Teacher Needs an Apple Laptop - Recommendations?

stormster on 15/11/2024 - 00:21
Last edited 15/11/2024 - 09:39 by 1 other user

Wife is a teacher who spends over 30 hours a week on her laptop either preparing lessons, doing 'paperwork' on it, or teaching from it.

I consider myself better than the average person when it comes to computers but know very little about Apple. I've only ever used Windows and Android. Have dabbled with an iPad, which was given to me for free, but that's it.

She will need education-related programs, such as something called Pages (does this come standard?) to mark student work. I know Microsoft has Office which comes free for teachers in NSW, but I don't know if Apple has a suite of programs similar and if they're free or cost a (profanity)load. I really don't want to break the bank.

What are some of your suggestions? Post some links of good deals or laptops if you don't mind.

Computing Apple Computer Laptop

Comments

  • omguleh on 15/11/2024 - 00:25
    +2

    I would get the M4 MacBook Air base model during their back to school sale.

    Pages is the Apple version of MS Word and is a free download.

    • jv on 15/11/2024 - 00:38
      +4

      There are Apple versions of the Office 365 suite.

      • AustriaBargain on 15/11/2024 - 00:50
        -5

        The Mac version of MS Office is better than the Windows version and for the most part has been for many years now.

        • jv on 15/11/2024 - 00:52
          +7

          The Mac version is better than the Windows version

          No way…

          It is always behind on new features…

          • Kandrew on 15/11/2024 - 10:55

            @jv: I agree!

            Even though Microsoft released the Mac version before the Windows version, for some reason the Mac version is now constantly being left behind.

            And it gets worse. Office for Windows includes more programmes than does the Mac version. Although, if anything has changed with Office365 (or whatever they call it now) I’m open to correction. I gave up on following the updates for Office quite some while ago.

        • Caped Baldy on 15/11/2024 - 12:59

          Can you do delay send on outlook yet?

          • rawm on 15/11/2024 - 13:23

            @Caped Baldy: You can - it's pretty simple when you get used to it, but not as great as Gmail.

          • pinchies on 15/11/2024 - 15:37

            @Caped Baldy: But still no recall emall feature on Mac.

            I agree with both AustriaBargain and JV — it is usually both better than the PC versions, while also still lacking features.

    • ozhunter on 15/11/2024 - 01:15
      +4

      There is no M4 Air

    • Ryk on 15/11/2024 - 07:20

      M3 MacBook Air
      available with Education discount. https://www.apple.com/au_edu_5000447/shop/buy-mac/macbook-ai…

      • stormster on 16/11/2024 - 23:02

        Is the Education store likely to be the cheapest? Do you reckon they'd have discounts for Black Friday?

    • LanceVance on 15/11/2024 - 09:52
      +1

      Only the M4 Macbook Air hasn't been released yet…

  • jv on 15/11/2024 - 00:34

    Teacher Needs an Apple

    An apple for the teacher ???

    I think teachers might qualify for educational prices from Apple.

  • sumyungguy on 15/11/2024 - 00:40

    Teachers can shop Apple's Education Store for prices that are similar to their refurb store. MacBooks come with a suite of software apps that meet the needs of most users; no additional spend needed. Choose whichever model fits your budget. they'll all work absolutely fine for her use case. If she can get MS Office for free that would be a welcome addition. Apple's Pages and Numbers inter-operate well with files created in both MacOS and Windows versions of MS Word and Excel. $1,449 for the 13-inch MacBook Air but for $2,049 the 15-inch is well worth a look for someone who can't readlly access an external display.

  • AustriaBargain on 15/11/2024 - 00:51

    M4 Air probably is the way to go like omg says. The older ones will work fine and save money, but the newer ones have better battery life iirc, if that's important to her. Plus the Air redesign looks a lot nicer than the M1 Air.

    • CrispyChrispy on 15/11/2024 - 09:26
      +3

      M4 Air is the way to go

      Yeah, if it had launched yet.

  • soan papdi on 15/11/2024 - 04:04

    Do teachers have to buy their own laptop to use at schools? Or do they buy and reimburse?

