It is no secret that one of the main benefits to using Apple products are the tight integration between their hardware and software since the same company makes both. Along with this per device integration, the various Apple hardware products work really well together to form an ecosystem. For example, someone can start a text on an iPhone and pick up their Mac and keep typing where they left off without skipping a beat.
For a student wanting to build an ecosystem with multiple Apple products, the sheer volume of options can be daunting. Do you buy an iPhone 14 or 14 Pro? What about saving some money and buying an iPhone 12 that looks almost identical to the 14? MacBook Pro or MacBook Air? iPad, iPad Mini, or iPad Pro? Do you even need an iPad? Then there are watches, headphones, and more.
This article is written for the average college student that wants to walk into an Apple store and purchase everything they need to have a fun and successful four year degree. Although this guide can get quite expensive, keep in mind that school is typically a 4+ year investment and each of the products recommended will easily last that entire time and will likely be worth the up front cost.
Laptop of choice
A laptop is at the heart of what every student does in school, especially if taking online courses. A good student laptop should be highly durable, have a long battery life, decent performance, a great keyboard and trackpad, and a good screen.
Thankfully all of Apple’s laptops are extremely durable due to being made entirely of Aluminum and therefore should survive being taken in and out of a bag filled with books and other items. All of the laptops in their lineup also have high resolution Retina displays, excellent Force Touch trackpads, and great magic keyboards. They also all have decent performance and great battery life due to Apple Silicon’s superior efficiency.
That means any laptop you buy from Apple will tick all of those boxes and should do just fine. So then, what laptop should you buy? For the options, Apple now has a MacBook Air 13 and 15 and a MacBook Pro 13, 14, and 16. Each of those 5 models has a myriad of upgrade options for the internals, particularly the MacBook Pros. One thing worth mentioning here is that none of Apple’s lineup is upgradable after purchase. This can make the choice difficult because the buyer is left with deciding what upgrades will be enough for the foreseeable future without spending too much.
With all this being said, my recommendation for the vast majority of students is to buy the MacBook Air 13 with a 16GB RAM upgrade. This is my recommended choice because it is a good price ($1199 with the upgraded RAM and student discount), is extremely lightweight and portable, and has enough performance for any task a normal student would be doing. The 16GB RAM upgrade will prolong its usefulness and should ensure it makes it the entire 4+ years through college.
My recommendation for those students going into fields where a more powerful computer is required, such as software engineering, is the un-binned MacBook Pro 14 (M1 Pro / 12 core CPU / 19 core GPU) with an optional 32GB RAM upgrade depending on whether the applications you will be using (such as machine learning) will require that amount. It is expensive but it is also a power house and will cut through those demanding workloads much better than the fan-less MacBook Air.
iPad of choice
Apple makes the best tablets in the world for two reasons. First, their hardware on all models is high quality just like their laptops. Second, and this is the main reason, they have so many apps that are optimized for iPad. Android tablets have struggled to compete because there simply are not nearly as many apps developed specifically for android tablets (partially due to the low number of good hardware options until recently).
Just because Apple makes good tablets doesn’t mean that people should buy one. Should students even buy an iPad? I would say yes, if the budget allows for one. iPads can be extremely useful for taking handwritten notes digitally, reading articles or textbooks in bed, and even for light gaming.
Unfortunately the iPad lineup is even more confusing for consumers than the MacBook lineup. There is the iPad 9th gen, 10th gen, the iPad mini, iPad Air, and the two iPad Pros (11 and 12.9 inch). That is a total of 6 options and each at different price points and features. Going over each in detail is for a separate article so I will simply give my recommendations.
For the vast majority of students, I would recommend the iPad Mini due to its excellent size and feature set. It strikes a good balance by having a decent (still somewhat expensive though) price point while having all the features most people need. It supports Apple Pencil gen 2 (which I highly recommend as a companion accessory), fits in one hand very nicely, weighs very little, and has enough performance for any tablet related tasks with the A15 chip.
For storage, Apple has done its classic Apple technique and forced users to choose between a small amount of base storage or a very pricy upgrade to a storage option that is probably too much. The Mini comes in 64 or 256gb storage configurations. My recommendation is sticking with the 64 and saving the $150 it would cost to upgrade. Use this money on the pencil instead and simply store your documents in the cloud and don’t keep more media on the device than you are currently using.
Some people may be tempted by the Pro iPads with their high refresh screens, M series processors, and features such as Face ID. I would recommend these iPads only to people who are in digital art programs or do such a thing as a hobby. These are extremely expensive and are very large to hold. I have personally owned both an iPad Pro 11 (M1) and an iPad Mini and ended up getting rid of the Pro and keeping the Mini. For someone without a laptop, the Pro makes sense due to its screen size and ability to use with a keyboard but for a student who is already getting a laptop, it is simply too big.
