u/Fast-One7046

I'm thinking of buying a used M2 macbook air which is mostly going to be used for college programming projects and presentations, maybe some machine learning projects down the line. However, I am confused if I should get the newer macbook neo or the m2 air, used or refurbished and 8gb or 16gb ram? I'm upgrading from a 2017 I5 macbook air so a pretty big jump in terms of performance.

I would ideally like to stay with the macOS, but I wouldn't mind switching if there is a better deal on a windows laptop in terms of performance per buck. My budget is $500-600.