my name is jhon and i'm about to get
flamed by the internet as i discuss my
personal experience on the current state
of the most controversial topic in tech
mac first pc if you're new to my channel
i buy and review a lot of laptops talk
tech and have worked in tech my entire
career
since i recently switched back to apple
with a macbook pro 16 for one of my main
laptops the one i used for video editing
i thought now would be the perfect time
to discuss this topic before we get into
it this is going to be a qualitative
video based on my personal experiences
obviously this is a controversial topic
and i recognize that you may have
different experiences if you feel i've
missed something in this discussion just
place it in the comments below and don't
forget these videos take a long time to
make so if after watching you'd like to
show your appreciation make sure to
click that subscribe button the thumbs
up and the notification bell firstly
let's roll back the clock a little i'm
going to talk about my personal journey
switching between windows and mac
at the turn of the century apple was
falling behind pcs due to lack of
performance caused by their reliance on
the power pc processor rather than intel
line
but in 2006 apple made the switch
starting to roll out new intel-based
laptops leveling the performance playing
field apple was producing phenomenal
machines high-end hardware upgradable
components plenty of ports fairly
lightweight and with key innovations
like the magsafe port plus they had a
stable modern operating system to build
on apple's well-received laptops
microsoft gave apple a special gift with
the launch of windows vista a highly
panned unstable version of windows what
followed was the successful get a mac
campaign that helped define the image of
apple as the computer for people who
aspire to be hip and cool and window
species for those who are clueless and
lack style and so after years of dells
and lenovo's in 2008 i bought my first
apple laptop a macbook pro 15 as it had
the best balance of power and
portability
i purchased a new macbook pro almost
every year since
in 2013 though i got more seriously into
gaming i found that gaming on the mac
was a poor experience so started
purchasing a second windows laptop
almost every year for gaming i continued
this tradition right up till 2016 when
it was apple's turn to misstep gifting
microsoft with the launch of the 2016
expensive portless butterfly and
touchbar equipped macbook pros i did end
up buying the 2016 13-inch non-touchbar
macbook pro and kept it for some time as
my primary device but i never enjoyed
the keyboard
during this time microsoft and pc
manufacturers were not sitting still
windows 10 was substantially more
unified than windows 8 and after
frequent updates became very stable and
applications adapted to new standards
including supporting high resolution
displays
in addition microsoft's bold bets began
to mature and became useful including
touch screens two-in-ones pen support
and windows hello biometric login pc
laptop manufacturers also substantially
improve the quality of their offerings
with several standout devices including
the first dell xps 13 with infinity
display gaming laptops with high refresh
rate displays like the razer blade or
the incredible surface book 215 which at
the time balance powerful components in
high quality chassis noticing these
improvements on my secondary windows
gaming laptop in 2017 i decided to fully
switch back to only windows pc laptops
but
laptops after purchasing so many and
returning them due to loud fans poor
build quality and frequent crashing the
macbook pro 16 was released a
substantial return to form for apple
almost identical form factor to the
older 15-inch but with a larger 16-inch
screen improved keyboard new powerful
components great speakers and more
storage for the same price so i bought
one well it's now 2020 and this is
exactly what i feel is the current state
of mac laptop's first pc laptops cpu
performance to be honest apple
especially in their macbook pro 16 does
an excellent job of getting the most
performance out of a slim machine
drawing only 100 watts of power and the
same does apply into their smaller
machines like the macbook pro 13 but of
course drawing less power
sure there are pc laptops whose cpu
performance is a little better but in my
mind it's marginal and not worth the
trade-off in size weight and of course
fan noise check my aero17 hdr cinebench
stores compared to the macbook pro 16.
that being said if it's pure cpu
performance then we have to give this
one to the pc gaming performance it goes
without saying that windows dominates
not only do pcs have access to high-end
gaming and video graphics cards but also
games run better under windows on the
same hardware as when they are run on
mac os x fan noise it's a win to the mac
of all the pc laptops i've tested and
i'm including the surface book 2 surface
laptop 3 dell xps razer blade nothing is
as quiet as the mac plus you have
excellent fan control apps available to
customize the fan curve if you do want
the fans to run more for better
performance build quality and another
win to the mac seriously even the
surface laptop 3 can't compete display
this one i'd actually give to the pc mac
lovers don't get too angry hear me out
there are some absolutely incredible
high resolution color accurate screens
available for pc laptops i personally
believe the arrow 17 hdi has the best
display on any laptop i've used and i've
used a lot
additionally pc laptops have the option
of fast refresh rate and oled screens as
well as touchscreens
trackpads apple still wins here i view
some of the best windows trackpads
including on the razer blade and the
surface lineup the mac is still more
accurate and the only laptop that i
would consider no need to carry a mouse
at all keyboards just like apple owns
the trackpad category windows laptops
dominate the keyboard category you get
access to the best keyboards on the
market including those from the lenovo
thinkpad range and the surface lineup
these have deeper and more satisfying
travel than even the new macbook pro 16.
