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Oct 09, 2020 The best Mac apps for 2020 By Mark Coppock October 9, 2020 If you’ve heard the phrase, “Once you go Mac, you never go back,” you know it holds true.
Available for broke college students (read: free) for iOS and Android devices. The premium version is even more useful, at $5 a month or $45 a year. The premium version is even more useful, at $5. Best perks, discounts and freebies for college students in 2020. The deals include half off Amazon Prime, free Apple TV Plus, dirt-cheap Spotify and lots more. Best college laptop for 2020: Apple, Microsoft, Dell and more. Find an affordable laptop for every type of student.
If you want to join the Apple family, the question is, do you opt for the MacBook Air, or the MacBook Pro? The answer, in very simple terms, is this:
There’s some nuance to this – including which of the MacBook Pro variants to choose between. The most important thing is to understand what your own needs are ahead of picking up a MacBook. If you’re keen to invest in an Apple laptop, it’s now a decision that boils down to the MacBook Pro or the MacBook Air, as Apple has discontinued the 12-inch ‘MacBook'.
Known for their premium design, and a mainstay of coffee shops everywhere, MacBooks have a reputation as speedy, capable laptops that are a joy to use. You’re unlikely to meet a MacBook user with much negative to say about their laptop of choice. Whether you end up with the Air or the Pro, we’re confident you’ll be over the moon with it, and join the legions of MacBook owners who speak so lovingly about their laptops.
Below, we compare the key specs of the MacBook Air and the various MacBook Pro models to help you decide which is best. The good news? There’s no such thing as “a bad MacBook”. The most important thing is not choosing a model that’s overkill for your own needs – as the prices get very steep, very fast.
Mobile users scroll right to see full table
Screen Size | Screen Resolution In pixels - the higher the number, the greater the screen detail. | Battery Life As claimed by the manufacturer – actual performance will vary depending on daily tasks. | Storage The built in storage space for files, programs, apps and the operating system | RAM More RAM tends to help a computer to run quickly and multitask | Magic Keyboard For MacBooks, this is the newer style of keyboard, replacing the unpopular Butterfly keyboard | Touch Bar Runs along the top of the keyboard, lets you give certain commands depending on the program running | Touch ID | Price From | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The go-to MacBook for anyone but the most demanding users. Perfect for daily browsing and work, it's slim, light and runs like a dream | Lots of power, a brilliant screen and an improved keyboard make this the perfect MacBook for demanding users, though the Air is cheaper | The absolute pinnacle of MacBooks, and everything a design professional could want – but at an eye-watering price | Discontinued by Apple, this is the smallest MacBook available. It's only worth buying if you find it at a big discount, versus the newer Air | ||||||
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Both the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro are excellent laptops in their own right, but which one to opt for depends on what you’ll be using it for.
Both the Pro and the Air are beautifully designed and offer excellent battery life, at around 12 hours between charges. This makes them excellent travel companions, no matter which model you go for.
As for which is best? We’ve got you covered. Our guide will help you work out exactly which model will work best for you.
With the 2018 MacBook Air, Apple took the rather neglected laptop and brought it bang up to date. It now packs in an 8th generation processor, and took some design cues from the MacBook Pro too, including finally getting a highly detailed Retina screen. It’s also had its speakers moved to the sides of the keyboard, rather than underneath, making the sound more impactful and clearer.
As you might expect, the Air is light and slim. https://freechip490.hatenablog.com/entry/2020/12/17/183812. It’s a great option for anyone who travels a lot with their laptop and doesn’t want to be inconvenienced by a weighty set-up.
The Air doesn’t have the necessary grunt for heavy lifting tasks – think graphics editing, giant spreadsheets full of macros, or video work. For those tasks, that’s why the Pro exists.
For more, see our Full Review of the 2018 MacBook Air
Pros
Cons
In the MacBook line up, the Pro is the pinnacle, making it the most desirable (and costly) laptop bearing the Apple badge. The reason for this is that it is stuffed with tech, from fast Intel processors (up to i7 if you can afford it), to dedicated Radeon graphics cards
The MacBook Pro is a beast of a laptop, designed to tackle complex video editing and graphical processing with ease.
Two of the Pro models (one 13-inch, one 16-inch) are also home to Apple’s Touch Bar, a feature you won’t find on the MacBook Air. This is a thin touch screen that sits at the top of the keyboard and offers a context sensitive control panel. Uses include using it to scrub through the frames on a video file, or quickly add emojis to your messages. Is it essential? No. Is it cool? Yes, it really is.
It all sounds rosy for the Pro, but it comes at a price. Literally. The Pro is the priciest laptop in the MacBook line up, and can run you up to $2,800 if you opt for the 16-inch model with 512GB of storage and a blisteringly fast 8-core i9 processor. That’s not one for the budget conscious, but it’s a serious asset for design professionals.
