Hello technerds, I need help picking my next laptop. I currently have a 5-6 year old MacBook air that is on its last legs. I am about to graduate with my bachelors and want to work in a legal/office setting. I game casually
What laptop will get me the best bang for my buck during my early career (and maybe through part of law school if I go in a few years)?
@Minnewegian career wise it's more important to know software than the OS as you'll likely be remoting into or directly using a work computer especially handling legal docs. Get what works best for you personally, staying in the Apple ecosystem is the least friction, but you could probably save a lot switching to something else. You could even skip the laptop and use your phone with a nextdock for out and about and a USB dock + monitors for home if you just need to do office level work.
How far has stuff like that come? DeX seemed like abandonware the last time I had a Samsung over 5 years ago and Linux phones are anemic and barely function as phones with far too many compromises.
My dream phone would be able to plug into a dock and just use like a laptop. Undock and use like a phone.
@kemotep@Minnewegian convergence isn't where I'd wish it'd be in 2024, but Dex works for the most part with official hardware (and supposedly with 3rd party hardware like Nextdock), and I've been able to get it working with usb-c to hdmi adapters, but it didn't like my current usb-c minidock last time I tried. One of my "someday" projects is to try flashing my old S9 with PostmarketOS and try out PureOS's Phosh interface which promises even more integration between mobile & desktop.
I will concur that if you are used to Mac, the Apple Silicon MacBook Airs are really good. An M1 (or good deal on a M2) will be a huge upgrade compared to your current one. The performance is probably the best you can get in a laptop. Spending 1200 on a Windows laptop can get you something that would play games maybe a bit better (and Windows has better compatibly for games overall) but would not be as thin or have as good of battery life. Shoot for 16 GB of RAM at the minimum.
@kemotep@Minnewegian I'm not sure the comparable used for windows but $1200 would definitely get you more than light gaming and if you go for an equivalent non-gaming build like a lower end Surface Pro 9 (~$800, and v10 coming out this year) you'll get at least around a day's battery with the portability of an iPad and good enough power. There are normal laptop form factors with far better builds too, especially at those price points. Apple ecosystem is important though if you are invested.
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