New laptop for christmas

cena

Would you buy a new apple mac laptop for a 16-year-old Christmas present? Starting 1200 euro

Gregor Samsa

Not for some random 16 year old - that would be very creepy and inappropriate.

But if the 16 year old was my own child, or one I had some significant responsibility for, I could comfortably afford it, and they had a significant enough need for it, then yes I potentially would.

blackbox

I wouldn't buy an apple Mac at all. But that's just me.

blackbox

Double post

Atlantic Dawn

Would a €400 Windows Laptop not do what they need? If it will it's like buying a new Tesla v's a Corolla, a vanity project.

kippy

I'd not spend that kinda money on a laptop without serious justification for it.

cena

They get a brand new windows laptop that was never looked at

Gregor Samsa

Seems to be more to this question than “would you buy a MacBook for a 16 year old”.

Sounds like one for PI rather than AH.

cena

It is not my buying the laptop.

Atlantic Dawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118349220#Comment_118349220

What do they need the Macbook for? Has even less functionality than a Windows laptop.

cena

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118349369#Comment_118349369

I have no idea why she want one. They are getting a new Xbox on top of that

Atlantic Dawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118349434#Comment_118349434

Sounds like a crazy waste but let them blow it whatever way they want, additional laughs if they take out a loan or stick it on a credit card.

FFVII

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118349220#Comment_118349220

Wait what!?

Tell them get an apple phone aswell.

touts

No 16 year old needs a €1200+ laptop of any description. To be honest very few grown ups do either. Wait till they go to college and then get them a laptop that exactly meets the needs of their course and will more than likely last the 4 years in college. In the meantime tell them to use the brand new windows machine.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118349593#Comment_118349593

Your view is completely and utterly outdated. A lot of young people now need powerful machines whether its for programming/Video editing/Youtubing/Gaming/Mining etc.

College is just a piece of paper, 90% of the courses are just absolute horse crap.

jj880

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058223597/new-laptop-for-christmas

No. No I wouldn't.

Apple products are fashion accessories with functionality restricted to maximise profit. Crazy markup for nothing more than to be seen with the apple logo.

Some people like to be seen with overpriced electronics and it's their (or their parent's) money to spend how they want I suppose.

Capt'n Midnight

Thanks to working from home and supply chain laptop prices are still at a premium. And thanks to crypto currency hard drives are also at a premium. So you aren't going to get close to €1,200 worth of laptop for €1,200 any time soon. So now you only need to get something that will do for a year or two until prices return to normal.

Computer hardware is no longer getting 10 times faster every 10 years so there's no need to get the latest and greatest unless there is a very specific need for specific features.

If all they are going to do is surf the interweb then get a tablet , stand and keyboard optional

touts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118349609#Comment_118349609

Actually your view is the one that is completely and utterly outdated. Laptop technology has improved significantly over the last 5 years and the vast majority of people, young or old, do not need to fall for the marketing hype and buy a €1200 laptop.

College courses are only a part of an overall jigsaw but most careers need qualifications of some form now.

They already have brand new Windows laptop, but do not used it. Why would they use a Mac instead? Is the Windows machine a 'budget special' with a poor quality screen and as slow a dog? Is the Mac a fashion statement for school?

A more important question is what does the school use?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118350046#Comment_118350046

Like I'm a software engineer, my work machine is a high end MacBook so costs almost 4 grand on average day. But I put it through pretty intense workloads. I still couldn't justify buying a similarly specced MacBook for personal use. My personal laptop cost maybe 1600. Might invest in a desktop at some point for some gaming. But honestly the average 16 year old would not get use out of any machine I have.

There are exceptions in this scenario imho. Eg sixteen year old me had built a computer by that age so I was a full on nerd. But also infinitely lower spec than the average current generation of PC. But any money spent by either me or by my parents at the time can legitimately be viewed at this stage in my career.

So op scenario really sounds more like buying a device for the prestige of the brand. But probably not hugely different to a teen getting the latest iphone etc. Ultimately a pretty huge waste of money. I'm also at a point where I'm stuck considering the environmental impact of technology and extreme consumerism. This involves me being more considerate of purchases etc these days.

Anyway, tangent done.

apache

What should the novice look for in a decent laptop? Like how much RAM etc and what is the price roughly?

I bought a HP one a few years ago and it's absolutely useless. No memory but it was cheap and now I know why. How much should the average user spend on a laptop with good specs?

Hotblack Desiato

Stick Linux on the cheap Windoze laptop, job done 😁

Donald Trump

For photo-editing and video processing etc. you need a decent machine

You'd also need a top of the range webcam on it now.

Because it'll be a bit out of date in two years time when she gets to start earning using it on onlyfans

Real answer: as someone else said they probably only want the brand/label. Technically speaking, Any kind of basic machine should do them. I know they won't like to hear that

Ryzen 5 laptops are the best value for Money such as this computer. The processors in them are excellent and will not go slow in the next 10 years.

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/15s-eq2252ng-Laptop-Graphics-Windows-QWERTZ/dp/B091CG649Q/ref%3Dsr_1_4?crid=3DES7I6NJU8L&keywords=ryzen+5+laptop&qid=1640002824&sprefix=ryzen+5+latpop%2Caps%2C48&sr=8-4

Most laptops come with 8GB of Ram but If doing anything intensive can just get an 8GB stick of ram for 40 quid but 8GB should be fine for most. Myself I'd buy the extra 8

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118350961#Comment_118350961

600 is usually the sweet spot with a Ryzen 5 CPU and 8GB of Ram. I5 CPU do either.

If you go cheaper your just looking for pain.

The processor is the deal breaker whether the laptop is a piece of **** or good. Processor is the most important thing.

