I am used to HP or the like and my daughter wants a Macbook air. Call me old school, but I like a DVD drive, USB ports, and lots of internal memory. She will mainly be using it for school work because her school supplied chromebook is junk.
What are the advantages/disadvantages of a Macbook vs a laptop?

Do Macbooks use only 2.4ghz or can they use 5ghz wifi channel?

How long do the battery charges last?

Can the battery be replaced?

Do they have USB ports to back up documents and such to?

Is 256GB memory for storage enough or is 512GB better?

Can you download any programs you want onto them?

Will it sync across her iPhone and iPad?

We have a 2013 27" Imac, while we don't use it often anymore it still works flawlessly. An SSD and some more memory would add years to its life. Not many 9 year old PCs that still run well with zero changes to them over that time(not that I know of). You do have to throw the windows mindset to the side to use it though. If you think like you are using an iphone you can get through most anything on it.

One thing I never expected was that it would receive phone calls and text messages when your iphone is in the room. If you have an ipad, an iphone, and a mac in the room and they are all awake they will all ring or get texts, a little surprising the first time lol.

One thing I never could get used to is the apple version of excel. I am not super good with excel anyways so I struggle using a same but different version. It can open and save in excel format though so you can cross platforms with stuff if you really need to.

I have an HP laptop. I use it to surf the net and tune the EFI in my car. I just couldn't drag a $1500-2000 laptop around, take it down the track etc.

She might consider an ipad pro instead of a laptop. I think that is a growing trend for lots of people.

macbook air should have usb that's the way mac has been connecting things since before windows machines.
If 256gb is enough depends on how much crap she puts on it.

windows and mac programs aren't compatible but you can get the mac equivalent for everything. Discs and files are all compatible so there's no problem there. I don't like how they've gotten rid of DVD drives too but most windows computers in the last 10 years or so ditched them also and I rarely use them now so it wouldn't bother me as much as when it first started happening. If you need it you can buy usb DVD drives for under $20.

I have a 2009 imac and I can count on one hand how many times it's crashed or I've had to restart it and it's usually something I've done. I don't know what programs they come pre installed with now but most of what they came with back then was pretty useful. I'm finding myself using my thinkpad laptop more then the mac now and my phone more then both but I'd buy another one at some point. Honestly I'm not sure if I'd buy a mac laptop because to me they're overpriced.

As far as the ipad goes get her whatever she wants and needs. I never touch my tablet I use my phone all the time. And yes it would sync with both those things.

My office is 100% Apple. Two of my employees swore they hated the Mac Minis I bout to replace the ancient Dell machines they were using when I bought the place. After a month they had noticed how much smoother everything ran. 4 years on, they're both using iPhones and iPads, and complain about their PC laptops. You'll definitely pay more for a MacBook, but it will outlast a PC to the point that over time it will save you money. There are fewer virus problems with Mac products. Microsoft 365 (or whatever they're calling it today) runs fine. There MAY be a few shortcut differences but if SHE"S using it, it won't matter to YOU. Unless she's a college student doing high level graphics or something, the basic memory will be fine. A 2T SSD is cheap and will have storage for years if you don't to spring for the bigger internal drive.

Thanks for all the replies. I will probably stop at Best Buy on the way home from work and see what they have for advice as well. Feel better walking in there knowing a few things about it.

The Apple website has a 10% military discount if you have somebody who's a vet that can order for you. They also have factory refurbished older machines with a full warranty. Apple controls pricing so Black Friday deals are usually no more than 10% off. My son is a computer geek for MSU, and the veteran discount is usually better than his educational one.

Forgot they do factory refurbished. I'll see if they have any in stock. I get the Veteran discount and planned on using it.

Costco flyer that came in the mail yesterday had this MacBook Air for $799.

Costco

May have to look into that. I am hoping Apple does some kind of promotion for them on Black Friday.

I noticed best buy has black friday deals online already it looks like. I am thinking of getting my wife either an ipad pro or a macbook for christmas.

Do some searches for apple black friday sales. They're pretty consistent with when they have sales and what the discounts are so it'll at least give you an idea if it's worth waiting or take advantage of whatever sale pops up.

staples have anything ?

I'm a network admin and support about 1000 Windows machines. Don't ever buy Microsoft unless you have to. Windows is garbage.

If you're buying a brand new Mac Book Air then anything in their inventory is going to do what she needs it to do for school unless she does video or CAD work.

Got the M1 version yesterday on Amazon. Was 20% off and couldn't beat the deal. Going to look today for the heck of it and see if we did the best we could. Grandma tried to say get the M2 because she will have it for a while and go with the top of the line. Well, grandma isn't paying for it. Wife told the daughter if she gets the cheaper one, that's more she can spend on her for Christmas. The lady at the apple store said it's just a tad slower than the M2 and 720 camera instead of 1080. I'm sure there are a few others, but not enough to justify top of the line.