To keep your budget down, but still get plenty of power, we’d recommend the 13-inch MacBook Pro without a Touch Bar. This model is the cheapest Pro, but still packs in enough power for all but the most demanding users.
The MacBook Pro line starts from around $1,300 – click to compare MacBook Pro prices on Amazon
Pros
Cons
The MacBook Air is pitched as Apple’s entry-level laptop. That’s a slight misnomer, as tech-wise, it blows most entry-level Windows models out of the water. With the Air, you’re paying for a laptop that will cruise its way through your daily tasks. It will let you juggle your social media activity, Netflix binging, web browsing and daily work with ease.
So okay, the MacBook Pro can do all that too. But, it would be like buying a flamethrower to make toast – impressive, but overkill.
The MacBook Air represents the best of Apple’s laptop line up for the everyday user, suiting their needs, and their pocket, too.
The term ‘value’ might not seem like it has a place in Apple’s line up – if you’re looking for a bargain, you won’t find one here. Apple has long built its reputation on offering high end computing equipment that is desirable, not affordable.
However, its cheapest laptop is the MacBook Air, at $1,199. That’s the price of the 2018 entry level Air, and if you’ve been on Apple’s website looking longingly through the virtual shop window, you might have spotted another Air that costs $999. So, what’s wrong with that one? Well, nothing. While the older Air model is perfectly fine, it’s rather dated – the 2018 model is a vast improvement in almost every way.
We think it’s well worth investing the extra $200 for the newer model, rather than picking up the cheaper Air now and regretting it one or two years down the line. By this point, the old Air will practically be a fossil, specs wise.
If you don’t need the MacBook right away (and we appreciate that’s a bit like asking a kid to not open its presents on Christmas Day), it could pay you to wait a little longer. On a stockholders call in early 2019, Apple promised that it was going to lower the price of the MacBook Air. We don’t know when this will happen, but we expect it to be before summer 2019.
Let’s be clear – while the Pro has more raw processing muscle, the Air is still no slouch, and will happily breeze through most of the tasks that you throw at it without breaking a sweat.
However, it’s the Pro that really kicks things up a gear. If you’re looking to do anything graphically intense, or some serious number crunching, this is the one to go for.
First up, the Pro has a more capable graphics processor than the Air, which relies on the Intel UHD Graphics 617 chip. The Pro leans on the Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 or 655 in its 13-inch form. But, upgrade to the 16-inch model and the Pro comes with a dedicated Radeon Pro graphics card – this gives the 16-inch Pro a significant boost when handling graphics. Sure, you can play Fortnite on it at a decent frame rate, but, more importantly, it can power through intensive media editing or graphic rendering with relative ease.
Then, there’s the processors. The Air comes with an 8th generation 1.6GHz dual-core Intel i5. If all you tend to do is browse the web, stream and email, then this really is more than enough.
The Pro, though starts with a 2.3GHz dual core Intel i5, and works its way there all the way up to a 2.3GHz 8-core Intel i9 in the 16-inch model (should your wallet allow it).
In basic terms, this means that the Pro is a powerhouse. The MacBook Pro series is scalable depending on what your needs (and budget) are. In a 100 meter race, the 16-inch Pro would be signing autographs at the finish line while the Air was still listening for the starting gun.
Pros
Cons
If there’s one thing that Apple is famed for, it’s design. The company has been responsible for spawning thousands of imitators and a lot of modern tech devices owe their shells to Apple’s influence in some way. Most tablets look like iPads, most phones look like iPhones, and there certainly isn’t a lack of high-end laptops that look rather familiar…
Portability is a key element of Apple’s design philosophy, with its teams constantly shaving millimetres and ounces from line up. The peak of this was the launch of the original Air, which at the time was heavily advertised as being able to fit into an A4 envelope. It might have lost some impact today, but at a time when most laptops were knee-crushing behemoths, it was practically black magic. While there has been some friendly rivalry in recent years between the Air and MacBook models, with both vying to be the thinnest and lightest, the Air holds the current crown, and it is as svelte as an Instagram model’s airbrushed beach shot.
Weighing in at 1.25kg and with a height of 0.61-inches, it’s a great laptop for slipping into a bag (or A4 envelope, if you prefer). That’s not to say that the MacBook Pro is a chunky brick, by any means. It’s also been shaved down to a satisfyingly slim and compact shape, but the Air is the ultimate laptop for portability.
If screen quality is important to you, then you’ve come to the right brand. Apple’s laptop displays are hard to beat. Even the entry-level 2018 Air has now been bestowed its Retina display, with a 2560×1600 screen that is vibrant and offers stunning color reproduction.
