New to Apple products and goods

jkrobsjkrobs
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware
Dear all,

Any help would be much appreciated.

I reside and have a small business in Japan.

I currently use a Chromebook, but it's running very slow and no longer able to meet my requirements.

I was looking to buy a Microsoft surface laptop 4..but they are pretty expensive.

I always imagined Macs would be out of my price range, but they are cheaper it would seem.

Anyway, I have a few questions before purchasing.

( I have done some research, but I would appreciate some final thoughts. thank you )

1. Can someone explain the difference between Mac Air and Pro and who they are targeted towards?

2. M1 vs M2, what is the best option?

3. Are Pages and numbers compatible with Word, so If someone sends me a word file, will it open on Mac without having to purchase word for Mac?

4. Can anyone confirm which mac book has better speakers? Air/Pro

5. 8GB or 16GB ?

6. Hard drive, 256GB or 512GB. ( How much is already used up by the OS? )

7. Final question, I use google calendar for my appointments with customers, can I transfer my google calendar to the Mac calendar? or can I use google calendar on a mac?

8. Are there new mac books being announced and to save me a few dollars, is it worth waiting?


I will be using it mainly, for word processing, excel spreadsheets ( numbers ), and word ( Pages )

Internet browsing, listening to music, ripping my CD collection  ( I will need to buy the CD drive separately), and some video editing/photos, etc.

Thank you for your valued experienced replies.

Best regards,










Comments

  • Reply 1 of 1
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,474moderator
    jkrobs said:
    1. Can someone explain the difference between Mac Air and Pro and who they are targeted towards?
    2. M1 vs M2, what is the best option?
    3. Are Pages and numbers compatible with Word, so If someone sends me a word file, will it open on Mac without having to purchase word for Mac?
    4. Can anyone confirm which mac book has better speakers? Air/Pro
    5. 8GB or 16GB ?
    6. Hard drive, 256GB or 512GB. ( How much is already used up by the OS? )
    7. Final question, I use google calendar for my appointments with customers, can I transfer my google calendar to the Mac calendar? or can I use google calendar on a mac?
    8. Are there new mac books being announced and to save me a few dollars, is it worth waiting?

    I will be using it mainly, for word processing, excel spreadsheets ( numbers ), and word ( Pages )

    Internet browsing, listening to music, ripping my CD collection  ( I will need to buy the CD drive separately), and some video editing/photos, etc.
    The Pro models are for professional/productive use cases like video editing. They have active fan cooling so they perform better when doing long periods of processing like video encoding. This difference is less noticeable with the Apple Silicon Air and Pro (with the same chips) because they generally run very cool (see video below). The 13" Pro is an old design so isn't worth getting over the Air. Only the 14" Pro is a better option but that's more expensive.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GQdz9JkUyU

    The newest generation of chip is usually the better option. M2 has faster GPU performance (mainly the $100 upgrade). But single generation improvements are usually small enough that either option is good if the M1 option is cheaper. M1 Pro in the 14" is faster than M2 in the 13".

    If you have to deal with Word documents regularly, you'd be best using Microsoft Office for Mac instead of Pages/Numbers.

    The Pro models have better speaker sound due to the extra space inside.

    16GB of RAM is recommended for doing photo/video editing. 8GB is only good for basic use cases like document editing.

    512GB SSD or more would be best for storage when handling video. Although it's possible to get USB storage, 256GB is a small amount to work with. This is fine for document-oriented workflows but not media.

    The following site describes how to add Google Calendar events to the Mac Calendar:
    https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/99358?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform=Desktop
    Or a web app can be made out of the site:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0slIctQf7c
    It may be possible to run the iOS version of Google Calendar on Mac too as it runs iOS apps natively.

    New Macbooks are typically launched in October but this will be for the more expensive models 14"/16" Macbook Pro. If these models are under consideration then definitely wait until the end of the month. If the choice is between the Air and 13" Pro, they have already been updated to M2 and the M2 Air with 16GB, 512GB for $1599 would be a good option for what you need and a 1TB SSD is good to have for backups and extra space for videos. The following have USB-C connectors.

    https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-Portable-SSD-1TB-MU-PC1T0H/dp/B0874XN4D8
    https://www.amazon.com/External-ROOFULL-Portable-Protective-Carrying/dp/B07V4J3WBW
    https://www.amazon.com/JSAUX-Adapter-Compatible-MacBook-Samsung/dp/B07BS8SRWH
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