MacBook vs MacBook Air vs Dell Inspiron Gaming 7000

[jmr1015]

I've been getting that itch lately, to buy a new laptop. And the sale Best Buy has this weekend is making it hard to stick with my aging MacBook Pro much longer. So, these three laptops are within a few hundred dollars of each other... which would you recommend and why?

$949 - 12" MacBook, Space Grey, Core M3/8gb/256gbSSD

$799 - 13" MacBook Air, i5/8gb/128gbSSD

$849 - 15" Inspiron 7000 Gaming. i5/8gb/256gbSSD/GTX1050Ti

I've loved my MacBook Pro for years. If it was eligible for the Sierra update, I'd probably keep it another year or two. But being stuck on El Capitan really makes me want something new. The new MacBook is sleek and gorgeous, but that little Core M3 seems so underpowered for that price point.

I haven't seriously considered a Windows rig in a long long time, but this new 7000 Gaming unit is really well equipped for the price... and the option of being able to run some good new games at decent 1080p settings on a sub-$1000 laptop is intriguing.

 

[cuttheredwire]

I love my MacBook Air and the upped the RAM to 8 GB. It works well and can do like gaming, including 3D on reduced settings. Be sure to plug it in as games eat power.

The battery life is amazing and I leave my charger at home. Apple ties hard together in fluid ways, and there are a lot of Mac/iOS only apps. The two USB ports are blazingly fast with my external SSD (a small on I got cheap and bought a mini enclosure for). The GBs just fly.

To touch on gaming again, years ago I started only buying Steam Play games, and I have not regretted it. If you want to back to Windows, you can, but you don't have to. Additionally, if you like retro gaming, OpenEmu is the envy of Windows users. Very polished.

That said, I joke about my switch to Mac that "Windows 8 made me do it." Windows 10 has seriously privacy issues, forced upgrades, and a downright dangerous app store. Want to use Windows 7? There is no USB 3.0 support. :/

So I would say get the Air, wait a few years for the other MacBook, and the Windows PC will not holds its value like a Mac for a reason.