Best MacBook for students 2024 (2024)

Documents and word processing are classed as lighter workloads, so a large processor and GPU in a MacBook Pro is unnecessary. If your studying involves writing, presentations, and research, a MacBook Air would be a great selection. Available in both 13-inch and 15-inch models, the slimline design of a Macbook Air allows for ease of portability and will fit comfortably inside a backpack or bag. If you’re also looking to save a little money, 8GB of memory will be more than enough to guarantee a smooth workflow. Just make sure you close down any unused programs or tabs when you don’t need them.

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With this in mind, the 14-inch and 16-inch Apple Silicon MacBook models feature a Liquid Retina XDR display providing an exceptional visual experience, and coupled with an Apple Silicon processor you wont need to worry about being slowed down by the speed.

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Video editing can be one of the most intensive tasks for any computer, so finding a device with the right hardware is important. With that in mind, there are a number of factors to consider before you make a purchase, including screen resolution, rendering speeds and storage requirements.
For popular software like Premiere Pro, Vegas Pro, or Final Cut Pro, either a 14-inch or 16-inch Macbook pro would be the place to start. With any professional application, it would be wise to go for 16GB of memory (32GB is preferred). Anything less than 16GB could result in a noticeable drop in performance when multitasking.

If you're looking for a capable machine on a budget, the slightly older M1 Apple Silicon devices are still very capable today. As the first generation of Apple’s custom CPU chipset, they represent a significant jump in performance compared to their previous intel-based devices.

Make sure you take a careful look at the power of the GPU before you buy, as you would benefit from choosing the most powerful one you can afford. A powerful GPU will help to keep your rendering times down.

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The Macbook Pro 14-inch or 16-inch with an Apple Silicon processor is both capable and portable for studio sessions and college/university lectures. With a budget in mind, avoid the Max processors as you will not benefit from the increased GPU cores.

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For coding you should steer towards a large, high resolution display so you don't have to worry about constantly scrolling through your code. Writing code also requires long hours of screen time so you need to have a display with a good visual experience. Taking all of those factors into consideration, we advise to select a Macbook with either a 15-inch or 16-inch display.

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Gaming has become more accessible to Mac users since the release of Apple Silicon, thanks to Apple’s ongoing investment towards expanding its game library. It’s also becoming increasingly common for developers to port their games to macOS. If you are interested in using a Macbook for gaming, we have another article available that goes into further depth about gaming with Apple Silicon available to view here.

All MacBooks are equipped with a front-facing camera and built-in microphone, perfect to use for video calling software like Zoom, all without the need to buy any external peripherals. An essential avenue of communication for a student studying away from home.

The examples above cover the most common uses for students, but we know there are other use cases we haven’t addressed. If you have specific needs, please feel free to email us at info@hoxtonmacs.co.uk. We’d be more than happy to help you find the best MacBook for your requirements.