Phone of choice
The glue that holds the Apple ecosystem together is the iPhone. For this category, there are not as many choices and they are not as complicated as the previous two categories (thankfully). There are only four models of phones for the current generation and that is really two models that each come in two sizes if you choose to think of it that way. The iPhone 14 and the slightly larger 14 Plus, and the iPhone 14 Pro and the slightly larger 14 Pro Max.
The Pro models have a few good features over the standard iPhone but the primary two that people will actually notice or care about are the better cameras and the 120hz adaptive refresh (ProMotion as Apple calls it) screens. Of particular note is the 120hz refresh which will really make the phone feel much faster in day to day use.
For my recommendation here, I recommend everyone purchase through a carrier which will usually have a really good deal on current phones with a 2 year contract. In that case, I recommend the 14 Pro that will suit most people really well and is easily used in one hand, especially if you are buying the iPad mini recommended in the previous section.
If not purchasing through a carrier and buying straight from Apple, I recommend getting the standard iPhone 13 from last year which is basically the exact same phone as the 14 but is a better price.
Watch of choice
The Apple Watch is an interesting device in the Apple lineup because it has so much customization due to the different bands, body materials, and colors. There are three models to choose from – the Apple Watch SE, Series 8, and Ultra. The prices are also in that order with the Ultra in particular being really pricey.
I will cut to the chase here and recommend the Series 8 in the standard Aluminum material with whatever color of choice. You can also buy some additional bands from a third party to save money and make the Apple Watch easier to match with outfits. This model has some additional sensors over the SE and the always on display that make it worthwhile.
If you are on a tighter budget, the SE is also a great choice and you won’t regret it. Sure, it doesn’t have the always on display and lacks a few more advanced sensors but it does everything else an Apple Watch is expected to do (apps, count steps, etc…). No one should buy the Ultra for its exorbitant price unless you are really into mountain climbing or other more extreme outdoor activities and are able to do them on a regular basis.
Headphones of choice
Does it feel like the options are less and the decision are easier as we work our way down the product stack? For headphones, there are a few “Apple” options (I am not including Beats in this list even though they are technically owned and sold by Apple). Apple sells its own wireless headphones they call AirPods with the current lineup consisting of 2nd and 3rd generation AirPods along with a 2nd generation AirPods Pro.
You can’t go wrong with any of these but for students, I will recommend the AirPods Pro. They are pricey but they are often on sale for $199 and they come with active noise cancellation which is really nice for studying in a noisy coffee shop or library. They also come with transparency mode which is excellent for runners who want to listen to music and be aware of their surroundings. There simply isn’t a better option for wireless headphones right now.
Tying it all together
That was a lot of options but it really comes down to five categories: laptop, tablet, phone, watch, and headphones. Let’s add up the prices of all my recommended picks using their student discounts.
- MacBook Air – $1199
- iPad mini – $449
- iPhone 14 Pro – $200 (with current trade in carrier deals)
- Apple Watch Series 8 – $399
- AirPods Pro – $249
The grand total for all of this is $2496. That is a lot of money, but with the current gift card deals from Apple, that can get closer to $2000 if buying with separate transactions. It can also get a little cheaper if buying some of these items on sale from another retailer.
One thing mentioned earlier in this article that I stand by is that these devices are a multi-year investment just like college. These are meant to last the entire 4 years of a normal college degree making the entire package around $500-$650 per year if averaged out. That doesn’t seem so bad when you look at the quality of all of these products and the fact that they could all easily last past that four year mark as well.
A note about release dates
One final note about release dates. Apple always has a special event in September (except 2020 when it was in October) where they reveal the next iPhone and Apple Watch. They also sometimes release iPads. They also have an event in October most (but not all) years where they release new Macs and sometimes new iPads. At the time of this article being written, it is back to school season in August which means these dates are only a few months away.
My advice regarding this is to wait if you can until these products are first released because it maximizes the length of time for support for them from when you first bought them. Even for those who don’t care about the latest tech, these new products usually mean discounts on the older models. As always though, if you absolutely need a device now, buy it now. None of these devices quit being great because a new one came out.
Conclusion
Hopefully this guide was helpful for the prospective student looking to go all-in on Apple products for the new school year or even for those who aren’t students and are wanting to build a good Apple ecosystem and were curious what the best options were and the current prices. Leave a comment if you agree or disagree with my picks.
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