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Marques Brownlee
The Windows Laptop Problem
The Windows Laptop Problem
Marques Brownlee
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10:48 · Mar 25, 2026
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So,
two
really
crazy
Mac
laptops
have
come
out
in
the
past
month.
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0:02
So, two really crazy Mac laptops have come out in the past month.
0:06
The MacBook Neo, which is one of the best deals in tech in a
0:09
long time,
0:10
600 bucks, and more efficient
0:12
and more capable and better built than almost every other laptop in
0:15
that price range.
0:16
And the new MacBook Pros, at the opposite end of the spectrum.
0:20
I've been benchmarking a $6,000 16-in M5 Max MacBook Pro,
0:24
and the results are just getting ridiculous.
0:27
It has multi-core CPU performance at the top of the charts every Mac ever,
0:31
and the GPU is now more powerful than the M2 Ultra in my $10,000
0:35
Mac Pro.
0:36
And the new SSD's read-write speeds are upgraded,
0:39
approaching 20,000 MB per second.
0:43
It's just absurd.
0:44
It's awesome.
0:45
It's a creative professional's dream.
0:47
Both of these computers are putting Windows laptops on notice.
0:51
And by extension, Microsoft, and Dell, and HP, and Asus, and Lenovo, and Razer,
0:58
etc., all on notice.
0:59
There was a quote recently from an Asus executive
1:01
that described the new MacBook Neo
1:03
as a shock to the industry.
1:05
And yes, but it also got me thinking,
1:08
what is actually happening with the rest of the industry?
1:11
What is happening on the Windows side of the fence?
1:13
So, I just started digging in.
1:15
I started getting my hands on a bunch of these Windows laptops
1:17
and and researching and benchmarking.
1:20
And it's become pretty clear, the more I think about it,
1:22
that Windows versus Mac laptops is basically the same as iPhone versus Android.
1:30
Because just like Android,
1:31
the advantage of the Windows side is the variety and the choice.
1:37
But that's also now both an advantage
1:39
and a disadvantage that's getting kind of scary now.
1:41
Take this.
1:42
This is the new Dell XPS 14.
1:44
I used to really like XPS computers back in the day.
1:47
So, my oldest computers were XPS's.
1:48
Then Dell did this thing where they killed off the XPS, the Latitude,
1:52
and the Inspiron names, and rebranded them into Dell, Dell Pro,
1:56
and Dell Pro Max for some reason.
1:59
Then they came back to their senses and brought back XPS,
2:02
and I bought this one,
2:03
and this thing is really nice. 14-in 2.8K tandem OLED display,
2:08
thin bezels all the way around with a webcam and no notch,
2:12
120 Hz variable refresh rate,
2:14
and then it's this thin all-metal jacket with soft-touch finish around the palm rests,
2:17
which hide a massive force touch trackpad.
2:21
There's three Thunderbolt ports, there's a headphone jack,
2:23
and then inside is an Intel Panther Lake processor.
2:26
This one a Core Ultra 300 series with their new integrated GPUs,
2:29
plus 32 gigs of DDR5 RAM and a terabyte SSD.
2:34
I liked a lot of the previous XPSs, like I said,
2:36
but this one is in a lot of ways better than those.
2:38
Uh but it also does have a couple quirks.
2:41
Like the ports are all Thunderbolt 4 instead of Thunderbolt 5,
2:44
and there's no SD card slot or any other full-size ports,
2:47
which on a premium laptop like this is a choice.
2:50
There's also no lip to open the lid for some reason.
2:54
So, it's always this little awkward pry to like get the laptop open every
2:57
single time.
2:58
And then the keyboard is probably its weakest point.
3:00
It's a bit shallow, the layout is slightly wonky with these top menu buttons,
3:05
which gets slightly more misaligned the further from the outside you get.
3:08
But otherwise, I mean, yeah, this is really nice.
3:10
So, this this is a $2,200 laptop as specced.
3:15
So, obviously, pretty premium option, but this is, you know,
3:18
just one of many premium options you could pick.
3:22
Now, why do I bring up this laptop?
