.

It w has lasted well (will be 2 yrs old in a couple of weeks) and she has taken good care of it.

If you can afford it, I would definitely recommend it,

We are going to buy Ds one for when he finishes his GCSE’s because he’s hoping to study music technology. He’s using an iPad and an old Mac mini but he’s struggling with the mini as some of his music programmes (Logic & Mainstage) need more than the 8gig memory of the mini.

Dd however much preferred her Surface for academic work.

Ah thank you, I've not heard of that so I'll try.

My ds has a mac book pro it’s brilliant. Uses it for home and school work and previously was using cheaper laptops which just kept getting virus’s - a good investment if you have the cash - good luck

My dc have always used DH’s MacBook Pro for homework which is still hands down the best lap top we have had in the house, still going strong and still the most faultless. 2 have had MacBook Airs( I think) spread over several Xmas& bday(1 just recently who has just started GCSEs). They are equally fab and have no problems with anything running on them including the maths sites.

I’d go for Air they’re so portable which is a factor to consider as they do need to take them into school further down the line. No way would I be letting them take dh’s pro anywhere. The Air tucks in nicely into the laptop pocket of a ruck sack and you can also fit in books and lunch.

We’ve wasted so much money on cheaper laptops which break or get glitches. Wish we’d gone straight to Apple.

I would if you have the money. I have a 2010 MacBook Pro that's still going strong for word processing, emails and general web surfing and I bought a 2017 MacBook for travelling to and from work when they came out because it's so thin and easily transportable.

Easily the best laptops I've ever had. They last forever (or at least they used to). Expensive though.

Depends.
If you have money to burn, they are a well-built machine offering a great screen and build quality. Your timing is now impeccable as last week, Apple finally replaced the unusable keyboard that has rendered Macbook Pros unusable for the last 3 years, at least on the new 16" model. It's worth noting that the smaller 13" model retains the dreadful old type keyboard for now.
But of course, there's a host of Windows computers that would do the job as well at half the price and currently Adobe products, the default choice for photographers are better optimised for Windows machines.

I just read some other posts. Please don't consider the Air or 13" Pro. Their keyboards are horrible to use and will be updated soon. A little bit of research will show you how unreliable and unpleasant these keyboards are they have damaged the reputation of a premium product. My Pro is around about a 2015. I haven't updated due to the keyboard.

@GreySheep Had to join to reply; this came up on my google news feed you seem like you need a geek to help you to make a more informed choice.

I'm a software developer, been doing it for almost 20 years I'm fairly sure to some I'm going to come across as some computer snob, but sod it, you need one right now.

I own a 15" 2015 model, that I bought new from Ebuyer the day Apple discontinued the model (Jul 2018), meaning I willingly purchased the final non-pre-owned stock for the reasons below. It's the last MBP with USB ports for the standard in use today (you need dongles now) and the magnetic power cable (my kids would have destroyed my laptop a few times without this), was considered apples last decent laptop until this month.

The newer designs feature a terrible keyboard mechanism the butterfly keyboard, They got sued, the keys fail with little bits of dust, not crumbs but actual dust over time makes the keyboards fail.

They also have thermal issues; they made the machines too small with inadequate cooling for the processor meaning the machines throttle the processing speed under load.

They replaced function keys with a customisable OLED Retina multi-touch display which is generally not liked mainly due to no physical escape key.

These issues have been addressed by apple in the new 16" model released this month (www.apple.com/uk/macbook-pro-16/), this laptop is probably the most powerful notebook you can buy right now. Most importantly, they don't have the faults present in all the other MBP's available to purchase now from retailers or Apple directly that I listed above.

I'm sorry to be argumentative but people saying students don't need tools to learn are incorrect, it's not helpful, your out of touch, times change. Also not surprised people are saying don't buy this for a teenager that was my knee jerk reaction too.

Anyway, I can see where you are coming from, a memorable item from a family member to support your child in the future. MacBook Pro's don't use "pro" as some meaningless marketing additive it is professional-grade hardware, so this laptop is the right choice for the above reason only... if it were not for the above reason, I would say it's overpowered and excessive, but for your reasoning alone it is perfect.

