Right now, Apple's grip on the premium laptop market has never been under more pressure. In 2026, Windows laptops don't just offer a cheaper path away from the MacBook Pro; in several key areas, they've overtaken it.
GPU performance, display tech, and even battery life have all seen big improvements thanks to NVIDIA's Blackwell GPU generation and Intel's Panther Lake architecture. So whether you're a fan of Windows software, dislike Apple's trade-offs, or are just shopping on a budget Apple won't touch, there's a laptop here for you.
The best alternatives for MacBook Pro
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Best overall MacBook Pro alternative
30-second review: This is the laptop Razer's been trying to build for years: a sub-15mm chassis that no longer throttles under sustained creative load. Swapping to Intel's Core Ultra 9 386H brings 33% more cores than last year's AMD model and an RTX 5080 that runs at a stable 165W TGP. The Dual-Mode Mini-LED display ships Calman Verified at 100% DCI-P3 and hits 1,100 nits in HDR, making it both a creative colour-work panel and a capable gaming screen.
Price, value & competition: The official price of this laptop is $3,499 / £3,099.99 (RTX 5080 / 32GB), rising to $4,499 / £3,899.99 if you want the RTX 5090, and there are no current retail discounts we're aware of. The ASUS ProArt P16 (2025) at $2,499 is a cheaper alternative for creatives, with an RTX 5070 and OLED touchscreen, but for those who can stretch the extra $1,000, the Blade 16 wins on GPU tier, chassis rigidity and display brightness.
Performance: The 16-core 386H chip here delivers sustained throughput rather than burst performance, and the bump to 165W TGP means the RTX 5080 performs consistently in 4K video editing, motion graphics and complex 3D rather than throttling mid-task. Connectivity is equally capable: Thunderbolt 5, HDMI 2.1, three USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, a UHS-II SD card reader, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0 all fit within the slim chassis.
Battery: Razer claims up to 13 hours productivity and 15 hours' video playback: a 60% improvement over the 2025 AMD model that's attributed to Panther Lake's low-power core architecture. That makes it the most practically usable creative laptop Razer has ever shipped. Also note there's a two-year battery warranty.
Design: Sporting a precision-milled T6 aluminium, sand-blasted texture, anodised matte finish, 14.9mm thin and weighing 2.14kg, the Blade 16 is the only gaming laptop that sits naturally alongside a MacBook Pro in a studio environment. It comes in black finish only, but the build rigidity is class-leading for a Windows laptop.
Best MacBook Pro alternative under $1,000
30-second review: HP has done something unusual here: brought Blackwell GPU performance into the sub-$1,000 tier without dressing the machine in RGB armour. The RTX 5060, a 100% sRGB panel at 165Hz and a clean professional chassis make the Victus 15 Blackwell Edition the most credible budget laptop of 2026 for creatives. It won't satisfy colour-critical professionals, but for students, freelancers and early-career designers who need real GPU acceleration, nothing at this price competes.
Price, value & competition: This laptop has an MSRP of $999 / £799. The Acer Nitro V 16 is the nearest rival, offering comparable GPU performance at a similar price, but the latter's 50% DCI-P3 display and aggressive gamer aesthetic are big disadvantages for creative use. You'll struggle to find a laptop with a dedicated GPU under $1,000, making this excellent value for the price.
Performance: The RTX 5060 brings DLSS 4 and hardware ray tracing to the budget tier for the first time, handling Premiere Pro, Lightroom and moderate Blender work with ease at 1080p–1440p. It has a ceiling – complex 8K renders and sustained 3D aren't its territory – but for most creative workflows at this price, it consistently outperforms any integrated-GPU alternative.
Battery: Expect five to six hours of mixed productivity use, dropping to under two hours under high GPU load. Note that there's no USB-C charging, though; the proprietary power brick is part of the deal. Think of it as a desktop machine that visits locations, rather than a mobile creative companion.
