[zenron]

I just got a Lenovo Blue Phantom w/ Ryzen 5800H and 3050TI for 999 USD. 3.2ghz 8c/16t Ryzen 3. Feels amazing even with Win11 on it and I am going from a Dell G3 i5 9300H with 1660TI QMax and its a very tangible feeling upgrade. (even if the OS is a downgrade lol). I did have to do 40 USD memory upgrade to get it to 16g Dual channel so 1039 USD + tax so there is a hidden extra cost there. Or you could do a 32gb upgrade kit instead and sell your 8gb stick.

I don't think the GPU is much of an upgrade, but it does have tensor cores, the better video encoder (could be an OBS monster) and I believe better thermals. I am sure putting Pop!_OS or Manjaro on it would make this a great *nix platform for developers, content creators or streamers.

[fold3]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the screen is not nearly as good,1080p vs 3K, worse color spectrum, worse contrast. The fan noise is typical of gaming laptop while under load although M1 pro stays mostly inaudible. I haven't checked but I doubt the battery life can be compared as well.

[zenron]

If portability/battery longevity and a high resolution is what you are after, there is always going to be a tradeoff. The monitor on my new laptop is 165hz IPS sRGB and I couldn't care less about build in monitor only doing 1080p vs Retina/4k. But I am willing to get more of what is more important to me vs what apple offers. If I get an M1 it will be a Mini, not a laptop. And if I need 4k I just output to an external monitor in docked mode anyways.

Trying to find a cheaper apple quality device that is as good... you'll really be limited to the cheaper Yoga 4k screen models and their ilk. But I have no experience with those devices.