Best Mac For School

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What macbook is best for me? High school student. Hi I would like to know what MacBook would be best for me. I am about to turn 16 and am going to buy a MacBook. I will need it for school, to go on Google drive, write papers, check emails, download and use apps, listen to music, watch movies, surf the net and store photos and videos.

The Rundown

• Best Overall: HP Envy 5055 at Amazon, 'One of the big draws of this printer is HP's optional Instant Ink replacement service.'
• Best Value:HP Envy 4520 at Amazon, 'Combines the ability to print, scan, and copy in color with an affordable price.
• Best for Photos: Canon Selphy CP1300 at Amazon, 'Helps to select, edit and print photos from a memory card or directly from a USB cable.'
• Runner-Up, Best Overall:Samsung Xpress C430W at Amazon, 'On-the-go students can print straight from their mobile devices.'
• Best Laser: Brother Monochrome Laser Printer at Amazon, 'Can zip out a speedy 32 pages per minute.'
• Best Budget: HP DeskJet 1112 at Amazon, 'Be able to print up to 480 pages before needing to repurchase an ink refill.'
• Best Color Printing: Canon Pixma TS9120 at Amazon, 'Adds six individual color inks to help produce some of the best color quality available.'
• Best Splurge: Epson Expression ET-2650 EcoTank at Amazon, 'Includes two years of ink or the equivalent of 20 printer cartridges.'

Our Top Picks

Best Overall: HP Envy 5055

The HP Envy 5055 offers an optimal balance of quality and price, designed with a number of conveniences to make your life easier. One of the big draws of this printer is HP's optional Instant Ink replacement service, which automatically reorders ink cartridges when your printer is running low. Their most popular subscription plan offers 50 pages of ink for a low flat fee per month, saving you money and eliminating the hassle of replacing the ink yourself.

The Envy 5055 is well-equipped to handle any printing job, but photo-printing is where this product really shines — its printed photographs are borderless, crisp, and brilliantly-colored. This printer supports a variety of paper sizes, from 4 x 6-inch photo paper to 8 x 10-inch letterhead and No. 10 envelopes. It also features wireless printing and connects to a wide range of sources like your phone or tablet, as well as to cloud services like Google Drive, Dropbox, or iCloud. As an added bonus, the Envy 5055 is compatible with Amazon Alexa, so you can set it up to operate by voice control.

Best Value: HP Envy 4520

Buying a printer for college shouldn't cut into your ramen budget. The HP Envy 4520 Wireless All-in-One Photo Printer combines the ability to print, scan, and copy in color with an affordable price. Measuring 17.5 x 14.5 x 5 inches with a matte black finish, it's inconspicuous in a dorm room or small apartment, and you can send print jobs from iOS devices and Google Chrome Web browsers. The touchscreen HP Envy 4520 can produce borderless photos and print double-sided pages to match your needs. Capable of printing up to 9.5 pages per minute in black and white, it is efficient and fast, perfect for days when you're running behind.

For more potential savings, the inkjet printer also includes an Instant Ink delivery service, allowing HP to track your ink levels and send you a replacement in the mail when needed. The monthly cost varies between free (if you print less than 15 pages a month), to $9.99 (if you print 300), and HP says this service can help you save up to 50% in printing costs.

Best for Photos: Canon Selphy CP1300

Canon's Selphy CP1300 Wireless Compact Photo Printer might not get students to give up Instagram for print, but it will provide a compact photo printing solution that's similar in size to a college textbook. At 7.1 x 5.4 x 2.5 inches and weighing only 1.9 pounds, the Selphy is around half the weight of an average laptop computer. Offered in both white and black color choices, the Selphy adds wireless printing through the company's PRINT downloadable smartphone app for Android and iOS. A 3.2-inch display helps to select, edit and print photos from a memory card or directly from a USB cable. The Selphy offers a variety of printing choices from postcard-sized to square label prints, as well as traditional 3 x 5 and 4 x 6 prints.

Want to take a look at some other options? See our guide to the best photo printers.

Runner-Up, Best Overall: Samsung Xpress C430W

Simplify one aspect of college life with the Samsung Xpress C430W wireless laser printer, which allows students to print text or high-quality images as they juggle classes and extracurriculars. Using the free Samsung Mobile Print app, on-the-go students can print straight from their mobile devices, and Android users can take advantage of the NFC capabilities to tap their phone against the Xpress C430W to start printing. There are also many other printer apps available for Android. Students can save time thanks to a quick and easy set-up process and a 400 MHz processor, which can print up to 19 pages of black-and-white text per minute. The one-touch eco button is designed for cost- and environmentally-conscious users, with settings that include skipping blank pages and printing multiple pages on one sheet.