It’s the Pro though that goes the extra mile, though. While the Pro models have the same Retina display as the Air, it’s notably brighter, and also offers ‘True Tone Technology’ on the Touch Bar Pro models. This is effectively a sensor that monitors your environment and then adjusts the display accordingly. It’s a familiar technology for mobile devices, but it’s still rare to find it on laptops.
If you’re stepping onto campus with either a MacBook Air or Pro under your arm, then you’ll be the envy of plenty of students. But, which one to opt for depends on what you’re studying.
For most students, the Air is a perfect fit, thanks to its lower price point and portability. Chances are that many of your textbooks will outweigh the Air – you’ll barely notice it in your backpack. Its snappy start time and long battery life mean that it’s a great companion during lectures, or throughout those late night study sessions.
Yes, the Pro can do all this, too. But, the caveat is that the Pro is notably more expensive, and likely to be overkill for most students. However, there will be some that find the extra graphical prowess and number crunching beneficial. Media students who are tackling video editing projects, or anyone taking on computer programming or graphic design, will find the extra muscle of the Pro beneficial.
If you’re not sure what sort of specs you’ll need for your course, check with the college ahead of time, who should be able to advise you on what most students use. You can also see our guide to laptop specs explained.
It’s also worth noting that Apple offers discounts for students, meaning that you can make a saving on a new MacBook. Check out its Apple Education site for offers.
More on this – see our guide to the Best Laptops for College
Choosing between the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro really comes down to two major factors – Budget and Need. If you go for the Pro, you’re getting a high spec machine that comes with a premium price tag, so make sure you’ll actually get the use out of it before investing. Consider it like a sports car. Yes, it looks great, and it goes fast, but if you’re only using it to drive into town a few days a week, you’re not going to feel the benefit of all those dollars.
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College isn't all fun and games (unless you want it to be.) Don't sweat it, though. Take a look at these 25 apps — they'll give you a smoother college experience by helping you study smarter, connect with new people and wake up in time for your early lectures.
Your university probably has its own app, too — download it. It will provide you with a more tailored breakdown than a national application.
See also: 12 Things Students Should Never Do on Social Media
Any helpful ones we missed? Let us know in the comments!
Image: BenchPrep
BenchPrep is an interactive course library with all the graduate and professional exam study material you can handle. It includes hundreds of practice questions, flashcards, in-app purchases and almost 600 study lessons. Go ahead and pick your poison: LSAT, MCAT, GMAT.
Available for free on iOS and Android devices.
Sip 1 0 8 – simple color picker for developers. Image: iStudentPro
iStudiezPro keeps track of your deadlines, grades and more across all Mac devices — all you need to do is plug your class schedule into the app. It comes with both Cloud syncing and iCal integration.
Available for $2.99 for iOS. The free iStudiez Lite version limits the number of classes you manage, but it's useful nonetheless.
You've probably heard a lot about Evernote, and yes, you should try it. What have you got to lose .. your homework? The app syncs all your stuff — text, audio, photo, video — to an online account, so you're always connected with resources to study.
If you're feeling overwhelmed by Evernote's many features, check out this comprehensive beginner's guide.
Available for broke college students (read: free) for iOS and Android devices. The premium version is even more useful, at $5 a month or $45 a year.
Flashcards are an effective way to memorize information, but making them is a headache. With StudyBlue, use text, pictures and audio to create the perfect stack of (digital) flashcards; or, search the massive database to borrow someone else's.
Available for iOS and Android devices.
Did your little brother steal your calculator once you finished AP physics? Use RealCalc for serious computing — it's a perfect alternative for the calculator-less.
Available for free for Android. If you need a heavy-duty upgrade, try RealCalc Plus for $3.49.
More than 650 chemical, civil, electrical, environmental, hydrology and mechanical formulas are updated in Engineering Pro — so don't worry about buying multiple formula apps. Save or Favorite the formulas you need most often.
Available for $11.99 for iOS.
Image: EasyBib
EasyBib generates citations in MLA, APA and Chicago style wherever you are — just scan the book's bar code or enter the title. The app also lets you easily email and export the bibliographies to yourself. Using this, you have no excuses for putting off that term paper.
Available for free for iOS and Android devices.
Image: Notella
Some professors drop the most important bombs when you least expect it ('Have a good spring break, everyone. Oh! One more thing: We're having an exam worth 60% of your final grade the day you get back. See ya!').
Don't miss a thing with Notesdeck. This super-fast note-taking app opens to a new note by default, lets you create custom hotkeys and syncs notes from other apps — iCloud, Evernote, Simplenote and Dropbox. You can even search within those other apps from one search bar.
Available for $2.99 for iOS.
From thermodynamics to baseball, the Wolfram Alpha reference app uses its supercomputing Cloud to quickly generate answers — across thousands of domains — to all your research questions.
