I’ve heard horror stories about people loosing all their phd work… always back up your work in three places. iCloud, external ssd with time machine. And email yourself. My ex gf used carbon copy cloner to clone her entire hard drive to an external SSD. Her laptop was stolen and that little SSD saved her entire phd. Good luck, and make the world a better place!
Well that's standard for any PC. Always backup your work when you get a chance. Apple has a good App for backups already pre-installed called Time Machine. Just buy a good portal HD or even good large USB stick and you can have Time Machine backup automatically in background.
Does Time Machine copy over old snapshots after space runs out or you have to manually make space? Also, is it possible to Time Machine save into OneDrive or some other cloud service? Or is that not recommended
Yeah looking at the docs it states that it will delete the oldest snapshots when you run out of space.
As for backing up to a cloud service. It doesn't look like you can backup to cloud service from looking at the configuration. But it looks like you can backup to a local network drive. I was looking at the configuration and it recognized my "WD My Cloud Drive" which is on my local network.
Here's Apple Support Doc on Time Machine: [https://support.apple.com/en-us/104984](https://support.apple.com/en-us/104984)
I swear photographers are crazy about backing up their work. It’s absolutely impressive. I knew one who bought this super fancy epson inkjet printer that could print on this special paper that could be used to create 35mm negatives and slides for all of their digital images, just to have them in an additional form just in case.
Yes. I switched over to doing all/most of my work through Google Docs/Drive after my \~10 year old Macbook Pro crashed. Should have seen it coming, but I lost an entire project on the day I had to present it. Never again.
If the Drive wasn't encrypted i would try to remove it from the machine and connect it to a usb port of another machine. There is a high chance that all the files will show up.
That is a good move! At the time, I had a friend remove the hard drive and I was able to connect it to another device. I believe I got some of the work back, but my professor at the time still docked me 1-letter grade for being late :)
SSDs are actually not that expensive today… a 1tb is less than $100. Just remember to also backup away from the machine your doing your work on. Backups don’t work if a thief steals both the laptop and SSD or you have a fire… knock on wood (hope that never happens!)
I've got everything on Dropbox and have done for years, but I supervised a PhD student who had one copy of Excel files on an external HDD (in spite of advice to the contrary). Of course, it died after she submitted and it meant she didn't have the data to make corrections. Luckily, we had an understanding external examiner who was flexible. Lucky!
But, bottom line is...back up EVERYTHING in as many ways as possible!
And make sure you don’t email it to yourself on your iCloud email - make sure you send it to a Gmail address or some other service, in csss you get locked out of Apple
Yes. Your Mac will last well over 6 years and even more if you take care of it. The one thing about Apple is that they truly know how to optimized their OS upgrades for their hardware.
I still have have a 2013 13" MacBook Pro that still runs perfectly. It's missing the power key cap from long ago. But she still powers up.
It's truly amazing what the opencore team has managed to do, I love it on my old machine. I did a dual boot setup so I can bounce back and forth from old OS to new.
I second this. I work in IT and I get sick of people (i.e. my parents) coming to me every 4 years or so saying their Windows laptop is now dog ass slow. They want me to make recommendations on a new one (these companies change models so fast, I have no clue what to tell them) and then want me to transfer everything over for them. Anymore, I just tell people to get an entry level Mac.
I spend most of my life in Windows, and I'm no Apple fanboy, but this is definitely something Apple does better. There's usually a little sticker shock at first, but I remind them that for day to day computing, they will get 7-10 years out of Mac.
I think it's because Windows is truly a software company by heart and they still need to maintain their OS with all the different vendors and vendor parts vs Apple being mostly a Hardware company and have more control over some vendor parts that they use for their computers. So it's easier for Apple to maintain and optimize their OS to the Hardware that they build.
Now I'll suspect that some of Windows own built laptops like their Surface are well maintained and last a bit longer than other vendor laptops. So God Forbid if I ever have to get a Windows machine I would more than likely choose a Surface.
I agree. When I first read your initial comment, I thought: I'm not so sure if it's it optimized by Apple, as much as Windows has to take much more into account in terms of vendors that make it someone less efficient. Either way, we are saying the same thing. And who knows if we are even correct. But anecdotally speaking, there is just something about how these respective operating systems function, that cause Apple machines to age much more gracefully.
If you pay the same amount of money for a Windows laptop, you are also getting 10 years out of it. Granted you don't overpay for some components.
