Mac vs Windows Laptops in 2026: A Comprehensive Comparison Across All Budgets

Apple's new 2026 MacBooks have completely divided the internet. There's one army who's insistent that this is RIP for Windows laptops. Then the other side arguing that actually Windows gets you a better display, more powerful chip, more RAM, more storage, basically more everything. So, let's settle this. We've got the featherweights, the $600 MacBook Neo versus the best $600 Windows laptop from HP. But then also the high-end heavyweights, the $4,500 new MacBook Pro versus the best $4,500 Windows laptop. We'll test them all across 12 categories to find out who reigns supreme in 2026, whatever budget you're willing to spend. Starting with the unboxing, which frankly doesn't

really make a big difference apart from one key detail. So, the Apple unboxings at both the basic end and the extreme end make you feel about as fancy as they always have. But the Windows ones are plainer. These laptops come presented in what looks more like a box you might find pizza in as opposed to a feat of modern engineering. But the reason that I actually side with Windows in this category is because you get a charger included. Both at the budget end with this HP OmniBook 5 and at the high end with this ASUS ProArt P16. Whereas Mac, in the EU and the UK, does not provide it. And that can actually be a pretty expensive thing to buy separately, with

the MacBook Pro's charger alone costing basically $100. So, as far as what really matters with the unboxing, that's a unanimous win for Windows. But it's a different story when you get the laptops in your hands because I was not expecting how much better the MacBook Neo's build is versus its HP Windows equivalent. Like look at the hinge. Can you see how much give this HP has compared to the Mac, which pretty much only moves when you apply some proper force to it. HP has some aluminum in the body, but the vast majority of the parts that you interact with are plastic. And that makes it feel a lot cheaper. Like you can push down on the body and actually see it bend with a little bit of creaking, too, if you lean too hard on it. That is not the case

with this MacBook Neo. The entire body is machined out of one big block of aluminum and you can feel that sturdiness. I can't get a squeak out of it. But when you're willing to go high-end, I'd say that Windows reduces that gap. This ASUS is now definitely more rigid and apparently has military-grade protection with the ability to withstand extreme heat and extreme cold, but it's still not as premium as the MacBook Pro. It still feels plasticky in places, especially the underside, and the hinge still has that little bit more wobble than the MacBook Pros, which stays completely planted where you open it. This is even sturdier than the MacBook Neo's hinge, making this round a pretty clear KO against Windows. But the other side of

the build quality coin is durability, which we will also test with an actual real drop test, but we'll do that at the end so I can actually test everything else before I kill my darlings. Like the elephant in the room, performance. Cuz it is absolutely true what people are arguing, that if you go for a Mac, you get a lower spec for your money. Like this MacBook Neo has 8 GB of RAM compared to 16 on the HP. And even at the top end, the MacBook Pro here has 48 gigs of RAM compared to 64 on its equivalently priced Windows. But how much does that actually matter when you're trying to get stuff done? So, round one is a test of how long does it take to get started.

I timed each laptop going from fully shut down to booted up, logged in, and ready to type into a Word document. And this shows a pretty clear advantage to the top-end MacBook Pro. It won by a landslide. Maybe this is just the insanely fast SSD speeds inside the thing. Round two is multitasking. So, I opened up in the background 20 identical internet tabs on each and an active Zoom call. And then the test was with all of that going, how long does it then take each laptop to open up an absolutely enormous spreadsheet on Excel. The answer to which is a very similar result to the boot test, with the MacBook Pro outperforming every other laptop by a mile and all the other three being clustered pretty close together.

But what it also shows is that for an average user who's not realistically going to be doing any more than that, it doesn't look like the 8 GB of RAM on the MacBook Neo is going to cause any issues. It's not faster than the Windows at this stuff, but the important thing is it's not slower. And finally, round three is the Geekbench 6 CPU test, which actually is designed to simulate real-world applications, things like blurring your background in a video call and organizing your photo library. And the higher the score, the better. And well, to put it simply, the MacBooks here eviscerate the Windows machines. At the top end, the MacBook Pro is scoring about 53% higher in single-core

performance versus Windows. At the entry level, the gap is even larger with a 70% higher score. Now, there is another side to performance, which we'll get to, but it seems pretty clear that as far as the day-to-day experience goes, MacBooks are on top. But then I was curious, if the MacBook's day-to-day performance is so much higher, do you see that come at the cost of battery? And to answer that question, I charged each one of these laptops to full and just let them drain while doing a controlled combination of YouTube watching, light gaming, and video editing. And this is just as much a test of chipset efficiency as it is a test of battery size because here in the world of laptops, let me

