It's been about four months since I upgraded my laptop
to one of the new M1 Max MacBook Pros.
Now I've enjoyed it, but I also wanted to
switch over to the dark side again for a bit
and talk about how the experience differs
between powerful Apple Silicon MacBooks
and RTX Windows laptops.
I've been building custom desktop PCs
while using a MacBook as my laptop of choice
for the last decade.
But I haven't used a Windows laptop
as my daily driver since the Dell Latitude days of 2008.
So Tim, if you are watching this,
please don't unfriend me on Game Center.
I promise I won't let Bill keep me away from you.
(applause)
(bleep) you.
The Windows laptop I switched to
is a Lenovo Legion 7
with Ryzen 5900HX CPU and an RTX 3080 GPU.
It's actually a really solid laptop.
So I might make a video on it soon.
It is also technically outdated now as well,
due to the announcement and the subsequent release
of the new Ryzen and Intel chips,
and TI version of the GPUs.
But that also means you can get this particular Legion
for a great price right now.
So my first experience when switching to the Legion
was a little bit jarring, to be honest,
and that's because the Legion ships with Windows 11
and this is the first time
I've actually ever used Windows 11.
And boy does it kind of look and feel
a lot like MacOS.
We've got the central dock right in the middle now.
The settings and control panel
is simplified and more minimal,
just like system preferences on MacOS,
and the overall feel of the operating system
is just more minimal and stylish compared to Windows 10.
I also really appreciate the little things
when going back to Windows from MacOS.
Window snapping is built in by default,
and just works so well.
File Explorer is just preferable to Finder.
An external monitor support is much better.
I often get a lot of little glitches
or weird annoyances when using my MacBook
with an external monitor,
and no matter what I do, my app windows always resize
each time I disconnect and reconnect.
Also, MacOS just really seems to suck
when it comes to a lot of network-related stuff.
So I have a NAS at home
and I constantly seem to run into issues when accessing it
on the network with my MacBook.
Sometimes I just can't access it at all,
or I have to restart the MacBook,
or currently I can view files on the NAS,
but the MacBook completely freezes
if I try to download files to my desktop.
On Windows, though, no issues connecting to my NAS,
even when switching between a local network, wifi,
or 10 gig SFP+ connection.
It just works,
and I thought that was supposed to be Apple's slogan.
Also, if you like the wallpapers I used in this video,
they are available on our website and are linked down below.
Now, moving on to something
I think that the MacBook does better
than the Windows laptop,
and that is just being a laptop.
Let me explain.
Physically, they're about the same size and weight.
Sure, the windows laptop is chunkier
and has a bigger charger,
but they're both huge 16 inch laptops.
So minor size differences
isn't really a big deal for me.
But something I've really come to appreciate
about Apple Silicon MacBooks in particular
is the battery life.
And more importantly, performance on battery.
If you want any kind of RTX laptop,
the battery is almost always pretty shocking.
You're lucky to get six to eight hours of light emails
and YouTube videos before the battery runs out.
I found myself constantly tied to the charger
to keep the battery charged.
And this becomes a massive pain in the ass
if you're someone like me,
who likes to use your laptop
all over the house for example,
and this brings me to my second point,
you need to be attached to the charger
to get full performance from the RTX laptop.
Typically, I wouldn't be bothered by this
but a few months ago,
I stopped doing all of my intensive tasks,
like rendering or editing on my desktop PC,
and instead moved to a laptop,
and I can now do intensive tasks anywhere,
on the couch, standing in the kitchen
waiting for food to cook,
or in a car or a plane.
There's also the added bonus
of almost no heat or fan noise as well.
So let's talk about a relatively unknown topic
when it comes to comparing Windows laptops and MacBooks,
and that is the pricing
and resale value differences between the two.
Firstly, I think overall,
the pricing of powerful Windows laptops
is typically more competitive than MacBooks.
You can just get more for less money, but on the flip side,
Windows laptops also seem to depreciate in price
much faster than MacBooks.
So using my Legion 7 as an example,
this was released around July, 2021.
And just a few months later,
new CPUs and GPUs were announced,
and resale value dropped sharply.
I expect in a few more months
Lenovo will update the Legion 7
and resale value will drop even further.
And this is on a laptop that isn't even 12 months old yet.
Also most Windows laptops are refreshed
every single year,
where the MacBook refresh cycle is
typically every two to three years.
And even worse, some Windows laptop manufacturers
update their models at the start of the year,
while other brands such as Lenovo, for example,
tend to do it later on in the year, around June, July,
or sometimes even later than that.
So by the time the laptop you like most is refreshed,
and you buy the new one,
a new generation is almost always right around the corner
just a few months away.
Now this doesn't seem to be a big of a problem for MacBooks,
and they typically keep their resale value for longer
due to the longer Apple upgrade cycles.
And I'm sure other factors come into this phenomenon
like perhaps people viewing the quality of Windows laptops
as inferior to MacBooks,
or perhaps Apple products
have this premium aura around them.
But I definitely think the upgrade and refresh cycle
plays a significant part.
Okay. So how about the overall experience?
If I had to choose one,
I would probably go with the MacBook,
but there's just so many frustrating things
about both platforms,
that sometimes I wish we could just merge the two
and make one super laptop.
I think this is worse in my situation,
as my workflow benefits massively
from certain optimizations,
such as the video encoders on the M1 Max MacBook,
or the CUDA and ray tracing cores on a RTX laptop.
Just one platform can't support
and be fully optimized for my entire workflow,
so I have to make massive sacrifices in certain areas.
For example, I want to game with decent FPS,
and have powerful 3D rendering capability,
but I also want the smooth video editing experience,
battery life, and efficiency of a MacBook.
Or I want the software compatibility
of the Windows operating system
for many niche programs I run,
but I also enjoy the closed-off ecosystem of MacOS
for stability, ease of use, and privacy.
You also get really cool features on Windows laptops
that you just never see,
and will never see, on Apple MacBooks.
For example,
a hardware switch to turn the webcam on and off.
But on the flip side, again,
the MacBook has Thunderbolt and MagSafe.
I think that generally the choice
between either system is easy for many,
but for someone like me who sees
specific workflow boosts from both systems,
it's a much more difficult decision.
That being said,
we're in a new era of laptops at the moment.
For example, we've seen how powerful
and efficient Apple silicon can be.
We've also seen a massive jump
in performance from Intel 11th gen and 12th gen,
something we've never seen before from Intel.
So who knows, we might be getting
closer and closer to that perfect laptop.
But apart from that, guys, hopefully you enjoyed this video,
and I'll catch you in the next one.