With work from home being a trend these days, many people are planning to replace their old laptops with new ones, to make the choice easier, I am making this MacBook buying guide for November 2020. Now first of all, Apple recently switched their MacBooks from Intel Chips to ARM Chips, which they call Apple Silicon, and the chip is named M1. This means two things - The performance of MacBooks will increase - more powerful with more battery life, but this comes at the cost of losing support of Installing Windows via BootCamp. This guide gives a brief about most MacBooks, and I'll first cover the MacBooks powered by Intel-Processors.(as I started writing this way before the event took place) If you are here for the Apple Silicon based MacBooks, I suggest to start reading from the bottom. Lets start with the Cheapest MacBook on sale right now in India - The 2017 MacBook Air This is the only MacBook on sale right now with a MagSafe Charger. It features a non-retina display with a 13.3" 1440x900 resolution display with 128 ppi pixel density. It weighs 1.34KG. This MacBook comes with 128GB of SSD as standard and 8GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 RAM. It is powered by a 5th Generation 1.8 GHz dual core Intel Core i5, and the graphics card on this laptop is a Intel HD Graphics 6000. This also gets 2 USB-A Ports, which support USB3.0, a Thunderbolt 2 Port, a SDXC Card slot and a headphone jack. It is only offered in Silver colour option. The battery life is claimed to be 12 hours. This Laptop can only be recommended right now if you are extremely tight on budget and need to have a MacBook. Otherwise, it is best advised to stay away from this machine, and get a windows laptop of similar price, or get a 2020 MacBook Air. Since this MacBook was officially discontinued by Apple in July 2019, you cannot upgrades the storage or RAM. It is currently on sale on Flipkart for ₹59,990 - Link Also available at Vijay Sales for ₹68,990 - Link Also available at Croma for ₹68,875 - Link Also available at TataCliq for ₹70,711 - Link Also available at Reliance Digital for ₹72,500 - Link It can be also found in Apple Authorised Re-sellers. Nyasa for ₹74,900 - Link Maple for ₹69,990 - Link Aptronix for ₹73,990 - Link Imagine | Tresor for ₹69,900 - Link Unicorn for ₹69,900 - Link Imagine for ₹70,999 - Link Next in line is The 2020 Retina MacBook Air The 2020 MacBook Air is the MacBook for most people. It comes in 3 colours - Space Grey, Silver and Gold. This is the only macBook on sale right now with Gold Colour. It comes with a 13.3" Retina display which has a resolution of 2560 x 1600, with a pixel density of 227 ppi, and also comes with TrueTone. The maximum brightness of this display is 400 nits. It gets a 720P WebCam. It weighs at 1.29KG It features a Touch ID sensor which doubles as power button for added security. This is the first 13" MacBook that comes with a Magic Keyboard(Now standard across the line). The battery life is said to last 11 hours. For connectivity, It gets 2 USB-C ports capable of supporting Thunderbolt 3 speeds, and it also gets a headphone jack. It comes with 2 base configurations - the first one being 10th Generation 1.1GHz Dual Core i3, which comes with 256GB on storage and 8GB of LPDDR4X 3733MHz RAM. This configuration retails for ₹92,990. The other base configuration comes with a 10th Generation 1.1GHz Quad-Core i5, which comes with 512GB Storage and 8GB LPDDR4X 3733MHz RAM. This configuration retails for ₹1,22,990. The graphics card are in-built Intel Iris Plus graphics. This MacBook Air has been recently discontinued following the launch of MacBook Air with M1 Chip, which gives opportunity for several offers on this Mac. Available at - Aptronix - All Variants - Link iVenus - Gold 256GB Intel Core i3 - Link Maple - Silver 512GB Intel Core i5 - Link Maple - Gold 256GB Intel Core i3 - Link 2020 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro(2-Thunderbolt 3)with M1 Chip The M1 based MacBook Pro is identical to the intel-powered MacBook Pro. It replaces the 13-inch MacBook Pro with 2-Thunderbolt 3 Ports. Physically, it is identical to the Intel-based MacBook Pro. It gets a 720P WebCam. It comes with a 13.3" Retina display which has a resolution of 2560 x 1600, with a pixel density of 227 ppi, and also comes with TrueTone and P3 Colour Gamut. The maximum brightness of this display is 500 nits. It weighs 1.4KG and is available in 2 colour options - Silver and Space Grey. It gets a Magic Keyboard with a Touch Bar. It also gets a headphone jack. It comes in 2 variants - Both feature 8GB RAM, and a M1 Chip with 8-Core CPU and 8-Core GPU. The only difference is that the variant priced ₹1,22,900 comes with 256GB SSD and the variant priced ₹1,42,900 comes with 512GB SSD. The following things can be configured - 1. RAM - Upgradeable to 16GB 2. Storage - Upgradeable to 1TB and 2TB. This MacBook can be ordered through Apple's online store or can be pre-ordered at your nearest Apple Store. 2020 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro(4-Thunderbolt 3) This is the more powerful version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro, It gets 4 USB-C ports as opposed to 2 on the less powerful version, and internally, it gets 2 fans as opposed to one on the lower variants. It gets 10th Generation Intel Processors. The base variants gets a 10th-Generation Quad-Core 2.0Ghz i5, with option to upgrade to a 2.3Ghz Quad-Core i7. The graphics are Intel Iris Plus Graphics. Everything else remains the same as the entry-level MacBook Pro. There are 2 base options - the first with a 512GB SSD and the other with a 1TB SSD. The variants cost ₹1,74,900 and ₹1,94,900 respectively. This laptop is mainly recommended for professionals, who don't want to buy the 16-inch MacBook either due to its price or its size. Users can configure the following things at Apple's website - 1. CPU - Upgradeable to 2.3GHz i7 2. RAM - Upgradeable to 32GB RAM 3. Storage - Upgradeable to 2TB and 4TB This can be purchased at - 512GB - Croma, Space Grey - ₹1,74,900 - Link Reliance Digital, Space Grey - ₹1,74,900 - Link Flipkart, Space Grey - ₹1,74,900 - Link Flipkart, Silver - ₹1,74,900 - Link TataCliq, Space Grey - ₹166145 - Link 1TB - Imagine | Tresor, Space Grey - ₹1,84,900 - Link Reliance Digital, Space Grey - ₹1,94,900 - Link Flipkart, Space Grey - ₹1,64,990 - Link Flipkart, Silver - ₹1,82,990 - Link TataCliq, Space Grey - ₹1,81,165 - Link This can also be ordered at Apple's online store, or your nearby Apple authorised re-seller. Now we have the Beast, 16-inch MacBook Pro This is the most expensive and largest MacBook Pro you can buy. It also has most number of customisation offers at hand. It features a 16-inch Display, with a resolution of 3072x1920 at pixel density of 226ppi. Like the 13-inch MacBook Pro, it also gets TrueTone and P3 Colour Gamut. Before getting onto the configurations, Let's see the main use scenarios - Useful for Gamers and Professional photo and video editors, and also useful for coders which a quite substantial work load. This is also available in 2 colour options - Silver and Space Grey, and weighs 2.0KG. The battery lasts 11 Hours. For connectivity, It gets 4-USB-C Ports and a headphone jack. It gets a 720P WebCam. It also gets a Touch Bar and Magic Keyboard, along with a physical escape key. Now there are 2 base configurations - The first one comes with a 9th generation 6-Core 2.6 GHz i7, AMD Radeon Pro 5300M graphics card with 4GB RAM, 512GB SSD and 16GB DDR4 RAM. This costs ₹1,99,900. The other configuration has a 9th Generation 8-core 2.3GHz Core i9 with AMD Radeon Pro 5500M graphics card with 4GB RAM. along with 1TB SSD and 16GB DDR4 RAM. You can also configure the following things - 1. CPU - Upgradeable to a 2.4GHz 8‑core Intel Core i9. 