Looking to buy a laptop for uni CS, leaning towards Macbook Air

[RockSolid1106]

Hello people, I'm going to uni in a few months and will be pursuing CS, so I'm looking for a laptop.

I'm kind of done with Windows at this point. Although Linux is good and does generally work for me, I just want a computer that works, without me having to fiddle around. It appears Macbooks are the only options left here.

 

Here are my requirements(other recommendations are welcome too):

* Good keyboard, I'll certainly need this for the programming stuff.

* Responsive

* Good battery life since I'm not sure if I'll be able to find power outlets easily.

* Performance: About 10 tabs of browsers, two being YT(these I feel are quite resource intensive), a zoom call and VSC - I'd expect it to run these well simultaneously. Maybe the job for an i7 mobile chip? Sorry I really don't know how to describe the kind of performance I think I'll need.

* Camera: I think the ones on Macbooks are good enough, just as a comparison.

* I'd be using if for quite long - maybe 6 or 7 years at least, so it needs to be future proof with specs and updates.

 

I'm leaning towards the M3 Macbook Air 13" 16GB/512GB($1499).

I think going for the M3 would be better considering how long I'll be using it for, however a similar configuration(RAM and storage) is $100 cheaper. Does it make sense to spend the extra and get the M3? I

I'm not sure which display size to look for because I've used a 13" laptop and it was garbage, but that certainly was because it was a 1366x768 display. Does the higher resolution on the MacBook make it good enough for my use or should I look for the 15" variant?

 

Also, it's about $200 cheaper for me to get a Macbook from the US than my country, and that is an easy option for me with a friend(prices mentioned above are US ones). I do still wonder about the warranty, although looking it up seems to indicate that Apple does honor the warranty in other countries as well.

 

Thank you!

[Levent]

With the amount of chips Apple dumping out, I would recommend getting the latest just because of longer support period. 
 

I am very satisfied with my M1 MBA with the thermal pad mod. However long term heavy use, it takes 10-15 minutes before device gets completely heat soaked and most noticeable performance drops occur. 
 

This is with compiling massive docker images or playing euro truck on it. Occasional 10-20s bursts are completely fine on the Airs.

[RockSolid1106]

2 hours ago, Levent said:

I am very satisfied with my M1 MBA with the thermal pad mod. However long term heavy use, it takes 10-15 minutes before device gets completely heat soaked and most noticeable performance drops occur. 
 

This is with compiling massive docker images or playing euro truck on it. Occasional 10-20s bursts are completely fine on the Airs.

For most of what I'm going to be doing this should be fine really, but might become a problem the few times I play some games.

 

2 hours ago, Levent said:

playing euro truck on it.

What fps do you get with that and at what settings? ETS certainly is more demanding than what I would play, so if that plays good I'm pretty happy with it.

 

Appreciate your help!