Windows 11 Laptops Are Better Than Apple's MacBook Neo, Microsoft-Backed Report Says

Apple is actively disrupting the mainstream laptop market with the launch of the MacBook Neo starting at $599 (or $499 if you qualify for an education discount), but you are much better off buying a Windows 11 laptop instead. If you don't believe it, just ask Microsoft. A report commissioned by Microsoft found that Windows 11 laptops hold advantages to the MacBook Neo at every turn.

The skeptical among you may be thinking, 'Isn't that like Pepsi commissioning a report that determines Pepsi tastes better than Coca-Cola?'. And you'd be right in making that comparison, though in fairness, it doesn't mean the findings are wrong, it just means you should view the data through the correct lens.

To be clear, Microsoft didn't perform the analysis itself. It tasked Signal65, a third-party technology and research firm with some notable figures among its team, including president and GM Ryan Shrout, and co-founders Daniel Newman and Patrick Moorhead.

"Signal65 set out to answer a straightforward question: for a buyer shopping in this price range, which platform actually delivers more? We put four Windows 11 laptops participating in the Microsoft College Offer through a full battery of industry-standard benchmarks alongside the MacBook Neo, evaluated their specifications head-to-head, and assessed the total value each system brings to the table," Shrout stated in a blog post.

The report compares a Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon X (X1-26-100) processor priced at $449, an HP OmniBook 5 powered by an AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 Krackan Point chip priced at $599, a Lenovo Yoga 7i running an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V based on Lunar Lake priced at $1,099, and an HP OmniBook X Flip also with an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V priced at $949.

All four laptops tested come equipped with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, whereas the MacBook Neo comes with just 8GB of RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of storage, the latter of which throws Touch ID into the mix as well.

Source: Signal65

Findings in the report highlight the Windows PCs being as much as 3x faster than a 5-year-old PC in multi-threaded performance, and up to nearly twice as fast as the MacBook Neo, based on Cinebench 2026 results.

It also highlights wins in real-world battery life, graphics and gaming, better all-around specs that extend beyond the core hardware, and an overall better value proposition, which partially takes into account Microsoft's $500 College Bundle offer.

"Signal65’s evaluation of four Windows 11 laptops included in the college student offer, and ranging from $449 to $1,099³ promotional price, demonstrates that Windows buyers get more hardware, more performance, more flexibility, and a significantly richer software bundle at every price point," Signal states.

You can check out the full report (PDF), as spotted by our friends at WindowsLatest, then let us know what you think in the comments section below.