Buying an Apple Laptop for Fall 2009

The new lineup of Apple laptops is the best yet for law students. There are now multiple options in both 13″ and 15″ sizes, and battery life is up across the board. Here’s the rundown:

13″ MacBook

Smaller is better when you’re trying to fit your casebook, the handouts your professor handed out on Tuesday, and your laptop on the cramped space available to you in the classroom. The MacBook’s 13″ form factor is also an advantage when you’re trying to haul everything around campus. The MacBook is no longer available in a unibody aluminum flavor, but white polycarbonate is spiffy in its own right.

Apple claims the new MacBook batteries will run for 5 hours of standard activity. Although real-world battery life almost never matches Apple’s claims, this is an improvement of 30 minutes over the previous entry-level MacBook.

Unlike all the other current laptops Apple’s lineup, the MacBook uses a TFT active matrix display, rather than a backlit LCD, so it is not quite as sharp and crisp. Still, it’s a very good display, with a maximum resolution of 1280×800. The MacBook uses MiniDVI rather than Mini DisplayPort to connect to external monitors, which in neither here nor there unless you intend to connect the MacBook to the newest Apple monitors. Also, unlike all the other current Apple laptops, the MacBook does not have a backlit keyboard, which is important when the power goes out in the lecture hall.

The standard configuration (2.13GHz Intel Core Duo processor with 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive) retails for $999, but students can get it for $949. You can also configure the MacBook with up to 4GB of RAM and a bigger hard drive. The last couple of revisions to the MacBook have garnered plaudits from users and reviewers alike, and this version seems to be another winner.

13″ MacBook Pro

The 13″ unibody aluminum MacBook Pro is a sleek machine. It brings all the size advantages of the MacBook. It comes in two processor speeds, 2.26GHz and 2.53GHz, and Apple claims its battery will last an astounding 7 hours on a charge. It also includes a FireWire 800 port (the MacBook has a FireWire 400 port), and an SD card slot, so you can pop camera and mobile device memory cards directly into your laptop. This machine is also a half a pound lighter than its less expensive sibling.

But how much more do you pay for these goodies? The base configuration (2.26GHz Intel Core Duo processor with 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive) sells for $1,199, and $1,099 for students. You get

• the rugged and stylish aluminum body,
• an astoundingly sharp, clear LCD screen,
• a half a pound less to carry around (4.5 lbs. v. 5 for the MacBook),
• faster RAM,
• FireWire 800 (which is likely not that big of a deal unless you do a lot of video editing on the side),
• and a RAM ceiling of 8GB

for a $150 premium over the MacBook.

Of course, if you trick it out with a 2.53GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 250GB drive, the price bumps up to $1,499 for normal folks and $1,399 for students.

13″ MacBook Air

Committed to keeping it light? The Air weighs only 3 lbs. With the loss of weight you lose a few other things as well. The base configuration MacBook Air comes with a 1.86GHz processor and a 120GB hard drive, mono speakers, no FireWire, only one USB 2 port, and no optical drive (shucks, no watching Ark II DVDs in class).

Befitting a machine designed for road warriors, the Air is advertised to run for 5 hours on a charge. This is a laptop explicitly created to serve as a satellite system. Sync up your hard drive, fly off to Denver (or walk across town if you live in Denver), make some deals, then hop a redeye to DC, hobnob with the power brokers, then zip on back to the office, sync all your data back to the primary work machine.

The base configuration costs $1,499 ($1,399 for students). With a 2.13GHz Intel Core Duo processor and a 128 GB solid state hard drive, the price jumps to $1,799 ($1,699 for students). The size and weight of the MacBook Air are a tremendous advantage in the law school setting, but unless you already have a desktop machine that you use for most of your extracurricular computing, or simply don’t do much with your computer outside of school, this is probably not the machine for you.

15″ MacBook Pro

Lest you think I have it in for 15″ laptops, I used a 15″ PowerBook through three years of law school, and was quite happy. I was willing to trade off feeling a bit cramped in the classroom for the expansive screen and desktop-grade computing power. The tradeoff is the same for the current generation of 15″ laptops from Apple.

There are two processor options for the 15″ MacBook Pro: 2.53GHz and 2.66 GHz. Both of these options give you a laptop more than adequate for doing everything from movie making to programming. I use a 2.5GHz MacBook Pro (the generation prior to the first unibody MacBook Pro, so two generations older than these new MBPs) at work. Even with 2GB of RAM it is quite powerful. I have it hooked up to a 22″ Apple Cinema Display, and I frequently run two or three browsers, a Twitter client, Mail app, Photoshop, BBEdit, and OmniGraffle at the same time. The MBP handles it all with aplomb.

The latest revision of the 15″ MacBook Pro supposedly runs for 7 hours on a charge, and according to a report at AnandTech, this laptop provides amazing battery life. It also comes with a FireWire 800 port, two USB 2 ports, and an SD card slot.

The base configuration (2.53GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 250GB hard drive, sells to the rest of the world for $1,699 and to students for $1,599. To me that figure is somewhat mind-boggling. This is a serious machine at a very reasonable price. You can also snag the 2.66GHz processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive version for $1,999 ($1,849 for the students). If you really want to go all-out, the 2.8GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB hard drive version goes for $2,299 ($2,099).

17″ MacBook Pro

No. Don’t even think about it. I may eventually get a 17″ MacBook Pro for work, but that’s because I no longer have to sit in crowded classrooms and crowded libraries. If you’re hankerin’ for extra screen real estate, hook an external monitor to a MacBook or smaller MacBook Pro at home.

A Note About Video Out

Apple no longer includes VGA and DVI adapters with their laptops. As a 1L you probably won’t have to give a presentation to your class, but in my 2L and 3L years I gave several presentations. A VGA adapter proved quite handy. You don’t have to buy an adapter (they cost $29) right away, but if you’re going to be in a class where presentations will be given, check the A/V equipment early in the game to see if you’ll need to buy an adapter.