I have looking to buy a new best laptop for work and daily use, and I have spent the past few days reading reviews and comparisons. I want something powerful, reliable, and future proof, but also worth the money. After going through a lot of options, I’ve narrowed it down to these two:
Apple 2024 MacBook Pro (M4 Pro, 14.2”) – 12-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Liquid Retina XDR.
MacBook Pro seems amazing for performance, display quality, and long-term software support, especially for creative tasks.
Dell Inspiron 15 looks like a better value for business and productivity, with huge storage and RAM at a much lower cost.
I’m stuck between choosing the MacBook for its premium performance and ecosystem, or the Dell for practicality and specs. Has anyone here used either of these? Which one would you recommend? Or is there another laptop in the same price range that I should look into?
Inspiron is the consumer line. For business you should be looking at these lines, they’re more durable, generally have better security features, longer and better support, often some degree of user serviceability:
Lenovo ThinkPad
HP EliteBook
Dell Latitude
Another question is, what OS you plan to run, because that can be important. If your answer is Linux, then go with a certified laptop. The distro certifying it doesn’t matter much, since the mainline drivers and fwupd support is all the same. You can use these resources for that:
If you’re looking for general reliability, I would also recommend looking at a ThinkPad and saving yourself $150 for the Windows install and just drop a Linux distro in there. Worst case scenario, you can always install Windows in there later. In terms of future-proof, Linux will run on something 10 years old right now, so you’re already running something bloat-free. MS does tend to commit planed obsolescence.
Unless you’re doing video editing, a MacBook Pro is overkill. I’ve owned several and eventually downsized to a MacBook Air. Does all the normal daily stuff.
Its phenomenal laptop and small company in my opinion, with open source firmware, also very “powerful”, and many other things.
Techlore have done a review about them:
But in case living in US, then I would be considering US open source options, such as system76:
About “creative tasks”, I may suggest Zorin OS Pro - Zorin OS operating system in addition to laptop, which is a paid linux version (cheap, beautiful, powerful), but it is not as secure as it should be. So maybe https://secureblue.dev/ if security is a top priority
NovaCustom ships it with ZorinOS Pro edition, plus $297 worth courses about Linux from https://privacyacademy.com/ (for free - I calculated at no extra cost).
Its very good choice for people who would use Linux for the first time, as everything prepared bundled together and with lessons. I have not tried it, but I know other PrivacyAcademy courses are of very high quality.
