Gonna get a laptop for my son. He's an amateur animator and I think uses blender for most things. He's in middle school and has maxed out the capacity of our 2016 MacBook Air

I know that the best thing would be a mbp but lmao definitely not gonna spend that kind of money

I think that the new m2 chip MacBook Air will be good enough to carry through whatever he's looking to do right?

Thanks in advance!

For his age, yea I think the M2 Air should do fine as long as he doesn't do anything too demanding. Might be better off going PC. The thing about Airs is they don't have fans for cooling. Pro is really the better choice.

Maybe there's some Viz Aggies on here that could give some input.

Yeah that's what I keep thinking too but he's locked into the Mac line of thinking. Appreciate the insight!

The other option is an Amazon renewed 2022 mbp for the same price but I'm not familiar with the Amazon renewed program

Software support and multiple monitor support is hit and miss with M series MBPs. Do your research on his software needs before purchasing.

Apple sells refurbished laptops as well if you'd rather deal with them directly.

https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished/mac/macbook-pro

https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished/about

Yeah I think im now considering the refurbished one

This one in particular. Same price as the air but feels like then there's no hard cap on performance right? https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FNEH3LL/A/Refurbished-13-inch-MacBook-Pro-Apple-M2-Chip-with-8%E2%80%91Core-CPU-and-10%E2%80%91Core-GPU-Space-Gray

For equivalent processors the Pro will outperform the Air because the Pro has active cooling.

The concern with the Pro, from what I can tell, is that the 13" Pro does not have function keys and replaces them with the OLED Touch Bar. To get function keys I believe you have to shift to the 14" Pro. The Air, I believe, has function keys even on the 13" model.

You can compare models here.
https://www.apple.com/mac/compare/

Whatever you do get the maximum amount of ram

Astroag said:

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Whatever you do get the maximum amount of ram

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Well id argue 16GB anyway. The intro 8GB is laughable.

evan_aggie said:

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Astroag said:

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Whatever you do get the maximum amount of ram

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Well id argue 16GB anyway. The intro 8GB is laughable.

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Yea, it's like an extra $200 I believe but yea 16GB over 8GB of RAM aka Unified Memory

8GB will work but the problem is that Apple is trying to get away with offering 8GB by allowing the MacBook to allow memory overflow into the SSD when the RAM get's maxed out by a program. RAM is designed to be rewritable millions of times but SSD is only designed to be rewritable hundreds of times, so you get wear and tear on the SSD over time, so having that extra 8GB buffer is healthy for the Mac.

But, with your son being in Middle School, you'll likely be buying him a MacBook Pro when you send him off to Aggieland.

Great advice.

Goal is for this to last him 4-5 years and then get a new one when he graduates hs

16 gig ram is a great idea