The best alternatives to MacBook Pro: get Apple-like performance without paying the premium

The best MacBook Pro alternatives give you power, style and performance without locking you into the Apple ecosystem. If a MacBook Pro isn't for you – whether due to cost, practicality or personal preference – there are more PCs than ever that can stand head-to-head with Apple's flagship laptop. But where to start?

Here, that's where. We've assembled the best alternatives to a MacBook Pro from all the big brands, including Microsoft, Dell, Acer and more. All the laptops below run on Windows and have similar features, design and performance to a MacBook.

Our top pick is the Dell XPS 16 (9640), which delivers high performance and feels premium to use thanks to its brilliantly engineered keyboard, screen and trackpad. But there are plenty more to see, so let's get to the list – and for more options check out our guide to the best laptops for graphic design.

The best alternatives for MacBook Pro

Best overall MacBook Pro alternative

Windows enthusiasts have been searching for a long time for a laptop that feels as good to use as the best of the best in the MacBook stable. The Dell XPS 16 (9640), released in 2024, is about as close as we've yet come. With a sleek design, responsive keyboard and excellent trackpad, this laptop feels brilliant to use. It also looks great if you get the version with the UHD OLED display, and we'd definitely recommend that you do – the cheaper FHD version is markedly inferior.

Performance-wise, the new Intel Core Ultra chips and NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs acquit themselves well. They don't quite reach the scorching benchmarks of the M3 Max chips, but they are highly capable for intense productivity tasks. There's some bottlenecking and fan noise under intense workloads, but not enough to be a serious issue. While this is an expensive laptop, its price isn't dissimilar to that of a recent MacBook Pro, cementing it as our pick for the best Windows-based alternative.

Best affordable MacBook Pro alternative

The Asus VivoBook S15 proves that you can have a MacBook alternative that offers a similar level of performance and style to Apple's finest, but for a much cheaper price tag.

Asus is one of the most respected laptop makers out there, and the VivoBook range shows that the company is able to produce excellent mid-range laptops, as well as expensive high-end devices as well. It's got a fantastic screen, an excellent keyboard, the ScreenPad touchpad, which enables extra functionality and an ErgoLift hinge that makes typing on the laptop more comfortable, while also improving airflow for a cooler-running laptop. All this, and it's almost half the price of many MacBooks, making it an ideal alternative if you're looking to save some money.

Best overall OLED MacBook Pro alternative

Enter the AI! The ASUS ProArt P16 is a 16-inch laptop that combines AMD's latest Ryzen AI processor with NVIDIA's RTX 4070 GPU, and all wrapped up in a beautiful package designed for creative professionals in mind. It's powerful, it's intelligently designed, and it can compete with any of the MacBook Pros out there (apart from perhaps the Maxed our M3 Max).

We love the 16-inch 4K OLED touchscreen, offering 3840x2400 resolution and 100% coverage of the P3 colour gamut – great for all types of digital creatives. You also get a combined 160W of CPU and GPU cooling, allowing the Intel i9-13980HX processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 graphics chip to do their thing with no restrictions. There are options of up to 32GB RAM, and up to 8TB SSD, which is, you know, a lot!

Read more: ASUS ProArt P16 review

Best Microsoft

Microsoft and Apple's rivalry is legendary, and it's not just about software, as Microsoft also makes some fine hardware these days as well. The Surface Laptop 7 is a great example, running on the new Qualcomm Snapdragon processors that put it in competition with Apple's M chips. It also boasts Apple's Copilot+ features – essentially the manufacturer's name for new generative AI features that it desperately wants you to use and love. You may care about these; you may not.

Either way, the Surface Laptop 7 is an excellent laptop. In our performance tests, the 12-core Snapdragon routinely outpaced the eight-core M3 (which makes sense), and the design and display of the Surface are sleek with a premium feel. Battery life lasts comfortably all day – though the integrated Adreno GPU is limited, and rules out 3D rendering or high-intensity gaming.

Best powerful MacBook Pro alternative

A gaming-focused laptop boasting the latest top-notch hardware, the MSI Raider GE78 HX delivers excellent performance across the board. As we discovered in our testing, its NVIDIA GPU enables the latest advances in ray-tracing and high-frame rate performance for buttery=smooth gaming. And, thanks to the 17” QHD+ (2560x1600) display with a 240Hz refresh rate, everything looks the part, too.

It's not entirely perfect – we did get an ungodly amount of fan noise while putting the MSI Raider GE78 HX through its paces. Not a problem for committed headphones users, but a bit of a drag otherwise. Battery life is also not the best – this realistically isn't a laptop you want away from its power point very long.

