@Reply #1 - good point! Core Audio is way more stable. But if youre really worried about hitting that 16gb limit with massive Kontakt libraries, look at the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 14 AMD Ryzen 7 32GB RAM 512GB SSD. It gives you that extra memory headroom without the heavy gaming laptop bulk of the Legion. DPC latency is usually pretty solid on those too.

Go for the Apple MacBook Air M3 16GB RAM 512GB SSD if low latency and portability are your main priorities. macOS Core Audio handles buffer sizes and MIDI latency way better than Windows ASIO drivers without needing a dedicated interface. The fanless design means zero mic bleed in class, though the M3 will throttle under long, heavy exports. However, if youre running massive Kontakt libraries, that 16gb is gonna hurt. Kontakt loads samples directly into RAM. The Lenovo Legion Slim 5 16-inch 32GB RAM AMD Ryzen 7 avoids this bottleneck completely. Just keep in mind that Windows DPC latency can cause audio dropouts in Ableton, and the fans will kick in during heavy Serum sessions. I usually tell people to grab the Mac and freeze tracks to save RAM, but if you refuse to bounce to audio, get the Legion.

Late to the party but over the years I've learned not to blow my whole budget on brand new retail. I grabbed a refurbished Apple MacBook Pro M2 16GB RAM 512GB SSD last year for cheap. Honestly, in my experience, just freezing tracks in Ableton makes 16GB go way further than you think, leaving you extra cash for actual plugins.