    • geekcohen on 15/11/2024 - 05:40

      It can vary. My wife can get one through the school / education department, but it is a crappy windows one. She has a Macbook Pro which she has bought and then just claims depreciation on tax.

    • Benoffie on 15/11/2024 - 07:52

      Depends on the school. Although in the last 5 years, Ive never had to supply my own and have been given a new laptop every year. Currently have a new HP. In SA though.

      • jjjaar on 15/11/2024 - 07:59

        Public or private school?

        • Benoffie on 15/11/2024 - 14:21

          DfE - public

          Just looking at it now, it's a Probook, AMD Ryzen 5 7530U 16GB and touch screen.

          Had similar at multiple sites over the years. Solid little machines

    • stormster on 16/11/2024 - 22:46

      They should really be provided with one and borrow it from the school, but the principal who decided to make this an Apple school is now saying she has no more money to buy laptops and my wife has to work from an iPad instead. Can you imagine preparing lessons, marking, etc., from an iPad? It's crap. She's been given an older Windows PC but its functionality with all the Apple hardware in the school is shit. Teaching and managing a classroom is hard enough as it is, without all the little problems this creates for her. I don't want to buy an Apple laptop, but it would make her life easier.

  • geekcohen on 15/11/2024 - 05:42
    +1

    My wife has a Macbrook Pro 13" and got the Education Discount, spent just under $2k from memory and she has no problems with it. Her previous Mac lasted about 5 years, so they last a while if treated nicely.

  • LanceVance on 15/11/2024 - 09:58
    +6

    All these comments saying get the M4 (doesn't exist) or the M3… This is a teacher workload we're talking about here, browser based and web processing. Get an M2 and it will be massive overkill for this. Hell, if you find a good M1 somewhere just get that! For longevity though get 16GB RAM if you go down the used path.
    Otherwise an M2 with Edu discount and bump the storage up to 512GB (my mother is a teacher, I'm suprised how much she uses) is a great deal.

    • Caped Baldy on 15/11/2024 - 13:01

      The issue is spending through the nose for upgrades. Fairly sure the M4 chips ship with 16gb of ram which is normally a $300 upgrade.

      OP may as well wait for the deals at the beginning of next year.

      • LanceVance on 15/11/2024 - 14:20
        +1

        Someone clearly didn't pay attention during Apple's latest announcement….
        All Macbooks that you can buy new now come with 16GB RAM standard, even the M2! The only place you'll find one with 8GB on Apple's site is in their refurbished section.

        • Caped Baldy on 15/11/2024 - 14:22

          Thanks for the correction. Surprisingly good move on Apple's end even if it's 5 years late.

        • stormster on 16/11/2024 - 22:50

          Oh, so Apple still releases M1, M2, M3's? I thought the new 16gb ram thing only came with the new releases, which I thought were only M4. She will use it for office-related stuff and video streaming. She honestly won't need the newest whizbang thing out there. How does the operating system and updates work though? I had an ipad and it stopped being supported which pretty much prevented me from using it as I couldn't download new apps because of the OS not being updated. Is this an issue with Apple laptops too?

          • sumyungguy on 16/11/2024 - 22:57

            @stormster: Latest MacOS release: 15.1 Sequoia runs on Macs released from 2018 onwards. Apple doesn't disclose this info but Mac users expect 6–7 years of feature updates and another 2–4 years of security updates.

            • stormster on 16/11/2024 - 23:04

              @sumyungguy: So even if I buy an M2 instead of M3 or M4 from Apple tomorrow, I have the updates you speak of above?

              • sumyungguy on 16/11/2024 - 23:17

                @stormster: Yes, and if you're more a content consumer and less a creator you can expect wholly acceptable performance for probably beyond the service life of the hardware. I have a 2011 MacBook Air that still runs ok.

          • LanceVance on 17/11/2024 - 12:35

            @stormster: M1's aren't sold by Apple anymore. I used the M1 as an example if you found one used and it would still be perfectly fine for what your wife needs. Apple still sells the M2 & M3 and which would be perfectly fine for a long long time.

  • wasdw246 on 16/11/2024 - 00:14

    I think apples keep doctors way, not teachers

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