I have the option to pick between these two laptops for work so budget is not a concern. I will be developing AI workflows, general coding and also doing hardware/chip design, probably most things will be done on cloud + NFS but occasional sanity checks + personal prototypes will be done locally on the laptop. Apart from that, the company does use the typical microsoft suite of apps + slack. Refresh happens ~3 years just to have the lifetime of the laptop in mind. Interested in hearing about developer experience (keyboard, screen, touchpad reviews, battery life experience, camera quality, OS opinions)in either of these.
My priorities are performance, screen and then battery with a tail for keyboard and software/OS ecosystem.
Dell pro max 16 premium specs:
Display: 16” OLED, UHD+ Touch (3840 x 2400)
CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 265H vPro Enterprise
GPU: NVIDIA RTX PRO 3000 Blackwell 12GB GDDR7
RAM: 64GB LPDDR5x (Soldered, no upgrade)
Storage: 1TB M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD
Battery: Up to 4 hours
Weight: 4.82 lbs
Ports: 1x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), 2x Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C), HDMI 2.1, SD Card
Webcam: 8MP HDR + IR
Wireless: Wi-Fi 7 (Intel BE201), Bluetooth 5.4
Ethernet: Dongle only
Charger: 165W USB-C
Can either be windows or linux (ubuntu)
Apple Macbook pro 16” specs:
Display: 16” Liquid Retina XDR (3456 x 2244)
CPU: Apple M4 Pro — 14-core CPU, 16-core Neural Engine
GPU: 20-core GPU
RAM: 48GB
Storage: 1TB SSD
Battery: 100Whr
Weight: 4.7 lbs
Ports: 3x Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, SDXC Card Reader
Webcam: Yes
Wireless: Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.3
Ethernet: Gigabit via Thunderbolt adapter
Charger: Included
External Display Support: Up to 2 + laptop display