Read more with our MSI Raider GE78 HX review.

Best overall MacBook Air alternative

If you like the look of a thin and light MacBook Air but would prefer a Windows machine, the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 is a strong choice. While it doesn't reach the performance capabilities of the MacBook Pro series, it's a strong all-rounder in the vein of the Air. Unfortunately, its high price does put it out of reach of a lot of users, but it's a strong option for those who simply don't want an Apple machine and don't mind paying more.

The display is a particular highlight, with resolution above and over FHD and a silky-smooth refresh rate of 120Hz. One thing that Microsoft has also knocked out of the park here is the overall design – this is one of the best 2-in-1 laptop/tablet hybrids we've ever used, with smooth chamfered corners and slimline edging anchored by an aluminium chassis that feels properly premium.

Read our full Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 review for more detail.

Best gaming MacBook alternative

With speeds that our reviewer described as 'skull-shredding, the Acer Predator Helios 18 puts power above all else. With Intel's Raptor Lake Refresh i9 at the core, and an RTX 4090 handling the graphics, this is a laptop with enough processing power to tempt Blender modellers as well as the hardcore gamers it's clearly aimed at. It's pretty clunky, with a big chunky build and near-deafening fans, but that's the price you pay for this kind of performance.

Offering a bigger display than a MacBook Pro, the Acer Predator Helios 18 is really designed to be used as a desktop replacement most of the time. Its battery life tops out at around four and a half hours, which sounds low compared to some laptops, but is pretty on-par for a gaming machine. Those who are going to be crunching through intense creative tasks might prefer a bit more RAM, but otherwise, this is a serious machine to tempt workers and players alike.

Read our full Acer Predator Helios 18 review for more detail.

How to choose the best MacBook alternatives

Not sure which MacBook alternative is the one for you? Well, you're first going to need to think about what type of alternative you want. For example, we have alternatives to a MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air in this guide, so once you've decided which laptop you want an alternative for, you're good to go.

Next, consider how much you're willing to spend and how often you'll use it. If your answer to this question is mid-range and you expect to use it everyday, you'll want to invest in something that has a good build quality and will last a while.

Finally, what features are most important to you? Quick response time? A good keyboard and screen combination? Storage for editing and designing software? Once you've narrowed that down, you can find an option that's right for you listed above.

How we test MacBook alternatives

At Creative Bloq, we want to find the best possible products for our readers, which is why we thoroughly test and review a wide range of creative products for artists, designers, illustrators, editors and more.

How we test products, like the best MacBook alternatives, is we get hands-on with product to fully test its features, performance and other capabilities. For example, when testing a MacBook alternative, we'd look into every area of the products, including its construction, screen size, display and quality, responsiveness, battery life, price, and much more. As we're comparing it to a MacBook, we'll have also got our hands on a MacBook so we can compare the two, to see how the product excels or falters in comparison.

All our reviews are written by experts in the field of tech, art and design, and who use these products daily... so they really know what they're talking about! Our guides and reviews are updated on a regular basis, because we believe in honestly and transparency. If our opinions have changed in any way or a newer and better product has launched, you'll be the first to know with our up-to-date information.

For more information on testing, head over to how we test at Creative Bloq.

MacBook alternatives: frequently asked questions

Which PC feels like using a Mac?

For a PC that feels similar to using a Macbook, we'd recommend our number-one choice on this list, the Dell XPS 16 (9640). The distinctively smooth 'feel' of Apple laptops is what keeps many of the fans coming back. You may be able to get more power elsewhere, but MacBooks are so exquisitely designed, in terms of both software and hardware, that some people find them hard to give up. The XPS 16, with its gorgeous display, well-engineered keyboard and high-grade build, provides an experience akin to the MacBook Pro – though like a MacBook Pro, it isn't exactly cheap.

Why would you get a PC over a Mac?

The key word is choice. With a Mac, you very much have to play things Apple's way, with limited scope for customisation and a fairly narrow selection of products – a MacBook Pro isn't that dissimilar to a MacBook Air, when you get down to it. PCs come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, with options from an abundance of manufacturers including Dell, Microsoft, HP, Alienware and many, many more.

It's also worth noting that if you want a laptop with a touchscreen, that can also be used as a tablet, PCs are the only game in town. Apple does not currently offer a MacBook with a touchscreen. There are rumours this may change in 2025 when the new line of MacBook Pros arrives, but for now, 2-in-1s are an exclusively PC domain.