Mac vs Windows - It's not close in 2026!

0:00 Apple's new 2026 MacBooks have [music] completely divided the internet.

0:03 There's one army who's insistent that this is RIP for Windows laptops.

0:07 Then the other side arguing that actually Windows gets you a better display,

0:10 more powerful chip, more RAM, more storage, basically more everything.

0:15 So, let's settle this.

0:16 We've got the featherweights,

0:17 the $600 MacBook Neo versus the best $600 Windows laptop from HP.

0:22 But then also the high-end heavyweights,

0:24 the $4,500 new MacBook Pro versus the best $4,500 Windows laptop.

0:30 We'll test them all across 12 categories to find out who reigns supreme in 2026,

0:35 whatever budget you're willing to spend.

0:37 Starting with the unboxing,

0:39 which frankly doesn't really make a big difference apart from one key detail.

0:48 So, the Apple unboxings at both the basic end and the extreme

0:52 end make you feel about as fancy as they always have.

1:00 [music] But the Windows ones are plainer.

1:07 These laptops come presented in what looks more like a box you

1:10 might find pizza in as opposed to a feat of modern engineering.

1:13 But the reason that I actually side with Windows

1:15 in this category is because you get a charger included.

1:20 Both at the budget end with this HP OmniBook 5

1:28 and at the high end with this ASUS ProArt P16.

1:31 Whereas Mac, in the EU and the UK, does not provide it.

1:41 And that can actually be a pretty expensive thing to buy separately,

1:44 with the MacBook Pro's charger alone costing basically $100.

1:47 So, as far as what really matters with the unboxing,

1:50 that's a unanimous win for Windows.

1:53 But it's a different story when you get the laptops in your hands because

1:58 [music] I was not expecting how much better the MacBook

2:00 Neo's build is versus [music] its HP Windows equivalent.

2:03 Like look at the hinge.

2:05 Can you see how much give this HP has compared to the Mac,

2:08 which pretty much only moves when you apply some proper force to it.

2:11 HP has some aluminum in the body,

2:14 but the vast majority of the parts that you interact with are plastic.

2:18 And that makes it feel a lot cheaper.

2:20 Like you can push down on the body and actually

2:23 see it bend with a little bit of creaking, too, if you lean too hard on it.

2:26 That is not the case with this MacBook Neo.

2:29 The entire body is machined out of one big

2:31 block of aluminum and you can feel that sturdiness.

2:34 I can't get a squeak out of it.

2:36 But when you're willing to go high-end, I'd say that Windows reduces that gap.

2:39 This ASUS is now definitely more rigid and apparently has military-grade

2:43 protection with the ability to withstand extreme heat and extreme cold,

2:47 but it's still not as premium as the MacBook Pro.

2:50 It still feels plasticky in places, especially the underside,

2:53 and the hinge still has that little bit more wobble than the MacBook Pros,

2:57 which stays completely planted where you open it.

3:00 This is even sturdier than the MacBook Neo's hinge,

3:02 making this round a pretty clear KO against Windows.

3:06 But the other side of the build quality coin is durability,

3:09 which we will also test with an actual real drop test,

3:12 but we'll do that at the end so I

3:13 can actually test everything else before I kill my darlings.

3:17 Like the elephant in the room, performance.

3:20 Cuz it is absolutely true what people are arguing,

3:22 that if you go for a Mac, you get a lower spec for your money.

3:26 Like this MacBook Neo has 8 GB of RAM compared to 16 on the HP.

3:31 And even at the top end, the MacBook Pro here has 48 gigs of RAM

3:35 compared to 64 on its equivalently priced Windows.

3:38 But how much does that actually matter when you're trying to get stuff done?

3:41 So, round one is a test of how long does it take to get started.

3:45 I timed each laptop going from fully shut down to booted up,

3:48 logged in, and ready to type into a Word document.

3:51 And this shows a pretty clear advantage to the top-end MacBook Pro.

3:54 It won by a landslide.

3:56 Maybe this is just the insanely fast SSD speeds inside the thing.

4:02 Round two is multitasking.

4:04 So, I opened up in the background 20 identical

4:06 internet tabs on each and an active Zoom call.

4:09 And then the test was with all of that going,

4:11 how long does it then take each laptop

4:13 to open up an absolutely enormous spreadsheet on Excel.

4:17 The answer to which is a very similar result to the boot test,

4:20 with the MacBook Pro outperforming every other laptop by a mile

4:24 and all the other three being clustered pretty close together.