I've seen laptops at 600 euro that are a piece of **** that people actually buy and horrendously slow that you'd want to smash it off a wall.

L1011

If the kid had very specific needs for a Mac, and were actually going to use it, yes

If the kid wants it because of the shiny Apple on the back and doesn't even use their existing laptop, absolutely not.

jj880

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118350961#Comment_118350961

Maybe this is a given these days but SSD drive only for your OS.

Some deals might looks good with a larger HDD but dont do it. You will regret it.

If you need more space later you can get an external USB drive to move data onto:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-Elements-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B06W55K9N6/

bnt

I just helped a friend buy a laptop for his missus, and came away with the kind of system described in this thread: not cutting edge, decent performance. 256GB internal SSD and we added a 512GB SD card for bulk storage of photos etc.

I might get myself a MacBook Air when the new one comes out mid-year. I’ve never had one before and fancy a change, and the price/performance improved drastically since they switched to the M1 (ARM) platform and dropped Intel. Windows laptops of similar capability aren’t much cheaper now, if cheaper at all.

Dramatik

Depends on what they want the laptop for. If you end up going apple though, check their refurbished section on their website, you can often get 200 or more off items and still have the safety of buying direct from apple.

Apple get a lot of **** for the price of their stuff and specs vs price are always thrown about but one thing that doesn't get mentioned much is the quality of Apple's screens vs windows models. Put a Windows laptop beside an apple and tell me the quality of the screen doesn't look better on the apple, the majority of the time it will

Cheap Windows-Linux machine, tart it up to appear like a MacBook, stick an Apple sticker on the back, put alias app names up to look like Mac, call it a Virtual Mac, hardware & all. 😂😂😂😂

Seriously, if the girl had already got into using the Windows machine, and showed a great interest in computers and seeing the differences, then it might be a career stepping stone, but apparently she has no interest in the Windows one, so definitely not a nerd in the making.

bmc58

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118350066#Comment_118350066

Actualy dogs are pretty fast you know.

riclad

Apple products are overpriced. Also they are designed to be hard to repair unless you go to a apple store windows laptops use standard parts. Also theres a wider range of games and free programs on windows

I understand mac m1 laptops are very powerful and have great battery life. people use apps and mostly the browser. Unless you are doing 3d design. Programming. Video editing you dont need a apple laptop. Google. Laptop reviews 2021. My 5 year old toshiba laptop works fine. I dont need windows 11

Of course you may consider it an investment in.your childs education. Windows had 1000s of games on.steam. Epic store. I understand some designers use apple mac laptops. Whats the chance of a 16 year old becoming a programmer or video editor ?

Hotblack Desiato

Anybody who does want to get into programming needs Linux, all sorts of compilers and tools etc. available free of charge. Windows locks you into their proprietary shyte. Apple is worse.

kyote00

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118376582#Comment_118376582

MacOS is actually Unix based and makes for a very high quality development machine due its file system, bsd based networking and very flexible shell, brew package mgr.

Dev tools all free

only limitation is with poor/no choice of GPUs for AI development

the M1 chipset appears to be reducing the cost of MacBooks ….

kowloon

The average 16 year old wants a Mac entirely because it's what's fashionable. It won't matter if it just becomes a glorified Facebook machine. If they were looking to do anything resource-intensive they likely wouldn't be looking for a laptop at all. You could get them a rival brand that beat the Mac on every metric (including the screen) and you would be the bad guy for not getting the right one.

Every time there's a new iPhone launch the internet is full of videos of spoiled kids having meltdowns because they got a different model or the wrong colour and how they'll never be able to go out in public again because of it. Same goes for runners and what have you.

A 16 year old would not be seen dead on Facebook. It is for their parents generation.

kowloon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118376959#Comment_118376959

That's fair, it stopped being cool when their grandparents started using it. So,TikTok, Twitch or whatever. Only furthers my point about Teenagers blindly chasing trends. What happened to MySpace and Bebo?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118351184#Comment_118351184

If you think a ryzen 5 will last 10 years without noticeable slowdown you’re delusional.

and further 8GB of ram is insufficient these days & at minimum you would want 16GB. And also you can’t just go grab the first 8GB sodimm you find ffs. It has to match what’s in there already, which would be nearly impossible to locate online. Mismatched ram is as good as no ram.

The child should be got this with a cheap monitor or old HDMI tv

https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-400/

Linux based. will do all the social media **** they are into, will take all the usb peripherals etc. I use an old PI 3 as an media centre/browsing

plenty of apps for programming for all levels.. think scratch!.

Personally, I built a ryzen 3100 system for my kids last year(with old R7 260X salvaged graphics cards). Kids doing their homework, research etc on same. even plays games grand such as subnautica and Kerbal space programme

It is in the kitchen so supervised. I would have reservations of allowing a 16 year old access to the net from the privacy of their own room, or the ability to move the computer somewhere out of sight quietly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118373433#Comment_118373433

*Some* 16 year olds are getting their teeth really stuck into video editing or programming. I probably would have been one of those it had all been around in the my teenage years, and as I was doing leaving cert about that time I would have possibly (at least tried to!) given the latter a miss and made a career out of the former.

But don’t think child OP is concerned about is in this category.

kowloon

If you're really getting into 3D design/animation you don't want a laptop unless you have another machine to handle all the heavy rendering work. You're also limiting the range of software you can use. I know a guy who got around this by running Windows on his Intel-based Mac desktop, but I'm not sure you can run it natively on the newer ones and if you're buying a Mac and not using their OS you're doing it wrong.

cena

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379607#Comment_118379607

They show no interest in video editing or programming. Something that should be thought in school

Ten of Swords

Mod - Christmas has been and gone now, I think this thread has run it's course

Closed