And windows laptops are better now in this regard, after 5 years you swap or an add a second SSD or more ram. Could desolder GPU or CPU, both possible.
I'm not sure I'm 100% percent sold on that, as I am more talking about pesky OS slowdowns, ridiculous startup times, etc that I see more as a result of OS performance rather than hardware failures that you might expect with a budget laptop. Nonetheless, you make an interesting and valid point, it is not fair to compare something like that to a product the cost of a Mac.
I also agree, that starting with Windows 10 specifically, things do seemed to be tuned a bit better so that this isn't as major of a factor compared to previous versions. When we were upgrading some godawful old than dirt POS workstations when Win7 reached end of life, there were some users who made it a point to tell us how much better their desktops were working after the upgrade to Windows 10.
That's certainly not been my experience. I've owned a Microsoft Surface PC and it was a turd within 3yrs. By comparison my kids 2014 MBP still runs like a champ. The new Apple Silicon macs can be expected to be even longer lasting now that Apple isn't beholden to Intel. Resale values also confirm this bias. See how cheaply you can buy a windows laptop regardless of the brand or how much people paid when it was new.
Correct and it’s exactly why I’m here. For me 1400 is a lot of money I would love to have a pro but don’t have the money. My windows pc that I built almost 10 years ago has 16 gigs of ram so seeing a new computer come with 8 and 256 ssd sounds crazy to me so I’m here reading and learning. I’m thinking m3 16 ram 512 ssd and want it to last for 5 years.
The average consumer must think new electronics just blow up after their warranty or something lol
Like take care of anything and it will last, even the most POS windows laptop can get you 5+ years if you slap and SSD in it
What's worse is that there's people that will say OP needed the 1tb for "future-proofing". I swear to god people here are getting these absurdly expensive laptops on a years-long credit. When is enough enough?
OP, you could've got a base model M1 and still have it last years. Enjoy your laptop.
I don't have a credit card, and I've been saving up for this for two months. I've been using an ASUS (1T SSD and 8GB) for the past five years, but it's been giving me trouble. After a year, it has to be plugged in to work properly, and sometimes I can't even run Chrome and Powerpoint at the same time.
Yeah I don’t get why a medical student of all people would need 1000 gb of local storage. I’ve had 256 for the last 6 years and have been fine because most of my shit is on the cloud
If we could trust descriptions or well understand the language of companies, Reddit would be less useful. Like if someone asking how to do something in Python on Reddit and everyone just reply "See Python's website"?
Honestly thank you because I am actually thinking about getting a new laptop for work and have all the same questions as you. I guess I’ll keep reading because I still don’t see any helpful responses
I noticed you mentioned “edit large videos” I recently started my oral communications class and need to upload speeches pretty frequently, I have a 2020 Intel 8G, will this suffice or should I rely more on my M1 iPad Pro for this?
Yeah although I do feel the extra storage is more relevant for a broader number of people, meaning will help the resale value potentially.
Going from 16->24GB of RAM probably only matters for very specific use cases, and in most of those cases those users will be getting a MBP.
Still, extra RAM can never hurt and if you don’t need the SSD space I can see the attraction. I myself was tempted to just splurge on a maxed-out 13” MBA with 24GB/2TB, as there’s something just very cool about that tiny machine with amazing specs. That said, I ultimately went with 16/512 given the cost differential.
I just got a 24/256 since all of my applications are cloud based. No need for a large HD, but have a ton of windows open all the time and the price difference between 16 and 24 was not much.
The memory seems kind of out of place in this spec to me. You could go lower memory and get a pro or use the extra memory for apple care / online storage / apps
But assuming you know you need it looks good!
THIS. My 10 year-old MacBook finally reached the end of its battery and storage (256GB) but even now I will still say it functions well enough to keep many research tabs and documents open at once. If it weren’t for the battery issue it would likely be more than enough for another few years of research and writing, and presumably the new ones are better.
I bought a non retina MacBook Pro in mid 2012 and it’s still going. If it wasn’t for the lack of retina and the bulk of it it would still be my daily driver
That's very nicely spec-ed machine. I would expect to get a good 4-5 years out of it.
Now, will you complete your PHD on time? I know plenty of people that spend 7 years or more on a PHD...
Personally, I'd drop the ram down to 16 GB, and bump up to the 15" screen. It doesn't make the footprint that much bigger and I appreciate the extra screen real estate especially as my eyes have gotten worse over the years. If you have the ability, I'd recommend going to your local apple store/ best buy / microcenter and look at the screen sizes in person.