Design: HP's evident restraint here is the Victus 15's best design decision, With its angular lines, dark matte plastic and no RGB excess, it reads as professional in a studio or client context. At 2.3kg it's desk-weight, but the practical port selection (USB-A, HDMI, Ethernet) means it works in tethered creative setups without a hub.
Fastest worker
30-second review: The Galaxy Book6 Pro proves that, with Panther Lake, you no longer need a dedicated GPU for serious creative Windows work. The Core Ultra X7 358H matches the MacBook Pro M5 in multi-core performance, the 16-inch AMOLED panel rivals Apple's best display work, and real-world battery life exceeds 15 hours. For photographers, motion designers and video editors working in 2D pipelines who need to move constantly, this is the most complete MacBook Pro-like experience Windows currently offers.
Price, value & competition: The Galaxy Book 5 Pro starts at a retail price of $1,599.99 / £1,399, making it comparable to the MacBook Pro M5 14-inch. The Galaxy Book6 Pro's edge over the latter is its AMOLED display's contrast and vibrancy, and multi-core CPU performance that closes the Apple silicon gap more tightly than any previous Intel laptop.
Performance: Geekbench 6 multi-core results are competitive with the M5. Practical creative use – large Lightroom catalogues, 4K Premiere Pro timelines, document-heavy multitasking – runs without hesitation. The Arc integrated GPU even manages Cyberpunk 2077 above 60fps at 1080p with XeSS 3 enabled. Heavy GPU-accelerated 3D rendering remains the ceiling.
Battery: Our sister site Tom's Guide measured 15 hours and 17 minutes in continuous browsing tests, placing this alongside the MacBook Air M4 for endurance. In active creative use, we'd expect 11–13 hours, with the AMOLED's adaptive 30–120Hz refresh contributing meaningfully to those figures.
Design: The 2026 model ditches the number pad for a centred keyboard layout with better spacing, adds a larger haptic touchpad, and introduces a quad-speaker system flanking the board. As for ports, you get two Thunderbolt 4, one USB-A, HDMI 2.1 and a 3.5mm audio jack, although there's no SD card slot.
Best powerful MacBook Pro alternative
30-second review: Think of the MSI Raider 18 HX AI as a desktop workstation that folds shut. A 24-core Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, a full-wattage RTX 5090 (24GB), 64GB DDR5 and an 18-inch 4K Mini-LED display make this the most powerful laptop available for 8K rendering and complex professional 3D. For creatives where these kind of workloads are a daily reality, nothing else competes. Be aware, though, that it's heavy, loud, and chained to the mains.
Price, value & competition: The MSI Raider 18 HX AI isn't cheap at $4,899 / £4,999.99. The MacBook Pro M4 Max at $3,999 / £3,999 is the obvious Apple comparison here, and that comes in a whopping $900 / £1,000 less. However, realistically Apple's integrated GPU cannot match a full-wattage discrete RTX 5090 in render-bound professional tasks.
Performance: In reviews, the 24-core 285HX has posted some of the highest mobile multi-core Cinebench scores recorded. Its RTX 5090 at full wattage delivers consistent GPU throughput with no TGP asterisks, handling 8K DaVinci Resolve timelines and large-scene 3D without hesitation. The 4K Mini-LED display doubles as a genuine colour work surface. You might, however, need to use noise-cancelling headphones: the cooling system is loud.
Battery: The 99.9Wh battery is paired with a 400W brick. Under GPU load, the laptop draws more power than the battery can supply: mains power is always required. Basically, treat it as a desktop.
Design: With its black chassis, red accents and aggressive cooling vents, the Raider 18 isn't trying to look like anything other than what it is. At 3.6kg, it's a desk fixture. Port selection is excellent: dual Thunderbolt/USB-C, dual USB-A, full-size SD card reader, HDMI and Ethernet. The rear cable management layout is impressive too.
Best MacBook Pro alternative for portability
30-second review: The XPS 14 is back, and it's the most compelling portable MacBook Pro alternative Dell has made in years. It's lighter than the MacBook Pro 14-inch M5, smaller than the MacBook Air 13-inch, and competitive in performance thanks to Intel's Panther Lake Core Ultra X7 processor and its Arc B390 integrated graphics. The OLED touch display is vivid and colour-accurate, the speakers are among the best in class, and the battery lasts up to 21 hours.
