Which laptop is best, Windows or Mac?. It’s 2025, and getting a new device might be your resolution. If you’re in the market for a new computer, I think I can help you out. As somebody who currently owns one Mac and three PCs and has used both OS (Operating System) for years, I can offer some free relevant advice.
To be honest, would you be more excited to get a MacBook or a ZenBook? We will be looking at which laptops are better a Mac operating laptop or Windows i will be using a MacBook Air and ZenBook 14 for this comparison. I will also be comparing these two operating systems based on:
- Values
- Design
- Apple Silicon
- AI
- Apps
- Ecosystem
MacBook Air 13 M2 and the Asus ZenBook 14 OLED, I picked these two to represent some of the best bits from both platforms and for a little bit over a grand, they’re very similarly priced and pretty much direct competitors.
Best Value
Let’s begin with the price, as it could be a deciding factor for you. There are hundreds of Windows 11 laptops available in the $200–$600 range, but at $999, this price point starts to feel somewhat dated. The M1-powered MacBook Air is the most affordable Mac you can get outside of refurbished models and third-party resellers.
However, like most MacBooks, the base model is often the best value because once you start adding more RAM or storage, Macs especially can become very expensive. Just to give you an idea, the MacBook Pro 16 with the M3 Max (which I use as my daily workhorse) is a review sample from Apple, fully maxed out with 8TB of storage, the M3 Max chip, and 128GB of unified memory, costing around $7,300. It’s ludicrous.
You can certainly find super expensive Windows laptops, especially gaming and workstation models, but they don’t usually reach the same extreme price points. Plus, Windows laptops offer upgradability you can upgrade the RAM and SSD yourself.
The biggest problem I have is that I always recommend upgrading to 512GB of storage on a Mac instead of sticking with the base 256GB on the M2 MacBook Air because you can’t upgrade it later. You’re stuck with it for life unless you carry around an external SSD, which is an option but not always convenient.
For value for money, Windows is always the way to go. For example, a 2TB SSD costs around £100, and most Windows laptops allow you to upgrade it yourself. However, speccing 2TB on a MacBook Air costs an additional £800. Over time, being able to upgrade individual components is much more cost-efficient than replacing the entire laptop. Even battery replacements aren’t usually a big deal.
On the flip side, Macs hold their value longer, and remain more desirable, and, because Apple controls both the hardware and software, there’s less fragmentation, leading to fewer potential issues. Apple’s customer service is also top-notch, making it hard to beat.
However, Apple’s closed ecosystem can be restrictive and, in some ways, a risky investment if your needs change.
Best Design
Okay, let’s talk about designs and displays. As you can see, both are beautifully designed and lovely laptops to use. They both have fantastic keyboards and trackpads, and gorgeous screens—there aren’t enough superlatives to describe how thin and light these laptops are, each weighing around 1.1kg. They’re absolutely lovely and really good all-rounders. But there are a couple of differences. The main one, really, is the screen. I’m not even talking about the notch.
The MacBook Air gives you a 60Hz LED LCD screen, whereas the ZenBook offers an OLED 120Hz touchscreen for the same price. The ZenBook is also one of the first laptops to ship with Intel’s latest Meteor Lake processors (14th-gen CPUs), including the much faster Intel Arc integrated graphics, which are roughly twice as fast as last year’s graphics.
The ZenBook also features a much bigger battery, although actual battery life is broadly similar. The ZenBook has Wi-Fi 6E, double the storage, double the RAM, and is £50 cheaper than the Air. It’s much better value. The Intel Core Ultra 75H chip in the ZenBook beats the M2 MacBook Air in Geekbench 6 CPU multicore and OpenCL GPU tests, though Apple’s chip still holds a single-core advantage.
One of the key advantages of the MacBook Pro (and especially when you move up to the pros) is its ability to deliver full performance whether plugged in or on battery. Windows machines, particularly those with a dedicated graphics card, tend to throttle performance when running on battery.
