My daughter is starting uni this year so I'm going to get her a MacBook. I have saw the 11" air for £629 on the refurbished Apple site and the 13" pro for £759.

It's for a student so is it worth paying for the pro as apart from screen size I noticed there was a dvdrw. I don't know anyone that uses a dvd drive as its all usb.

 

Check to see if the Uni she's going to has an affiliation with Apple, many Unis get educational discount through the Apple Store on all products including referbished Macs and custom builds. I won't go in to the full detail but my son saved £175 on a MacBookPro buying from a Salford Uni login, look here http://www.apple.com/uk/shop/mac/education

As for Air vs MBP depends on the use, Air good for document work but has restricted storage and processing, MBP is built for performance so if she's into design or media or image manipulation I'd say Go MacBookPro and look for an i7 processor.

 

She is doing a medical degree so no media or image design . She won't know the uni till the summer holidays so I may just wait till then to see if I can get a discount?

 

I'd still suggest MBP, but I'm biased I like the grunt they have. I've also had colleagues who have had Airs that sometimes struggled with "big" documents and presentations... I'm guessing doing a medical degree she'll see plenty of those during her course.

Best thing is to go to an Apple Store and get her to pick them up feel the weight and decide based on that and screen size which she would prefer to carry about.

Then buy via the education site.

 

I got all my daughters on the Educational prices, all you need is her students card and your ok, Apple are fine with Daddys like me buying them for kids, i even got my 5k Retina on the same deal your only allowed to do it once every 12 months.

Mac Air is being deprecated i.e. stop making them so get the pro. However if funds are tight the air is fine, my girls at Essex and loves here to death... I'm glad she does cos i aint buying her nowt else till her retirement.

 

So do I only need her student card?

 

If you get into. Chat session with Apple they will tell you steve. There good I didn't hide that fact I was leeching it either there fine

Ask the apple guy to quote you they send you an email with the prices in

 

Student ID if you are buying it for them. If they are buying it then you just need to be on the uni network. When I was at uni it was every uni, not just some, that could get the discount, don't think it's changed.

 

You can also do it from home they just verify the picture and her details etc...I'm gonna do it again soon as new MacBook comes out

 

They need uni confirmation, she only has a couple of offers at the moment and they are conditional on grades so I don't know if that will get me the laptop and apple won't tell me how much they are until I have a uni.