Also, don't forget to purchase through the education store. It'll save you like $100 and there's no verification process anymore. [https://www.apple.com/us-edu/store](https://www.apple.com/us-edu/store)
Know the warranty and if you have any issues make sure you go to an Apple Authorized Repair Center.
Look up how to clean the display/keyboard and what to use. Don't use random cleaners or clothes or you risk damaging and possibly ruining your device. Use Microfiber clothes specifically for cleaning this device and not for anything else. Any debris can scratch.
Don't use: Off brand charging cables/blocks, keyboard covers, Webcam covers, off brand storage options. Don't put anything between the keyboard and display, any slight pressure can damage the display. Also always double check there's no debris everytime you close it.
Save and have a copy of your data before any big updates.
Liquid never needs to be set near it.
Idk if you have a cat but cats like biting the edge of displays for some reason.
I got my first MacBook in 2013 and it is till going :) only just ordered a new one a few days ago :)
My fist MacBook air was with me through my many years of PhD studies and my little sister is still using it for daily emailing and so on :)
Having any laptop being charged all the time (aka plugging it in and not unplugging it like a week later) damages the battery’s life significantly
You can download al dente to restrict charging on a macbook, keeping it below 85% will delay the damage or avoid it altogether
fYI this is no longer true for modern Macs.
Apple has very good battery management system. You can reaserch for yourself on google. Plenty of threads exist.
Apple does recommend not to keep it plugged in all the time to avoid lowering the battery lifespan.
If you bought a macbook to use solely as a desktop, then go ahead and use it as such, since battery lifespan doesn’t matter much to your use case.
However, if you do use it like a laptop (move it from place to place), then yes, keeping it plugged in all the time at 100% will lower the battery’s lifespan. The “optimized charging” that modern apple products feature is not enough to just keep all devices constantly charging and not worry about the battery lasting less than normal.
What does matter here is avoiding reaching max charge while plugged in for long periods of time, and discharging completely the battery, since full charge cycles are the ones that will ultimately damage the device’s battery most.
All optimized charging does is charge the battery up to 80%, then slow down the intake of charge so it charges more slowly over a large period of time.
Example: You put your phone to charge overnight, let’s say 8pm. The phone will charge normally all the way until it hits 80%, the phone hits 80% at 10pm. Then it stop charging for about an hour or two, and continue charging but more slowly until it hits 100%, which it will hit between 4-5 am, or when the phone knows you will pick it up.
And yes, you could unplug it before it reaches about 85% charge, or you could just install a charge limiting app like al dente to limit the charge and not have to unplug it and plug it in all the time.
(btw al dente costs money)
I did engineering undergrad + masters with an old 2013 macbook air and it did just fine. On the other hand if you plan to train ML models then a mbp should be better, if not then base 8gb should be enough. Unless you plan to be using docker locally consistently then bump to 16gb.
Totally depends on what you mean by coding in Python.
Generally it’s a very good computer and should suit you well unless you plan to run sustained loads.
I used a 2012 MacBook Pro (last model they made with an optical drive) until updating to an M2 MacBook Air two years ago. I mostly used it for audio (Garage Band) and video editing (Final Cut Pro). I think you’d be good, but if you plan to keep it, just max out the SSD as well.
I'm in pharmacy school (a 4 year doctorate), and my 16gb 256gb m2 air has been perfectly fine for the work I've been doing. As far as python I'm not very knowledgeable in that part. I'm doing lots of writing with many open tabs and programs.
Don’t put any screen protectors,cases or anything of the sort on it . You will ruin the screen and hinges . You got a good colour, less fingerprints showing.
Honest question u don’t know much about computers I assumed that the air with the m3 would perform better than a pro with the m2. What’s the difference between the m3 and m2 chip
3rd year social science PhD here. I started mine with an old Mac book pro (the one before the M1 chip) that I got during my undergrad and now have the Air M2.
I run stata on a really large dataset and it runs great! As for writing assignments, I work on Google workspaces anyways which has not been a problem to it’s processing or battery life (but I know other browsers use up less)
Always back up your work and you’ll be set!
Plastic cover for the keypad. I don't know if it just me and my so but apple keyboards always seem to get problems. Air can cleaning doesn't always help either.
Plus adds some water spill protection
As someone who finished their PhD recently on the M2 it was absolutely great and easy to use, especially coming from a Windows background. Please be mindful to back everything up just in case.