You have two sensible choices IMO If you buy a new MBP, consider the one I linked as the only viable version of a new Apple laptop. They are costly; buying into models with known faults is not worth it. Your alternative is a refurbished MacBook, so the last decent model before the new 16" was the 2015 model 15" (www.hoxtonmacs.co.uk/products/macbook-pro-retina-15-inch-quad-core-i7-2-2ghz-mid-2015) they are still powerful machines Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 16gb ram, blazingly fast SSD and retina screens.

If you get the new one, apple let you customise the ram, storage, processor. Don't go crazy thinking more is better; these upgrades are for professional use. If I were doing this I would go for the 1tb version with the £90 gfx card upgrade; it would be helpful for photo editing... maybe a 2tb storage upgrade but honestly typing that makes me grimace buy an external SSD or an iCloud subscription instead.

You can run Windows on a Mac and the reason I suggest the 1tb version over the 512gb model; you cant share storage between windows and mac. You dedicate a portion to windows and the rest for mac but not share or change the allocation later without reinstalling windows. It sounds complicated but to use is easy, you press and hold the option key when you power it on and select mac or windows.

Apple made something called BootCamp it is pre-installed with macOS to handle the installation, they have a step by step guide (support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201468) follow that, and you will have both macOS and windows. you can buy Windows 10 licence keys on eBay for £2, they get delivered instantly and activate with Microsoft just fine.

Well, I hope that helps you make an informed choice :)

I went for an air with all the add ons over the pro as I did want mine to be portable. Never regretted the decision so far.

I also use mine to do photo editing and it's been great for that.

I've heard the surface pro recommended a few times but reviews of those who use it for work purposes have been varied. Friends we are away with this weekend - his company all had surface pros until a fortnight ago when they've scrapped them all and replaced them as apparently they can be really unreliable and unstable across the business. I've never used one so no experience but possibly worth a bit of research.

Hi. If they are doing Photography, apps like Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom will be very useful. These work great on a laptop too. A Mac gives you better colour on screen, it is generally quieter and the battery life can be excellent. You can get away with a MacBook Air really which is cheaper, and lighter.

@Snidered wow thank you for that. Lots of good advice and I appreciate the time you took to pass it on.

Dd1 had a MacBook as an 18th birthday present. She was at uni and it lasted 4 years of going everywhere. She did TV And film production. You would be wise to get Word for Mac at the same time. I would say it's a lovely and practical gift imho.

Hi, I'm father of two young children boy and girl, a tech user and working in IT. I have a couple of considerations for you :-

1. Apple provide discounts for education. There is an education shop on their website and you have to have a school or university email address to register. You could ask the school if your child has a school email address that you could use to register.

1. I have used windows and apple computers for both video and photography. Apple is better for video but photo work is the same on windows or apple. You just need a high spec laptop with plenty of storage and RAM ( temporary memory)

1. Apple laptop's are very very expensive compared to windows but tend to last longer.

1. Due to the brand, the laptop will need will need to be insured for loss or theft and some form of warranty is recommended.

1. Since the launch of Adobe Cs cloud software, you have to pay for a monthly or yearly subscription. There is an education discount available too which reduces the cost of the software substantially. Since it's cloud software, you can store the files on your personal drive which can be accessed from anywhere even the school.

1. The device that you buy shouldn't depend on now but for at least 5 years. So the question I would ask your child is what software or tasks do they expect to use ? If it's simple editing on photos then a less heavy spec laptop is required. I'm happy to talk offline if that's helps.

1. Lastly an alternative might be Apple iPad pro which is the 12.9 screen. They launched one in 2018 and another one is due in March 2020. I'm waiting for that :). The iPad will allow photo work to be carried out far better than a laptop as the pencil allows more precise over editing photos. The pencil is great for homework in all subjects. It will also allow a mouse to be connected and a wireless keyboard allowing it to be used like a portable tablet due to its weight and a laptop (although the keys are slightly smaller). iPad will be half the price of the MacBook Pro :)

Hope this helps

Ranjeet

I would, they do last. I have an extremely old one which still works (albeit will no longer update), and a 2012 Air which still works absolutely fine. Although schools will probably continue to use Microsoft packages, you can get these on mac now, or just 'save as word doc' from pages. You do pay more for lesser specs than a typical laptop, but as a special purchase and as she is into photography then go for it.