The MacBook range of laptops has long been the market leader, in terms of styling and desirability. But Apple’s portable PCs are also excellent for practical purposes, whether dealing with daily work tasks or harnessing powerful audio, image and video editing tools. With so many models on offer, it may be difficult to pick the right MacBook for you. Here is a quick rundown of the major models and the benefits that they bring to the table.
Basic MacBook
The standard, entry level MacBook can be configured with a variety of components, depending on how much you want to spend, and it generally offers the lowest level specifications of any Apple laptop. In terms of value for money, it is arguably the best model to pick, even given Apple’s reputation for maintaining high prices on its products to match the premium image of its brand. A modern MacBook can be equipped with a 1.1GHz Intel Core m3 processor and features a 12 inch Retina Display, which is the smallest screen in the MacBook family. It is also lighter than its siblings, tipping the scales at 0.92kg, which helps with portability.
MacBook Air
The Air may be a little heavier than its standard stable mate, but it is quite a bit thinner and manages to pack in plenty of powerful hardware, in spite of its slender frame. The 13.3 inch display offers more room to enjoy web browsing, media playback and a host of software apps, although it lacks the Retina resolution found elsewhere. You may want to choose the MacBook Air if its lightweight, thin design appeals to you, as this is the main selling point. It also has a solid 12 hour battery life, outdoing the standard MacBook’s 10 hour maximum uptime.
MacBook Pro
The MacBook Pro range represents the more expensive end of Apple’s family of laptops, and the more you are willing to spend, the more powerful and impressive the device you will be able to afford. With Intel’s Core i5 and i7 processors under the hood, quad core performance will be at your fingertips. You can also benefit from solid state storage, with capacities of up to a terabyte on offer. This means you will have room for vast amounts of data, all of which will be accessible in a flash, thanks to the fast nature of contemporary SSDs. It is worth noting that Apple updates the MacBook Pro range on an almost annual basis, while continuing to sell older models alongside their successors at more affordable prices. So keep this in mind when you are buying and make use of the firm’s official comparison tool on its website to find out the precise differences between each laptop. The latest models come with Touch ID for fingerprint scanning, as well as the all-new Touch Bar which sits just about the keyboard. This touch sensitive interface is effectively a secondary display that gives you access to a range of app-specific inputs that change depending on what you are doing. It can be a boon for boosting productivity if your MacBook is primarily going to be a work tool, so perhaps consider looking for this feature when making a decision. If the MacBook range sounds appealing, but you are not all that interested in portability and would prefer to get more power per pound spent, then the iMac family of all-in-one desktop PCs might be a suitable alternative.