College and programming laptop

[KorzenJS]

I'm looking for a small, reliable laptop to use at university (computer science) and while traveling. It's going to be used for programming, MS Office, web browsing, Netflix and some light-weight gaming (Rocket League, World of Tanks and similarly demanding titles). 
Battery life and performance are the top priority. I need something relatively light-weight with up to 14" screen, 16 GB RAM and at least 512 GB SSD, for ~1700-1800$ (thouth the cheaper the better).
I will use this laptop for ~4-5 years.

Currently I'm looking at: 

- MacBook Pro 13" M1 with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD
- ASUS Zephyrus G14 Ryzen 7-5800HS, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD and RTX 3060
I'm open for other suggestions!
 

[Darkseth]

16 hours ago, KorzenJS said:

Battery life and performance are the top priority.

That makes it easy. Macbook Pro 13" M1. By. F****. Far.

 

In the Windows World, like that Ryzen 7 5800HS, it's not difficult to somewhat match the "raw performance" of the M1. That is nothing special.
What's special is the efficiency.

 

Nothing with even remotely similar performance will give you this battery life. My M1 Pro during Office work (Word, Excel, some PDF, 3-4 Safari Tabs~, 50-55%~ Screen brightness) consumes around 5% per hour. Very VERY consistently. Even going on Zoom only increases that by a bit.

 

Every x86 CPU will not be able to match that, especially the stronger variants (like the H and HS series instead U series) also come with higher power consumption. If you manage 10 hours~ casual stuff on a Windows machine like the zephyrus, it's already considered quite good.

M1 Macbook Pro doubles that, while staying so cool to the touch, you wouldn't know it's even on. You will never hear the fans, unless you 100% max out the M1 chip for several Minutes.

 

OH yea, and as soon you actually do stuff like compiling bigger Apps or any Calculations, x86 CPUs tend to sip through battery - the M1 stays very consistent.

In everyday usage, the M1 Macbook Pro will usually last 2-3 times as long

 

And besides "Raw performance", there's also how fast it actually feels: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/apples-m1-is-a-fast-cpu-but-m1-macs-feel-even-faster-due-to-qos/

 

 

Depending on when you want to buy, you might want to wait for WWDC. Maybe a Macbook Pro 14" with 4 Ports will be released soon, with also 20+ Hours battery life, and even double the Performance of the M1.

 

If you don't really need every last bit of Battery Life you can get, consider the M1 Macbook Air. 10-15% less performance during 100% Load situations, otherwise exact same Performance.

 

 

But: The Zephyrus with RTX 3060  will be a MUCH better Device for Gaming. Simply because it has alot more GPU Power, and Windows' benefit of compatibility to all Games.

But e-sports titles should run well on M1. If they do run under MacOS.