Price, value & competition: The XPS 14 starts at $1,599.99 / £1,599 for the Core Ultra 5, 16GB, 512GB, 2K LCD configuration. The recommended X7 OLED config with 32GB and 1TB sits at $2,199.99 / £2,000; a significant step up, but the one that unlocks the Arc B390 graphics and the OLED panel. The Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M5 at $1,599–$2,349 is its primary rival: the M5 outpaces the X7 in single-core CPU tasks and battery endurance, but the XPS 14's Arc B390 beats the M5 GPU in 3DMark.
Performance: Intel's Core Ultra X7 358H delivers 16 cores and represents a generational leap over mid-range Intel and AMD competition in this class. Its Geekbench 6 multi-core scores are competitive with the MacBook Pro M5, but it's the Arc B390 is the real surprise, consistently beating Apple's M5 GPU. Consequently, for GPU-accelerated creative work in Premiere Pro, Photoshop, and Lightroom, this is a great choice.
Battery: Our sister site Tom's Hardware measured 12 hours 23 minutes on the OLED configuration, which is impressive enough, but the 2K LCD model is the endurance leader, lasting 20 hours 41 minutes. All configurations charge via 100W USB-C.
Design: Dell has rebuilt the XPS 14 around CNC-machined aluminium (75% recycled content) paired with Gorilla Glass, producing a chassis with no detectable flex regardless of how it's handled. At 1.36kg and 14.62mm (OLED), it's lighter than the MacBook Pro 14-inch M5 and occupies a smaller footprint than the MacBook Air 13. The keyboard's shallow 0.8mm travel and lattice-free design remain divisive, though, and port selection is minimal by design: three Thunderbolt 4 ports and an audio jack, with no SD card slot and no HDMI.
How to choose the best MacBook alternatives
Choosing the right MacBook alternative starts with assessing your specific creative needs. If you work primarily with 3D rendering, motion graphics or intensive video editing, prioritise laptops with dedicated NVIDIA RTX graphics cards : the RTX 5070 or 5090 will handle professional workloads that would challenge even Apple's M-series chips in GPU-dependent tasks.
For photographers and graphic designers, display quality could matter most. Look for OLED panels with 100% DCI-P3 colour coverage and high brightness (400+ nits) to ensure accurate colour reproduction. Touchscreen support can be invaluable for digital artists who want hands-on control of their work.
Portability versus power is the eternal trade-off. Desktop replacement laptops like the Alienware Area-51 deliver uncompromising performance but weigh over 3kg with poor battery life. Ultra-portable options under 1.5kg sacrifice raw power but offer all-day battery life and genuine mobility; ideal if you work across multiple locations.
Budget is crucial too. Gaming laptops often provide excellent value, packing powerful processors and graphics cards at lower prices than creator-focused machines, but they may lack colour-accurate displays and come with gamer aesthetics. Also consider whether you need features like Thunderbolt connectivity, large amounts of RAM (32GB+), and fast SSD storage for your specific workflow. Finally, don't overlook build quality: premium materials and MIL-standard durability testing indicate a laptop that will survive years of professional use.
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.
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?
If you're after that quintessential Mac experience on Windows, the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 Aura Edition comes closest. At just 1.14kg with an all-metal chassis, it matches the MacBook Air's premium feel and portability. The OLED display rivals Apple's Retina quality, and the keyboard is genuinely excellent – arguably better than recent MacBook offerings.
Microsoft's Surface Laptop 7 is another strong contender, with its sleek aluminium design and refined trackpad delivering that polished aesthetic Apple is known for. The ASUS ProArt P16, despite its creative focus, also impresses with its solid build quality and attention to detail. All three prioritise the kind of thoughtful engineering and premium materials that make MacBooks feel special, just running Windows instead of macOS.
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, but for now, 2-in-1s are an exclusively PC domain.