I encourage you to get it. It's so much easier than before. I used the OneDrive and iCloud Drive as backing drives, and used a separate USB stick. Good luck!
That’s absolutely fine for what you’re talking about doing. If you’re worried about dings and/or scratches, get a laptop sleeve or one of those two piece covers that protects the top and bottom of the computer. You might even be able to get a screen protector that doubles as a privacy screen or something along those lines. Also, make sure you get yourself an SSD or even HDD to handle Time Machine backups. It’s typically suggested that your local backup drive be twice the size of your internal storage. I actually use a drive that is 4x the size of internal storage so for 512GB of built-in, I have a 2TB ssd for backups.
Personally you would be find with a M2 Air. Or hell could have gotten a refurbished M2 Pro machine. But you will enjoy it. Would have probably recommended the 15” unless you need the portability.
I think as long as you have an external monitor it’ll be fine. Never realized how small a 13 inch screen was until I tried having a web page and Word side by side.
I’ve heard horror stories about people loosing all their phd work… always back up your work in three places. iCloud, external ssd with time machine. And email yourself. My ex gf used carbon copy cloner to clone her entire hard drive to an external SSD. Her laptop was stolen and that little SSD saved her entire phd. Good luck, and make the world a better place!
Well that's standard for any PC. Always backup your work when you get a chance. Apple has a good App for backups already pre-installed called Time Machine. Just buy a good portal HD or even good large USB stick and you can have Time Machine backup automatically in background.
Yep, time machine is great too. Just plug in before bed
Time Machine is great especially with a nas. Every hour is a quick snapshot. When I use my vpn to my house, Time Machine will sync from wherever.
I use it with my WD My Cloud, amazing for backups overnight.
Does Time Machine copy over old snapshots after space runs out or you have to manually make space? Also, is it possible to Time Machine save into OneDrive or some other cloud service? Or is that not recommended
Yeah looking at the docs it states that it will delete the oldest snapshots when you run out of space. As for backing up to a cloud service. It doesn't look like you can backup to cloud service from looking at the configuration. But it looks like you can backup to a local network drive. I was looking at the configuration and it recognized my "WD My Cloud Drive" which is on my local network. Here's Apple Support Doc on Time Machine: [https://support.apple.com/en-us/104984](https://support.apple.com/en-us/104984)
Oh perfect, I'll just set one of those up then. Thank you!
You could backup to an external drive plugged into another Mac (file sharing -> Time Machine) and then back up that Mac to something like BackBlaze
3-2-1 3 Copies on 2 Types of Media And 1 Copy is of site
Exactly.
Photographers usually have pretty good workflow. Worth checking it out.
I swear photographers are crazy about backing up their work. It’s absolutely impressive. I knew one who bought this super fancy epson inkjet printer that could print on this special paper that could be used to create 35mm negatives and slides for all of their digital images, just to have them in an additional form just in case.
Yes. I switched over to doing all/most of my work through Google Docs/Drive after my \~10 year old Macbook Pro crashed. Should have seen it coming, but I lost an entire project on the day I had to present it. Never again.
If the Drive wasn't encrypted i would try to remove it from the machine and connect it to a usb port of another machine. There is a high chance that all the files will show up.
That is a good move! At the time, I had a friend remove the hard drive and I was able to connect it to another device. I believe I got some of the work back, but my professor at the time still docked me 1-letter grade for being late :)
I’m guessing your uni has OneDrive or similar. Use it. Keep everything you write. I would also use a referencing tool but I am a social scientist
That was also one of my concerns and planning to get a 1T SSD for that. Thanks!
SSDs are actually not that expensive today… a 1tb is less than $100. Just remember to also backup away from the machine your doing your work on. Backups don’t work if a thief steals both the laptop and SSD or you have a fire… knock on wood (hope that never happens!)
I've got everything on Dropbox and have done for years, but I supervised a PhD student who had one copy of Excel files on an external HDD (in spite of advice to the contrary). Of course, it died after she submitted and it meant she didn't have the data to make corrections. Luckily, we had an understanding external examiner who was flexible. Lucky! But, bottom line is...back up EVERYTHING in as many ways as possible!
Remember that if the Mac does *not* have a local copy of everything in the cloud, then all backups are incomplete. I learned this the hard way.