4:30 But what it also shows is that for an average

4:32 user who's not realistically going to be doing any more

4:35 than that, it doesn't look like the 8 GB of RAM

4:38 on the MacBook Neo is going to cause any issues.

4:40 It's not faster than the Windows at this stuff,

4:42 but the important thing is it's not slower.

4:44 And finally, round three is the Geekbench 6 CPU test,

4:48 which actually is designed to simulate real-world applications,

4:51 things like blurring your background in a video

4:53 call and organizing your photo library.

4:55 And the higher the score, the better.

4:57 And well, to put it simply, the MacBooks here eviscerate the Windows machines.

5:03 At the top end, the MacBook Pro is

5:04 scoring about 53% higher in single-core performance versus Windows.

5:09 At the entry level, the gap is even larger with a 70% higher score.

5:13 Now, there is another side to performance,

5:14 which we'll get to, but it seems pretty

5:16 clear that as far as the day-to-day experience goes, MacBooks are on top.

5:21 But then I was curious,

5:22 if the MacBook's day-to-day performance is so much higher,

5:25 do you see that come at the cost of battery?

5:28 And to answer that question,

5:29 I charged each one of these laptops to full and just

5:31 let them drain while doing a controlled combination of YouTube watching,

5:35 light gaming, and video editing.

5:37 And this is just as much a test of chipset

5:39 efficiency as it is a test of battery size because [music]

5:42 here in the world of laptops,

5:44 let me tell you there are enormous differences in chip power consumption.

5:48 Something that becomes very apparent when

5:50 looking at the high-end Windows laptop, which dies at just 4 hours 16,

5:54 likely thanks to its RTX 5090 graphics card guzzling

5:58 power even when it's not being pushed to its limit.

6:00 And even with this fairly poor battery life,

6:02 this test also reinforces our performance test,

6:05 where you can see the MacBook Pro is rendering this video

6:07 an order of magnitude faster than the Windows is able to.

6:11 And so it kind of makes sense then that the MacBook Pro was the next

6:13 one to clock out with a substantially longer run time of 5 hours 20.

6:18 So, when you're comparing flagship laptops,

6:19 it's Apple's win pretty consistently cuz

6:22 top-end Windows graphics cards are not power-friendly.

6:24 But then what I found fascinating is what happened between our featherweights.

6:28 So, the MacBook Neo gave us pretty much bang on the same run time as the Pro,

6:32 lasting only 6 minutes longer, which is kind of surprising given

6:36 its absolutely miniature size and tiny battery,

6:38 but it's also kind of not given that the thing's powered

6:40 by a chip that's very literally designed to run on a smartphone.

6:44 But it's the budget Windows laptop that absolutely wrecked everything else here,

6:48 holding on for 8 hours and 8 minutes.

6:51 So, this shows that if you can get a Windows with a decently

6:54 large-size battery like this one combined

6:56 with an ultra-efficient new Snapdragon X chip,

6:59 which is based on mobile architecture,

7:01 then Windows has absolutely caught up on the battery front.

7:05 And just like the RAM situation that we talked about earlier,

7:07 you're also practically guaranteed to get more storage when you go Windows.

7:11 In both cases here, budget and pro,

7:14 our same-price Windows machines have literally

7:16 double the storage of their Mac counterparts.

7:19 So, instead of the MacBook Neo's 256 gigs, this HP has 512.

7:23 And instead of the 2 terabytes that I managed

7:25 to get on the MacBook Pro for my money,

7:27 this ASUS has four, which is just a massive and very clear win for Windows.

7:32 Storage is one of those areas where Apple makes its biggest margins,

7:35 so they will try to preserve that at all costs,

7:38 as long as those costs fall to you.

7:41 Call quality is a pretty simple combination of how good does

7:44 the webcam look [music] and how good does the microphone sound?

7:48 Let me show you.

7:49 This is a recording from the budget Windows laptop and first of all,

7:53 the audio sounds absolutely terrible and getting extreme friendly fire

7:57 from what's supposed to be the noise canceling in the background.

8:01 But also the image processing sucks.

8:03 And can you see how much it's struggling with the exposure in this image,

8:06 especially with this light that we've added to simulate a window?

8:09 That's a pretty normal thing for someone to have, right?

8:12 The MacBook Neo is a lot better on that front.

8:15 I mean, you can first of all tell how it's able to keep the image a lot

8:18 more stable and the brightness on my face

8:20 is preserved no matter what's happening around me.

