Windows VS MacOS

This is an age long debate but let's go through it from a production perspective. Obviously personal preference is a different story. I use both MacOS and Windows laptops and desktops.

Laptop Screens, Phones, and Tablets
I'd say on average Apple is the leader here as they have a decent color gamut and brightness. Cheaper Windows laptops suffer from bad screens but even a Macbook Air is decent. The higher specced Windows laptops with OLED screens are competitive.

The Apple phones and tablets have the same or better screens than their laptops depending on the model.

One area where some Windows laptops have an advantage is with the availability of touch screens. These laptops which convert to tablet mode can effectively be great photo editing / drawing computers (if they have good screens).

Battery Life on Laptop
Ever since the Apple laptops starting using the M series processors, they have been efficiency and battery life champions. Some basic Windows laptops with integrated graphics have made big strides in 2025 to get better battery life. Snapdragon chips while being also very efficient don't have universal software support so I don't recommended them at this moment. The more powerful Windows laptop with Nvidia graphics eat a lot of power so can't be compared to the Apple laptops.

Performance
For simple use, Apple laptops are the fastest as they have the best single core performance as of 2025. They use the same basic chip tech in the base line all the way up to their higher end chips e.g. M4 -> M4 Pro -> M4 Max.

When you move up to multi core use, these Apple chips are very competative. For most production apps (that's not 3D rendering or non GPU based AI), they don't use a lot of threads so Apple laptops are great. Windows laptops and desktops are more for niche higher end applications.

When it comes to graphics performance, the bigger and more power hungry desktop Windows options can give a lot more graphics performance especially when applications are optimized for them. e.g. Nvidia + AI tasks. They do eat a significant amount of power though and are like space heaters. I know I don't like using my Windows w/ Nvidia card in the summer time.

Integration
Since Apple makes hardware and software, they have a lot more integration. Some examples are:

  • AirDrop let's you do direct file transfers to from devices like Apple computers, phones, and tablets. On Windows or anything via web browser, you can use a third party alternative like, pairdrop.net
  • iPhone remote control let's you control your phone from your desktop
  • You can control your various devices from one pointing device where the pointer moves around to the other devices screen
  • AirPlay can send various media files to different devices
  • Unified memory combines system and graphics memory into one. On Windows, it's more limited with pre allocation of resources in integrated graphics and you may not see as large of graphics memory available for applications. It's not cheap to get more memory on Windows computers as you have to rely on configuring the GPU to have it. With the latest M3 Ultra, you can configure that system with 512GB of RAM which is not feasible on Windows system.

Upgradeability
Windows PCs take the win here as on Macs you have to configure what you want at the time of purchase. Windows desktops are modular so you can usually change many things out. Bigger Windows laptops can usually change storage and maybe RAM. On small Windows laptops, RAM is typically soldered on the board and not upgradable. The storage may or maynot be soldered also. You'll have to research the model of computer.

Affordability
There are many more affordable Windows computer options but whether they are production ready is a different story. There's no such thing as a $500 Apple laptop but a $500 Windows laptop may not be a great production machine. At that price point, there could be older model or 2nd hand Windows laptops that are viable machines. For desktops, Mac Mini's are great options for photography and medium video purposes.