New laptop options in 2026
It's hardware refresh time. Which laptops are in the running for my next main development machine?
It’s been 3 years since my last laptop purchase, and it’s technically a year overdue (as SixPivot allows for a hardware refresh every two years). My Dell has been chugging along pretty well after a few stability issues in the first 12 months.
Usually I’d like to bump things up incrementally with each new device. A bit more RAM, faster CPU or larger storage. But then AI happened, and component prices for those things in particular have skyrocketed! I quickly realised that while I may end up getting a newer generation CPU, and probably an onboard NPU (neural processing unit), unless I was willing to pay much more then the other specs would likely stay the same.
We do get a generous laptop allowance at SixPivot, but this time around it will likely need quite a bit of supplementing thanks to those price rises. That is a bit disappointing, but there’s nothing I can do about it - it is what it is.
And so I decided to look at machines with 64GB RAM and 2TB storage. So what should I get for a replacement?
I’ve given Dell a good run, but I was really frustrated with the build quality of the most recent laptop. While it eventually stabilised, it required more than one service technician to come and replace a faulty component. So I was really open to other options.
Framework laptops had really caught my eye. I really liked how “composable” they are, and being able to swap in and out different modules. That would probably have been my first choice except for one minor issue - they only offer a 1 year warranty in Australia, and as this will be a work laptop it needs to be fully supported for at least 2 years. So sadly, as good as they looked, they were out of the race.
On that note, I should mention that the prices above don’t include extended support. Depending on the brand and model, 3 years support can range from $450-650. Not something to overlook when crunching the numbers. This laptop will be a work tool, and if there’s a problem it needs to be fixed ASAP to minimise any downtime.
I’m not a complete stranger to Apple hardware. I’ve been a happy iPhone user since giving up on Windows Phone, and even before that I owned an Apple Newton MessagePad. But I’ve never had an Apple desktop or laptop. I’ve noticed some of my SixPivot colleagues have been using MacBooks, so I was intrigued. Could that be an option?
And can I really write off Dell? To be fair I did take a look at their latest XPS laptop (now that they’ve decided to switch back the ‘XPS’ brand again!)
Time to weigh up the pros and cons:
- Stick with a Windows laptop
- Brave stepping out into the Apple macOS ecosystem
- Maybe I should look at another laptop vendor (not Lenovo, their keyboard layout is really irritating!)