Advice re refurbished Macbook for 13 year old.

drnick · 2 Oct 2018 at 20:57

Hi,

I've never owned a Mac, so have absolutely no clue. My son is majorly into art, including digital art, and we would like to get him a refurbished Mac book for x-mass. He would want to use a drawing tablet etc.

We don't have the budget for much have been looking at the version below which lots of places sell for about £200. I would get a certified refurbished model.

Macbook A1342 uni-body core 2 due 2.26GHz-2.4Hz 4gb, 250GB smart DVD Sierra OS

My question is, is this a good idea for a teenager starting out, learning to use a Mac, and would it work with newer things like drawing tablets. Also dumb question but do these things come with a version of word or apple equivalent for doing homework on or is it like Windows where we'd then have to buy and separately install something.

Any advice and comments welcome...

Hades · 2 Oct 2018 at 21:34

Once thing to consider is that newer versions of MacOS won't install on it.

b0rn2sk8 · 2 Oct 2018 at 21:54

Honestly, its a bad idea. Used Macs and they hold far too much value for what they offer, especially old ones. You wouldn't be able to give away an 8 year old Windows machine these days, even if it was high end at the time it was new.

A £200 refurbished mac will be very old, that model you listed was released in 2010. Core 2 Duo in that machine will not be up to anything these days, I suspect it would even struggle with just playing YouTube video. It's CPU only scores 1523 on passmark, for reference a new Macbook Air which is considered very low end by modern standards scores 3358 with its it's 3 year old CPU. Low end (£400) new laptops score over 5k (i3-8130U).

There is suitable software that runs on both windows and Mac these days, Macs are far from necessary even for serious work. For the money you are looking at I would get a used windows machine or save more for a new iPad (non-pro).

The latest iPad supports the apple pencil for digital art and is very capable and has powerful software that is relatively inexpensive available for it. It will also be faster than the refurbished Mac by a considerable some margin, be fully supported and last a long time. It also has really good parental controls which may be useful for you. Not bad for £319 and is marketed to exactly what you are looking for, the pencil is extra of course.

If you up your budget to £400 you could get a really capable new windows machine that would last years. Something with an i3-8130U, 256gb SSD and 15" full HD screen is available at that price point. You could probably pick up something not too far off this refurbished or used for much less.

drnick · 2 Oct 2018 at 23:36

Cool thanks for the honest reply, lots to think about and search

Rilot · 3 Oct 2018 at 09:42

The earliest MacBook I would buy would be a late 2013 model with an i5 4xxx model CPU. Anything older than that isn't really worth bothering with.

Maccy · 3 Oct 2018 at 14:55

I'm going to counter argue the majority here, I still have a 2011 MBP and after swapping out the HDD for an SSD it's completely transformed the machine. Need to get round to selling it actually, but it's certainly not as bad as others above have made out.

Shoeyuk · 3 Oct 2018 at 15:02

My 2012 Mac book pro retina is starting to show it’s slow side however it still runs everything I need fine.

MrRockliffe · 3 Oct 2018 at 15:19

I wouldn't get ANY Macbook without a retina display, especially for graphics work. The TN displays on the Air & pre retina Pros are horrendous.

A late 2013/2014 Macbook Pro with Retina display can be had for very reasonable money. Sure, a Windows equivalent can be had for slightly less, with perhaps more performance, but the Mac will be a very decent machine if that's what they're after. It nails the basics very well, and that's what I'd personally recommend.

I sold my Early 2014 MBPr 13 inch for £425 last year, so you'd probably be looking at 400 ish for one with 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM, perhaps a little more.

Couple of things to look out for:

Battery usage - check to make sure the battery is in decent condition.
Anti glare coating - my work laptop is a 2015 MBPr and the anti glare coating has almost completely worn. This is a known defect on the Macs.
Keyboard/trackpad wear - the keys can go a little glossy when they're heavily used.

Other than that, keep an eye out for your standard run of the mill stuff like dinks etc

It'll be a great laptop for them.

ajf · 3 Oct 2018 at 15:25

I just don't think there is any benefit to having a Mac in this instance.
Pretty much all major art programs are cross platform now, and both being Intel based, is there really that much of a difference in performance now?
We have a similar situation at work in our Publicity Dept, that they HAVE to use Macs because they are 'Publishing' machines, but no longer convinced of that argument.

I like MacOS and IOS but feel the benefit now comes from their compatibility with each other, rather than being specifically better for a given job.
One bonus though is all Apple products have access to the free Apple office software - I forget it's name.

The Ipad and the Pencil is a good idea. I love using it with my Pro, even though I'm not very good, and much easier than a tablet on a computer.
Depending on pricing, maybe a slightly older Surface model might work? Their screens are touch and pressure sensitive and work well with the stylus.