Welcome back to our weekly newsletter. We’ve been running a three-week series about the Apple Ecosystem, starting with the Premium, Standard and now the Budget Ecosystem.
When one thinks of the Apple Ecosystem, the price of the products is the focus but in reality it should be how seamless these devices integrate in terms of functionality. This series features what we would recommend for first time Apple users.
iPhone
Most of Apple’s new users in the last few years or maybe the last decade have started with the iPhone as their first Apple device, unlike before when people jumped straight to the MacBook or iMac.
The iPhone of choice for the Budget Apple Ecosystem is the iPhone SE 2020 or the latest iPhone SE 2022 which has received some minor upgrades from the previous model.
The iPhone of choice for the Budget Apple Ecosystem is the iPhone SE 2020 or the latest iPhone SE 2022 which has received some minor upgrades from the previous model.
The iPhone SE is the only iPhone that is still in production that comes with the Touch ID.
The Display Is still a 4.7 inches screen and comes in three storage capacities:
- 64GB,
- 128GB
- 256GB.
iPhone Se 2022 has now the latest A15 bionic chip, the same one as the latest iPhone 13 series so its capabilities are high. The iPhone SE 2022 also supports 5G network which puts it at the top compared with many budget phones in the market.
MacBook
When you think of the MacBook, price is among the first things that hit their mind even before the performance or how user friendly it is.
The MacBook of choice in this series is among the most sold in the history of Apple, the MacBook Air M1 base model. Comes with 8 core CPU and 8 Core GPU and 16 core neural engine. The base model MacBook Air M1 comes in 8GB of Ram and 256GB of SSD storage but can be customized up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB storage. The MacBook Air M1 comes in two colours, Gold and Space Gray. It’s a powerful machine that can handle any task on the table from editing to writing among other tasks. Comes with a very long-lasting battery that holds a charge for 17hrs straight meaning that you can have a whole field day.
Audio
With the growth of audio books, music and even educational videos the need for a good device is inevitable in this era.
The Airpods of choice in this Budget Ecosystem are the AirPods 2nd generation or the latest AirPods 3. Both of these come at a very good price and have good audio and compatibility within all Apple devices from Apple TV, MacBook, iPads and even iPhone among others. They do not have noise cancellation but do have a very good fit to the ears and have a long-lasting battery case which you can charge twice a week depending on your usage with some people doing it once. You can use one AirPod at a time and that helps you preserve more charge.
AppleWatch
The Apple Watch has seen big updates in the last few years with the Series 4 being approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a Class 2 medical device.
For this Budget Ecosystem, we will go for the Apple Watch SE which was launched in September 2020. It comes in two different sizes
- 40mm
- 44mm
and also comes in three colours:
- Silver
- Gold
- Space grey.
It comes with the S5 chip, The Always on Altimeter, The optical heart rate sensor and a fall detection feature. The only features missing on this budget Apple Watch SE are the ECG and blood oxygen monitoring capability.
Desktop
The need for a comfortable working space has become a necessity whether in the office or if you are working from home.
The iMac of choice for this budget Apple Ecosystem will be the 21 inches iMac which was updated on August 4th 2020, the base model coming in 2.3GHZ, 8GB ram and 256GB SSD. The 2020 iMac has the 4K retina display and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 Graphics card that makes the processor be extra fast.
iPad
The iPad of choice here is the Standard Apple iPad 2021 9th generation that comes with the A13 Bionic chip, A 12-megapixel camera that supports the centerstage feature that is available on the iPad Pro and the 2021 iPad Air 5th gen.
The iPad 9th gen now supports the true tone that was not available on the previous generations.The iPad is now compatible with the 1st generation Apple Pencil which is a good accessory to have plus an Apple Smart keyboard(Folio keyboard) which is very necessary for the full productivity of an iPad when on the go. The good thing about iPads is that they support Cellular networks and you can access files and things like emails even when you are out of reach for a wifi network.
