Shocking Truth about buying a Macbook. Avoid buyer’s remorse.
I need a new MacBook. My journey to find one has had many bumps in the road, but I am happy now because I found a replacement machine that works. I learned a lot about laptops that can help you when you search for your next machine. My three tips will guide you in the right direction, which include finding the right specs and knowing that these are disposable and upgrades don’t exist. My mindset changed to make me focus on buying a machine that will outperform at a reasonable price.
My search for a new laptop started a year ago or a year and a half ago. I was using an older machine that was a desktop at home and a old laptop — probably an eight or nine-year-old laptop — to try to do my work, and it would not have been sufficient to bring up Google Docs and run multiple web tabs at the same time.
I had to find a replacement. I use an Apple iPhone, and I have a Mac at work. My son has a MacBook Air and loves it, so I knew a MacBook would be the right choice for me in the future. Last year, there was a tax-free holiday, so anything below $1500 would give me savings. I can easily buy a laptop under that. I went to the Apple Store to search for a computer. They had the M2 chips on the MacBook Air. I compared usage, weight, and price.
The research I discovered demonstrated that the M2 chips could run multiple windows, multiple tabs, and possibly two different browsers and run Word or Excel. My machine should be efficient with a MacBook Air. I went to an Apple Store and spoke to one of their geniuses for hours. They convinced me that a MacBook Air with eight gigabytes of RAM would be efficient.
At home, I was determined to double-check their advice. I watched two hours of YouTube videos that suggested getting a 512 SSD hard drive instead of a 256 GB hard drive; the RAM shouldn’t be an issue.
The next day, I spent another two and a half hours at the Apple Store with another Mac genius. We discussed everything I was doing on the machine and settled on a MacBook Air with 8 gigabytes of RAM and a 512 SSD hard drive.
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I configured the machine with all my apps. I loved how light and easy it was to travel with, but I started to see some slowdowns with the laptop. I brushed it off and said no, it’s no big deal. It must be me doing something after many months. I continued to notice it got slow, so I called Apple, and they walked me through setting up a second account on the machine to see if it was still running slow. It was, but their solution was to run only one browser. Instead, Safari can handle everything, which is one of my requirements for a laptop. I mentioned it to the Apple geniuses when I purchased the machine. This machine wasn’t going to work. I was devastated.
This machine failed me! I learned a hard lesson that even with lots of research you may not get the technology that meets your needs. In the future I will be focusing on these ideas before I purchase any additional technology.
For purchasing a laptop and a Macbook buying guide. Always follow these:
- Purchase more memory than the technology experts tell you. Memory or RAM is like the top of your desk. Your desk area is where you place your laptop, hot coffee, monitor, keyboard, mouse, post-it notes, and papers. As you put more stuff on it, you have less room to work. Ram is like the top of your desk. When cluttered with lots of things, it’s difficult for it to continue functioning at an optimal level. My Macbook ran out of desk space, and the computer couldn’t handle it. So, it slowed to a crawl and even turned off the machine as a chore since it could not find enough space to do this simple task.
- Purchase what you need, but know it will only last a few years. Laptops are made to be thrown away (except MacBooks). They are designed to be machines that are a few hundred dollars, and people will replace them every two years. It’s this forced recycling that has people getting frustrated with some machines. They will work perfectly at the store, but they start to slow down when you load software. Think about this when making a purchase.
- Apple is focused on Macbooks, the high-end machines. They are there to help you get a machine that will last beyond the standard laptops that exist in the marketplace. But they have designed Macbook Air machines to be competitive with the forced recycling of machines. It’s not ideal, but it’s something to consider when making the purchase.
- Upgrading a laptop is difficult. You are unable to place in more RAM or SSD hard drive space. Upgrades were something all desktops used to be able to do; my father would regularly fix appliances. He did this, and I fixed computers. I even added memory to my work iMac a few years ago since it was cheaper than purchasing it with the machine. The computer manufacturers are no longer doing this. They are making the accessories part of the machines, which forces people to buy new machines rather than upgrade. It’s a sad state, but it should make us think more deeply before purchasing a machine.
Trick/Tip:
- I always find that watching Best Buy Open box sales is a good idea. Sometimes, you can find a deal that saves money and meets all your expectations.
