I guess I’m far from alone in having non-techy friends ask my advice on which Apple device to buy. I always start by asking what’s important to them, and what they want to do with it.
For Macs, my advice changed significantly after the launch of the M1 MacBook Air. Prior to that, my answer to the question “which Mac should I buy for basic tasks like email, web, and writing” was quite often “buy an iPad and keyboard instead” …
For the average person with undemanding needs it was easier to use, had a more compact form factor, offered better battery life, was instant-on/off – and gave the option of on-board cellular.
That changed with the launch of the M1 MacBook Air, however. Unlike the Intel models, the portability and battery life offered by Apple Silicon closed the gap to such an extent that the compromises involved in iPadOS no longer make sense for most.
My default recommendation these days, applicable in a good 80-90% of cases, is to buy the base MacBook Air, bumping up the RAM if budget permits. That’s even more applicable today, when $999 buys you a 13-inch M2 model with 16GB RAM, and supports Apple Intelligence.
Where iPhones were concerned, if one of the primary uses was as a camera then that immediately pointed to the latest Pro or Pro Max. If not, then … things got complicated!
Depending on the features they needed or wanted, the best bang for their buck might be the current base model, the Plus, or the Pro. It might be last year’s base model, or last year’s Pro. It might be the SE.
But with the launch of the iPhone 16e, and the simplification of the rest of the line-up, the choice gets easier. Today’s options are:
- iPhone 15
- iPhone 16e
- iPhone 16
- iPhone 16 Pro or Pro Max
Photographers with sufficiently deep pockets are still advised to get one of the Pro models, though by a smaller margin than usual.
The iPhone 15 is essentially ruled out by the lack of Apple Intelligence support. That’s not a big deal right now, but for anyone who intends to keep their phone for 2-3 years or more, it will certainly become a very big differentiator in time.
Top comment by Blurft
The iPhone 15 is essentially ruled out by the lack of Apple Intelligence support. That’s not a big deal right now, but for anyone who intends to keep their phone for 2-3 years or more, it will certainly become a very big differentiator in time.
Certainly? Certainly?
Like the blockchain was going to revolutionize the world? Like how NFTs were going to allow us to own digital content just like physical content? Like how cryptocurrency was the decentralized money of the future that would replace government-backed dollars? Like how VR headsets were going to make the 3D / immersive content market explode? Like how 3D TVs were supposed to do that 15 years before VR headsets?
Maybe there will be useful applications of "AI" in the next few years, but what we have right now are writing tools that create robotic prose, image generators that create soulless clip art, content summarization that frequently gets information wrong, and search functionality that comes with the caveat "this could be wrong, check important information" so frequently that it's practically useless. There may be some rubes who trust AI output right now, but it won't be long before they get a bad result that ruins their trust in the system.
Not to mention, any of the truly-powerful future applications of AI won't be running on a phone that ships with barely enough RAM to run the current version of Apple Intelligence. Do we really think that it's going to be capable of running the next generation of "AI" features?
But between the 16e and the 16, if you don’t need the camera features then there’s really not much reason to opt for the more expensive option.
That’s not to say it’s never worth it. You might really love the Dynamic Island; you might appreciate the extra brightness in sunlight; you might not want to leave the house without your MagSafe wallet.
But this is another MacBook Air versus MacBook Pro situation. Unless there’s a specific MBP feature you need, the MBA is going to be the way to go. For non-photographers, the iPhone 16e just became my default iPhone recommendation.
Photo: 9to5Mac collage of images from Apple and Matthew McBrayer on Unsplash
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