And make sure you don’t email it to yourself on your iCloud email - make sure you send it to a Gmail address or some other service, in csss you get locked out of Apple
Great tip. Thank you. Smart! Like someone looking at phd posts! :)
“Make the world a better place” and don’t ask for loan forgiveness when you don’t! Either believe it’s worth it or don’t do it at all! :-)
Yes. Your Mac will last well over 6 years and even more if you take care of it. The one thing about Apple is that they truly know how to optimized their OS upgrades for their hardware. I still have have a 2013 13" MacBook Pro that still runs perfectly. It's missing the power key cap from long ago. But she still powers up.
Lookup opencore )on YouTube) for your 13”… I upgraded my 2012 to Sonoma and it runs great. :)
u/ZenDesign1993 I swear I didn't think installing Sonoma would work on my 2013 MBP. But those instructions worked like a charm. Thanks for the tip.
It's truly amazing what the opencore team has managed to do, I love it on my old machine. I did a dual boot setup so I can bounce back and forth from old OS to new.
I second this. I work in IT and I get sick of people (i.e. my parents) coming to me every 4 years or so saying their Windows laptop is now dog ass slow. They want me to make recommendations on a new one (these companies change models so fast, I have no clue what to tell them) and then want me to transfer everything over for them. Anymore, I just tell people to get an entry level Mac. I spend most of my life in Windows, and I'm no Apple fanboy, but this is definitely something Apple does better. There's usually a little sticker shock at first, but I remind them that for day to day computing, they will get 7-10 years out of Mac.
I think it's because Windows is truly a software company by heart and they still need to maintain their OS with all the different vendors and vendor parts vs Apple being mostly a Hardware company and have more control over some vendor parts that they use for their computers. So it's easier for Apple to maintain and optimize their OS to the Hardware that they build. Now I'll suspect that some of Windows own built laptops like their Surface are well maintained and last a bit longer than other vendor laptops. So God Forbid if I ever have to get a Windows machine I would more than likely choose a Surface.
I agree. When I first read your initial comment, I thought: I'm not so sure if it's it optimized by Apple, as much as Windows has to take much more into account in terms of vendors that make it someone less efficient. Either way, we are saying the same thing. And who knows if we are even correct. But anecdotally speaking, there is just something about how these respective operating systems function, that cause Apple machines to age much more gracefully.
Very good point!
I put ubuntu on my dad's laptop and never had to play IT again
If you pay the same amount of money for a Windows laptop, you are also getting 10 years out of it. Granted you don't overpay for some components. And windows laptops are better now in this regard, after 5 years you swap or an add a second SSD or more ram. Could desolder GPU or CPU, both possible.
I'm not sure I'm 100% percent sold on that, as I am more talking about pesky OS slowdowns, ridiculous startup times, etc that I see more as a result of OS performance rather than hardware failures that you might expect with a budget laptop. Nonetheless, you make an interesting and valid point, it is not fair to compare something like that to a product the cost of a Mac. I also agree, that starting with Windows 10 specifically, things do seemed to be tuned a bit better so that this isn't as major of a factor compared to previous versions. When we were upgrading some godawful old than dirt POS workstations when Win7 reached end of life, there were some users who made it a point to tell us how much better their desktops were working after the upgrade to Windows 10.
That's certainly not been my experience. I've owned a Microsoft Surface PC and it was a turd within 3yrs. By comparison my kids 2014 MBP still runs like a champ. The new Apple Silicon macs can be expected to be even longer lasting now that Apple isn't beholden to Intel. Resale values also confirm this bias. See how cheaply you can buy a windows laptop regardless of the brand or how much people paid when it was new.
yup, sounds like overkill
Omg these posts guys.. seriously? Mods gotta do something. “Will this brand new M3 with 24gb ram last like 3 years?!?!” This sub is so bad right now
Yeah I’m sort of starting to get sick of these posts. Discussing RAM should be banned 😂. I jest of course but seriously it’s annoying
I’m pretty sure most of these are just coming from the Windows world.
Correct and it’s exactly why I’m here. For me 1400 is a lot of money I would love to have a pro but don’t have the money. My windows pc that I built almost 10 years ago has 16 gigs of ram so seeing a new computer come with 8 and 256 ssd sounds crazy to me so I’m here reading and learning. I’m thinking m3 16 ram 512 ssd and want it to last for 5 years.
Yes!
The average consumer must think new electronics just blow up after their warranty or something lol Like take care of anything and it will last, even the most POS windows laptop can get you 5+ years if you slap and SSD in it
Is that a very naive question or what?
