Two new laptops announced yesterday are being touted as “Microsoft's MacBook Air,” with the company saying they offer similar performance MacBook Air M3 with even longer battery life.
But commentators were quick to point out that this is not a simple comparison. The key feature of the MacBook Air is that it achieves impressive performance without the need for cooling fans, so a fairer comparison would be with the MacBook Pro…
Yesterday we noted that at Microsoft's presentation of its latest Copilot+ PC laptops, it was stated that they outperformed the MacBook Air M3.
Microsoft was particularly keen to show how its new ARM-based PCs could beat Apple's M3 MacBook Air in both performance and battery life. The Mac vs. PC debate got very heated in this presentation.
Executive Vice President Yusuf Mehdi said:
It will outperform any other device, including the M3-powered MacBook Air, by more than 50 percent in sustained performance.
In an attempt confirm this Tom Warren of The Verge got a full hour of demos and tests on the Microsoft campus.
Benchmark tests are usually not that interesting to watch. But there was a lot at stake here: for years, the MacBook Air could smoke Arm-based computer chips as well as Intel processors. Except this time the Surface took the lead in the first test. He then won another test, and then another. Thanks to the results of these tests, Microsoft believes it is now in a position to conquer the laptop market.
But Arstechnica noted one key thing that Apple didn't mention: Copilot+ computers have fans, so they are more similar on a MacBook Pro than on a MacBook Air.
There is one caveat, however, that I didn't mention in either Microsoft's presentation or other announcement posts: Microsoft says both of these devices have fans. Apple still uses fans for the MacBook Pro line, but the MacBook Air is completely fanless. Keep this in mind when reading Microsoft's performance claims.
John Gruber tested several new generation Windows computers and found none claiming to be fanless, noting that he would expect that they would highlight this if that were the case.
- Acer Swift 14 AI: I couldn't find any mention of fans or cooling, so I'm guessing it has fans.
- Asus Vivobook S 15: “Plus, dust filters for both fans keep your laptop clean.”
- Dell: No mention.
- HP: No mention .
- Lenovo: no mention.
- Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: The only mention of the “fan”: “The Galaxy Book4 Edge also brings fan-favorite features Chat Assist and Live Translate to PC.”
Top comment from Graham Jones
The fan isn't a problem until it goes off and you don't notice it. This rarely happens with the MacBook Pro, but you may have to lower it enough to notice it. It's not a fair comparison, but Microsoft has done this before, as have other companies. They will find the most profitable numbers and present them in their own marketing narrative. It's not entirely fair, but marketing isn't known for being fair. Anyone who uses a Mac does so throughout their entire user experience. They love the hardware, software, App Store and services, and overall user experience. I'm sure many Windows users are the same, but these are two companies with very different ethos and very different businesses. They serve their own markets and sometimes cross each other's territory. I don't think anyone using a Mac would be tempted.
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Yes, let's take the comparison with a large dose of salt.
Opinion 9to5Mac
It looks like Microsoft is taking some liberties here.
On the other hand, it's nice to see Windows laptops at least trying to compete – it encourages Apple to keep up with the times. the pace of development of both performance and battery life. The best Windows machines are even better Macs.
Photo: Microsoft