Available for $2.99 for iOS and Android devices.
With more than two million definitions, synonyms and antonyms, Dictionary.com's fast and user-friendly mobile app will decode that confusing media law textbook in no time.
Available for free for iOS and Android devices.
Whether you're a Spanish lit major or just looking to finish your general education requirements, Babylon provides comprehensive dictionary results and translations for dozens of languages. With pasteboard integration and access to more than 1,500 glossaries in 75 languages, you'll never struggle to find an accurate definition for your foreign language presentation again.
iBabylon is available for free for iOS; Babylon Translator is available for free for Android.
You have better things to do than copy and paste all day. Make light work of data entry assignments with Jumpcut: copy as much text as you want, one after another, and paste using simple keystrokes.
Available for Macs only.
Ever wish you could type faster? Dragon Dictation uses accurate voice recognition software to let you speak and instantly see your words in text. Dictate statuses to your social networks or pretend you're talking to someone if you're trying to write a speech — even send statuses straight to your social networks. Try this if you're in a time crunch and really need to churn out an essay; or, if you're just someone who prefers speaking over writing.
Available for free for iOS.
Image: Flickr, jonas maaloe
It's finals week. You have a huge essay to finish .. but then there's Reddit, emitting its bewitching siren call. Every. Damn. Time.
SelfControl lets you set a period of time to block certain websites or mail servers by adding them to a 'blacklist.' It's too bad if you finish your work early — restarting your computer or deleting the application won't negate the timer.
Available for free for Mac OS X.
Avoid interrupting class and getting on your professor's bad side with Studious. Once you input your class schedule, Studious will silence your phone during those hours.
Available for free for Android. Upgrade to Studious+ for $1.99 to bypass the ads.
Ever feel uncomfortable when it's dark and you're in a new part of a city — or even campus? Circle of 6 won the White House's Apps Against Abuse challenge. It helps you stay safe by connecting you to six trusted contacts, whenever and wherever. Use the pre-programmed 'come and get me' message with your GPS location, or easily call national and local emergency hotlines in critical situations. It's a fast and discreet way to put your safety first.
Available for free for iOS and Android devices.
Addendum: You don't actually need six people if you want to double up on contacts.
Image: Skype
Video interviews are not going away any time soon — so you might as well get a heads up now. Microsoft's Skype is a reliable way to connect with faraway family and friends via text, voice and — of course — video.
Available for free for iOS and Android devices.
LinkedIn and all its nifty mobile features makes connections a breeze — for better or worse, college is a time of both personal and professional connections.
Available on the web, of course, but also for free for iOS and Android devices.
Don't be the only person in class who isn't up-to-date with world events. Use Twitter to keep yourself in the loop in both the academic and social aspects of your life. In today's contemporary classrooms, you may even be asked to participate in class discussions via Twitter.
Available for free for iOS and Android devices. Fonts for pc free download.
There are a lot of things to do in college. Exercising isn't always one of them; especially when there's socializing and studying to be had. Sworkit's greatest asset is its ability to let you choose your exercise time allotment in five-minute increments — starting at, yes, the very low threshold of five minutes. Doable, right?
It also boasts an extensive list of work out routines.
Available for free for iOS and Android devices. Sworkit Pro comes with advanced features and costs $0.99 for iOS and Android.
See also: 10 YouTube Channels That Will Make You Smarter
Club fees. Books. Tuition. Food. College adds up — quickly. Mint is a web and mobile app that helps you keep track of your spending. Plus, it's never too early to start cultivating good credit.
Available for free for iOS and Android devices.
Come on, you lazy bum — you're paying for these early classes, remember? Nicknamed the 'world's most annoying alarm,' Sleep If U Can gives you two options to silent the alarm: 1) Shake your phone; or 2) Physically go the place shown on your screen (see: the bathroom sink in the video) and take a picture.
Available for $1.99 for iOS and free for Android.
Mashable composite, images: Pocket First Aid & CPR
While it's not the sexiest app to have at your disposable, you never know when it might come in handy. Along with clear and concise CPR instructions, Pocket First Aid and CPR contains 34 videos and 46 high-resolution illustrations.
Available for $1.99 for iOS and Android devices.
Attempting the long-distance relationship course? Kudos — that's no small task. Relationship app Between can help ease the separation anxiety by letting you send messages, voicemails, memos and photos. A private timeline makes it easy to reminisce about the good old days with your significant other(s).
Available for free for iOS and Android devices.
Image: TED
In an environment often congested with bad influences, a heavy dose of genius goes a long way. TED Talks give you instant access to the biggest thought leaders of our time.
Available for free for iOS and Android devices.
Image: Mashable, Meghan Uno
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