8:23 That's pretty useful for a video call.

8:24 And also just about that my voice sounds like a hundred times more natural.

8:28 And then the MacBook Pro is similar in video quality,

8:31 potentially slightly clearer, but the key change is the audio

8:34 with this supposed studio-grade microphone setup.

8:37 It does add a lot of warmth to my voice.

8:41 It's good to see that the ASUS, too, does sound fantastic.

8:44 Big fan of the microphone setup on this bad boy.

8:47 But the image is bad.

8:49 Things got enough graphics performance to power a small village,

8:52 but it still can't seem to get rid of basic video noise.

8:55 So, as far as calling goes, it's a Mac dub across the board.

8:59 But what Windows loses in call quality, it makes up for in number of ports.

9:04 You can tell that Apple as a company is much more calculated.

9:07 They give you [music] the bare minimum for each tier of laptop to make sure

9:11 that the more expensive MacBook Air

9:12 and the MacBook Pro remain as tempting as possible.

9:16 Other companies don't really care.

9:17 So, while the budget Windows gives you a headphone jack, a full-size USB-A port,

9:21 and two USB-Cs with every one of these ports

9:24 fast enough to qualify for the USB 3.2 standard,

9:27 the Mac is just headphone jack and two USB-Cs,

9:30 one of which is actually a slower USB 2 port.

9:33 So, you don't only really want to use

9:34 that for charging as opposed to hard drives or external displays.

9:38 But then when you humor Apple and you

9:40 cough up for the most expensive MacBook Pro, then the situation is reversed.

9:45 You do actually get the best of the best.

9:47 Every USB-C port you get on this is a blazing fast Thunderbolt 5 port.

9:52 These are so rapid that just one of them can power two

9:55 8K displays at once as well as uber fast data transfer and charging.

9:59 The top end Windows is also good,

10:01 but it's kind of a cocktail of different ports of various speed standards.

10:06 And also, most charging ports that you get

10:07 on Windows laptops kind of suck compared to Apple's MagSafe.

10:11 MagSafe could very well be the difference

10:12 between a working pristine laptop and four

10:16 and a half thousand dollars worth of e-waste in a crumpled pile on the floor.

10:19 Not to mention that almost every single high-power Windows laptop

10:22 requires a blumming construction brick as part of your power supply,

10:26 which only adds to the risk of accidentally tugging your laptop off the table.

10:30 So, while the port selection is extremely stingy on the most affordable Mac,

10:34 at the top end, I would much rather have the MacBook setup than the Windows one,

10:38 which means so far Windows is winning the battle

10:41 at the bottom and Apple is winning at the top.

10:43 But, while ports are something that will very clearly

10:46 show up when you're flicking through a spec sheet,

10:48 something that won't,

10:49 but that is still absolutely critical for how your laptop feels to use,

10:53 is the input experience, the keyboard and the trackpad.

10:56 Cuz if they're bad, then that could be

10:58 years of wrist strain and irritating accidental presses.

11:01 Now, as you've probably heard,

11:03 the MacBook Neo is missing one critical feature in this regard, backlighting.

11:07 Every other Mac has it, basically every other Windows has it,

11:10 but the keys on this machine do not light up even in the dark.

11:14 And so, if you are someone who hits peak productivity under moonlight,

11:18 then this one emission alone might make the thing a write-off.

11:21 Here's the thing though,

11:22 I would still personally rather have this [music] than have this.

11:27 The Mac's keyboard just feels higher quality than the Windows,

11:31 where each key has this mushy signature to it.

11:35 And the Mac's trackpad is a million miles better than the Windows one.

11:39 It's got a smoother texture, and you really feel like you have more

11:41 precise control over your cursor when you're using it.

11:44 Plus, even though it's now mechanical,

11:45 so it's physically pressing down as opposed to the force touch

11:48 that you get on higher end laptops that kind of simulates it,

11:51 it's still so satisfying to click.

11:54 And I love the fact that you can click down anywhere on it as opposed

11:56 to the Windows where you have to click down at the bottom of the pad only.

12:00 So, what I'm saying is, do I like the idea of backlighting?

12:03 Hell yeah.

12:03 But, would I personally give up backlighting

12:05 to have a better keyboard and trackpad?

12:08 Also, yes.

12:09 And since the MacBook Pro fixes the missing backlighting of the Neo,

12:13 I think it earns a win in the luxury category, [music] too.

