All depends on what you want to spend and what software you use.

On the Mac side I wouldn’t recommend more than an M2 Air at $1149. My go to is the M1 air which can be found for less than $800 new. The downside here is they only have 8GB of RAM, honestly not worth the $200+ extra to bump them to 16GB. But if your uses don’t go beyond the office suite and web 8GB is fine.

On the windows side you have much more choice but a lot of junk to fish through. Generally it’ll be ok if it has i5/Ryzen 5, 8 or 16GB RAM and in a 13-14" metal chassis. Avoid the plastic 15.6" junk. Great options here include Lenovo Thinkpad/yoga lines, surface laptop, Asus zenbook, HP envy etc.

Major thing to note is one is not better than the other but will fit different needs. If you have an iPhone and use apple software the Mac may be a better experience for you. Alternatively if you want onedrive sync between a desktop and laptop windows may be better.

Wow, thanks for clarifying this. I’ve never seen one in the wild either. Must have been a short run before the M1 air was released.

2020 should receive OS upgrades for another 3 years.

Also apple has never made an i3 air. There was an m3 MacBook which was older, I believe support for these has now ended.

For college/university absolutely 100%. 8gb is also enough providing you don’t plan on extensive machine learning or multiple VMs.

For professional developer use I’d opt for a pro 16gb.

Don’t buy older than 2017, it’s no longer supported and really old/dated hardware.

General advice in the Mac space is don’t buy an Intel Mac.

You can pick up M1 airs for as little as $749 new or $500 used. This will be supported until at least 2027 and be perfect for the needs you described.

That hp omen appears to be stronger than the MSI one.

The Asus is a completely different class of machine. It’s not a gaming machine and will not run games well, but it will be more portable, thinner/lighter and better battery.