tell you there are enormous differences in chip power consumption. Something that becomes very apparent when looking at the high-end Windows laptop, which dies at just 4 hours 16, likely thanks to its RTX 5090 graphics card guzzling power even when it's not being pushed to its limit. And even with this fairly poor battery life, this test also reinforces our performance test, where you can see the MacBook Pro is rendering this video an order of magnitude faster than the Windows is able to. And so it kind of makes sense then that the MacBook Pro was the next one to clock out with a substantially longer run time of 5 hours 20. So, when you're comparing flagship laptops, it's Apple's win

pretty consistently cuz top-end Windows graphics cards are not power-friendly. But then what I found fascinating is what happened between our featherweights. So, the MacBook Neo gave us pretty much bang on the same run time as the Pro, lasting only 6 minutes longer, which is kind of surprising given its absolutely miniature size and tiny battery, but it's also kind of not given that the thing's powered by a chip that's very literally designed to run on a smartphone. But it's the budget Windows laptop that absolutely wrecked everything else here, holding on for 8 hours and 8 minutes. So, this shows that if you can get a Windows with a decently large-size battery like this one combined with an ultra-efficient new

Snapdragon X chip, which is based on mobile architecture, then Windows has absolutely caught up on the battery front. And just like the RAM situation that we talked about earlier, you're also practically guaranteed to get more storage when you go Windows. In both cases here, budget and pro, our same-price Windows machines have literally double the storage of their Mac counterparts. So, instead of the MacBook Neo's 256 gigs, this HP has 512. And instead of the 2 terabytes that I managed to get on the MacBook Pro for my money, this ASUS has four, which is just a massive and very clear win for Windows. Storage is one of those areas where Apple makes its biggest margins, so they will try to preserve that at all

costs, as long as those costs fall to you. Call quality is a pretty simple combination of how good does the webcam look and how good does the microphone sound? Let me show you. This is a recording from the budget Windows laptop and first of all, the audio sounds absolutely terrible and getting extreme friendly fire from what's supposed to be the noise canceling in the background. But also the image processing sucks. And can you see how much it's struggling with the exposure in this image, especially with this light that we've added to simulate a window? That's a pretty normal thing for someone to have, right? The MacBook Neo is a lot better on that front. I mean, you can first of

all tell how it's able to keep the image a lot more stable and the brightness on my face is preserved no matter what's happening around me. That's pretty useful for a video call. And also just about that my voice sounds like a hundred times more natural. And then the MacBook Pro is similar in video quality, potentially slightly clearer, but the key change is the audio with this supposed studio-grade microphone setup. It does add a lot of warmth to my voice. It's good to see that the ASUS, too, does sound fantastic. Big fan of the microphone setup on this bad boy. But the image is bad. Things got enough graphics performance to power a small

village, but it still can't seem to get rid of basic video noise. So, as far as calling goes, it's a Mac dub across the board. But what Windows loses in call quality, it makes up for in number of ports. You can tell that Apple as a company is much more calculated. They give you the bare minimum for each tier of laptop to make sure that the more expensive MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro remain as tempting as possible. Other companies don't really care. So, while the budget Windows gives you a headphone jack, a full-size USB-A port, and two USB-Cs with every one of these ports fast enough to qualify for the USB 3.2 standard, the Mac is just headphone

jack and two USB-Cs, one of which is actually a slower USB 2 port. So, you don't only really want to use that for charging as opposed to hard drives or external displays. But then when you humor Apple and you cough up for the most expensive MacBook Pro, then the situation is reversed. You do actually get the best of the best. Every USB-C port you get on this is a blazing fast Thunderbolt 5 port. These are so rapid that just one of them can power two 8K displays at once as well as uber fast data transfer and charging. The top end Windows is also good, but it's kind of a cocktail of different ports of various speed standards. And also, most charging ports that you get on Windows laptops

kind of suck compared to Apple's MagSafe. MagSafe could very well be the difference between a working pristine laptop and four and a half thousand dollars worth of e-waste in a crumpled pile on the floor. Not to mention that almost every single high-power Windows laptop requires a blumming construction brick as part of your power supply, which only adds to the risk of accidentally tugging your laptop off the table. So, while the port selection is extremely stingy on the most affordable Mac, at the top end, I would much rather have the MacBook setup than the Windows one, which means so far Windows is winning the battle at the bottom and Apple is winning at the top. But, while