12:16 Don't get me wrong, the Asus trackpad is actually pretty good.

12:19 It's massive, it's even got this little subsection

12:21 that's like its own quick dial for settings.

12:23 But, genuinely, there isn't a better trackpad right now

12:26 on the market than you get on the MacBook Pros.

12:29 Whether it's the responsiveness, the precision, the palm rejection,

12:32 or the fact that you can click down anywhere on it,

12:34 which, even at this price tier, the Windows laptop still doesn't have.

12:38 How about a speaker test?

12:40 Starting with the budget MacBook.

12:41 We are about to build our dream high-tech garden.

12:44 We're going to add as much magic as we possibly can to turn the So,

12:47 there's two side-firing speakers here,

12:49 and they sound fine, but not super direct.

12:52 It's kind of like whoever you're watching

12:54 on screen is sitting really far away from you.

12:56 It's like a five out of 10.

12:57 Budget Windows.

12:59 We are about to build our dream high-tech garden.

13:02 We're going to add as much magic as we possibly can to turn So,

13:05 this has two downward-firing speakers,

13:07 so they shoot into the table and then bounce off into your ears,

13:10 but that extra layer seems to make it sound harsher and faker,

13:14 like there's more processing in it.

13:16 It doesn't sound like how we recorded that.

13:18 Probably a four.

13:19 MacBook Pro.

13:21 We are about to build our dream high-tech garden.

13:23 We're going to add as much magic as we

13:25 possibly can to Oh my god, so much better.

13:28 It's a very full sound, which kind of makes sense since there are six speakers

13:32 in here compared to two, so nine out of 10.

13:36 Pro Windows laptop.

13:37 We are about to build our dream high-tech garden.

13:40 We're going to add as much magic as we possibly can to turn This one is close.

13:44 It is every bit as full sounding as the Mac, but just not quite as crisp.

13:49 Probably an eight, meaning that at both price points,

13:51 I would say the Mac is slightly ahead, but not significantly.

13:55 And this is a good point to talk displays,

13:57 because the thing that I'm seeing getting thrown around a lot online

14:00 is that this HP has a better display than the MacBook Neo.

14:04 And you can see why people are saying that, cuz

14:06 this is an OLED panel compared to the MacBook's LCD.

14:09 So, it's way punchier with colors, but I would disagree with the sentiment.

14:13 Because, first of all, while not as vibrant,

14:15 this is a shockingly color accurate display for a $599 laptop.

14:20 It may not pop as much, but looking at one of our videos on this screen,

14:24 this is how I'm meant to look, not this.

14:26 The Mac is also higher resolution with literally 50% more pixels,

14:30 and its brightness is 500 nits compared to the HP's 300,

14:34 which, especially when you're talking these fairly low brightness numbers,

14:37 is a crucial difference, and you will struggle to see the HP outdoors.

14:41 But, for our flagships,

14:43 it's impossible to argue with the screen that you get on this Asus ProArt.

14:47 It is a 4K resolution screen, higher than the MacBook Pro, OLED,

14:51 so it's really punchy, while also being bright and designed for accurate color.

14:56 Oh, yeah, and also, it's a touchscreen.

14:59 Incredible.

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15:47 And for our display category then,

15:49 Apple wins at the budget end and Windows at the highest end.

15:52 So, so far then, the Macs have won more than they've lost,

15:55 which just leaves the big one, the software experience itself.

15:59 And the drop test.

16:00 And the drop test, yes.

16:02 So, there's obviously quite a lot within this software category,

16:04 but I think we can break it down to a few key differences.

16:07 The first is gaming, because separate from day-to-day performance,

16:11 Windows is a mile better of a platform to be gaming on.

16:14 Partially because of the sheer number of games optimized for Windows,

16:18 but also partly because the dedicated GPUs like the RTX

16:21 5090 in our high-end Windows laptops are made for this.

16:24 There's AI features, but I can't think of one thing that I've ever asked Apple

16:29 Intelligence to do on a Mac that has actually saved me time.

16:32 The same is true for Microsoft Copilot, but it's a little better, I guess.

16:36 It can do things like automatically summarizing

16:39 and recapping video calls once they're finished, and recall,

16:42 which creates this searchable history of everything you've done,

16:45 just in case you forget something important.

16:47 And Windows also has wider compatibility,

16:50 whether that's specialist software for professionals

16:52 or the ability to work with any peripheral,

16:55 or the ability to make your laptop completely your own with customization.

