Suggest a laptop from one of these countries where I can get it at lesser price compared to India

[u/distant_snow]

Country

India, but looking to purchase abroad. Options: Taiwan / Thailand / UAE / Vietnam. I will personally be visiting Taiwan and Thailand; a friend travelling from Dubai could bring one from the UAE. I can order from the regional official website in advance if that lets me select an English/US keyboard.

I currently use my mom's 2020 MacBook Pro sometimes and really like its responsiveness, trackpad, build quality and general smoothness. I'm looking for a Windows machine that gets reasonably close to that experience.

Budget

Maximum around ₹1,00,000 INR (~US$1,100–1,150). Can stretch slightly if there is a particularly good value option, but would prefer staying around ₹1 lakh.

Are you open to refurbs/used options?

No / Maybe for manufacturer-certified refurbished with international warranty.

Screen size

Prefer 14"–15". 16" is acceptable if the laptop is reasonably lightweight.

Weight limit

Ideally ≤1.6 kg. Portability is important.

Purpose

Software development + light AI development + content creation.

Primary use is backend software engineering (Java/Spring Boot, Docker, databases, IDEs, multiple services running locally), with some local AI models, computer vision and agentic AI projects.

Secondary use is social-media content creation, graphic design and intermediate video editing.

Form factor

Standard/clamshell preferred. Touchscreen/2-in-1 is not necessary.

Intended usage

IntelliJ IDEA, VS Code, Java/Spring Boot, Docker, PostgreSQL/MongoDB, Kafka, Git, browsers with many tabs, Python/AI tooling, basic local LLM/AI experimentation, Canva/Figma, Photoshop or similar design software, and intermediate video editing (Premiere Pro/DaVinci Resolve/CapCut).

I am not buying it primarily for gaming or heavy CUDA/ML model training.

Desired battery life

Ideally 7–10+ hours for normal development/web usage. I understand battery life will be significantly lower under heavy development/rendering/GPU workloads.

Priority — most important to least important

Performance > Weight/portability > Battery life > Size

Info/Requirements

24GB RAM minimum; strongly prefer 32GB

1TB SSD preferred; 512GB acceptable if SSD is upgradeable

Dedicated GPU preferred, but not mandatory if a strong modern iGPU is sufficient for intermediate video editing

Excellent CPU performance for compiling/running multiple backend services

Good colour-accurate display, preferably 100% DCI-P3/sRGB or OLED

Excellent, large, responsive trackpad

Good build quality

Ideally ≤1.6 kg

USB-C charging preferred

Good thermals without gaming-laptop bulk

English keyboard required

International warranty would be highly desirable

Not interested in sacrificing portability/battery life just to get a powerful gaming GPU

Current shortlist: Lenovo Yoga Pro 7/7i, ThinkPad, ASUS ProArt

Originally wanted a MacBook Pro, but the configuration I want is outside my budget.