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There's really no good reason to buy a new laptop that isn't a MacBook. If you're gaming on a laptop you have no real good options. None of them are real portable laptops, they're desktop replacements and they're just worse than a desktop in every way and cost more. Unless you're streaming (e.g. GeForce Now) and then you can do that on a MacBook. I don't think Macs lead laptops in affordability, but the value is there — they last for years, and they last a long time on a charge. And hey, I can run Cyberpunk on mine, so that's neat.
For a desktop, it's a bit dicier. It's hard to argue with the M4 Mac mini at $500, with 16GB RAM, but I think you can do a little better with miniature PCs. I don't think $500 of PC beats the M4 Mac mini though, I'm just saying you can get one cheaper. Like there are mini PCs on Amazon for like $200-300 that look decent for most of what the Mac mini does. They do tend to come with Windows, but you can easily put Linux on it and then I can't say anything about Windows and its bullshit.
Honestly, if you're not a gamer, consider a Mac. It's nice over here. Just go to an Apple Store and play with one. They'll let you. Best Buy has them too. And if someone does come up, don't worry, they aren't pushy, I don't think they get commissions, or at least they don't act like they do. Feel free to tell them what you want out of a computer. See what they have to offer. I just think it's a cleaner OS, and as someone who has 30+ years of Windows experience, I've been a Mac user a little over 2 years, and I took right to it, and I love it. It really is joyous to use. But they're more for creative types, and not really for gamers.
To this day I still don’t understand the appeal of gaming laptops outside of maybe college kids. Phenomenal calculation power, itty-bitty airflow space.
I have one I take on business trips and it let's me still play video games with my friends on weekdays, its fantastic.
Battery life of 15 minutes
This is a limitation of YOUR brain. The rest of us can and do use them for legit purposes.
Don't know why this has so much downvotes, but clearly people do love to hate something they don't understand.
The M series chips that Apple has is hands down amazing. Low power usage, fast, and doesn't heat up like any other PC chip. This translates to low fan noise, no laptop/surface burn, long battery life. It's also somewhat of a contender for light local AI use. To put the cherry on top, the build quality supersedes any other brands on the market by scale and price. One would be foolish to not get a Mac laptop if you don't want to dabble with Linux.
I cooked (literally) 3 'gaming' laptops in 5 years. It seems that even with a riser and constant (monthly) cleaning, heavy GPU use pretty much kills the later gen nvidia chips.