I’m thinking of buying a new laptop for school (which includes use of VMs), light gaming and, light video editing. Here are the models I’m considering:
Looking at your list of computers it looks like you are fairly focused on using Windows. While I love my mac and prefer it to my Windows laptop…I would have to caution against getting the latest/greatest mac if you aren’t buying it for a specific purpose that is better served than Windows.
For myself the biggest motivator to go mac was Imessage. My biggest annoyance having an iphone and Windows is having to pick up my iphone to respond to someone while I’m working on the computer. I much prefer to be able to do so in an app on the device I’m using. I got so desperate at one point that I actually switched primarily to using Google Voice so I could get my sms/mms on my computer…
If you know that Mac Os is something you’ll use and love then go ahead and jump on the M1 mac… If you aren’t interested in using Mac OS at all, I’d advise on spending your hard earned money on purchasing a good Windows Computer that’s going to have everything you want in it.