The Best Selling MacBook vs Windows Laptop
Hello. How’s the weather? Today I have got an interesting comparison. We’ll compare the best-selling MacBook to the best-selling Windows laptop.
Which Laptops We’ll Use
You can review the best-selling here by yourself
The best-selling MacBook was the M1 MacBook Air with 8gbs of RAM and 256gbs of SSD storage. Choosing the best-selling Windows was kind of tricky. The best-selling laptop in fact was the Acer Aspire 5 slim with Ryzen 3 4gbs of RAM and 128gbs of storage. But it was a budget laptop and it would be an unfair comparison. So, the next one was Lenovo Legion 5 while that was a good laptop it was a gaming laptop so we moved to the next spot which was an HP Pavilion 15(15-eg0021nr, 2020) with i7(11gen), iris XE 16gbs or RAM and 512gbs of SSD now I know this isn’t the best laptop for a lot of people if you want to know which is then check out my podcast we have an episode in the making where I’ll tell you how to buy a laptop.
The Parameters
- Price and Value
- Portability
- Battery
- Real Usage
- Keyboard
- Trackpad
- Display
- Performance
- Any optimized app performs better in The Mac
- Speakers
- Quality Control
- Ports
- Build Quality
- Upgradability
- Other
Price and Value
Macs have been losing the value point for a long time but it is kind of tricky with the M1 chip this time. Both laptops have a price of $900+. Lets did deeper into value as a start you get more RAM and storage on the HP and doing these upgrades on the Mac brings the cost up to $1,399.00. So the HP gets a point for this. But on the processor side the Mac gets a point cause of the power efficient 8 core M1 beats the 4 core i7–1165G7 any day. The mac is also more premium feeling which we’ll discuss later.
Portability
This point is won by the Mac. It is lighter at 1.25 KG(Compared to the HP’s 1.7KG) and thinner also from0.16 to 0.63 inch of thickness compared to the 0.7 of HP. The netter trackpad and battery and more portable charger also add to the mac.
Battery
This point goes to the Mac the MacBook has a bigger battery at 49 watt hours and the way more efficient M1 chip on which you can get from 13 to 15 hrs of battery on normal usage. The HP has a smaller 41 watt hour battery with a more power consuming 1165G7 and gets you about 6.5 hrs of battery on normal usage.
Real World Usage
This category is to show how it is to actually use the computer. On the mac browsing with safari gives you a ton of battery and is snappy. Using the mac is generally more snappy. The best in class trackpad feels much better than the HP. The webcam while 720p on both but with M1 comes apple’s Image Signal Processing giving the edge to the mac. The mac also doesn’t have a fan and it doesn’t need one cause the M1 remains cooler. Coming to heavier workflows the mac does perform well in premiere too. And maybe it’ll beat the HP when premiere is compatible with M1. But the mac just choke slams the HP if you use final cut. Though some apps may run on the mac cause they were made for x86. Though it is to note that Rosetta works really well. Also it is a mac and you can’t game on it but you can run iOS apps. So the mac gets 5 and HP gets two points here
Keyboard and Trackpad
The mac has one of the best trackpads it is accurate and has a good feel and is large. MacOS also make excellent use of the trackpad with all of it’s gestures. The HP has a smaller hinge trackpad it does support gestures but windows gestures don’t work as well. Coming to the keyboard. The HP has a numpad which makes it feel a bit crammed and the HP has a mushier keyboard. The mac has larger keys which are a bit more tactile.
Display
Another win for the mac a color accurate display that support P3 wide color and goes upto 400 nits. The HP is no match it has a non accurate 250 nit display and 250 nit is just dim.
Performance
Lets come to the thing we have all been waiting for.
- SSD
- HP
- 1633 read and 944 write
- Intel Optane 32 gbs
- Mac
- 2190 MB/s write and 2675 MB/s read
- RAM
- HP
- Dual Channel
- 3200 DDR4
- Mac
- Integrated in M1 chip
- Faster
The CPU of the Mac the M1 receives higher scores in geekbench
- 1699
- Single-Core Score
- 7360
- Multi-Core Score
The CPU also runs cooler and has no fans
The Intel on the other hand has lower scores and doesn’t have good thermals here the CPU sits at about 80–100 while doing heavy tasks and there is a fun here so you may get irritated with that noise.
The GPU is better on the mac and it does show in tasks like video editing. But coming to gaming the mac well can’t game so it’s a tie for both. Also to be noted any app optimized for the M1 performs much better on the mac.
Speakers
This might not even be a doubt to you but the mac wins this one. The front facing speakers around the keyboard are much louder, punchier and richer. The HP sounds like typical laptop speakers lack bass.
Quality Control
Apple has excellent support. Especially with Apple stores and Genius bar the support process is very easy. The quality control is not so good with HP especially after reading amazon reviews where customers are disappointed with defective units.
Upgradability
The mac is totally soldered with nothing replicable. The HP has a replicable SSD and RAM.
Others
- Only 1 monitor output from M1
- The mac has Wi-Fi 6
- Might want to wait for new mac
- HP ships a lot of bloatware on their devices
- Better charger for mac as it is smaller and uses 2 pins
- The Apple Ecosystem
The Final Verdict
The mac seems as the better winner here but there are much more windows laptops that may be better for you that in place if you want macOS and Enter in the apple ecosystem then the mac is the only way. To if you want to know which laptop is the best for you then check out my podcast we have an episode in the making where I’ll tell you how to buy a laptop.