3:24
Well, in Windows land,
3:26
this laptop being really good actually relies on a bunch of different companies all
3:32
executing really well at the exact same time,
3:34
right?
3:35
So, it relies on Dell putting a lot of effort into actually bringing back
3:38
the XPS line and not cheaping out
3:40
and doing the metal build quality
3:41
and the nice display
3:42
and the whole premium design.
3:44
It also relies on Intel
3:46
and this exact generation of Panther Lake chips being good
3:49
and actually having good integrated graphics
3:51
because they don't actually offer this laptop with a discrete GPU
3:54
and it relies on Microsoft to actually do a good job with Windows
3:58
so that the software experience is worthy of a premium price tag
4:02
and not riddled with ads
4:03
or unnecessary AI features.
4:05
And if it all happens,
4:07
then together this laptop feels like it's worth the premium price.
4:11
But you can probably see where I'm going with this.
4:13
That doesn't always happen.
4:14
And lately Windows has felt like a weak link
4:17
and every single Windows laptop will have to suffer for it.
4:21
Now, it's not that the whole OS is like fundamentally bad.
4:24
It's not super buggy or anything crazy.
4:26
It's still functional, but it's just lacking the super premium feel
4:30
that wins everybody over.
4:31
Like this XPS, the first time I booted this up to set it up,
4:34
it took me like 45 minutes
4:36
because of all the forced updates
4:38
and then all these mandatory sign-ins
4:41
and then it's asking me to use Microsoft 365
4:44
and then OneDrive and
4:45
then all these other services,
4:46
etc., etc.
4:48
And then even once I got in, I got ads.
4:50
Like I got a pop-up ad for McAfee security on this $2,000 brand new
4:55
laptop,
4:56
which to be fair is probably a Dell problem,
4:58
but then that's not even mentioning all the other AI stuff
5:01
that Microsoft is pushing,
5:02
the Copilot stuff, the infamous Recall feature that everyone hates.
5:06
There's generative AI in Microsoft Paint now for crying out loud.
5:10
Microsoft actually requires a dedicated Copilot button on the keyboard of every new Windows
5:17
11 laptop now to be classified
5:19
as a AI PC.
5:21
Whatever that means.
5:23
Uh so, it's just between that and the ads,
5:26
it's just not really feeling like a totally premium experience.
5:29
And at that high end, when you're spending a lot,
5:32
users will start to get deservedly really picky.
5:35
You're spending a lot of money, you deserve to.
5:37
And that's where Apple has pretty much exclusively been playing for like the last
5:41
decade.
5:42
The cheapest new MacBook was always $1,000
5:45
and then it went way up from there.
5:46
And they're so vertically integrated with their Apple silicon
5:49
and so the hardware is designed for the software
5:52
and the software is designed for the hardware
5:53
and it's always felt
5:54
so efficient and clean
5:55
and performant.
5:57
And people just love their expensive MacBook Pros.
6:00
Now there's obviously still reasons why people buy high-end Windows laptops.
6:04
It's still out of the choice
6:05
and the variety and there are certain things you still can't get in Mac
6:09
land.
6:09
Like if you want a high-end gaming laptop, you know,
6:12
that's one of those common things you can go get a Razer Blade with
6:17
a 5070 and a 240 hertz display.
6:20
That's an option.
6:20
So there are still those things.
6:23
But every one of those relies on all of the parts from all those
6:27
different companies again being good at the same time.
6:31
And that is a tough challenge.
6:32
So now flip it to the low end.
6:34
And this is where it gets really interesting because it turns out,
6:37
as we're learning, a lot of these efficiencies
6:39
that Apple's been using to dominate the high end are also very effective in
6:45
the low end.
6:46
Because to be clear,
6:47
people are absolutely willing to accept some more shortcomings in lower price laptops.
6:52
Like that's a trade-off, that's a part of the game.
6:53
You know, if you shop around, hey,
6:55
maybe you'll be able to find a laptop with just the right set of
6:57
trade-offs that you don't mind
6:59
while still being decent at the stuff you care about.
