So last week, my teammate Joseph decided he wanted to become an editor. I wanted to get him the best computer to be able to handle it, but it was a bit of a dilemma. We couldn’t decide whether to go with Mac or Windows. Turns out that in 2023, there are now vast differences between what the two can do, so I ended up buying both kinds of machines so that we can test them and figure out which is actually better. Oh yeah, and this Blog is being edited by Joseph using the computer we choose, so you'll be experiencing the results starting now.
So, our total budget was 1600 pounds here in the UK, which if you go for Mac, allows you to get the absolute highest-end new 15-inch MacBook Air that currently exists, and with this same budget, you can also afford to go for one of the very best on the Windows end, so this is the 2023 Dell XPS 15. And I say, I’ve unboxed a lot of Windows laptops in my time, but this is one of the best presentations I’ve ever seen. As always, the Apple unboxing experience is not generous but quality. Love the braided magnetic cable, which is also now color-matched to whichever laptop you pick, and then a couple of manuals and stickers and the wall adapter.
2023 Dell XPS 15.
The Dell’s power cable is a little less pretty, but you do get a free little USB hub that gives you an HDMI and one full-size USB, and the other side of the cable—this is a brick. Alright, so anyways, it's peel time. Always my favorite moment.
I'm sure that the quality of the presentation of Apple products is a big part of why so many people give them as gifts, but in this particular case, I think it’s been bested in the unboxing experience, very slightly, by the Dell XPS 15.
Now, as far as build quality goes, my preconception was that the MacBook would be a noticeable step up. Every MacBook I’ve used in the last 10 years has felt structurally unbreakable with their 100 aluminum enclosures and very few individual parts, whereas I’ve used a lot of even expensive Windows laptops made of cheap plastic that literally starts creaking the moment you take them out the box. But that’s not really the case here.
The XPS 15 is machined aluminum paired with a carbon fiber palm rest. It’s got these really snazzy glossy accents on the sides, the hinges are both very firm, and can be opened most importantly with a minimal fingering. And while both laptops will make a little bit of noise if you apply a lot of pressure because the material is so thin, neither feels like they’re about to fall apart anytime soon. So, we’ll give them a draw.
The Dell does have more ports, though, and you’ll tend to find this on Windows versus Mac in general. Considering it’s such a slim laptop, it’s really cool to see them fit in not just three ultra-fast USB-C ports, but also an SD card slot and a security lock port to chain it to a desk, compared to just the two USB-Cs and no card slots that you get on the Mac.
As a general rule, Apple goes for ultra-minimalism in everything they do, so you’ll tend to get exactly what they think you’ll need and nothing extra. So, in a very surface level way, Windows takes the ports category too. But it’s not a whitewash. There are a couple of redeeming factors for this near-port less Mac. One, that instead of using a USB-C charger, it uses Mag Safe, which I way prefer. It snaps into place, it feels satisfying, but most importantly, if you accidentally walk into it, it’s less likely to pull your laptop off the table with it and shatter it into oblivion.
Features:
This is what happens if you walk into the Dell’s cable. Yeah, I’ve covered the floor in bedding because I do not trust this. It’s a pretty snazzy pull, it’s a little twirl at the end. Two, that the Apple charger is this nice slick tidy thing that you can fit in a pocket, which is only possible because of how Apple’s engineered their laptops to have lower power requirements compared to the Dell brick, which is literally like lugging a whole second gadget around with you at all times. And then three, the fact that when you do plug your Dell in, because the charger is USB-C, you are losing one of the three USB ports that you could have used for something else.
But then you turn them on and you’re faced with the components that you’re going to spend the vast majority of your time looking at—the screens. And for this, the Mac is quite a bit sharper. Windows laptops tend to stick to industry-standard resolutions, which in most cases is 1920x1080 or, in this case, 1920 by 1200. But Apple pays very little attention to what the number itself is and instead just focuses on making what they call a Retina display, a resolution such that from the distance you’ll be viewing any screen from, you shouldn’t be able to see any individual pixels.
So, you’ll end up with some strange-sounding resolution numbers like in this case 2880 by 1864, but hey, I mean in the end, that is two and a half times the number of pixels versus the Dell. Plus, you can probably tell this even through the camera. The fact that it’s a glossy screen also helps with the way that it represents color.
Is it a two and a half times better screen? No, there are definitely diminishing returns to having more pixels. Both screens are just as bright as each other and I obviously prefer the bezel-less look that the Dell XPS 15 has going on as opposed to Apple’s dreaded notch. But the Mac is still a little better here and I suppose if you are going to have a notch, then at least you benefit from it on the MacBook, with Apple having more room to slide in a better webcam. So, this is the Dell’s webcam. It’s, uh, 720p. Have a look at this. It’s, uh, pretty bad. Yeah, like the way it’s representing the skin tones, I look ill.
You look pretty ill. And this is the Mac, which is 1080p. And that’s one factor that definitely makes it look better, but it’s not just a resolution thing. Like the skin tones look better, the exposure is more consistent, the background behind us actually looks like the background behind us. Oh yeah, and then there’s an icing on the cake. You’re also going to sound better on the Mac. The audio has a level of richness to it which the Dell lacks.
This one very much sounds like you are using an inbuilt microphone. One thing that very few people seem to consider when they buy a new laptop but that they really should is the keyboard. I actually managed to give myself a pretty severe repetitive strain injury last year from using a keyboard that had a high level of impact. I don’t think this will be an issue for everyone, but if you feel like you are susceptible to this, then I would slightly veer away from the Mac. I’d say that Apple generally just doesn’t like their keyboards to be in any way at all squishy, so they make it quite a sharp, clicky key press with minimal cushioning that makes it nicer to use.
It’s more satisfying than the noticeable springiness that you get in the Dell’s keyboard, but it is also conducive to more hand strain if you’re going to spend a long time typing. To be honest, either way, if you use your laptop at home, then you’re better off just going for a proper ergonomic mouse and keyboard like this stuff is from the Logitech Ergo range because clawing your hand around a trackpad all day is also not the best for you.
But if you had to, then between these two, just like the keyboards, Apple’s trackpad is the nicer one to use. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s great that Windows has caught up a lot when it comes to how you can use your trackpad to fluidly interact with your machine, but there’s something that feels really satisfying and intentional about the Mac click, which the Dell just doesn’t have.
It feels like a dull haptic press with a hint of something loose inside, so it’s pretty neck and neck so far. A couple more hardware comparisons before we get into the juicy software comparisons. Okay, one thing that you can be sure of on any current Mac system is that the speakers will not be bad. I mean, the ones on my 16-inch MacBook Pro are easily some of the best laptop speakers on the market, and the ones on this Air, they’re not as good, but they’re also not far off it. It doesn’t have any massive speaker grilles like the Dell does, and all the sound comes out of this gap here.
Conclusion:
So, it’s actually being bounced off the screen towards you as opposed to coming directly at you, but it is a six-speaker sound system compared to the Dell’s quad speaker. And listen to the difference. 2021 has been an unbelievable ride for the . I’m still in physical shock at what we’ve managed to do this year. It sounds pretty good, and it feels like the audio has space because of the fact that you have larger speaker grilles, but the first thing I noticed when I listened to that is that my voice doesn’t sound how it should sound. So, this is the Mac. 2021 has been an unbelievable ride for the Mysteries of Boss Blog. I’m still in physical shock at what we’ve managed to do this year. Okay,
