As much as some of us may deride the MacBook Pro for its awful keyboard, annoying Touch Bar and overreliance on USB-C connections, its balance of screen quality, weight, battery life and performance had no Windows-based peer for a long time. But now that OLED displays have hit the market, that balance is tipping. OLED delivers true blacks, which means high contrast, as well as a wide gamut of colors and high dynamic range that can rival or outperform the MacBook's Retina Display.
We're just getting a sense of what the new M1-chip-based 13-inch MacBook Pro has to offer compared with Windows alternatives, so I'm sticking with my original picks for the moment. Performance is good, but there are still some compatibility issues -- plus Apple's jacked up the prices of the Intel-based models -- which make it less of a slam dunk relative to Windows systems than it might otherwise have been.
The 16-inch MacBook Pro also changed things up a bit. It's still the size of the 15-incher but slightly heavier and ditches the butterfly-switch keyboard in favor of a slightly better scissor-switch-based one (I still don't like it). It's basically the same, however, and still with no 4K options. On the other hand, like its predecessors, its performance beats similarly configured Windows systems on a lot of tasks.
But even an entry-level MacBook can stretch the limits of your budget, and those who've set aside a nice chunk of cash might want something a little more customizable. No one can deny that one appealing thing about Windows laptops is the variety. Even when trying to imitate the offerings of a MacBook (heck, or even an iPad or iPad Pro) there are all sizes of far less expensive Chromebooks, as well as 14- and 15-inch laptops that are slightly smaller and lighter than the 16-inch MacBook Pro, but not quite as small as the 13-inch MacBook Air, across the price spectrum. Plus, we're seeing lots of experimentation with multiscreen designs.
With longer battery life than the 13-inch MacBook Pro and the more flexible feature set of a two-in-one, the Spectre is a great choice for work and play. The backlit island keyboard is a pleasure to type on, making it great for typing on. Software-wise, the HP Spectre comes with Windows 10 Home 64, a 10th Generation Intel Core i5 processor and 256 GB SSD storage. Users are also a fan of its touchpad.
Note that the Asus ROG Flow X13 is my new choice for 13-inch 2-in-1 alternative, but it doesn't seem to be available yet anywhere so I'm holding off making it a formal recommendation.
A slightly updated and renamed version of the Yoga C940, the Yoga 9i is just a little bigger than a 13-inch MacBook Pro, fast, attractive and feature-packed. Plus it gives you something you can't get in a MacBook: the 360-degree screen that lets you use it like a tablet or prop it up in a tent or kiosk configuration.
If, like me, you're not a fan of OLED screens for photo editing -- they're not optimized for Adobe RGB and aren't great at tonal range in the shadows -- then what you need is a laptop with a good IPS display. The Dell XPS 17 9700 with the 4K screen option delivers that, and it's not as reflective as the OLED screens I've seen. Dell's PremierColor software isn't perfect, but it gives you more control over screen settings than most I've seen, and it's got two Thunderbolt 3 controllers to make your external drives happy. It's heavier than the MacBook, but not much bigger, especially given its larger 17-inch screen. And while its battery life isn't terrific, its performance can certainly keep up.
The Razer Blade Pro 17 is a strong runner-up here if you're willing to trade higher performance and a similar design for a bigger, heavier model.
Cheaper than even the MacBook Air, with roughly the same footprint but lighter. The 14-inch Flex 5 has the flexibility of a two-in-one if everything you do is cloud-based. Its sleek look and feel at a Chrome OS price make it a cost-effective alternative.
If you're drawn to a MacBook Pro for its featureless-slab aesthetic, Razer's your Windows go-to. If you want one that matches the 13-inch Pro for design, size and weight, the Stealth is your option.
It's priced similarly to the Intel-based MacBook Pro options, and should provide better performance than the Intel models -- we're still figuring out comparisons between the M1 Macs and Windows systems -- since it incorporates discrete GeForce GTX 1650 Ti graphics.
Dell's XPS 13 is a 13.3-inch laptop that's so trimmed up that the body is basically the size of an older 11.6-inch laptop. Being part of the company's XPS line means both its chassis and components are top-notch for its class, so you're getting great battery life and performance, too. Power delivery is via USB-C and it comes with a microSD reader and headphone jack. It comes in both a standard clamshell as well as the two-in-one, but I prefer the two-in-one because you can fold it up into a tablet if you've got to work in a cramped space.
What's better than the Touch Bar? An entire half-screen second display, that's what. The Duo's tilt-up second screen can act as an ancillary display, an extension of the primary display (for viewing those long web pages) or a separate control center from which you can run Asus' custom utilities or as control surfaces for select creative applications. Plus, Asus excels at squeezing every bit of performance out of its high-end laptops, and the 14-inch delivers great battery life, as well.
It comes in two models, the 2019 Pro Duo 15 OLED we reviewed and the 2021 14-inch Duo 14. The Pro Duo 15 OLED will have up to a 10th-gen Intel Core i9 processor, with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 discrete graphics and up to 32GB of memory when it arrives in April. The Duo 14 has either 11th-gen Core i5 or i7 processors, optional Nvidia MX450 discrete graphics and up to 32GB of memory.
Another two-in-one with a clamshell doppelganger, this 15-inch model has the IT-friendly features needed for managing a higher security work environment, such as the Intel vPro chipset and an optional Smart Card reader. But for you, it only weighs 3.5 pounds and delivers more than 25 hours of battery life.
Read more
- The best 5 affordable Chromebooks for back-to-school or distance learning
- 5 monitors worth checking out for 2021
- Best 32-inch monitor deals: Five 4K UHD displays for under $450
- Best VPN service for 2021
- Fastest VPNs of 2021
- Best two-in-one PCs in 2021 for when you need a laptop and tablet in one
- The best premium midsize laptops for 2021
- Best college laptops for 2021
- Best 15 inch laptops for 2021
- Best laptops, desktops and tablets for designers and creatives in 2021
- Want to learn Python? We found 5 online coding courses for beginners
- Best Mac VPN for 2021
Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion.