macbook air v asus zenbook 14 (Ryzen 7) v macbook neo

APPLE MacBook Air 13.6" (2025) - M4, 512 GB SSD v ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED 14" Laptop - AMD Ryzen AI 7, 1 TB SSD v APPLE MacBook Neo 13" (2026) - A18 Pro, 512 GB SSD

The Form
-fill in by replacing text in and removing the square brackets to answer-
LAPTOP QUESTIONNAIRE
Country
UK
Budget
about £1,000
Are you open to refurbs/used options?
No
Screen size
Any
Weight limit
Any
Purpose
General purpose
Form factor
Standard/Clamshell (a regular laptop)
Intended usage
Canva, Adobe, Wordpress, streaming, Microsoft Office
Desired battery life
12+
Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life
performance, battery life, weight, size
Info/Requirements
[anything else not specified above eg. Intel only, OLED, HDR-compliant, screen resolution/refresh rate, etc. We are likely to talk you away from your desires here (because we know more than you do), but we won't steer you wrong]

i am overwhelmed and need advice. i have been comparing specs for days, and the more i learn the less i understand. i need a laptop that’s capable of running multiple actions at once, ideally operating adobe, canva, video/photo editing, and basic web design/Wordpress.

from what i gather, around 1tb SSD would be ideal, although i’m not tied to this as i can get an external hard drive. i think i need a minimum 24gb RAM or ideally 32gb, and ideally a screen with high refresh rate and nits. lots of people have been mentioning to me that although macbooks have lower RAM, you don’t feel it in the operation.

what i’m asking i guess, is for more opinions to further confuse me. are the macbooks reliable and long lasting, or is this just the spell apple have cast over their users? would i be better off getting a windows for what i need?

until yesterday i was pretty sold on the ASUS Zenbook 14 with the Snapdragon processor, but the reviews of it are very mixed and the Ryzen 7 seems like a more reliable option. The Neo is appealing as it’s much cheaper, but the specs are objectively a lot worse.

i think these three are the current frontrunners, but feel free to suggest alternatives too.

thanks for reading my stream of consciousness, and if anyone wants to help out an arts girl in a stem world, i would be very grateful!