The Best MacBook Alternatives You Can Buy in 2025

The ASUS Zenbook S 16 is the hands-down champion alternate to the Apple MacBook Pro today, and particularly if you request a larger screen. It's ace bladed and ace light, but besides a processing powerhouse that's much than up to the task of everything from productivity to demanding originative tasks similar 4K video editing. It's besides hands down 1 of the astir gorgeous laptops I person ever reviewed.

The bosom of the strategy is its processor. ASUS has outfitted it with the AMD Ryzen 9 AI HX 370 CPU. It's the company's highest show AI processor (as of this writing). It features 12 cores and 24 threads and a maximum timepiece velocity of 5.1GHz to connection highest show successful a multitude of tasks. Coincidentally, this besides includes gaming arsenic the aforesaid processor is utilized successful galore of the highest caliber Windows gaming handhelds (again, arsenic of this writing).

Doesn't connection rather the aforesaid level of ratio arsenic Apple's M3 oregon M4 chips — fewer devices bash — but it's inactive capable to connection fantastic artillery life. By moving the surface to 50-60% brightness (bright capable to usage comfortably indoors), I measured close astir 15 hours of artillery beingness . This will, of course, beryllium connected what you're doing, but it's harmless to accidental that you tin number connected the Zenbook S 16 to spot you done the time and past some.

The plan of the laptop is stunning. It features the company's caller Ceraluminum lid, which combines ceramic and aluminum to make an other durable, fingerprint-resistant finish. There are galore tiny touches that truly stress that this is simply a premium product. Above the keyboard, the ventilation country is composed of much than a 1000 tiny, individually milled holes. Is this necessary? Probably not, but it looks beautiful.

Connectivity is besides amended than the MacBook with dual USB Type-C ports, a full-size USB Type-A, and an SD paper reader. Both Type-C ports are susceptible of transferring video and powering the laptop. There is besides a headphone jack and an HDMI-out larboard to link to an outer monitor.

Rounding retired the acquisition is its stunning screen. It comes with a agleam 500-nit OLED show with a 2.8K solution (2,880 x 1,880). The surface supports multi-touch, truthful you tin take immoderate input feels champion to you successful the moment. It's besides capable to dynamically alteration betwixt 60Hz and 120Hz for creaseless question portion besides maintaining its large artillery life.

If the Zenbook S 16 has an Achilles heel, it's that its aboveground temperatures thin to get hot. It was the archetypal exemplary that Asus utilized this caller ultra-premium plan with, and it's the 1 country you bash person to carnivore successful caput arsenic a drawback compared to the MacBook. Still, mounting it connected a table wholly alleviates this concern, and it's an acceptable trade-off for each that this laptop has to offer. It's fantastic.

At good nether $1,000, the Acer Swift Go 16 OLED is simply a budget-friendly alternate to the MacBook Air that offers a large surface and all-day artillery beingness successful an exceptionally portable signifier factor.

Weighing successful astatine lone 3.53 pounds, this laptop won't measurement you down done the day. Despite its debased weight, it features a 16-inch surface with an awesome 3,200 x 2,000 resolution. I'm much than a small astonishing to spot a show of this caliber connected a laptop astatine this price, but that's precisely what you're getting here.

It besides doesn't deficiency successful processing power. It comes with Intel's Core Ultra 5 125H CPU. It's a procreation aged astatine this point, which accounts for immoderate of its budget-friendly pricing, but inactive has much than capable show for day-to-day productivity tasks and airy originative work. It besides features a built-in neural processing portion (NPU) for improved AI functionality and enactment for Microsoft Copilot.

The different portion of its fund pricing comes from its representation and retention configuration. This laptop comes with 8GB of representation and 512GB of strategy storage. While the retention is good if you're not moving with a batch of large files, lone 8GB of representation limits its multitasking quality and however good it volition enactment with much demanding tasks similar video editing.

If you're not readying connected doing that and volition lone beryllium moving successful a programme oregon 2 astatine a time, it's a trade-off that allows you entree to its fantabulous surface and ultra-portable signifier factor.

Yes, the Asus Zenbook S 14 appears to beryllium a smaller mentation of the Zenbook S 16 starring disconnected this list, and I person nary qualms astir recommending some models arsenic MacBook replacements. While the 2 stock a batch of similarities, the S 14 is chiseled successful a fig of ways and makes a fantastic MacBook Air replacement.

While the larger S 16 uses an AMD CPU, the S 14 alternatively uses the latest procreation Intel Core Ultra. It's precocious show and amazingly large for gaming. When I reviewed it, I was impressed astatine conscionable however precocious show it was; it didn't substance whether I was moving successful Adobe Premiere Pro, successful a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, oregon adjacent if I was conscionable browsing societal media oregon YouTube, it was snappy and accelerated and ne'er erstwhile missed a beat. On apical of that, it's noticeably cooler than the S 16 and is much lightweight and portable (though neither endure successful that regard).

At lone astir 2.5 pounds and little than a azygous fractional inch astatine its thickest point, it's incredibly portable. So overmuch truthful that much than erstwhile I forgot I was adjacent carrying it and had to double-check my container to beryllium definite I hadn't near it connected my table astatine home. While I was initially acrophobic that its 14-inch surface whitethorn beryllium excessively small, its portability truly won maine over.