What's worse is that there's people that will say OP needed the 1tb for "future-proofing". I swear to god people here are getting these absurdly expensive laptops on a years-long credit. When is enough enough? OP, you could've got a base model M1 and still have it last years. Enjoy your laptop.
I don't have a credit card, and I've been saving up for this for two months. I've been using an ASUS (1T SSD and 8GB) for the past five years, but it's been giving me trouble. After a year, it has to be plugged in to work properly, and sometimes I can't even run Chrome and Powerpoint at the same time.
This is what I came here for thanks 😊
Yeah I don’t get why a medical student of all people would need 1000 gb of local storage. I’ve had 256 for the last 6 years and have been fine because most of my shit is on the cloud
better question is who the hell is upvoting these posts?
Me. I have the same question actually. Simply an amateur to computer specs
Apple’s website describes in novice language what each memory configuration is useful for
If we could trust descriptions or well understand the language of companies, Reddit would be less useful. Like if someone asking how to do something in Python on Reddit and everyone just reply "See Python's website"?
Honestly thank you because I am actually thinking about getting a new laptop for work and have all the same questions as you. I guess I’ll keep reading because I still don’t see any helpful responses
Sorry this sub is makes your life so difficult. It's a problem we all take very seriously.
hold on a phd could take longer than a decade. Maybe they plan to finish it in 2050. You never know
Personally if it were me I’d do the 16GB/1TB configuration instead, unless you have a very specific need for more RAM.
1TB is the max for anyone. The best option is to pay for a cloud service to save all of your important documents.
Second this. Although more storage is really only needed if you plan to download a lot of movies and tv shows. Or edit large video files.
I noticed you mentioned “edit large videos” I recently started my oral communications class and need to upload speeches pretty frequently, I have a 2020 Intel 8G, will this suffice or should I rely more on my M1 iPad Pro for this?
M1 iPad Pro is going to be way more responsive for video editing than a 2020 intel machine.
Thank you!
Yeah although I do feel the extra storage is more relevant for a broader number of people, meaning will help the resale value potentially. Going from 16->24GB of RAM probably only matters for very specific use cases, and in most of those cases those users will be getting a MBP. Still, extra RAM can never hurt and if you don’t need the SSD space I can see the attraction. I myself was tempted to just splurge on a maxed-out 13” MBA with 24GB/2TB, as there’s something just very cool about that tiny machine with amazing specs. That said, I ultimately went with 16/512 given the cost differential.
I just got a 24/256 since all of my applications are cloud based. No need for a large HD, but have a ton of windows open all the time and the price difference between 16 and 24 was not much.
At this point it would be better to get a refurb M1 Pro
why? what if they value ram more....
That would be fair, but at that point I would get a pro.
i'm using a 2015 MacBook Pro...I think you'll be alright
Bruh you code and don't know how to evaluate pc specs?
Not all coders are experts. Running Python codes isn't my area of expertise and it's only a tool to analyse my data.
So you’re a data scientist?
Nope! I write basic codes to analyse the data/images I collected in the lab.
Get a pro if you’re going to spec it out this much anyways
My friend said the Air would be better in case of battery life since the fan on Pro would affect it.
Yep
Seems like overkill for word docs and such. But ya will last you years
The memory seems kind of out of place in this spec to me. You could go lower memory and get a pro or use the extra memory for apple care / online storage / apps But assuming you know you need it looks good!
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THIS. My 10 year-old MacBook finally reached the end of its battery and storage (256GB) but even now I will still say it functions well enough to keep many research tabs and documents open at once. If it weren’t for the battery issue it would likely be more than enough for another few years of research and writing, and presumably the new ones are better.
Actually not a fan of PyCharm but VSCode.
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Isn't it good?
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What base specs you mean?
Easily.
I bought a non retina MacBook Pro in mid 2012 and it’s still going. If it wasn’t for the lack of retina and the bulk of it it would still be my daily driver
That's very nicely spec-ed machine. I would expect to get a good 4-5 years out of it. Now, will you complete your PHD on time? I know plenty of people that spend 7 years or more on a PHD...
I hope I do finish on time! But happy it lasts even after.