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In terms of connectivity, the Mac has two Thunderbolt ports and a headphone jack, while the ZenBook has two Thunderbolt ports, USB Type-A, and HDMI 2.1. This makes the ZenBook more versatile, especially for those needing more options for external devices.
In the world of Windows laptops, manufacturers are pushing boundaries with convertible two-in-ones, ultra-lightweight designs, and even some models that squeeze in a GPU. If you’re after something unique, check out the Asus ZenBook Duo or the Lenovo Yoga 9i with dual OLED touchscreens.
Then there are gaming laptops. I could spend a whole video talking about them, but for many, it’s the primary reason to stick with PCs. Windows PCs offer the best gaming experience with options ranging from an RTX 4050 to 4090, along with beefy cooling systems, high-refresh, low-latency screens, and fast memory and storage. For example, the recently updated Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 looks very similar to the MacBook Pro same size, metal chassis, same color but can be specced with an RTX 4090 and an OLED screen.
Of course, there are also actual workstations for 3D work, engineering, or high-end video editing, but overall, there’s just so much more choice when it comes to Windows PCs. Whether you’re after a thin, light laptop, a gaming laptop, or a workstation, Windows PCs are more exciting than ever. Plus, new chips like Intel’s Lunar Lake and AMD’s Zen 5 CPUs are just around the corner.
Apple Silicon
The reason laptop manufacturers, like Intel, AMD, and others, are being extra competitive right now is that Apple dominates the entire Mac range with Apple’s own Silicon (M1, M2, M3 chips). This has been revolutionary for the PC market. Over the past few years, MacBooks have offered the perfect balance of performance and battery life. They’re fast, ridiculously efficient, and run just as well on battery. They also generally run cooler and quieter.
I remember switching from my trusted Dell XPS to the MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip and being blown away. It was incredibly fast, and it didn’t overheat like my old laptop. Fast forward a couple of years, and I’m now using the MacBook Pro 16 with the M3 Max as my workhorse. I can edit high-bit-rate 4K video all day on my MacBook Pro with dozens of Chrome tabs open, working in Photoshop and Lightroom it’s a challenge to slow this thing down.
If you’re editing with Final Cut Pro or working with Logic Pro, Apple’s suite of apps is even more optimized. The M3 Max chip might be overkill for most people unless you’re editing Pixar movies, but the key takeaway is that you don’t have to spend that much money to get a fantastic performance. Even an M2 MacBook Air or M1 MacBook Air can handle almost everything and still offer great battery life, top-notch webcams, and speakers.
AI
AI is becoming more of a focus, with dedicated MPUs on Apple chips for accelerating AI tasks. However, the problem is that on-device AI applications are still somewhat niche. Most of the AI services, like ChatGPT and Photoshop Generative Fill, are cloud-based at this point. But as developers optimize apps for Apple’s MPUs, we’ll likely see more AI features.
One feature exclusive to Windows 11 laptops is Microsoft Copilot, an AI assistant that helps with things like searching, answering questions, and summarizing text. It’s a useful tool, but MacOS doesn’t have a similar system yet.
Qualcomm, too, is developing its own Arm-based architecture, similar to Apple Silicon, with their Snapdragon X Elite chips. These could be strong competition for the MacBook Air, though compatibility might still be a hurdle for developers.
Apps
At the end of the day, all the specs don’t matter if the laptop doesn’t run the apps and programs you need. For me, the MacBook is a more refined and curated experience. It has fewer bugs and runs especially smoothly with Apple’s apps. Even on Windows, though, Windows 11 has improved significantly and is now more streamlined than ever. It’s also more compatible with software everything runs on it.
CONCLUSION
My takeaway is to buy the laptop that you feel comfortable using you can afford. Anyone you are going for just visit our gadget category and read a couple of reviews before you buy it. Not everyone needs the performance and the battery life of a MacBook and not everyone can afford it but their reputation for quality and being easy to use is totally justified my personal choice is a Mac and then for a gaming PC you can choose a Windows PC OS.