Laptops from Apple are a ready solution for many users: powerful, smart, and perfectly optimized, allowing players to do anything from chatting with friends and betting at a sportsbook to editing high-quality videos. But even ardent Apple fans often look for Windows-based alternatives because of the high price or incompatibility of software with macOS. Here are models with good hardware in a handy case, quite capable of replacing the MacBook.
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Almost Like a MacBook Pro 14: HUAWEI MateBook X Pro MRGF-X (53013GCT)
The experienced eye will immediately recognize what the engineers at HUAWEI were inspired by when they designed their MateBook X Pro. No, it’s not a clone or the MacBook’s twin brother, but it definitely shares a number of features with the latter. The aluminum body with rounded corners is recognizable from afar. But the best part is that the build quality and materials in this model pays a lot of attention. Even the touchpad has a proprietary feature HUAWEI Free Touch. The screen may be inferior in terms of formal indicators, and it is still very cool: brightness over 500 nits, refresh rate of 90 Hz, color space coverage DCI-P3. This laptop is capable of professional graphics work. The screen resolution is 3120×2080, which is higher than the Retina resolution of a MacBook Pro of the same size.
In a compact 14-inch chassis, there’s room for a modern and very powerful Intel Core i7 1260P. It’s an efficient processor by Windows standards, and it works with 16GB of RAM here. And the drive is a terabyte. The graphics are integrated, but the Intel Core i7 1260P processor has relatively high performance integrated graphics Iris Xe. The 14-inch form factor rarely offers discrete graphics cards.
The MacBook Envy: ASUS M3401QA-KM099W 90NB0VZ2-M001P0
This model isn’t a direct competitor to laptops from Apple, but can give the user a new and unique experience, for which at times and not a sin to abandon macOS.
I’m talking about the screen. Ultra-high contrast (1,000,000:1 and a Display HDR True Black 600 certification), bright and vivid colors (100% DCI-P3 color coverage), 90 Hz refresh rate, 600 nits brightness, and a whopping 2880×1800 resolution for a 14-inch notebook. This laptop has the coolest display and can really surprise even an avid Apple fan. In real life, such a screen looks even better than the dry numbers of the specifications. After a long work it doesn’t make your eyes tired, and the brightness reserve is sufficient even for working in the fresh air.
Otherwise, we have a confident midget with a moderately powerful AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor, which can easily handle “above average” tasks. 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM are the gold standard, and that’s more than in the younger models from Apple. However, ASUS continues to produce laptops with OLED, and it’s possible that you will find on sale more modern and sophisticated modifications.
If You Need More Help: HUAWEI MateBook 16S CREF-X (53013DSU)
Clearly, it’s hard to compete with today’s modern chips from Apple. And it’s not even so much in their performance as in the software, which is written with maximum optimization for them. This card can only be beaten by a powerful processor in a Windows laptop. Why not?
The affordable HUAWEI MateBook 16S CREF-X has an Intel Core i9 12900H. This processor confidently rivals the performance of Apple’s M-family processors in synthetic tests, and that’s a really powerful result. Inside is 16GB of LPDDR5-type RAM, with 1TB of storage. All in all, the laptop is loaded to the max, and you should expect above-average performance from it.
But if we look at the price, there is still a question of compromise. What have the developers from HUAWEI saved on? After all, a MacBook with similar characteristics will cost more than twice as much! It’s not bad, but the resolution is lower than the Retina from Apple: only 2520×1680 at a diagonal of 16″, and the brightness is standard for the middle class of 300 nits. This model is not for perfectionists, but for those looking for high performance at an affordable price: fast code compilation, work in graphics editors – these are the tasks for the MateBook 16S.
On-the-go Companion: HUAWEI MateBook 14S HKF-X 53013ECN Gr
This laptop is not a full analogue of any of Apple’s models (although it does look like them!), but confidently falls between the Air and Pro lines. Maybe it doesn’t reach the top modern Pro models by its performance, but it is sure to be competitive with Air in power and portability. After all, inside is an Intel Core i7 12700H. And this is a 14-core chip from Intel’s performance line.
The MateBook 14S HKF-X’s screen isn’t bad. At 14 inches, its resolution is 2520×1680, which is very close to Apple’s Retina displays. The refresh rate is 90Hz, which is also a distinct plus. Here it’s mirrored-smooth, glass-covered – because it’s touch-sensitive. Outwardly similar to the MacBook, but functionally even more interesting. The brightness is around 400 nits above the average for normal laptops, but still inferior to Apple computers.
