For undergrad CS Student is MacBook Pro 13" M1 useful ? I think CS student may need Mac native terminal / bash shell for scripting. Now Window 10 also support bash shell and linux subsystem. Most 3rd party softwares comes with intel x86_64 / AMD distributions, for example common development softwares for CS majors are Java and Oracle Database. There is no native support for apple ARM M1 processors. It need a x86_64 emulator (Rosetta) or use parallel or vmware. Thats more annoying to switch between Mac and VMs. ARM processors are originally designed as mobile processor and tiny devices. I believe thats the reason Apple still keeps intel processors for high end laptops and ARM M1 processor for household users and non-CS students.
In order to get Mac intel i7 11th generation processor , we need to pay extra premium price. Where as windows laptop manufactures provides i7 , 16 GB RAM , SSD with just a small fraction of Apple price tag. E.g. Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 i7,AMOLED, touch screen, metal body , thiner and lighter than Apple.
IMHO MacBook M1 laptop is useless / annoying for CS students, I would prefer cheaper windows i7 laptops instead of paying extra premium for Apple intel laptops.
In order to get Mac intel i7 11th generation processor , we need to pay extra premium price. Where as windows laptop manufactures provides i7 , 16 GB RAM , SSD with just a small fraction of Apple price tag. E.g. Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 i7,AMOLED, touch screen, metal body , thiner and lighter than Apple.
IMHO MacBook M1 laptop is useless / annoying for CS students, I would prefer cheaper windows i7 laptops instead of paying extra premium for Apple intel laptops.