As a full-time tech marketing manager myself, I know how important a good laptop can be to excelling at your job and being highly productive.
Thankfully, most marketing applications—whether it be CRM tools, data integration tools, website building, etc.—don't require a ton of memory. For your laptop, 8GB-16GB is going to be your sweet spot, with at least 256GB of storage.
An i7 processor will be plenty to keep speed and performance up while multitasking (or having a zillion tabs open).
For under $800, it'd be pretty tough to find a Mac (or any computer really) that can beat this. It's M1 chip made it 3.5x faster than its predecessors, though there is now an M2 model in 2023 that is even faster (and more pricey). This laptop is still a solid performer if you're searching for a Macbook but don't want to drop a fortune on it.
And with most Macbooks, you should expect this to be a durable, long-term purchase, with most Macs lasting between 8 to 10 years for most consumers on average, even the one's that are more budget-friendly like the 2020 Macbook Air.
The Microsoft Surface Pro 9 is the perfect companion for digital marketing professionals on the move, especially those who want a 2-in-1 laptop with designing or mapping out user journeys in mind. Coming in just under 2 pounds, the Surface Pro is lightweight without sacrificing performance or battery life, boasting 15.5 hours for the latter.
Plus, the Surface Slim Pen is one of the better stylus' out there in my opinion, coming close to the iPad Pro's (which strictly speaking as a computer, has worse overall performance, and far more expensive than the Surface). The Thunderbolt 4 ports on the Surface also means that you won't sacrifice desktop productivity when you're not on the move and want to hook up to monitors at home (see our best laptops for multiple monitors).
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