ports are something that will very clearly show up when you're flicking through a spec sheet, something that won't, but that is still absolutely critical for how your laptop feels to use, is the input experience, the keyboard and the trackpad. Cuz if they're bad, then that could be years of wrist strain and irritating accidental presses. Now, as you've probably heard, the MacBook Neo is missing one critical feature in this regard, backlighting. Every other Mac has it, basically every other Windows has it, but the keys on this machine do not light up even in the dark. And so, if you are someone who hits peak productivity under moonlight, then this one emission alone might make

the thing a write-off. Here's the thing though, I would still personally rather have this than have this. The Mac's keyboard just feels higher quality than the Windows, where each key has this mushy signature to it. And the Mac's trackpad is a million miles better than the Windows one. It's got a smoother texture, and you really feel like you have more precise control over your cursor when you're using it. Plus, even though it's now mechanical, so it's physically pressing down as opposed to the force touch that you get on higher end laptops that kind of simulates it, it's still so satisfying to click. And I love the fact that you

can click down anywhere on it as opposed to the Windows where you have to click down at the bottom of the pad only. So, what I'm saying is, do I like the idea of backlighting? Hell yeah. But, would I personally give up backlighting to have a better keyboard and trackpad? Also, yes. And since the MacBook Pro fixes the missing backlighting of the Neo, I think it earns a win in the luxury category, too. Don't get me wrong, the Asus trackpad is actually pretty good. It's massive, it's even got this little subsection that's like its own quick dial for settings. But, genuinely, there isn't a better trackpad right now on the market than you get on the MacBook Pros.

Whether it's the responsiveness, the precision, the palm rejection, or the fact that you can click down anywhere on it, which, even at this price tier, the Windows laptop still doesn't have. How about a speaker test? Starting with the budget MacBook. We are about to build our dream high-tech garden. We're going to add as much magic as we possibly can to turn the So, there's two side-firing speakers here, and they sound fine, but not super direct. It's kind of like whoever you're watching on screen is sitting really far away from you. It's like a five out of 10. Budget Windows. We are about to build our dream high-tech garden. We're going to add as much magic as we possibly can to turn So, this has two downward-firing

speakers, so they shoot into the table and then bounce off into your ears, but that extra layer seems to make it sound harsher and faker, like there's more processing in it. It doesn't sound like how we recorded that. Probably a four. MacBook Pro. We are about to build our dream high-tech garden. We're going to add as much magic as we possibly can to Oh my god, so much better. It's a very full sound, which kind of makes sense since there are six speakers in here compared to two, so nine out of 10. Pro Windows laptop. We are about to build our dream high-tech garden. We're going to add as much magic as we possibly can to turn This one is close.

It is every bit as full sounding as the Mac, but just not quite as crisp. Probably an eight, meaning that at both price points, I would say the Mac is slightly ahead, but not significantly. And this is a good point to talk displays, because the thing that I'm seeing getting thrown around a lot online is that this HP has a better display than the MacBook Neo. And you can see why people are saying that, cuz this is an OLED panel compared to the MacBook's LCD. So, it's way punchier with colors, but I would disagree with the sentiment. Because, first of all, while not as vibrant, this is a shockingly color accurate display for a $599 laptop. It may not pop as much, but looking at one of our videos on this

screen, this is how I'm meant to look, not this. The Mac is also higher resolution with literally 50% more pixels, and its brightness is 500 nits compared to the HP's 300, which, especially when you're talking these fairly low brightness numbers, is a crucial difference, and you will struggle to see the HP outdoors. But, for our flagships, it's impossible to argue with the screen that you get on this Asus ProArt. It is a 4K resolution screen, higher than the MacBook Pro, OLED, so it's really punchy, while also being bright and designed for accurate color. Oh, yeah, and also, it's a touchscreen.

