Should i buy pc or mac laptop

That aside, the Surface Laptop 3 is an excellent portable PC for anyone who enjoys a clean-looking, fast machine that runs Windows. Newswire Powered by. Close the menu. Rolling Stone. Log In. To help keep your account secure, please log-in again. You are no longer onsite at your organization. Please log in. For assistance, contact your corporate administrator. Arrow Created with Sketch.

Calendar Created with Sketch. Path Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Plus Created with Sketch. The sign of not being a hater is to be open-minded to all views, even if you would never, ever consider the other side as an actual option. But if we had to guess, we think the gravity of tens of billions of dollars of investment creates its own reality. There will indeed be many applications where we suspect the M1 will make a Core i7 or even Ryzen 7 sweat. Some people believe having an Apple logo on a laptop makes them Think Different.

To conform with what the cool kids are doing, a MacBook is still the laptop to beat. Do you stare longingly into the screen of your Windows laptop? We hope not? But the MacBook inspires just that sort of adoration.

One of the strengths Apple has had is in tech support. And be sure to get a recent CPU design, one that's no more than a generation or two behind the current Intel Core line.

Those chips are most likely to have the latest security enhancements and power management features; they're also guaranteed to be compatible with Windows If you prefer a MacBook, the M1-based designs have a long life ahead of them, whereas Intel-based models, despite lower performance and shorter battery life, offer cost and compatibility advantages, including the ability to run virtual copies of Windows.

How much memory do you need? You can find budget laptops configured with 4 GB of RAM, but in my experience that's a false economy, offering a guarantee that you will regularly experience the sort of sluggish performance that comes with memory pressure. Home Office Tours. ZDNet contributors welcome you inside their home-based workspaces and show off the tech gear that drives their productivity.

My guidelines are simple: For mainstream productivity tasks, 8 GB is sufficient. Configure the system with 16 GB if you regularly perform demanding tasks such as photo and video editing, or if you plan to run one or more virtual machines on a regular basis. Developers and engineering professionals might benefit from 32 GB or even 64 GB.

With very few exceptions, most laptops don't allow memory upgrades, so it's important to get this spec right from the start. If you're not sure, choose the higher value. For data storage, as with memory, more is better, and the general lack of easy upgrade options means it's important to choose wisely when you buy. Now that we're well into the 21st Century, we can't think of any good reason to choose anything other than SSD or NVMe for a system drive. As for how much space you need on that drive, GB of storage is a bare minimum for basic productivity; that class of machine is best-suited for those who keep most of their data including email in the cloud and don't need to store large amounts of media files.

Upgrades to GB are generally a cost-effective way to eliminate data anxiety, whereas larger upgrades up to 1 or 2 TB can be expensive but worth it for professionals who work extensively with digital media files or virtual machines.

Most ZDNet writers prefer this notebook above all others. If you spend hours daily banging away at a keyboard, you'll want to consider these favored models. And don't ignore external options. SD card support can be useful for backups and non-critical auxiliary storage, but for high-performance external drives, insist on support for the Thunderbolt 3 or 4 standard. There are different styles of laptop keyboards, with different types of tactile and audio feedback.

You can't know which one will make you happy unless you try them personally, for at least a few days of normal work. That's why I absolutely will not buy a new laptop without a no-questions-asked return policy good for at least 14 days from the date you receive it, with no restocking fees. If you plan to regularly use that laptop in a dim location, such as an airplane cabin or a dimly lit meeting room, make sure the model you choose includes an illuminated keyboard.

As for touchpads, size is a matter of personal preference, but my one ironclad rule for Windows PCs is to insist on a Precision Touchpad, which offers a full range of configuration options in Windows Invariably, when I hear a complaint about wonky touchpad behavior, it's on a system that uses hardware that doesn't adhere to this standard.

Don't say I didn't warn you. Wi-Fi standards are currently in a state of transition, with hardware that supports Wi-Fi 6 Do you really need the latest networking technology? Probably not, although it does add a tiny amount of future-proofing to your hardware. Most people will do just fine with Bluetooth Low Energy LE and Bluetooth 5 support , on the other hand, are both on my must-have list, with advantages in power consumption, range, and reliability that are apparent with devices that exist today.

The one networking technology that's still an expensive option and probably too much extra cost for most people is mobile broadband. It's convenient, but it's also still relatively hard to find. If you think you'll use it enough to make it worthwhile, that choice will narrow down your laptop hardware options to a very short list.