The difference is that you can buy something specced to your needs. Most users and even most developers won't be bottlenecked by even an i5. Getting a quad-core

The difference is that you can buy something specced to your needs. Most users and even most developers won't be bottlenecked by even an i5. Getting a quad-core Windows/Intel laptop with a 1080 screen, 16GB and upgrade slots for RAM or disk, plus all the output ports for an external monitor is easily under $1000 for even a name brand. My $800 Acer does fine and has an onboard ethernet port because my most resource-intensive application that I use daily is Zoom. And it has an entry-level Nvidia card.