As a freelance architect, what kind of laptop should I buy if I already have a personal computer at home?

SketchUp Computer Advice
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I’m a freelance architect.
The scale of my projects usually ranges from interior design, 1-2 story residential houses, villas, cafes, and restaurants.

I already have a desktop PC at home (Ryzen 7 5700X, RTX 3070TI, and 32GB RAM)
However, I often work outside the house, and sometimes it becomes time-consuming if I rely solely on doing architectural work at home.

I might prefer using Windows because I’m not familiar with Apple devices, but but if the MacBook Air M1 can handle those tasks, it might be worth a try.

I think I need a lightweight and thin laptop that’s capable of handling 2D/3D modeling tasks (without rendering — I do all rendering on my PC at home).
Would a laptop like an ASUS Zenbook/Vivobook with a processor such as a Snapdragon or Intel Ultra 5/7, and equipped with Intel Arc Graphics, be sufficient?

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That´s a beast of a laptop, for its price, I have a windows desktop and a MacBook pro, the UI is different but that may change in the near future, you won’t find any windows machine with that price range tah performs even close to what the MacBook does and the battery live it has.

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Thank you for your reply, it was very helpful.

So, using a MacBook Air M1 is already sufficient for light activities, right?

Once again, thank you.

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And also some heavy tasks, you might be surprised by the performance of apple silicon chips.

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I did all my work - construction documents, shop drawings, presentations, photo editing, etc etc on a series of MacBook pros for over 15 years. I now have a very nice desktop setup and a MacBook Air m3. I don’t work remote any more, but use the MacBook for presenting to clients on the rare occasion I do meet out of the office - I could work on it but it is the smallest model for screen size - so it doesn’t make sense for me. If I were to be mobile again I would have a MacBook Pro with the largest screen I could get and I would get the highest amount of memory and storage I could afford.

That said, for working day to day I wouldn’t want to switch systems when I leave the office. I like having everything setup exactly the same and I would be considering what other software I use that needs to be on the same platform.

So maybe stick with a windows machine and find a mid to upper tier laptop you’ll be happy carrying around all day.

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I write this with an older Zenbook that has an i7-10510U CPU and Nvidia MX250 graphics and I have been very happy with it. It still runs my models satisfactorily. I understand SketchUp for PC is Intel/AMD only and benefits greatly from discrete graphics.

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Thank you for your response, and sorry for the delayed reply—I didn’t check the notifications.

I’ve been looking for a MacBook Air M1, but most of them only come with 8GB of RAM. In my country (Indonesia), it’s quite rare to find ones with 16GB of RAM.

Is 8GB of RAM sufficient for creating and editing small-medium 3D files in SketchUp?

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That’s an interesting perspective.

I actually have a similar experience with screen size. At home, I use a desktop setup with two 27-inch monitors, which makes multitasking super convenient and comfortable.

But when I work remotely at cafes or coworking spaces, I’ve been relying on my iPad Pro 11" for quick sketches and rough drafts. So, I’ve kind of gotten used to smaller screens over time. Using a MacBook Air with a 13" screen wouldn’t be a problem for me—it’s actually bigger than my iPad!

After reading francisquitof’s thoughts, I’m leaning toward buying a MacBook Air M1. The price is pretty reasonable at $600–$700, especially compared to some Windows laptops out there.

Thanks again for your response and advice—I really appreciate it!

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I used to use an Asus laptop with a 7th-gen Intel processor back when I was studying architecture.

But nowadays, a lot of laptops come with integrated GPU, and I haven’t really been following hardware trends much anymore.

Maybe the MacBook Air is an interesting choice—it seems promising, and some reviews say it has great capabilities.

By the way, thanks for your response!