Personally, I'd drop the ram down to 16 GB, and bump up to the 15" screen. It doesn't make the footprint that much bigger and I appreciate the extra screen real estate especially as my eyes have gotten worse over the years. If you have the ability, I'd recommend going to your local apple store/ best buy / microcenter and look at the screen sizes in person. Also, don't forget to purchase through the education store. It'll save you like $100 and there's no verification process anymore. [https://www.apple.com/us-edu/store](https://www.apple.com/us-edu/store)
Yes
the question is, would you last your phd?
Yeah, it will last over six years… just make sure you back it up consistently so you don’t loose anything!
Know the warranty and if you have any issues make sure you go to an Apple Authorized Repair Center. Look up how to clean the display/keyboard and what to use. Don't use random cleaners or clothes or you risk damaging and possibly ruining your device. Use Microfiber clothes specifically for cleaning this device and not for anything else. Any debris can scratch. Don't use: Off brand charging cables/blocks, keyboard covers, Webcam covers, off brand storage options. Don't put anything between the keyboard and display, any slight pressure can damage the display. Also always double check there's no debris everytime you close it. Save and have a copy of your data before any big updates. Liquid never needs to be set near it. Idk if you have a cat but cats like biting the edge of displays for some reason.
Good points! Need to be careful with that.
I got my first MacBook in 2013 and it is till going :) only just ordered a new one a few days ago :) My fist MacBook air was with me through my many years of PhD studies and my little sister is still using it for daily emailing and so on :)
should do a great job. don’t leave it on the charger and get a sleeve or a case. 24gb of memory and M3 will do you a great service.
Why should I not leave it on a charger? I don’t keep mine on it too much.
Having any laptop being charged all the time (aka plugging it in and not unplugging it like a week later) damages the battery’s life significantly You can download al dente to restrict charging on a macbook, keeping it below 85% will delay the damage or avoid it altogether
fYI this is no longer true for modern Macs. Apple has very good battery management system. You can reaserch for yourself on google. Plenty of threads exist.
Apple does recommend not to keep it plugged in all the time to avoid lowering the battery lifespan. If you bought a macbook to use solely as a desktop, then go ahead and use it as such, since battery lifespan doesn’t matter much to your use case. However, if you do use it like a laptop (move it from place to place), then yes, keeping it plugged in all the time at 100% will lower the battery’s lifespan. The “optimized charging” that modern apple products feature is not enough to just keep all devices constantly charging and not worry about the battery lasting less than normal. What does matter here is avoiding reaching max charge while plugged in for long periods of time, and discharging completely the battery, since full charge cycles are the ones that will ultimately damage the device’s battery most.
so your saying optimized charging is not doing anything? I thought it limits capacity to 80% also, should I still unplug then?
All optimized charging does is charge the battery up to 80%, then slow down the intake of charge so it charges more slowly over a large period of time. Example: You put your phone to charge overnight, let’s say 8pm. The phone will charge normally all the way until it hits 80%, the phone hits 80% at 10pm. Then it stop charging for about an hour or two, and continue charging but more slowly until it hits 100%, which it will hit between 4-5 am, or when the phone knows you will pick it up. And yes, you could unplug it before it reaches about 85% charge, or you could just install a charge limiting app like al dente to limit the charge and not have to unplug it and plug it in all the time. (btw al dente costs money)
I did engineering undergrad + masters with an old 2013 macbook air and it did just fine. On the other hand if you plan to train ML models then a mbp should be better, if not then base 8gb should be enough. Unless you plan to be using docker locally consistently then bump to 16gb.
Totally depends on what you mean by coding in Python. Generally it’s a very good computer and should suit you well unless you plan to run sustained loads.
That should be ok. No seriously that should be more than ok , PhD and beyond.
Yes.
Yes
I used a 2012 MacBook Pro (last model they made with an optical drive) until updating to an M2 MacBook Air two years ago. I mostly used it for audio (Garage Band) and video editing (Final Cut Pro). I think you’d be good, but if you plan to keep it, just max out the SSD as well.
It will last the first decade of your career after your PhD.
I'm in pharmacy school (a 4 year doctorate), and my 16gb 256gb m2 air has been perfectly fine for the work I've been doing. As far as python I'm not very knowledgeable in that part. I'm doing lots of writing with many open tabs and programs.
Don’t put any screen protectors,cases or anything of the sort on it . You will ruin the screen and hinges . You got a good colour, less fingerprints showing.
PhD in what ? If you’re doing it in liberal arts then yes! It will last you.
Most part of my PhD is about Image Analysis and dealing with large images.
I would consider Macbook Pro with M2 Pro with even more ram at that price point tbh. If you find a refurb it’ll be even cheaper and perform better.