2. GPU - Upgradeable to AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 4GB of GDDR6 memory, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of GDDR6 memory or AMD Radeon Pro 5600M with 8GB of HBM2 memory. 3. RAM - Upgradeable to 32 or 64GB RAM. 4. Storage - Upgradeable to 1TB, 2TB, 4TB and 8TB. This can be purchased at - 512GB, i7 - Croma, Space Grey - ₹1,89,900 - Link Reliance Digital, Space Grey - ₹1,99,900 - Link Vijay Sales, Space Grey - ₹1,84,990 - Link Vijay Sales, Silver - ₹1,86,000 - Link Flipkart, Space Grey - ₹1,89,990 - Link TataCliq, Silver - ₹1,90,904 - Link Imagine, Space Grey - ₹1,99,900 - Link Imagine | Tresor, Space Grey - ₹1,88,900 - Link 1TB, i9 Croma, Space Grey - ₹2,27,900 - Link Reliance Digital, Space Grey - ₹2,39,900 - Link Flipkart, Silver - ₹2,24,900 - Link Flipkart, Space Grey - ₹2,24,900 - Link Nyasa, Space Grey - ₹2,39,900 - Link Imagine, Space Grey - ₹2,39,900 - Link Imagine | Tresor, Space Grey - ₹2,25,900 - Link Unicorn, Space Grey - ₹2,39,900 - Link You can also order them at Apple's online store where you can configure your Mac, or at your nearby Apple Authorised re-seller. Now finally moving to the Highlight of 2020, MacBook powered by Apple's M1 chip! MacBook Air with M1 Chip The M1 based MacBook Air looks identical to the Intel-Based MacBook Air, however the main difference lies in the internals, For starters, this comes with a 13.3" Retina display which has a resolution of 2560 x 1600, with a pixel density of 227 ppi, and also comes with TrueTone and also P3 colour Gamut for the first time in a MacBook Air. It comes in 3 colours - Gold, Silver and Space Grey. The maximum brightness of this display is 400 nits. It gets a 720P WebCam .It weighs at 1.29KG It features a Touch ID sensor which doubles as power button for added security. For connectivity - It gets 2 USB-C ports and a headphone jack. It features the Magic Keyboard like the rest of MacBooks. For the first time, MacBook Air is fan-less, all due to the efficiency of M1 Chip. For the first time, the MacBook Air offers battery life of nearly 18 hours. There are 2 base configurations - The first being - 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM and a M1 Chip with 8-Core CPU and 7-Core GPU. My advice is to stay away from this variant unless you want the 256GB Storage. It costs ₹92,900. The other base variant offers a 512GB SSD, 8GB RAM and a M1 Chip with 8-Core CPU and 8-Core GPU. This variant costs ₹1,17,900. You can also configure the following things - 1. RAM - Upgradeable to 16GB RAM 2. Storage - Upgradeable to 1TB and 2TB This MacBook can be purchased from Apple's online store or can be pre-ordered at your nearest Apple Authorised Reseller. To conclude -
Cheapest MacBook - 2017 MacBook Air MacBook for Students and Most users - 2020 MacBook Air(Both Intel and M1) Most Popular MacBook - 2020 MacBook Pro(2-ThunderBolt 3 Port) (Both Intel and M1) Powerful yet Small MacBook - 2020 MacBook Pro with 4-ThunderBolt 3 Ports. Most Powerful MacBook - 16-inch MacBook Pro. All links in this article are working and accurate as of 12th January 2021, 12:00PM IST(UTC+05:30) For more advice, you can contact me on Instagram - @real.b747fan, or email me at [email protected] The next buying guide will be posted after WWDC 2021.
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AuthorYardan Sheikh is a young Apple expert. He has been using Apple Products since 2011, and has great knowledge about the products. ArchivesCategories |