16:58 It would be very hard to argue

17:00 that Windows is not [music] the more versatile tool.

17:03 But, there's also a few things in Apple's court,

17:05 because assuming that the Mac can do

17:07 everything that you need from your computer,

17:09 then you will likely have a smoother

17:11 experience doing so in Apple's closed ecosystem.

17:15 Like, nothing to this day on Windows beats

17:17 the ease of AirDropping from an iPhone to a Mac,

17:20 or just being able to hit copy on some text on your iPhone and then,

17:23 without any kind of setup, just paste it on your Mac.

17:26 And also, if you're like me and you focus a lot on small imperfections,

17:29 you're much more likely to prefer the way the Mac looks and feels.

17:33 I mean, just as an example, I can't find a single animation on this $600 MacBook

17:38 Neo that isn't running at a smooth 60 frames per second.

17:41 Whereas, on the $4,500 Windows,

17:44 the thing will still just randomly feel laggy when doing simple things.

17:47 And all these trending news and games for you widgets

17:50 on Windows are really cheap and annoying in my opinion.

17:53 Seriously, who is buying an RTX 5090 powered laptop,

17:57 but then playing Steel Brain Rot Online on it?

18:00 And I would also say that the Mac is less likely for most people to have issues.

18:05 While Windows 11 is an improvement,

18:06 Windows machines still work in a messier, more complicated way.

18:10 Like, you got the software layer made by Microsoft,

18:12 you got the manufacturer, let's say Asus,

18:15 and then you got all these individual parts like the AMD processor

18:17 and the Nvidia graphics card that are

18:19 present in different configurations in each different machine,

18:23 and each need their own drivers to tell them how to speak to each other.

18:26 All of this creates a lot more room for error than MacBooks,

18:29 where Apple just takes charge of the entire end-to-end experience.

18:33 I mean, literally, during the filming of this video,

18:35 the Asus just conked out and stopped registering my left clicks.

18:39 And now, finally, it's time to find out

18:42 which of these lovely laptops can survive a drop.

18:44 Felt like I should clarify that we don't get sent these laptops.

18:48 [music] Every single penny I might be about to burn is my own.

18:50 I genuinely think this is the most

18:52 expensive science [music] experiment we have ever done.

18:54 Three, two, one.

18:59 whacked my foot afterwards.

19:02 Oh, no.

19:05 [laughter] Three, two, one.

19:07 That was much worse.

19:10 [music] Dear god.

19:11 MacBook Pro.

19:13 Please subscribe so I can buy more.

19:15 Three, two, one.

19:19 It's so heavy.

19:20 That noise.

19:23 Pro Windows.

19:24 Let's see about this military durability.

19:27 Three, two, one.

19:30 Ooh, kind of bounced a little bit.

19:32 Like, give me more.

19:34 Yikes.

19:35 Let's see the damage.

19:36 Okay, so the MacBook Neo, you can see it's actually pushed the entire hinge,

19:40 so it's actually off kilter, so the lid doesn't completely cover the base.

19:44 And then inside, [music] Ooh.

19:50 No way.

19:51 Everything is [music] completely intact.

19:53 It just looks like you got a slightly bad haircut on the right,

19:56 but apart from that, that's incredible, genuinely.

19:58 [music] Scared to open the budget windows.

20:03 [snorts] Oh dear god.

20:05 I mean, that [laughter] is a dead laptop.

20:08 There is no work being done on this anymore.

20:10 MacBook Pro isn't closing completely flat [music] anymore, and inside Oh.

20:16 It's shattered.

20:17 I guess the insane weight of this thing all directed at one corner [music]

20:21 was too much for it.

20:22 Hearing a slight crunching sound coming from the inside of this.

20:25 Oh god.

20:26 This one's done, too.

20:31 [laughter] The glass is shattered.

20:32 Display's not turning on at [music] all.

20:33 But, the backlighting still works,

20:35 which means the MacBook Neo is the only laptop getting a point in this category,

20:40 leaving us with the final scores in the budget

20:42 category of 10 to Mac and 7 to Windows.

20:45 And then in the pro category, 10 to Mac [music] and 6 to Windows.

20:49 So, for me, Mac is the winner, but every category is worth different amounts,

20:53 and especially [music] different amounts to different people.

20:55 So, go through the list, see what's important to you,

20:57 and make your decision according to that.

21:00 Catch you in the next one.