How to Choose a Mac Laptop

Apple has brought out several new products lately that are making it hard to choose a laptop. It’s easy to tell people what to buy based on your own needs but that doesn’t mean your answer would be right for them. Now that Apple has a pretty deep bench of laptops, it’s even harder to tell the right answer. Recently my husband Steve, our friend Ron and I all bought new laptops (as our second machines) and we bought 3 completely different models. That got me thinking that a nice little Q and A would help people determine which model is right for them.

I want a Mac laptop, what should I get?

Check out the 12″ Macbook. Weighing in at an amazing 2 pounds, it has a gorgeous retina screen and a battery that lasts all day. It’s got that fancy Force Touch trackpad and the new scissor key keyboard. It even comes in three colors, silver, space grey or gold.

The 12″ Macbook isn’t powerful enough for me with that Core M processor. I know its not powerful because I heard about one article that said it was the same speed as the 2011 Macbook Air. I like to think of myself as a power user. Of course I haven’t tested the new 12″ Macbook with my applications nor have I read any reviews since that first article was published.

Ok, can I suggest the 15″ Retina MacBook Pro? You can max it out with the Intel i7 Processor, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. It’s a fabulous workhorse of a machine. It’s recently been updated to include the Force Touch trackpad so you’ll have all the bells and whistles.

But the 15″ Macbook Pro is too darn heavy at 4.46 Pounds.

Maybe the 13″ Macbook Pro is right for you. It too can be maxed out to an Intel i7, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. Like the 15″ model, and the 13″ has the Force Touch trackpad now too.

But the 13″ Macbook Pro is still too heavy at nearly 3.5 pounds and it’s so thick and chunky at .71 inches thick.

I bet you’d enjoy the 13″ Macbook Air. It’s at least thinner on one edge than the 13″ MacBook Pro, it weighs 15% less at just a smidgen under 3 pounds. It’s got the power you seek since you can push the Macbook Air up to an Intel i7 but you’ll be capped at 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD but that’s still pretty amazing in that little laptop. This machine was recently upgraded to the newest Intel Broadwell chipset which makes it faster while requiring less power so the battery life is insane.

But I want a retina screen!

Go away and leave me alone.