“Most of Apple’s Mac lineup is overdue for a refresh, but if you’re shopping for college, you might consider a MacBook or iPad Pro,” Susie Ochs writes for Macworld. “Both have key features that make them especially handy for college students. And both are eligible for Apple’s back-to-school promotion.”
“If you buy an eligible Mac (any model but the Mac mini), you can get a free pair of Beats Solo2 Wireless Heaphones, via a $299.95 instant credit. Buy an eligible iPhone (6, 6 Plus, 6s, or 6s Plus) or an iPad Pro, and you’ll get a $199.95 credit for a pair of Powerbeats2 Wireless Headphones — and you can pay $100 more to get the Beats Solo2 instead,” Ochs writes. “This promotion expires September 5, and conditions apply, so be sure to read all the fine print.”
Ochs writes, “These are our picks for the best Apple gear for students—what to buy now, and what to wait for, as several major Apple product lines should see refreshes by the end of 2016.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If we were about to head back to our school this autumn (Oh, that it were true! Go Orange!) we’d have a very tough time deciding, but despite Apple’s gorgeous and very capable 12-inch iPad Pro, we’d likely go for the 12-inch MacBook today.
In college you have to write so many reports and be able to compare a previous draft with the current draft. Until the iPads can let you have two files or more on simultaneously in the same app. ( Pages and Numbers).
Better go with a MacBook.
You can have two files open simultaneously on the iPad Pro, College Prof. You haven’t been paying attention to the reason it is called the iPad Pro?
The “multitasking” in the iPad Pro compared to what the Mac is capable of is like comparing a golf cart to a race car. Sorry, but I disagree with you, “prof.”
I move around a lot during the course of a week and use anywhere from 3-10 different apps for my work.
I use my Macbook every day, I use my iPad so little that I actually forgot where I stored it until I thought about it.
There are two great articles that may help. I cannot recommend them enough:
1. https://karan301.com/ipad-pro-in-the-clasroom-f3c0b9ae08f1#.10akizg8r
2. https://karan301.com/ipad-pro-in-the-classroom-semester-two-811414697b50#.534elb5m6
I’d be utterly flabbergasted if Apple were not to release new MacBook hardware before September. Sadly it looks very much like this will be the case.
If you can afford it the MacBook Pro is a rough solid device and will last for the full 4 years. Refurbished machines are a good deal too.
Swordmaker. You can’t have two Pages files, or more, or a duplicate of the same file open at the same time to compare one file to the other. Research requires this often.
I’d rather have a Late 2008 Aluminum body MacBook with 8GB RAM and a SSD. It will still run El Capitan quite well and would be way more useful than an iPad Pro.
Totally agree with MDN and the rest of you guys here, MacBook is the best choice.
I’d get the Mac Book Pro and a terrific 34″ 3440×1440 Ultrawide monitor to go with it. The extra screen real estate for student research, writing and projects (not to mention entertainment) would be terrific. (I know, most will not go this route.) Actually that’s the setup I’m looking at right now.