medes24

Going off of the Intel era, Apple has typically provided seven years of software upgrades and two years of support for each OS upgrade - or in other words up to nine years total of software support. Hardware support exists on a comparable seven years based on the final sale date of a device.

Under a normal load, an M-series chip is around 15-30°C cooler than an Intel Mac with a fan. Unless you are redlining your CPU every single day (in which case an Air is probably not for you) this will not be an issue. M series chips will also be more resistant to thermal paste decay owing to their lower temperatures.

I run very comparable workloads to you on my Air and I rarely see my CPU tick above 40°C under load. My 2012 Mac mini idled at 65°C by comparison.

The Air is just a really good consumer ultrabook. There's some crossover because the cheaper models of the Pro are comparable in price to the more expensive models of the Air but for me, I know I see no reason to pick up a Pro. I don't need the performance, and I like the fact that the Air has no fan. Granted modern Macbook fans don't get frustratingly loud but I love having a whisper quiet machine.

It's insurance. If you never need it, it's money wasted. If you do need it, you'll be happy to have it. Personally I have never needed AppleCare and I have been using Apple computers since the 90s.

Ask yourself what would happen if the computer was lost, broken, etc. If you can easily replace it, you probably don't need to buy AppleCare. If the loss of your computer would represent a substantial financial hardship, the insurance is probably a good idea.

My 15'' Air is my daily carry to and from work. I definitely do not find it inconvenient to bring with me every day. If you do a lot of work that you need to spread out on your screen, the 15'' is going to be able to do that for you.

That being said, I used a 13'' Macbook for years (first a 13'' Pro and later a 13'' M1 Air) and got along just fine.

The technology is there at least. If Apple does stick to it and push gaming we could be looking pretty good down the road.

If you're looking for a gaming laptop today though, the M3 MBP should not be on your list of candidates

I use Firefox. My gaming PC can't run Safari and my company issued phone is an Android.

It was just easier to switch to a platform agnostic browser.

Safari does what I need it to do though

FWIW I get all day battery at the office on my 15'' Air. Beyond that I don't particularly care. Even if my machine has only smart charged to 80%, I can usually make it to the end of the night.

That number 3 is a pretty solid option. Apple is selling this configuration for $1500 on their own refurb store, so taking another $500 off the top is a great deal. It's by far the largest savings out of what you've posted.

I'd say either go that or if you really are uncomfortable with a refurb device just go option 1 to save as much money as possible. Spending the extra money for the M2 won't really help because you still only have 8 GB RAM.

Regardless, all three are capable of the tasks you've listed

Cheaping out won't backfire on you as a student. The most basic Macbook Air is capable of running GarageBand fairly well and can even get some ok results with Logic.

The conversation changes if you are using the tool in a professional sense but for where you're at, you'll be pretty alright.

Just make sure to get at least an M1 Macbook Air. Don't get an Intel Macbook at all.

No remorse, love my 15” Air but if the M3 base 14” Pro had been an option, I probably would have gone with it. The notion of a prosumer variant of the MBP excites me. The old 13” Touch Bar configuration had all the baggage of the Touch Bar era Pro. I held onto my 2014 13” MBP for years because I was unhappy with the Touch Bar.

lower resolution display? the return of 128 GB SSD? I would not hate a 1440x900 resolution 12'' Mac. That would be more than adequate for office work while the $1000 MacBook Air would have a very obvious upgrade in the retina display for casual users.

M1 + 8 GB RAM surely

The super cheap iPad 10th Generation is really not junk. It does have a slower A14 chip compared to the M-Series in the Air 5 and iPad Pro but that's good enough for running most iOS stuff. A largely iCloud reliant netbook style Mac would not be a bad thing I think.

These low budget Macs would mainly be aimed at casual users and students anyway who don't need a lot of hardware (or even storage space). And I'm sure Apple would be happy to sell more iCloud subscriptions.

I do all of that on an M1 base model so you should be good to go