7:01
Like this is the Acer Aspire 16.
7:04
Super popular laptop in this segment.
7:06
It's actually discounted recently
7:07
so I got it for 550 from Amazon
7:09
and there's a few more stickers on it.
7:12
Yes.
7:13
And there's a little more plastic in the keyboard deck flex just a little
7:17
bit lacking in build quality.
7:18
Yes.
7:19
And the Snapdragon chip that powers it, you know,
7:21
it's not going to have the highest end performance,
7:22
but it's efficient so it has good battery.
7:25
And then there's a nice big 16-inch screen
7:27
and a bunch of full-size ports here.
7:29
So if I'm just going to be writing
7:30
or web browsing or watching videos on this thing,
7:32
feels like a pretty good value.
7:34
So look, laptops like this have been just fine.
7:36
They've been thriving at these price points, but here's the problem.
7:39
Here's the brand new Gatorade colored MacBook Neo shaped problem.
7:45
The starting price for a MacBook has been a thousand dollars for a new
7:49
machine for the past couple years.
7:51
Now it just dropped to 600.
7:53
And actually 500 if you have a student discount.
7:55
And if you've seen the reviews,
7:56
you already know it turns out
7:57
that they did a great job with the Neo to making it feel just
8:02
like the more premium Macs.
8:04
Same clean software, same metal build, same keyboard, and more importantly,
8:08
the same tight vertical integration where the hardware
8:12
and the software are designed for each other
8:14
and work super efficiently with each other.
8:16
So it's like unless you have a Windows specific need
8:19
or like a certain app you need to use software wise
8:22
or a certain game you want to play,
8:24
most people crave the premium experience that's been associated with the Macs
8:29
that are more expensive for all these years.
8:31
And so the Neo coming along for 600 bucks represented
8:34
that premium well integrated efficient experience
8:38
that is going to be incredibly hard to compete with.
8:41
In Windows land, you're not only relying on all these different companies making the
8:44
parts to all make them well at the same time,
8:49
you're also paying them all who need their own profits to survive.
8:53
And so that makes it really hard to make good cheap laptops
8:58
and actually profit from
9:00
that.
9:00
So then the cherry on top is not only does Apple basically print 18
9:04
pros for cheap,
9:06
but also Apple's not even necessarily concerned with making a huge hardware profit on
9:11
selling Neos because this is more of a Trojan horse to create a bunch
9:17
of new first time Mac buyers who
9:20
then become Apple services subscribers.
9:23
So Apple can make this computer even cheaper than they ordinarily would to effectively
9:27
acquire new Mac users who will
9:31
then go subscribe to TV plus
9:34
or Apple care or iCloud
9:37
or or whatever other services.
9:38
And that's worth more than the hardware margin would be.
9:41
And it already seems to be working.
9:43
There was just a Tim Cook tweet this week about how Mac just had
9:46
its best launch ever for first-time Mac customers.
9:50
So, yeah.
9:51
Guilty of talking about Apple a lot in this video,
9:53
but it turns out the shock to the industry is very real.
9:56
And it's going to be
9:57
so fascinating to see what sort of responses we actually get from Windows laptop
10:02
makers in the next couple months
10:04
and years.
10:05
And what sort of strings they try to pull?
10:07
Because if they aren't able to do anything about it,
10:09
then Neo's just going to keep eating their lunch,
10:11
and they could have a bit of a market share crisis on their hands.
10:15
Also, one more quick thing.
10:16
We just came out with these stickers that we're adding to our merch store.
10:20
I love the way these turned out.
10:21
The team cooked on these.
10:23
This one is a color picker sticker, which is so fun.
10:25
So, it's kind of a if you know, you know design,
10:28
but you can put them on anything colorful for fun.
10:31
At least that's what I've been doing.
10:32
You get a bunch of stickers in a pack.
10:34
So, go get some for yourself
10:35
and send me pictures of what you stick them on.
10:37
Tag me on Twitter and Threads and stuff.
10:39
All right.
10:40
Thanks for watching.
10:41
Catch you guys in the next one.
10:42
Peace.
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