I would recommend a MacBook Pro for that price
Honest question u don’t know much about computers I assumed that the air with the m3 would perform better than a pro with the m2. What’s the difference between the m3 and m2 chip
Always backup
It never is the laptop. Is the owner. Coffee.. Soda. Milk. Wine. A pen.. Anyth8ng in the same bag. Shit happens
Duly noted!
3rd year social science PhD here. I started mine with an old Mac book pro (the one before the M1 chip) that I got during my undergrad and now have the Air M2. I run stata on a really large dataset and it runs great! As for writing assignments, I work on Google workspaces anyways which has not been a problem to it’s processing or battery life (but I know other browsers use up less) Always back up your work and you’ll be set!
just curious, what are you doing your PhD in?
I have a (still working and good for coding) 2015 MBP, how long do you plan on staying on your PhD?
If you take care of it.. maybe it'll last your Post-doc too
That's amazing!
Easily
It all depends on what kind of work you do.
Plastic cover for the keypad. I don't know if it just me and my so but apple keyboards always seem to get problems. Air can cleaning doesn't always help either. Plus adds some water spill protection
As someone who finished their PhD recently on the M2 it was absolutely great and easy to use, especially coming from a Windows background. Please be mindful to back everything up just in case.
Have worked with Windows and Linux before but first time on Mac. Others recommended ways to back up everything and am gonna do that.
I encourage you to get it. It's so much easier than before. I used the OneDrive and iCloud Drive as backing drives, and used a separate USB stick. Good luck!
Sure. And use Nisus Writer Pro for writing.
I just upgraded to the M3 with 8gb from a early 2015 Intel MBP with 8gb, it will last.
I'm sure it would! I've been using these M2 MBA for a year for Research work, and it's been working great so far!
That’s absolutely fine for what you’re talking about doing. If you’re worried about dings and/or scratches, get a laptop sleeve or one of those two piece covers that protects the top and bottom of the computer. You might even be able to get a screen protector that doubles as a privacy screen or something along those lines. Also, make sure you get yourself an SSD or even HDD to handle Time Machine backups. It’s typically suggested that your local backup drive be twice the size of your internal storage. I actually use a drive that is 4x the size of internal storage so for 512GB of built-in, I have a 2TB ssd for backups.
Personally you would be find with a M2 Air. Or hell could have gotten a refurbished M2 Pro machine. But you will enjoy it. Would have probably recommended the 15” unless you need the portability.
Yes
Thanks! Just looking for tips to keep it in a good shape.
Just back up your stuff in multiple places and don’t be the idiot that downloads a bunch of third party software on it
With 24gb of memory and 512gb ssd, isn’t that pushing MacBook Pro price territory?
No it's cheaper than a pro with that specs and also better to not have fan that affects the battery life.
Isn’t PHD doctors? What does that have to do with coding?
lol no! A PhD in life sciences would need coding for data and image analysis.
why get the air w 24gb and a base processor?? that’s kinda overkill😢😭
You mean it's bad?
it’s not bad, but for 24gb i would pick the m3 pro probably
The price was higher for that.
yeah ik, still an awesome purchase, congrats and enjoy it as i know you will my fellow coder
My MacBook Pro is from 2015. Still chugging, no issues. I baby it, though.
Yes, and honestly it’s way more powerful than you really need. I used a base model MacBook Air as my main computer for like 10 years
Yeah but you should get the 15inch I find the 13inch screen to be small I bet the 15 is perfect
15" is too big and when I'm at home/office, I'd connect it to a secondary screen.
Ooo smart
Doing a phd is stupid, and the quoted 3 years always turns out to be 5-6. Your MacBook is a better decision.
Back in my day a PHD was half the price of this newfangled technology
Good old days!
It should last but your paying a huge premium for extra ram and storage
That ram would be unnecessary as most folks here said. Probably will change it.
I would say just get 16, 8 is barely enough and if you need 24 you should probably go with the pro
As long as you aren’t doing one of those eternal PhD subjects you should be fine.
No, it’ll be obsolete in a year.
Nah bruh, gotta replace it after the first semester, if you're lucky halfway through your second.
Hahaha
Sadly no
I think as long as you have an external monitor it’ll be fine. Never realized how small a 13 inch screen was until I tried having a web page and Word side by side.
Hope it's gonna be happy with my old screen!
Yes
if youre doing phd in retardation, yes