I’m an Apple expert, and I’ll show you how to buy the best Mac for going back to school
Top-tier Macs at special prices
by https://www.techradar.com/uk/author/alex-blake · TechRadarFeatures By Alex Blake Published 5 August 2026
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With back-to-school season in the air, you might be looking to stock up on a new Mac for college. But doing so can be a confusing affair, with many different models and configurations to choose from, and you can waste a lot of time trying to work out what’s best for your needs.
To skip all the bother, just give our guide a read. We’ve put together everything you need to know, from which Mac is best for you to how to get those all-important student discounts. You’ll be kitted out and ready to go before you know it.
How to choose the right specs for your Mac
When you buy a Mac, there are a few specifications you need to choose, including the chip, memory and storage. You’ll also need to pick a color and, with some Macs, extra options like the display coating and power adapter.
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The first three factors — chip, memory and storage — are the most important, and the ones where there’s the most to learn.
We’ll start with the chip, which determines how powerful your MacBook is. More powerful and more recent chips will generally be better, and the higher the chip’s number, the more recent the generation it belongs to.
The chip usually comes in a few different tiers. There’s the baseline option, such as the M5, M4, M3 and so on, then Pro chips like the M5 Pro, M4 Pro and M3 Pro. Then there are Max chips, including the M5 Max and M4 Max. The most powerful level is the Ultra, and it’s limited to desktop Macs like the Mac Studio. The latest version there is the M3 Ultra.
Apple’s chips combine CPU, GPU and memory onto a single system on a chip (SoC). The CPU and GPU will have their own core counts, and the more cores you get, the better able the chip is to handle difficult workloads.
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