plus you'll be able to choose from a
massive range of external keyboards
including mechanical ones also and
importantly if you are logging into a
corporate work environment using citrix
you'll most likely find your windows
keyboard layout will match the computer
you're remotely accessing you won't have
to struggle with the muscle memory of
using a mac keyboard layout at home and
a windows 1 at work yes i know you can
remap keyboards to work on mac os but
it's definitely not as usable mouse even
though apple dominates the trackpad
category they don't dominate the mouse
category apple's mice by default use
mouse acceleration which applies a curve
to accelerate the mouse as you move it
for anyone who is used to a mouse on a
pc this can feel very discomforting
especially when gaming where predicting
the acceleration curve is almost
impossible and quite frustrating to make
matters worse mac os does not provide an
easy way to disable this
what also sucks is that apple natively
combines certain settings applying them
both to the trackpad and the mouse for
example scrolling direction on the
trackpad natural scrolling is the normal
way to scroll while on the mouse
inverted is the most common what this
means is for most users you will need to
change a couple of settings and perhaps
install some third-party apps to have
the mouse work as expected i personally
find this whole thing a pain ports with
pcs you get to choose from laptops with
a wide array of ports no need for dongle
life want a laptop with an sd card
reader no problem sound quality apple
wins in fact apple destroys the pc here
the macbook pro 16 speakers are on a
completely different level stability
it's a slight win for the mac windows 10
with all its updates has definitely come
a long way but over the past 12 months
i've had only one system crash on my mac
and maybe twice the touch bar has locked
up compare that to numerous blue screens
and other odd issues like this one on my
dell xps 9370 which every time it boots
thinks i have no ssd unless i manually
select the ssd by pressing f12 when the
laptop is booting wtf that being said
some pc laptops have been noticeably
more stable than others like the razer
blade studio which didn't crash at all
in the month i owned it ecosystem pros
and cons of each yes the mac is super
easy to use if you're using all apple
devices but on a pc you aren't tied down
to the apple ecosystem and you still
have great alternatives like using
messages.google.com in your browser
instead of imessage if you're using an
android phone additional capabilities
even though the macbook pro does have
the touch bar which i personally don't
mind and touch id
windows laptops have more additional
features available including touch
screens pen support face login and even
a 1080p webcam in the surface book 215.
price it's a win for the windows pcs
generally for similar hardware windows
laptops are still cheaper even if apple
did give us more bang for our buck with
their new macbook pro 16 which now
starts with a 512 gigabyte drive rather
than the poultry 256 gigabytes in the
older model it replaced just take this
dell xps 15 versus the macbook pro 16.
for a 32 gigabyte one terabyte ssd model
the dell is around 2 200 for the 8 core
model the apple is around 3 200
pc laptops is you have a wealth of
options at any price level you can
purchase a cheap 15-inch laptop for
under a thousand dollars that is very
capable with decent quality that simply
isn't possible with apple and lastly the
applications that the laptop comes with
i have to give this one to apple the
applications that the macbook pro comes
with are superior to the ones that
windows comes with for example the
photos app which is much better than the
windows alternative out of the
categories i looked at windows laptops
actually won more but that is because i
was comparing the best of all the wide
range of pc laptops to the macbook pro
which clearly isn't fair so enough of
this nonsense let me sum up with some
real recommendations if you're doing any
aaa gaming get a windows laptop
if you are doing a ton of excel work get
a windows laptop if you plan to
frequently log into a corporate windows
environment via citrix i'd advise you to
get a windows pc laptop as the remap
keys can get rather annoying
if you want a big screen laptop for sub
two thousand dollars then it's a pc
laptop for you if none of the above is
you then you've got a choice on your
hands
if you are super fussy like me and have
no tolerance for things like fan noise
pwm flickering on the display low build
quality or crashing i'd strongly
recommend getting a macbook for
programmers photo or video it is i'd
also strongly suggest you consider a mac
laptop
but if you just want the most powerful
components for your buck then windows
laptops are still the way to go anyway
that's all for today folks.
till next time i'll catch you later
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