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While a lot of remote learning school tasks can be accomplished with a simple Chromebook or cheap Windows laptop, those systems, especially budget-priced ones, can be hard to find right now. A bigger investment, but a good long-term one, is a full-featured MacBook. With its top-notch MacOS and nearly bullet-proof build, it’s still the first choice for many students in high school and college — especially with some decent student discounts and extras available from Apple right now.
Read more: Best laptop under $500 of 2020 that are in stock now
But which is the best MacBook? MacBooks are among the most universally useful laptops you can buy, but it’s not always easy to pick the right one. They range from $999 to $3,000 or more, even though they look and feel similar. I get a lot of reader questions about how to decide, especially when you’re torn between, for example, a slightly upgraded MacBook Air and a similarly priced 13-inch MacBook Pro.
If you’re buying a MacBook in the summer of 2020, there are three big considerations you keep in mind — two that are great for decent student discounts and extras who are current MacBook shoppers, and one that may give you pause:
All current MacBooks finally have the improved Magic Keyboard: It started with the 16-inch MacBook Pro last autumn, but Apple has since added the Magic Keyboard to all of its current MacBook models, including the 2020 Air and 13-inch Pro models. The result is a far more comfortable and reliable keyboard than the “butterfly” design that many MacBooks had been burdened with since 2015. Yes, it took Apple half a decade to backtrack on this issue, but the good news is that Mac laptop keyboards are finally good again.
Apple is currently offering a great back-to-school deal on MacBooks: Normally, the Apple Store is (ironically) not the best place to buy an Apple laptop (really, almost any Apple product) because sales are all but nonexistent. The big exception to the rule is Apple’s annual back-to-school sales, which often include MacBook deals. For 2020, Apple is offering a $159 credit toward headphones with the purchase of most Mac or iPad models. That means you can get AirPods thrown in for free, or get $159 off the AirPods Pro. And that’s on top of the $100 education discount that students, parents and educators can get buying directly through Apple, making it a great deal all around.
If you need something bigger and don’t mind it being less than portable: Apple now has an updated version of the 27-inch iMac, just in time for back-to-school shopping. Yes, it’s a big all-in-one desktop, so not portable, but if you’re locked away at home, that’s less of a concern. The big screen and high-end component options make it a powerhouse, but my favorite new feature is the upgraded 1080p webcam, which is better than any Mac camera, save for the similar one on the iMac Pro. Read more about the new 2020 27-inch iMac here.
All Macs will be transitioning to non-Intel chips over the next two years: It was the big news at Apple’s WWDC show in June: All Macs will be getting new Apple-designed Arm chips, replacing the Intel CPUs they’ve had for years… eventually. At least one Apple silicon product should arrive by the end of 2020, but Intel will be a part of the mix for at least the next couple of years. So, should you buy a new MacBook now or wait for an Apple silicon version, coming sometime over the next two years?
There are potential pluses and minuses to switching to an Arm-based MacBook. Battery life could improve, Macs apps will align more closely with iPad and iPhone apps, and some specialized software, like photo editing giant Photoshop, could be rewritten to take maximum advantage of the new platform. But, as we’ve seen with other Arm-powered laptops, compatibility with other apps can be a problem, as can raw performance.
Read more: Best back to school gear under $250
Regardless, if you need a new MacBook now, then you’re stuck with the current Intel choices in the MacBook lineup, which have all been excellent in our recent hands-on experience. The key question for current back-to-school shoppers is how to make sure you’re not buying too little MacBook — or too much.
There’s a concept we call line creep. It’s what happens when brands keep adding iterations and subdivisions of popular product lines, until no one can tell which one to buy. Apple has usually avoided this trap by sticking to a handful of choices in each category, but things can still get confusing when you shop for a MacBook.
School reopenings are already causing chaos as cities and states reverse course and send students home for full-time remote hill stations in himachal learning. But whether at home or in a classroom, the the back-to-school season is still in full tilt and picking the right laptop for the fall semester is a top priority.
Watch this:
MacBook Air vs. 13-inch MacBook Pro vs. 16-inch MacBook…
Dan Ackerman/CNET
