I need a new laptop! (long rambling post inside)

[Inferna]

So I thought I'd ask the good people of pkmn for some laptop advice (again)!

So basically I've finished uni now but I don't really know what the next few years will bring! I need something that will ideally last another 3-4 years.
I would class myself as a designer but not Pro yet I guess? By that I mean I don't need some bleeding edge thing with eye watering specs and pricing to match lmao.
While at uni I used it for design work, so graphic design stuff on illustrator, a little video editing, prototyping etc. My needs haven't changed /that/ much but still need something Powerful.

My current one is showing its age now but it served me well at college and uni. It's a 15.6' 2013 Samsung with i5 and 6gb of ram. It ran all of the stuff I needed to but could get quite slow when processing huge files.

So I've looked a few things up but just not that sure in what to go for. I'm not too fussed if it's Mac or Windows. Mac would be nice as it integrates with my iPad Pro but it's a lot more money. I've been looking into the 2015 pro but wondering is it worth buying a 2 year old machine at this point?
Windows is what I'm used to but getting frustrated with it now (although that's prob down to my laptop lmao). A lot of Windows seem to be 2in1s - I use my iPad for art now and I've heard the styluses aren't as great on some of them. Was looking into Wacom cintiqs but I think a traditional laptop would be better for me tbh.

Software I use:
[bold equals use a lot/italics occasionally]

• Illustrator
• InDesign
• Premiere Pro (nothing too extreme, like I can't see myself making 4K)
• After Effects (same as above but I'd like to do a little more)
• Ms Office (mostly Word/PowerPoint)
• Unity (want to do more in it)
• Paint tool sai
• Steam (very easy to run games lmao)
• Arduino and Processing

Requirements

• I'm a little bit of an #aesthetic person so I'd like something that looks nice too. I'm sure gaming laptops would be fine but some just look too Edgy etc so I'd like something that looks Nice.
• Nothing too bulky
• I don't really want a 2in1 or a desktop either - lack of space for the latter just now.
• It needs ports!! USB/SD/HDMI are what I use most
• 15' screen - preferably a nice resolution etc. I'm open to 13' models with the possibility of getting a monitor later on.
• Something that runs the above comfortably.

So I have a couple of questions as well:
1- Am I better off going for an i7 processor over an i5? Would I notice a difference even if I picked a current gen i5?

2- So with RAM is this where I should spend a little bit more? Like would it be silly to have an i5 and 16gb? Or should I be going as powerful as I can afford?

~

Thanks for reading my rambles, if anyone has suggestions/advice it would be much appreciated!

[SaRo|Rapidash]

CPU speed is pretty important for video editing, although I don't do much myself so I can't say whether the upgrade from i5 to i7 is necessary. I would probably take i7 8GB over i5 16GB though, but definitely don't go below 8GB of RAM for video editing. I would try and get a laptop with a separate graphics card (i.e. not just the integrated GPU), although I don't know enough about GPUs to make recommendations as to which ones to look out for, but like my flippy laptop is i7 8GB and it's not that great at video editing or games because it relies on an integrated GPU.