We have many students write in and ask us about technical specifications of law school laptops. One of the most frequent questions regards the processing power of laptops.
Law students ask: Is the 16GB MacBook Pro worth it?
The quick answer is Yes! Before we dive in to why the 16GB MacBook Pro is worth it for law students, we should ask ourselves a few other questions. The reason for this is because it depends on what you want to do with your MacBook Pro in law school. Additionally, your law school budget will determine whether the MacBook Pro is worth the money.
What Will You Use Your Law School Laptop For?
Before deciding on whether the 16GB MacBook Pro is worth it, you should make a list of all the tasks you will use your MacBook Pro in law school. For example, you may use it to take notes, look up case law, and download textbooks. Additionally, you may use your law school laptop for storing photos, editing video, or watching streaming shows.
Depending on your answers to how you will use your MacBook Pro in law school, you will be able to determine your processing power load. If you are simply taking notes and using the internet to look up information, your processing needs are low. However, if you plan to edit photos or videos and do more CPU intensive tasks, then you have a higher processing load.
Should Law Students Buy The 16GB MacBook Pro?
For most law students, their law school laptop is primarily used for taking notes and looking up case law. Occasionally, it will be used for streaming. Thus, for law students 16GB of RAM is not a necessity.
The MacBook with 16GB of Ram is a great option for law school, but it will cost you a lot more money.
Law students that can manage their laptop’s user-initiated background tasks and applications will find that the 8GB of RAM MacBook is enough. Law students will be able to keep more than enough applications running on 8GB of RAM. This is especially true now that Apple has introduced the M1 chip in their machines.
Conclusion – The 16GB Apple MacBook is Worth It.
Yes. For the computing power that you get, the 16GB Apple MacBook is certainly worth it. However, for law students, the extra price and power is not likely justified. Law school tasks are not processor intensive. The majority of law students will be happy with 8GB of RAM in the more affordable model of the MacBook Pro.
However, if you plan on running extremely task-heavy applications like perhaps video editing software combined with other applications, or maybe a flight simulator, all simultaneously, then maybe 16 GB will be worth it for you.
To find out more about laptops for law school, check out our top laptops for law school guide. Additionally, we have guides for law students on a budget. Check out the best law school laptops under $400 and best law school laptops under $800.