Incredible. The videos on this thing are absolutely jaw-dropping, and you can make them all look even better with the Opera browser, our sponsor. I love that I can sharpen everything up with one tap. I love that you have all these dark themes that are really non-distracting, and that any video will automatically pop out when I leave the tab, so I can multitask while doing something else. And just the fact that whatever I'm doing on this, I've got Opera AI on the side, which understands what I'm looking at. That's a game-changer, because let's say I've got the product page open for this HP laptop, it never says the words USB 3. So, if you want to know how many USB 3 ports it has, you can't just

control F to find it. You'd have to read through the transfer speeds of each port and deduce it yourself. But, this lets me just ask, and it does the grunt work for me. So, link below to download the Opera browser for free. And for our display category then, Apple wins at the budget end and Windows at the highest end. So, so far then, the Macs have won more than they've lost, which just leaves the big one, the software experience itself. And the drop test. And the drop test, yes. So, there's obviously quite a lot within this software category, but I think we can break it down to a few key differences. The first is gaming, because separate from day-to-day performance, Windows is a mile better of a platform to be gaming

on. Partially because of the sheer number of games optimized for Windows, but also partly because the dedicated GPUs like the RTX 5090 in our high-end Windows laptops are made for this. There's AI features, but I can't think of one thing that I've ever asked Apple Intelligence to do on a Mac that has actually saved me time. The same is true for Microsoft Copilot, but it's a little better, I guess. It can do things like automatically summarizing and recapping video calls once they're finished, and recall, which creates this searchable history of everything you've done, just in case you forget something important. And Windows

also has wider compatibility, whether that's specialist software for professionals or the ability to work with any peripheral, or the ability to make your laptop completely your own with customization. It would be very hard to argue that Windows is not the more versatile tool. But, there's also a few things in Apple's court, because assuming that the Mac can do everything that you need from your computer, then you will likely have a smoother experience doing so in Apple's closed ecosystem. Like, nothing to this day on Windows beats the ease of AirDropping from an iPhone to a Mac, or just being able to hit copy on some text on your iPhone and then, without any kind of setup, just paste it on your Mac. And also, if

you're like me and you focus a lot on small imperfections, you're much more likely to prefer the way the Mac looks and feels. I mean, just as an example, I can't find a single animation on this $600 MacBook Neo that isn't running at a smooth 60 frames per second. Whereas, on the $4,500 Windows, the thing will still just randomly feel laggy when doing simple things. And all these trending news and games for you widgets on Windows are really cheap and annoying in my opinion. Seriously, who is buying an RTX 5090 powered laptop, but then playing Steel Brain Rot Online on it? And I would also

say that the Mac is less likely for most people to have issues. While Windows 11 is an improvement, Windows machines still work in a messier, more complicated way. Like, you got the software layer made by Microsoft, you got the manufacturer, let's say Asus, and then you got all these individual parts like the AMD processor and the Nvidia graphics card that are present in different configurations in each different machine, and each need their own drivers to tell them how to speak to each other. All of this creates a lot more room for error than MacBooks, where Apple just takes charge of the entire end-to-end experience. I mean, literally, during the filming of this video, the Asus just conked out and

stopped registering my left clicks. And now, finally, it's time to find out which of these lovely laptops can survive a drop. Felt like I should clarify that we don't get sent these laptops. Every single penny I might be about to burn is my own. I genuinely think this is the most expensive science experiment we have ever done. Three, two, one. whacked my foot afterwards. Oh, no. Three, two, one. That was much worse. Dear god. MacBook Pro. Please subscribe so I can buy more. Three, two, one.

It's so heavy. That noise. Pro Windows. Let's see about this military durability. Three, two, one. Ooh, kind of bounced a little bit. Like, give me more. Yikes. Let's see the damage. Okay, so the MacBook Neo, you can see it's actually pushed the entire hinge, so it's actually off kilter, so the lid doesn't completely cover the base. And then inside, Ooh. No way. Everything is completely intact. It just looks like you got a slightly bad haircut on the right, but apart from that, that's incredible, genuinely.

Scared to open the budget windows. [snorts] Oh dear god. I mean, that is a dead laptop. There is no work being done on this anymore. MacBook Pro isn't closing completely flat anymore, and inside Oh. It's shattered. I guess the insane weight of this thing all directed at one corner was too much for it. Hearing a slight crunching sound coming from the inside of this. Oh god. This one's done, too. The glass is shattered. Display's not turning on at all. But, the backlighting still works, which means the MacBook Neo is the only laptop getting a point in this category, leaving us with the final scores in the

budget category of 10 to Mac and 7 to Windows. And then in the pro category, 10 to Mac and 6 to Windows. So, for me, Mac is the winner, but every category is worth different amounts, and especially different amounts to different people. So, go through the list, see what's important to you, and make your decision according to that. Catch you in the next one.