Measuring 12 x 15 x 8 inches, it can be an unobtrusive addition to even the most cramped dorm rooms and can accommodate a versatile range of needs, whether you have to print out traditional 8.5 x 11-inch essays or want to swap in 3 x 6-inch cardstock to create note cards. Whatever you're printing, the Rendering Engine for Clean Page (ReCP) technology is designed to create crisp, high-contrast text and images for a professional, clean appearance.

Best Laser: Brother Monochrome Laser Printer

The Brother Monochrome Laser Printer HLL2350DW measures 14 x 14 x 7.2 inches and can zip out a speedy 32 pages per minute. The 250-sheet capacity paper tray helps to eliminate the need to often refill trays for both legal and letter- sized papers. Dual-sided printing combines with Brother's own high-yield ink cartridges to cut down on the number of ink refills. Brother adds additional printing options such as card stock or envelopes to round out a full suite of printing capabilities. Available wireless printing makes it easy to print directly from a laptop, smartphone or tablet without any messy cables or plugs.

Find out more about this kind of product in our guide to laser printers and read more reviews in our roundup of the best LED/Laser printers on the market this year.

Best Budget: HP DeskJet 1112

The very affordable HP DeskJet 1112 is also super compact and great for students who might have really cramped dorm rooms. Operating on both Windows and Mac platforms via USB or wireless connectivity, the DeskJet 1112 measures 16.76 x 8.49 x 4.89 inches. The maximum print size for paper is 8.5 x 14 inches and there is enough room for up to 60 sheets on the input tray. The DeskJet 1112 also adds support for printing on number 10 envelopes. Print speed is up to 5.5 pages per minute in color and 7.5 pages per minute in black. With support for HP's optional high-yield ink cartridges, students will be able to print up to 480 pages before needing to repurchase an ink refill.

For more options on the lower end of the price spectrum, take a peek at our picks for the best photo, business, and laser printers for under $100.

Best Color Printing: Canon Pixma TS9120

When it comes to best-in-class print speeds for both text and photos, you'll want to look at the all-in-one Canon Pixma TS9120. Available in three different colors to bring some extra style to your dorm room, the two-tone gray, gold or red Canon adds six individual color inks to help produce some of the best color quality available at this price point.

Scanning and copy functionality are here, too, plus it's compatible with Apple's AirPrint and Google's Cloud Print wireless printing technology. The five-inch LCD touchscreen adds an enhanced user interface for quick setup and extras such as adding creative effects to photo prints prior to printing. For even more utility, the TS9120 supports CD/DVD and Blu-Ray disc printing, business card printing and support for loading files or images directly from a memory card.

Best Splurge: Epson Expression ET-2650 EcoTank

Ideal for students who print a nearly endless stream of term papers, assignments or syllabi throughout the school year, the Epson Expression includes two years of ink or the equivalent of 20 printer cartridges, so it's probably worth ponying up some extra money. To put things into perspective, 20 printer cartridges is enough ink to print to 4,000 pages in black or up to 6,500 pages in color.

The Epson incorporates built-in wireless printing from mobile devices and Wi-Fi direct technology to print even when a wireless signal is not available. A 1.44-inch color LCD helps to easily navigate the menu for quickly setting up the printer and connecting to a wireless network. The Epson incorporates an SD memory card slot for printing documents and photos directly from the printer without the need for a phone or computer.

For more heavy-duty options, check out the reviews in our list of the best all-in-one printers.

• Our new pick is the 13-inch MacBook Pro (2019, two Thunderbolt 3 ports), and the MacBook Air (2019) is our new budget pick.

• Our new pick is the 13-inch MacBook Pro (2019, two Thunderbolt 3 ports), and the MacBook Air (2019) is our new budget pick.

  We continue to recommend the 15-inch MacBook Pro (2019) if you need a larger screen and more speed for photo or video editing.

Your guide

• Andrew Cunningham

The best Mac laptop for most people is the 13-inch MacBook Pro (2019, two Thunderbolt 3 ports). It's more than fast enough for the things that most people use a computer for—Web browsing, working on documents, and photo and video editing—and it has an excellent high-resolution screen, a great trackpad, enough battery life to get most people through a day of work, and a (relatively) reasonable price.

Our pick

Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, two Thunderbolt 3 ports)

The entry-level MacBook Pro has a fantastic screen, a fast quad-core processor, and a reasonable price, though we wish it came with more ports and more storage.

The entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro includes a quad-core processor and much faster integrated graphics than in the Air, both of which will make your work go significantly faster—2019's 13-inch Pro is almost as fast as 15-inch models from past years. The laptop does have some shortcomings, but they're almost all shared by other modern Apple laptops: the low-travel keyboard, a small number of homogenous ports (in this case, two Thunderbolt 3 ports) that may require the use of USB-C hubs or new cables, and a high price relative to Windows laptops with similar performance and features, especially if you need more than 128 GB of storage. But the Pro's light weight, solid construction, and industry-leading support make it a good laptop, especially if you also own an iPhone or other Apple devices.

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Budget pick

Apple MacBook Air (2019)

The Air includes most of the good stuff from the Pro, such as the great screen, the solid construction, and the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, for a bit less money. But its dual-core processor is noticeably slower.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $1,100.

The 2019 MacBook Air is a couple hundred dollars cheaper and a quarter-pound lighter than the 13-inch MacBook Pro. It also has slightly better battery life, and it's functionally an identical laptop in most of the important ways: screen, memory and storage, ports, keyboard and touchpad, construction. But its dual-core processor and slower integrated graphics make it a worse choice if you plan on doing much photo and video editing or programming, or if you plan on connecting it to high-resolution external monitors. It also skips the Touch Bar in favor of a row of physical function keys and a standalone Touch ID fingerprint sensor, though depending on how you feel about the flashy but superfluous Touch Bar, you might prefer this.

Upgrade pick

Apple MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (15-inch, 2019)

The 15-inch MacBook Pro has a larger screen and the fastest, most powerful components Apple ships in a laptop, and it's still relatively thin and light. But you pay a lot for that extra speed.

Best Mac For Gaming

The 15-inch MacBook Pro is our top Mac pick in our guide to laptops for video and photo editing. You won't notice a huge speed boost in everyday computing tasks, but our recommended configuration's six-core Intel Core processor can give it a speed boost of around 30 percent over the 13-inch Pro when rendering video or compiling code, and its discrete AMD Radeon GPUs provide better performance when running 3D drafting programs or games.

Because you can't upgrade Apple's current laptops later—the memory, storage, and processors are all built in—you need to make sure to buy the right configuration. We've listed our recommended configuration for each of our picks in the sections below.

If you aren't wedded to macOS, we have a separate guide dedicated to helping you find the right laptop.

Everything we recommend

Our pick

Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, two Thunderbolt 3 ports)

Best Mac For Music Production

The entry-level MacBook Pro has a fantastic screen, a fast quad-core processor, and a reasonable price, though we wish it came with more ports and more storage.

Budget pick

Apple MacBook Air (2019)

The Air includes most of the good stuff from the Pro, such as the great screen, the solid construction, and the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, for a bit less money. But its dual-core processor is noticeably slower.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $1,100.

Upgrade pick

Apple MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (15-inch, 2019)

The 15-inch MacBook Pro has a larger screen and the fastest, most powerful components Apple ships in a laptop, and it's still relatively thin and light. But you pay a lot for that extra speed.

Why you should trust us

Andrew Cunningham spent more than six years testing, reviewing, and otherwise writing about PCs, Macs, and other gadgets for AnandTech and Ars Technica. He has been building, upgrading, and fixing PCs for more than 15 years, and he spent five of those years in IT departments buying and repairing laptops and desktops as well as helping people buy the best tech for their needs. He has also used just about every Mac laptop that Apple has released in the past two decades.

Who this is for, and when to buy

The best reason to buy a MacBook is if you need or prefer macOS instead of Windows. The operating system is stable and easy to use, but more important, it integrates well with iPhones and iPads—iMessages and SMS messages sent from your Mac also appear on your iPhone and vice versa, and features such as AirDrop and iCloud make it easy to share notes, pictures, videos, reminders, contacts, passwords, bookmarks, and other data between your devices.

Macs are also a good choice if you want great support. Apple's tech support is routinely rated above that of all other PC and phone makers, and Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers offer accessible in-person tech support and repairs in many locations.

Macs aren't a great choice if you have less than $1,000 to spend on a laptop, if you want to get the most performance for your money, or if you want to run high-end games. Windows ultrabooks provide as good or better performance, more kinds of ports, and more storage at or below the price Apple charges for the MacBook Air. Budget Chrome OS and Windows laptops are a better choice if you have only $500 to spend. And Windows gaming notebooks, while larger and bulkier than any MacBook, usually have newer and faster dedicated graphics processors than Apple's laptops do (and you can buy some of them for less than half of what a 15-inch MacBook Pro costs).

Best Mac For Students

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