Backstory/Context: My wife is an aspiring writer and wants to self-publish a novel that she’s been writing. Currently she’s typing on my old Asus ROG gaming laptop that I no longer use. It’s (barely) running Windows Vista, it was built with Crysis in mind (really shows you how old it is), it’s bulky & heavy, and the battery is completely dead (no longer charges)
Originally, I wanted to get her a MacBook because she can switch between MacOS and Windows (via Boot Camp) to get the best of both worlds, that’s until I found out Boot Camp no longer works/exists. I also felt sticking with the Apple ecosystem might be better in the long run, allowing her to sync her iPhone, use iMessage/FaceTime/iCloud etc… when she’s not near her phone, better laptop design & portability.
I’ve been using MacBooks since Leopard-era and have experience with Apple computers before (candy colored iMac and 5200LC) so I know my way around an Apple keyboard & the shortcuts.
She, on the other hand, has only used Windows.
Definitely looking for laptop recommendations in general. Sure, it might be bias to post this in an Apple community but as an Apple user, I’d like to hear other opinions. Maybe there’s a Windows laptop with a similar feel/design of a MacBook? Perhaps the MacBook is the better choice?
Might be worth mentioning that I’ve heard horror stories about people finding spyware on Windows laptops (I think Dell/Alienware was the big one) and I’m totally out of the laptop game.
As someone who used primarily windows for 20+ years, used the surface pro line from the 1st through 7th iterations, and now only runs with a MacBook Air, I would say absolutely get the cheapest M1 Air you can find.
If she’s not a heavy user and is just doing word processing and light computing, it will be vastly more than enough machine, and be best in class in the most important things I can think of when thinking about a laptop for a writer:
nice big, bright, high res display for crisp text and easy reading/writing
insane amounts of battery life for writing in cafes or libraries or wherever for probably longer than she could stand to work in any given day
nicely portable and discreet for carrying around to places where she can write
decent keyboard and possibly the best laptop trackpad around for ergonomics (such as they are, in a laptop)
Getting used to MacOS will take a few days at most, and there are plenty of free/Foss apps to improve quality of life for Windows users moving to macs.