On apical of that, it offers outstanding artillery life. This is simply a laptop that you could easy usage for aggregate days if your usage is intermittent. In ceremonial testing, it topped retired with much than 15 hours of artillery life, which is simply outstanding.

This besides deserves kudos for its outstanding screen. The laptop comes with a 2.8K OLED show (2,880 x 1,800). It reaches up to 500 nits and looks amazing. This is particularly existent for HDR gaming. You'll request to little the solution and settings a spot to support playable framework rates, but fixed that it doesn't adjacent see a abstracted graphics card, that's a precise tenable concession to beryllium capable to play Baldur's Gate 3 and different AAA games connected the spell with what's ostensibly a originative and productivity laptop.

Overall, this is an perfectly slayer prime arsenic a MacBook Air alternate and comes successful astatine a amazingly tenable price.

The Asus TUF Gaming A14 is the go-to prime for replacing the MacBook Pro 14. It’s small, powerful, and quiescent portion besides offering awesome artillery life. And champion of all, erstwhile it’s clip to play games, its Nvidia RTX 4060 processor is much than up to the challenge. At 3.2 pounds, it adjacent manages to beryllium lighter than the MacBook Pro 14.

There are 3 versions of this laptop available, giving you the prime of an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS oregon AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and either 16GB oregon 32GB of RAM. The RAM is besides faster than overmuch of the competition, specified arsenic the MSI Stealth 14, giving it an borderline successful performance. We tested the entry-level mentation and were impressed by however accelerated it was. The Ryzen 7 8845HS is an highly susceptible processor that often outpaces Apple’s M3 processor successful multicore show — precisely what you’ll beryllium looking for if you’re a originative oregon power-user the MacBook Pro 14 is intended for. We weren’t capable to trial the HX 370 version, but it’s importantly faster, truthful we expect it to marque the TUF Gaming 14 and adjacent amended fit.

MacBook Pro fans rightly basal by however quiescent and powerfulness businesslike it is. The A14 does person much instrumentality noise, but compared to astir different almighty laptops, it’s importantly quieter. In our review, we remarked that we didn’t cognize “what benignant of achromatic magic” Asus was pulling due to the fact that it’s simultaneously cooler than astir different gaming laptops too, truthful thermal throttling should ne'er beryllium a problem.

The information that the A14 features a dedicated graphics card, which the MacBook Pro 14 lacks, does interaction artillery beingness but this tin beryllium mitigated by utilizing Advanced Optimus, allowing Windows to lone crook connected the 4060 erstwhile it needs to. On the processor alone, it lasts astir 10 hours, truthful depending connected what you’re doing, it tin easy past a afloat workday oregon more.

The biggest situation this laptop faces is its pricing. While the entry-level exemplary volition suffice for galore users, if you request 32GB of representation for apps similar Adobe Premiere Pro oregon DaVinci Resolve, you’ll request to bargain the astir costly version. That bumps the terms from $1,399 to $1,699. Still, if you can’t unrecorded without Windows and don’t privation to sacrifice performance, weight, oregon size, the Asus TUF Gaming A14 is an fantabulous alternative.

If you're a originative professional, a accepted laptop conscionable mightiness not chopped it. That's wherever the Microsoft Surface 11 comes in. It offers galore of the aforesaid benefits arsenic the Apple MacBook successful a convenient 2-in-1 signifier origin that's cleanable for integer artists. Even if you're not a creative, however, the versatility of its plan makes it a stellar alternate for productivity and amusement arsenic well. I fell successful emotion with it erstwhile I reviewed it earlier this twelvemonth and inactive usage it regularly erstwhile I request thing portable and versatile for enactment and play.

Featuring the latest Snapdragon X processors, the Surface Pro 11 is 1 of the archetypal systems to usage an ARM processor akin to Apple's M-series chips. You tin take from the Snapdragon X Plus oregon Snapdragon X Elite processor for your prime of 10 oregon 12 CPU cores. They tally accelerated and efficiently, offering large show successful originative apps similar Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and Illustrator. Their ratio doesn't rather let for all-day artillery life, topping retired astatine astir 10 hours, but it's capable for a afloat time of enactment oregon school. If you bash hap to tally it dry, the instrumentality supports accelerated charging and tin replenish astir 80% of its artillery successful astir an hr with its charger.

The archetypal generations of the Microsoft Surface tended to person humble hardware. That's conscionable not the lawsuit this clip around, making these systems veritable powerhouses if you privation them to be. You tin outfit them with anyplace from 256GB of retention each the mode up to a terabyte, and thing from 16GB of representation up to 64GB. The retention is besides expandable utilizing an easy-to-access sheet down its kickstand. The show is disposable successful LCD oregon OLED variants with a solution of 2,880 x 1,920 successful a 13-inch size. It's exceptionally crisp and looks large whether you're clinking distant astatine spreadsheets oregon streaming a crippled from Nvidia GeForce Now.

The biggest situation facing the Microsoft Surface is that it doesn't connection the aforesaid level of instant compatibility a mean PC. Because the Snapdragon processors usage fundamentally antithetic exertion than alleged x86 processors specified arsenic those from Intel and AMD, ot each applications enactment with them. They tally an app emulation furniture that helps with this, and the compatible app room has expanded to see astir of the large applications creatives and professionals typically use. However, it's not 100% yet, and it's worthy keeping successful caput earlier committing to a purchase.