Although the MacBook Pro is highly valued by designers, the MacBook Pro isn’t the only choice of laptop that offers excellent design and performance capabilities. Discover the best Windows-based laptops that could serve as your MacBook Pro alternative.
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Pros & Cons
Vivid OLED screen
Potent flagship Intel chip
Class-leading battery life
Premium metal build
Pricey configurations
All ports are Thunderbolt/USB Type-C
Since most customers are looking for the best value and are not hard-core frame rate hounds, the affordable MSI Katana 15 HX has the widest appeal for most gamers. The RTX 5050 GPU proved to be a steady 1080p performer, and that’s before considering DLSS 4, which enables more demanding titles and higher frame rates if desired. A ho-hum display and a limited 512GB SSD are the main concessions to keep the price down.
Budget-conscious gamers: The MSI Katana 15 HX is the top choice for gamers looking for an affordable laptop. It meets most mainstream needs without deal-breaking compromises, thanks to its RTX 5050 GPU and DLSS 4 technology. The Katana will get you playing the most popular games for less.
Gamers in college: This Katana budget laptop is also a good fit for college students who like to game. Its processor is faster than you usually see in this tier, so it will power your schoolwork more than adequately when you’re not gaming. When you are, it’s capable of running new PC games smoothly with the help of DLSS.
| Class | Gaming |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-14650HX |
| RAM (as Tested) | |
| Boot Drive Type | |
| Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested) | 15.6 inches |
| Secondary Drive Type | 1920 by 1080 |
| Secondary Drive Capacity (as Tested) | 1920 by 1080 |
| Screen Size | 1920 by 1080 |
| Native Display Resolution | Intel Core i7-14650HX |
| Touch Screen | Intel Core i7-14650HX |
In the world of business laptops, toned-down fleet systems like this 14-inch HP EliteBook 6 G1q (starts at $1,099; $1,699 as tested) have a far broader impact on your organization’s potential than the flashy flagships. This Snapdragon Arm-based laptop focuses on productivity, efficiency, and mobility rather than an ultra-thin build or extra features. It’s not an executive-class laptop but a workhorse IT platform for fleet deployment, packaged with HP’s robust Wolf Security suite, an optional extended warranty, and optional 5G connectivity. Even as a midrange Copilot+ work laptop, the EliteBook 6 has all the same AI capabilities as pricier systems. While it’s a fine performer in its own right that lasts long on a charge, the HP EliteBook 6 G1q 14 is merely “good-not-great”-grade, a step or two behind award-winning midrange options such as the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition and HP’s own EliteBook 1040 G11.
HP employs some truly swingy, hard-to-unravel pricing at the moment, with massive MSRP listings slashed sometimes by more than half to reach sensible levels. Even then, you’ll find instances of the same prebuilt model with differing prices. At any rate, the EliteBook 6 G1q starts at $1,099 prebuilt, a firmly midrange configuration with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X (X1-26-100) processor, 16GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD storage, and a 14-inch IPS display with a 1,920-by-1,200-pixel resolution.
You can upgrade the EliteBook 6 to have a Snapdragon X Plus (X1P-42-100) or X Elite (X1E-72-100) processor to boost performance. The laptop’s RAM capacity caps out at 64GB, and you’ll find configurations with up to 1TB of solid-state storage. You can also upgrade the EliteBook’s display to a touch-screen model at the same resolution. HP also sells an optional Qualcomm Snapdragon X72 5G mobile networking card, though it’s locked behind its online configurator tool and itemized at $233.
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